AI meta-point-missing
Charles Rubin reviews a book on tech dreams and myths in ancient times.

As we move from chapter to chapter, we accumulate fascinating information, but the book does not obviously develop an argument about the lessons we might learn from it. Mayor hopes that “rereading those ancient stories might enrich today’s discussions of robotics, driverless cars, biotechnology, AI, machine learning, and other innovations.” And indeed, almost by definition, to find out that thinking about these matters goes back far longer than we might have expected is enriching.

Without trying to read the original, it sounds like both the author and reviewer are missing a basic distinction. (I could be wrong here because the reviewer could be wrong about the original.)

Patient machines have been around for thousands of years. Negative feedback, the essential difference between living and non-living, has been part of devices for thousands of years. These devices, from drain traps to toilets to thermostats to automatic lighthouses, operate independently like living things, running their own simple lives without human control.

In ancient times full-fledged automata, literal robots, were either a dream or a scam. The famous automatic chess-player was a scam, containing a midget who operated the robot arm.

In modern times full-fledged automata, literal robots, are STILL either a dream or a scam.

Autonomous cars will never work. Factory automation has been around since Jacquard, and STILL isn't much beyond Jacquard. Some routine operations can be automated and have been automated for a long time. The peak point was reached 50 years ago. Idiots like Elon keep trying to break through the peak, and keep failing.

= = = = =

The reviewer raises a better question that doesn't have a simple answer.

Mayor notes, but hardly lingers to investigate, that in the mythic record there is frequently a link between robot-like beings (or other innovations) and tyrants. Shouldn’t this strike us as odd, given that in the modern world successful technical innovations seem more associated with the free world than with tyranny?

I don't think there's a correlation either way. Many important inventions were developed by armies or for armies, and strong empires tend to have bigger and better-funded armies. In that class of innovation, empires are the leader.

But other inventions come from a variety of needs, which exist in all sorts of governing systems.

Example from my most recent 'tutorial': The Optophone was developed from a desire to help blind people. Its later rejuvenation happened with military funding, attempting to help blinded veterans.

The only real constant is a conjunction of two factors: available funding and perceived need.

Military tyrannies like USA have plenty of available funding for the needs of Deepstate, but very little for tinkering.

Small countries with looser governments may leave more room for tinkerers to work on perceived needs.... BUT the best tinkerers in the modern world are in socialist countries like Cuba and Persia, where our blockades create the need for many inventions that would otherwise be bought from China.

Labels: $TSLAQ, AI point-missing, Asked and badly answered, Patient things

  ¶ 1:59 PM

  Elon's five-star restaurant
The TeslaCharts podcast is turning out to be a good listen, mainly because of the male and female cohosts. Most radio shows in recent decades are all-male for obvious reasons.

The latest one features 'Machine Planet', the commentator I mentioned yesterday with a slight quibble.

Usually the personality revealed in a podcast is less interesting than the personality shown in blogs or Twitter. Introverts! In this case it's the other way around. 'Machine Planet' sounds sort of numberoid and accountantish in print, but lively and extroverted in voice.

Lots of good thoughts in the podcast. The best was by cohost 'Georgia'. Discussing the immense trash piles and waste visible in all Tesla plants, which would NEVER BE ALLOWED in any other factory anywhere, 'Georgia' made a sharp comparison.

Super-rich fuckhead investors pour money into "environmentalist" Elon without noticing the trash and waste and pollution. The same super-rich fuckheads eat in five-star nouveau cuisine restaurants without noticing that the ingredients are old and spoiled, and the kitchens are rat-infested fire hazards. Symbolic status is EVERYTHING for rich fuckheads.

My comment:

Elon's trash piles would NEVER BE ALLOWED by state and federal agencies, and even before those agencies existed, the trash would NEVER BE ALLOWED by efficient manufacturers. Carmakers have always been super-careful to minimize waste and maximize REAL recycling. Every stage of forging, pressing, cutting, welding, and assembly is designed from the start to leave nothing behind. All raw material and all labor is accounted for. Elon violates all the established rules of manufacturing and still pulls in billions from investors who like to talk about "efficient markets". Elon violates all the environmental and safety laws established long before Gaia, and never gets punished or regulated by the agencies or the Gaia-worshiping investors.

When you have Epstein connections, you have absolute power. Blackmail conquers the universe.

Labels: $TSLAQ, Carbon Cult

  ¶ 7:07 AM

  Good observation, inadequate reason
Comment from one of the Tesla skeptics on Elon's permanent habit of "inventing" things that have been perfectly common and ordinary for centuries:

Pardon me but I can't say this enough: Musk could never have got away with his schtick 25 or 30 years ago; it's all enabled by the collapse of science education and knowledge of popular history. We've entertained ourselves into suckerdom.

Partly right, partly open to question. For sure Elon couldn't have done it a few decades earlier. Nobody would have bought his shtick or his shtock.

But I wouldn't blame the collapse of science education. Science ed was HORRIBLE in 1970. I think it's slightly better today. It's certainly not worse or 'collapsed' today.

Science ed outside the classroom is BRILLIANTLY better today for students who take advantage of it. Beautiful and informative demonstrations and animations of every conceivable topic are easily available on Youtube. [And some of the animations are available right here in this blog!]

In 1970 you couldn't see those demonstrations or animations. Everything was text or still pictures. Even historical science events that had ALREADY HAPPENED weren't available in 1970. Physics classes watched filmstrips of the Tacoma Narrows bridge. Real films existed, but we didn't see them. Now you can see the real films. The same applies to medical topics and optical demonstrations and acoustic ... and everything you can imagine.

You can see all** of Elon's fake "inventions" in their original century-old forms. Electric cars, early pneumatic subways, solar roofs, all of it.

It's all there at your fingertips, with Youtube's "suggested" serving as a helpful librarian.

If you want text and still pics, you can read centuries of real science publications in Google Books and American Radio Library and dozens of other places. A tiny fraction of those publications would have been available to a 1970 university student who was willing to trudge up and down 10 flights of narrow stairs in the Old Stacks of the library carrying hefty volumes. Most would have been completely inaccessible in other libraries and other countries.

So the problem isn't in available education and available knowledge. The problem is that nobody WANTS to take advantage of the knowledge. Elon's cultists are just as blindly loyal as any apocalyptic cult. They cut out all sources of competing knowledge.

= = = = =

** Well, not all. Some of his fake "inventions" are so catastrophically stupid that nobody would have bothered with them before. Nobody invented a long metal tube for traveling through caves because everyone who had been in a cave knew how caves are arranged.

Labels: $TSLAQ, Sucker Filter

  ¶ 2:52 PM

  Tesla testing
Tesla is testing its "solar" "roofs" under tents.

The whole purpose of a roof is to shed rain and snow.

The whole purpose of a solar panel is to turn sunlight into electricity.

Testing a "solar" "roof" under a tent avoids both kinds of input, so it is NOT TESTING.

This is equivalent to road-testing a car on the rack:



or taste-testing wine by sniffing and sipping the label:



In short, these aren't roofing roofs, these are trading roofs. Testing is nothing more than sniffing the label, and that's enough for Lord Elon's cultists and investors. They are NUMBEROIDS. They are totally disconnected from physical reality and totally immersed in pure numbers and specifications.

Labels: $TSLAQ

  ¶ 6:03 AM

  Two ways to fail
Vaguely related to previous item on success vs failure, and closely related to experts who know less than we do.

In the usual discussion of Lord Elon vs Reality, one of the Elonites quotes Michael Jordan:

Ben (and $TSLAQ) do not understand the value of "failure". "I've missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life." -M. Jordan

Giant disclaimer: Sports is EMPHATICALLY NOT MY DEPARTMENT, but I might understand what Jordan is saying.

Here's the important difference between Jordan's failure and Elon's failure:

Jordan is using skills that he has practiced millions of times, which were built on the training of millions of previous athletes who practiced trillions of times. When he fails, it's NOT because he's trying to do something stupid that can't possibly work. He fails because other athletes, equally talented and practiced, happen to perform better during this game.

When Elon fails, it's because he is INTENTIONALLY IGNORING all previous skills and knowledge. He is turning untested theories into fantasies, most of which don't even reach the prototype stage.

The "cave submarine" is the perfect example. Anyone who has been in a real cave knows IMMEDIATELY that the metal tube won't work and can't work. Elon had never been in a real cave, so he went ahead and built a thing that was GUARANTEED to fail in a real cave. He tested it in a swimming pool, which proved that it was watertight and nothing else. When the real cavers told him it wouldn't work, HE HAD NO FUCKING IDEA WHAT THEY WERE TALKING ABOUT. He assumed they were just enemies and short-sellers.

Labels: $TSLAQ

  ¶ 11:01 AM

  Bad idea
Some of the TSLAQ twitterites are responding to Elon's latest victory over "laws" and morality by engaging in counter-bullying, perhaps on the grounds that he can't sue everyone.

Bad idea. Elon won't learn anything from it, he won't feel shame, he WILL sue all of you, and he WILL win. Most likely he will obtain an injunction prohibiting all criticism and short-selling, and this injunction WILL be ruthlessly enforced by SEC.

We need to give up the suicidal myth that "laws" and "constitutions" exist. There is only one law in this part of the world, and Elon is safely inside it.

Labels: $TSLAQ, Sorosia

  ¶ 9:19 AM

  The sun rose this morning
And Elon gets away with every crime in the books.

Equally predictable.

Blackmail is everything. Mossad never loses.

Labels: $TSLAQ, infinite infinite infinite infinite evil, infinite infinite infinite infinite infinite infinite infinite INFINITE INFINITE INFINITE INFINITE INFINITE INFINITE INFINITE lunacy

  ¶ 2:36 PM

  One area where skill DOESN'T matter.
The TSLAQ folks who are actually present at the Elon vs Unsworth trial are pretty sure that Elon will win. They believe Unsworth's lawyer is incompetent.

This seems to be a long-lasting and general observation. I've had two direct contacts with lawyers and three 'observations' during jury calls. I was strongly UNimpressed with the performance of every lawyer. None of them had any skills, and some weren't even literate.

The first lawyer, hired by parents in 1969 for my marijuana charge, was supposedly topnotch and well-connected. He was a direct descendant of the Shad Hanna dynasty that ruled Ohio for decades. He didn't know what he was doing. In the most recent jury call, the Saudi defendant was rich and could hire the best lawyer. His lawyer didn't know what he was doing, and the prosecutor wasn't any better. The case was full of ambiguities. I might have acquitted if the defense lawyer hadn't insulted our intelligence at every turn.

I suspect the real variable has nothing to do with the courtroom skills of lawyers, because "law" doesn't exist. Blackmail exists. Elon is going to win because he is Satan. He has no moral code or limitations at all, and he has strong connections to Mossad and USA Deepstate. He used nasty fixers and "investigators" to ruin Unsworth, and probably subverted Unsworth's lawyer as well. Elon operates outside of all "laws" and regulations. All bureaucrats and officials know that he has the goods on them.

In short, lawyers don't matter because "law" doesn't matter.

= = = = =

Nasty filthy update a few days later: Unsworth's lawyer wasn't incompetent, he was a traitor. We don't know if he was bought and blackmailed before the trial or during, but now he's joyfully proclaiming his loyalty to Lord Elon.

Labels: $TSLAQ, Constants and Variables, Jail mode, NOT skill-estate

  ¶ 2:22 PM

  CYBRTRK's origin
As I peruse old car mags while eating, I've been halfway watching for previous examples of Elon's idiot CYBRTRK. Nobody could have done something so stupid, even as a concept car.

But there is a predecessor. It wasn't a car or even an actual concept car. It was a concept of a concept car.



The '49 Ford had this emblem on the decorative chrome strip above the doorhandles. The strip was unnecessary and the emblem was even more unnecessary. It added another rattle to an already rattly car. It's not clear what the designers were trying to do. If they were stirring up anticipation for Ford's next product, it couldn't have worked. Nobody wanted to ride in this grotesque thing.

Ford made a few concept cars in the mid-50s, but none remotely resembled this thing. Why would anyone want a car with a gable roof? Houses have gable roofs.

In fact the CYBRTRK drawing was actually LESS modern and LESS trend-setting than the Ford itself. Most writers agree that the '49 was the main influence for the straight-through design of the next two decades. A few cars got there slightly earlier; Packard and Hudson and Kaiser had the flow in '48. But Ford did it right, with fenders above the hood and trunk, and taillights at the same height as the headlights. Ford's actual next product in '52 was even cleaner and sharper. Chrysler followed the trend in '53, then GM in '54.

I was thinking about citing earlier examples, but one of the excellent writers at CurbsideClassic did the whole job just now, starting in the '20s.

[The '50 Rambler seemed to follow the '49 Ford directly, almost a copy... but in fact the Ford was copied from Nash. George Walker had designed the Rambler, then moved to Ford and brought the idea with him. Ford was able to tool up and switch faster. Unethical but not illegal.]

Later: Another predecessor came from Ford. The 1966 'Magic Cruiser' concept car had a similar shape and a similar flip-up rear.

Labels: $TSLAQ

  ¶ 5:29 AM

  No, it's not Amphenol
The Tesla skeptics are missing the main POINT on Elon's solar roof problem. They're accepting Elon's attempt to lay off the blame on Amphenol plugs.

The POINT is that you don't build an electrical system OUT IN THE WEATHER with hundreds of exposed plugs and jacks and wires. You keep all the wires in conduits, and keep the junctions in junction boxes, connected with appropriately rated screw terminals, not plugs and jacks.

As soon as I saw a picture of Elon's solar setup, I could tell it was stupid and dangerous. You don't need to be a degreed engineer to see it.

Labels: $TSLAQ, Shared Lie

  ¶ 11:29 PM

  Mobius day!
Like other out-of-shape codgers, I have trouble keeping pants up. On this morning's store trip the pants seemed unusually steady, staying in place without any adjustment at all.

As I waited for the return bus, I realized the accidental solution: The belt is mobiused. Somehow the clasp side got twisted 180 degrees, and the twist was nicely clamping inward just above the iliac crest, maintaining just enough pressure to halt the usual slide.

A moment later, a Tesla drove by! First Tesla 3 I've ever seen. Immediate stroboscopic impression: it looks old. The paint is chipped in a way that I normally see on 1970s cars.

Appropriate sighting for Mobius Day.

Labels: $TSLAQ, Alternate esrevinu, coot-proofing

  ¶ 8:31 AM

  Same "theory" works here
Let's extend the "theory" that Elon is a false flag working for Big Oil to discredit EVs.

I hadn't paid attention to his other fakeries. This week he announced that Neuralink is going to cure epilepsy. Again he's trying to disrupt an industry that has been running SUCCESSFULLY for quite a while. Pacemakers and synchronizers have been used for about 40 years, connecting to hearts and spines and various parts of the brain. Lots of people have them, and they work beautifully in most cases. These devices control pain, prevent atrial fibrillation, relieve dystonia and Parkinsons, and stop seizures.

The EV industry was HARMED, not helped, by Elon's poor quality and deadly autopilot.

The DBS industry will be equally HARMED, not helped, by Elon's poor quality, which will be even more massively deadly in this application. Elon's unique superpower that makes him invulnerable to regulators will give him the opportunity to kill without punishment or liability.

At this point the important question is WHO IS PAYING HIM to ruin the DBS/TENS industry? History helps. Electrotherapy was a productive technique from 1880 to 1920, when the Freudians and pill-pushers tinfoiled it and redefined it as quackery. It came back around 1980, and is now a productive and profitable industry again. History is periodic. 1980 to 2020. Cui bono for this phase? Look at the same culprits.

Disrupters are NOT innovators. Disrupters are the exact opposite. Their sole purpose is to stop natural steady EXPERIENCE-BASED innovation, kill millions of people, and obliterate civilization. Instead of joining their cults, we should ask who is paying them to destroy the universe.

Labels: $TSLAQ, 1901

  ¶ 6:27 AM

  Elon = Osama
A few months ago I tried to concoct some new non-standard conspiracy theories, since all the standard ones have turned out to be true.

Here's another.

Conventional wisdom says that Elon may be a poor manager, but his "inspiration" made the electric vehicle cool.

Simply false. His crappy quality ruined the reputation of EVs. Elon pulled EVs out of the NATURAL NICHE WHERE THEY ARE BETTER THAN GAS CARS, and placed them in a niche where they will never compete. Standard AP procedure. Real car manufacturers had to slow down their plans until Elon was out of the way.

Therefore: Elon is working FOR big oil, not AGAINST big oil. He is a classic Agent Provocateur to get all the idiots involved in a cult for EVs. He makes EVs look awful, just as al-Qaeda makes Muslims look awful and Trump makes populists look awful and Betty Friedan made women look awful and Ayn Rand made capitalism look awful. The best part of his AP assignment is the autonomous nonsense, which actually kills people in the name of EVs.

This would also explain why Elon gets away with brazenly breaking all the rules. Other tech monsters break rules, but they do it quietly in a way that doesn't embarrass the SEC and FTC. Elon openly spits in the face of the regulators and nothing happens. When you're part of Deepstate, rules don't exist.

Extended and expanded the "theory".

Labels: $TSLAQ, Deadthink, Pluponents

  ¶ 4:57 PM

  BBC askedanswered
BBC website has a pretty good article on malingering. Point: Amateur malingering is easy to spot. Expert malingering can be damned hard to objectively detect. Hardest of all, genuinely crazy people often make their craziness seem worse to gain more benefits or leniency.

One sentence caught my attention:

Another red flag for fakery is the suspect who endorses improbable symptoms, such as agreeing with the question, “Have you ever believed that automobiles are members of an organised religion?”

Whoopsie! Another paranoid theory turned to fact. Now that automobiles are "intelligent", they are automatically priests of the Tesloid Cult. The unintelligent human servants of the cult abandon all control and rationality to the four-wheeled Angels of Elon.

Then I read an item about Elon hiring a former museum press agent as his new Twitter manager. The candidate sucked up to Elon with a clever bit of avatar-switching, turning the icon of his museum employer into the Holy Face of Lord Elon.

The combination leads to a serious question which the $TSLAQ skeptics have already been asking. Is Elon playing crazy to get out of penalties for his obvious and transparent crimes? Or is he just crazy? Or both?

Labels: $TSLAQ, Answered and unnecessarily asked, Deadthink

  ¶ 12:07 AM

  Right one way, wrong the other way
Via the $TSLAQ crowd:

BUFFETT, ON ELON MUSK'S SUGGESTION THAT TESLA MIGHT GET INTO INSURANCE, SAYS AUTOMAKERS GETTING INTO INSURANCE WOULD BE AS SUCCESSFUL AS INSURERS GETTING INTO AUTO INDUSTRY

Most of what Buffett says is simply calculated to improve his own share value. Recommending buys so he can sell and vice versa. His comparison doesn't work. Automakers have successfully sold insurance, but insurers have failed at selling cars.

Insurer selling cars: The Allstate. A slightly altered version of Kaiser's unsuccessful Henry J compact car.

The Henry J was doomed from the start by bad niche planning. Like many other "everyman cars", it was aimed at poor people. This never works because poor people can't afford a new car. Everyman's car is a used car.

The Henry J wasn't an awful car; it used the economical and lively Willys 4 (same engine as Jeep), and had a fairly comfortable interior. Sears customized its version with better** upholstery and Sears tires and batteries. Sears sold about 2300 of them, then gave up.

** Trivia footnote: The regular Henry J was optionally available with full leather upholstery in various colors, which would have pulled it out of the 'Everyman' category and placed it in the 'Euro sporty' category, competing with cars like the MG Magnette. As always, Kaiser failed to take advantage of its own advantages.


= = = = =

The other half is perfectly false. GM has been running its own finance service for exactly 100 years, and GMAC started selling car insurance in 1925. After the 2008 bankruptcy, GMAC became Ally Bank, and the insurance part became National General. So a carmaker selling insurance was undoubtedly successful.

Trivia footnote 2: Joe Frazer was involved in both sides of this comparison. Joe organized GMAC in 1919, and Joe tried to market the Henry J properly in 1951. ("I would have brought her out dressed up, and stripped her down later.") His first effort was successful, and his second was frustrated by Henry Kaiser's bullheaded stupidity.

Labels: $TSLAQ

  ¶ 5:14 PM

  Those damn shorts
Example 1:

Elon’s mom, Maye Musk, blamed the media and short sellers on Thursday for manipulating Tesla stock, which fell nearly 4 percent during trading on Wednesday. “Short sellers and the media are manipulating Tesla stock,” she wrote in a tweet. “[The Securities and Exchange Commission] must be very busy issuing fines.”

Example 2:

"If the Internet represents an extraordinary possibility of access to knowledge," the pope said, "it's true that it has also revealed itself to be one of the places most exposed to disinformation and conscious and targeted distortion of facts and interpersonal relations, which often assume the form of discredit".

So that's why Catholic shares have been plummeting for the last 70 years! It's the internet!

Labels: $ROMEQ, $TSLAQ, Constants and Variables

  ¶ 1:03 AM