This is 100% an arms race. I've thought about a slightly different one too, but one that's directly related: the idea that there's going to be so much blackmail, there will be defenses against blackmail and bots going out there to counter misinformation. I think it's going to be like an individual immune system for each of us, and the rich will end up with the best systems at the end of the day.
Stay poor, nothing to blackmail. Or minimize/eliminate your online surface area. Regardless of sophistication, it’s scams and espionage all the way back through history. It’s the anonymity of it and the ability to scale it now that differs.
I thought you’d get a kick out of the Klein Bottles too and the 4th dimension. That hurts my head.
I'll push back a bit on the "stay poor, nothing to blackmail" comment. I disagree strongly.
Behavioral motivation can be just as useful as financial theft for a criminal. And, there's this idea that it takes ANY effort at all to do this... it does today, but tomorrow it will not. I think I called these types of folks "imbecilic sociopaths" today. There are billions of them, and each of them will have billions of bots at their disposal.
back to the nerd stuff: Klein bottles are amazing. I loved MC Escher so much as a kid, too!
Are you saying that in the same way social media was (is) a scourge and unintended tech consequence by empowering billions of internet sociopaths that AI will somehow do something similar but with bots?
I hate and love that we can simultaneously say something profound, and yet make the same observation that has been made by thousands of others already.
I reached out to Cliff after I wrote this and his response is below. He also has an account on substack, although he’s not active: @cliffstoll. Buy a Klein bottle! Kleinbottle.com
———
Yep, that was me ... I'd forgotten about the airplane trip -- I was heading to the Joint Mathematics Meeting (the *big* meeting of math folk, perhaps a few thousand. Not like a computer conference where attendance is ten times that)
I go to these meetings to have fun: I set up a huckster table and sell Klein bottles - the whole while calling out, "Get your one sided manifolds here!" "Guaranted immersed - not embedded - in three-space" "Your money back if not satisfied (but I suspect that I'll be quite satisfied with your money...)
So it was fun to share the plane ride with you Andrew. Must've been about 8 or 10 years ago. I'm impressed by your memory: you got all the details right.
This is 100% an arms race. I've thought about a slightly different one too, but one that's directly related: the idea that there's going to be so much blackmail, there will be defenses against blackmail and bots going out there to counter misinformation. I think it's going to be like an individual immune system for each of us, and the rich will end up with the best systems at the end of the day.
Stay poor, nothing to blackmail. Or minimize/eliminate your online surface area. Regardless of sophistication, it’s scams and espionage all the way back through history. It’s the anonymity of it and the ability to scale it now that differs.
I thought you’d get a kick out of the Klein Bottles too and the 4th dimension. That hurts my head.
I'll push back a bit on the "stay poor, nothing to blackmail" comment. I disagree strongly.
Behavioral motivation can be just as useful as financial theft for a criminal. And, there's this idea that it takes ANY effort at all to do this... it does today, but tomorrow it will not. I think I called these types of folks "imbecilic sociopaths" today. There are billions of them, and each of them will have billions of bots at their disposal.
back to the nerd stuff: Klein bottles are amazing. I loved MC Escher so much as a kid, too!
Are you saying that in the same way social media was (is) a scourge and unintended tech consequence by empowering billions of internet sociopaths that AI will somehow do something similar but with bots?
I hate and love that we can simultaneously say something profound, and yet make the same observation that has been made by thousands of others already.
Sisyphus, eat your heart out!
I laughed… 🙄
I should clarify "Emma Horsedick (Don't Laugh)" was the Substack bot's full display name. Made it kind of endearing—woe is me, stuck with this name.
I reached out to Cliff after I wrote this and his response is below. He also has an account on substack, although he’s not active: @cliffstoll. Buy a Klein bottle! Kleinbottle.com
———
Yep, that was me ... I'd forgotten about the airplane trip -- I was heading to the Joint Mathematics Meeting (the *big* meeting of math folk, perhaps a few thousand. Not like a computer conference where attendance is ten times that)
I go to these meetings to have fun: I set up a huckster table and sell Klein bottles - the whole while calling out, "Get your one sided manifolds here!" "Guaranted immersed - not embedded - in three-space" "Your money back if not satisfied (but I suspect that I'll be quite satisfied with your money...)
So it was fun to share the plane ride with you Andrew. Must've been about 8 or 10 years ago. I'm impressed by your memory: you got all the details right.
Warm wishes from the 4th dimension,
-Cliff (on a bright Friday afternoon in Oakland)