Just read this piece in The New Yorker about "forever chemicals."

Add that to what the oil companies knew about CO2 as a greenhouse gas and its effects on climate.

There are probably hundreds, thousands of other examples, Boeing just came to mind, of companies knowing that their products had adverse effects for people and the environment.

The other day I commented on a post over at Kottke.org, where I wrote that I thought technology had disrupted reality, "Blew it to smithereens."

Anne Applebaum has a piece in The Atlantic that democracy is losing the propaganda war. (You can read it in News+.)

I think humanity has always lied to itself. Rather, certain groups of humans lie to other groups of humans, many of whom willingly accept the lie in order to carry on behaving as they wish to behave.

"Reality. What a concept."

And then we feign outrage when we "discover the shocking truth."

As Al Gore observed, the truth is "inconvenient."

"The truth will set you free." We don't desire freedom, we wish for license.

We don't seek the truth, we seek permission.

Justification.

To do as we wish, to whomever we want, for as long as we can, to satisfy our own craving.

We've created AI in our own image, and it's probably as delusional as we are.

Time's almost up.

It's been... interesting.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 10:33 Saturday, 25 May 2024