The new issue of JOHNSTONE is now available to order in print or download as a pay-what-you-want e-book version. This issue features a painting of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.
"They know we hate them and what they’re doing to us as a society. And yet they’re doing it anyway." They don't care what we think or what they do to us as a society. They stand to make a lot of money. That is all they really care about.
Caitlin, you say - "These freaks gotta go", but I doubt that'll change or solve anything - they will simply be replaced by OTHER FREAKS that are waiting in the shadows of the current freaks to get their chance at acquiring power, etc.
This is more a SYSTEMS problem than a PEOPLE (or technology) problem.
I agree. Mandatory regulations are needed. The technology does exist where using valuable drinking water is not needed. The Oligarchs need to be regulated by governments.
This is not really about 'regulations' per se (though they are absolutely essential). This is MUCH DEEPER than that. It's not simply about 'oligarchs or oligarchy' either.
Two things (of many others) about AI that concern/intrigue me ->
(1) For the first time, humans may be developing a general technological capacity that reproduces and scales activities previously dependent upon biological cognition. What happens to a civilization when cognition itself becomes a reproducible technological resource?
(2) Capitalism is not simply the system within which AI happens to be developing. There may be a structural tension between the full emancipatory potential of AI and a social system whose central mechanisms depend upon scarcity, commodity production, wage labor, private appropriation, and profitable accumulation. (i.e. Capitalism develops technology under the conditions and imperatives of capital accumulation—not under the sole criterion of maximizing human flourishing).
You are absolutely right about the public’s deep distrust of these tech oligarchs. The CNBC poll proves people are demanding regulation, not just empty promises.
However, saying 'these freaks gotta go' is a dead end. We cannot stop technological progress. The answer isn't to wish the technology away; it’s to ruthlessly regulate the tool-makers.
We have already seen the disaster of unregulated privatization (in England) with Thames Water freely dumping sewage in our rivers. We cannot let data centres do the same to our water tables.
But here is the good news: the technology to stop this already exists. A recent survey of UK data centres found that 51% already use waterless cooling systems. Companies like Microsoft and Oracle are already proving that zero-water, closed-loop systems are possible.
If half the industry can do it, why are we letting the other half plunder our resources?
We shouldn't just protest data centres. We should demand mandatory regulations that force all of them to meet the standards of the best ones:
Legally binding 'Community Symbiosis' agreements where waste heat is captured to warm local council housing and community spaces.
Don't just tell us the oligarchs are poisoning society. Demand they be forced to build infrastructure that actually serves the public good, using the technology we know already exists.
A capitalist with AI could lay off half his workers and make the same profits with the increased productivity and without the time wasted doing things AI can do 100 times faster (and usually better. Big problem unemployment.
A workers coops, knowing it would lose out if it did not become more productive in a world where AI is transforming productivity day by day, would use AI and rather than laying off half the workers, it would reduce the work week from 40 hrs to 20 with the same pay
This is what Marx only dreamed of with his vison of a world where instead of slaving away 40 hrs a week , the innovations of capitalism appropriated by the workers, would lead to a world in which "The German Ideology (1845):)
“In communist society, where nobody has one exclusive sphere of activity … society regulates the general production and thus makes it possible for me to do one thing today and another tomorrow, to hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, rear cattle in the evening, criticise after dinner, just as I have a mind, without ever becoming hunter, fisherman, herdsman or critic.” HE is speaking of a world in which one has large amounts of free time and does not need to become a cog in the wheel but can enjoy many passions. I regret, as a vegan, that he focused so much on fishing and hunting and animal husbandry, but that is what came to mind.
I have zero faith in oligarchs which is why I promote making AI a public service like the library.
Listen up: "Marx makes exactly that argument in the Grundrisse (1857–58): capitalism’s relentless development of machinery and productive power creates the material possibility of liberating people from much necessary labor, even though capitalism itself does not automatically realize that freedom.
A particularly clear passage is:
“the possession and preservation of general wealth require a lesser labour time of society as a whole”
He then describes the endpoint as a society in which “labour in which a human being does what a thing could do has ceased.”
In the famous “Fragment on Machines,” Marx argues that advanced technology eventually makes direct human labor less central to production:
“the human being comes to relate more as watchman and regulator to the production process itself.”
And in Capital, Volume III, he states the implication bluntly:
“The shortening of the working-day is its basic prerequisite.” Marxist Archive
With foresight he was able to imagine the technology of what we call robots and AI.
I'm not well-versed in marxism, yet I know this type of system has never gone well. I seem to recall some female politician saying that you could have free time to write poetry, or fill in the blank, etc .... , but her name escapes me now.
I do not think that is a good road to go down, imho.
Do you think Altman had Suchir Balaji murdered? Altman was very uncomfortable when Tucker Carlson brought him up. Balaji's parents did a number of interviews and they described the SFPD investigation as coverup.
How could your oligarchs (private persons) do what they do if your demoNcratic governments didn’t allow, resp. support their satanic actions?
Caitlin, “Glupu ti majku JEBEM”! Are you, too, trying - like the most satanic Jews - to shift the blame from your demoNcratic governments onto private persons?
It's not about the oligarchs - Gates, Zuckerberg, Musk, & Co. - but about the most satanic jewish Freemasons and Illuminati operating from the shadows (the Rothschilds, Rockefellers, Windsors, Popes, & Co.), who rule your oligarchs, your governments, and all of you = the goyimic cattle.
They don’t care if we like them because they don’t intend to put up with us any longer than necessary. Nourishing food is already the most expensive in the grocery store but two liter soft drinks, chips in every fake flavor imaginable and snackin’ cakes are available with store coupon.
They want a mechanical, sterile world in their fantasy dreams of total, predictable control and the sycophants who surround them have reinforced this delusion. Not one of them would show up at a meeting in a town they plan to ruin with a data center. I read recently Musk plans on building the largest production plant on earth somewhere in Texas. Lucky us.
What will be interesting is in a place like North Dakota, where, in spite of everything, a lot of humans are still all-in for Trump, even as Trump is all-in for AI and the dystopian possibilities it carries.
“and turning everyone into stupid, artless emotional infants who can’t do anything for ourselves. Whether we like it or not.”
Speak for yourself. I build houses with my bare hands. Grow my own food. Live off the grid with zero utilities.
I agree, those evil psychos you mention gotta go.
I also have seen enough evidence with my own eyes to know that mankind is DEVOLVING. Evolution is clearly a lie. People 100 years ago were smarter, stronger and more spirited in every way. We have allowed our dependence on technology to make us weak and more dependent.
100 years ago the West was between two world wars that killed 100 million people. And you do not build houses with your bare hands: you use tools, many electrical and buy materials made now by robots. 90 yrs ago, the entire West was mired in a cruel Great Depression with 25% unemployed setting the stage for the next war in which 70 million were slaughtered.
My bare hands carry boards up a ladder and put them into place, a robot can’t do that.
What do you do dale?
Armchair quarterback on the keyboard is your superpower?
I know a bit about the Great Depression. Did your grandparents teach you not to waste a drop of anything because you would eventually wish you had more?
"They know we hate them and what they’re doing to us as a society. And yet they’re doing it anyway." They don't care what we think or what they do to us as a society. They stand to make a lot of money. That is all they really care about.
Caitlin, you say - "These freaks gotta go", but I doubt that'll change or solve anything - they will simply be replaced by OTHER FREAKS that are waiting in the shadows of the current freaks to get their chance at acquiring power, etc.
This is more a SYSTEMS problem than a PEOPLE (or technology) problem.
I agree. Mandatory regulations are needed. The technology does exist where using valuable drinking water is not needed. The Oligarchs need to be regulated by governments.
This is not really about 'regulations' per se (though they are absolutely essential). This is MUCH DEEPER than that. It's not simply about 'oligarchs or oligarchy' either.
Two things (of many others) about AI that concern/intrigue me ->
(1) For the first time, humans may be developing a general technological capacity that reproduces and scales activities previously dependent upon biological cognition. What happens to a civilization when cognition itself becomes a reproducible technological resource?
(2) Capitalism is not simply the system within which AI happens to be developing. There may be a structural tension between the full emancipatory potential of AI and a social system whose central mechanisms depend upon scarcity, commodity production, wage labor, private appropriation, and profitable accumulation. (i.e. Capitalism develops technology under the conditions and imperatives of capital accumulation—not under the sole criterion of maximizing human flourishing).
Time to detoxify our societies...
Hi Caitlin,
You are absolutely right about the public’s deep distrust of these tech oligarchs. The CNBC poll proves people are demanding regulation, not just empty promises.
However, saying 'these freaks gotta go' is a dead end. We cannot stop technological progress. The answer isn't to wish the technology away; it’s to ruthlessly regulate the tool-makers.
We have already seen the disaster of unregulated privatization (in England) with Thames Water freely dumping sewage in our rivers. We cannot let data centres do the same to our water tables.
But here is the good news: the technology to stop this already exists. A recent survey of UK data centres found that 51% already use waterless cooling systems. Companies like Microsoft and Oracle are already proving that zero-water, closed-loop systems are possible.
If half the industry can do it, why are we letting the other half plunder our resources?
We shouldn't just protest data centres. We should demand mandatory regulations that force all of them to meet the standards of the best ones:
Mandatory Zero-Water-Draw cooling (closed-loop systems).
Legally binding 'Community Symbiosis' agreements where waste heat is captured to warm local council housing and community spaces.
Don't just tell us the oligarchs are poisoning society. Demand they be forced to build infrastructure that actually serves the public good, using the technology we know already exists.
Rightly said! 👍🙏
A capitalist with AI could lay off half his workers and make the same profits with the increased productivity and without the time wasted doing things AI can do 100 times faster (and usually better. Big problem unemployment.
A workers coops, knowing it would lose out if it did not become more productive in a world where AI is transforming productivity day by day, would use AI and rather than laying off half the workers, it would reduce the work week from 40 hrs to 20 with the same pay
This is what Marx only dreamed of with his vison of a world where instead of slaving away 40 hrs a week , the innovations of capitalism appropriated by the workers, would lead to a world in which "The German Ideology (1845):)
“In communist society, where nobody has one exclusive sphere of activity … society regulates the general production and thus makes it possible for me to do one thing today and another tomorrow, to hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, rear cattle in the evening, criticise after dinner, just as I have a mind, without ever becoming hunter, fisherman, herdsman or critic.” HE is speaking of a world in which one has large amounts of free time and does not need to become a cog in the wheel but can enjoy many passions. I regret, as a vegan, that he focused so much on fishing and hunting and animal husbandry, but that is what came to mind.
Your faith in the benevolence of oligarchs is touching.
A dependent human is easy to control.
I have zero faith in oligarchs which is why I promote making AI a public service like the library.
Listen up: "Marx makes exactly that argument in the Grundrisse (1857–58): capitalism’s relentless development of machinery and productive power creates the material possibility of liberating people from much necessary labor, even though capitalism itself does not automatically realize that freedom.
A particularly clear passage is:
“the possession and preservation of general wealth require a lesser labour time of society as a whole”
He then describes the endpoint as a society in which “labour in which a human being does what a thing could do has ceased.”
In the famous “Fragment on Machines,” Marx argues that advanced technology eventually makes direct human labor less central to production:
“the human being comes to relate more as watchman and regulator to the production process itself.”
And in Capital, Volume III, he states the implication bluntly:
“The shortening of the working-day is its basic prerequisite.” Marxist Archive
With foresight he was able to imagine the technology of what we call robots and AI.
So you see this as a positive? Just trying to understand
Unless you love your work (about 5%), would you like to live at the same standard working half the time with the rest free to do what you love?
I'm not well-versed in marxism, yet I know this type of system has never gone well. I seem to recall some female politician saying that you could have free time to write poetry, or fill in the blank, etc .... , but her name escapes me now.
I do not think that is a good road to go down, imho.
It feels like I'm watching them do this to us in slow motion, without any stopping.
Thanks for this!💐
Do you think Altman had Suchir Balaji murdered? Altman was very uncomfortable when Tucker Carlson brought him up. Balaji's parents did a number of interviews and they described the SFPD investigation as coverup.
Caitlin, “Glupu ti majku JEBEM”!
How could your oligarchs (private persons) do what they do if your demoNcratic governments didn’t allow, resp. support their satanic actions?
Caitlin, “Glupu ti majku JEBEM”! Are you, too, trying - like the most satanic Jews - to shift the blame from your demoNcratic governments onto private persons?
It's not about the oligarchs - Gates, Zuckerberg, Musk, & Co. - but about the most satanic jewish Freemasons and Illuminati operating from the shadows (the Rothschilds, Rockefellers, Windsors, Popes, & Co.), who rule your oligarchs, your governments, and all of you = the goyimic cattle.
They don’t care if we like them because they don’t intend to put up with us any longer than necessary. Nourishing food is already the most expensive in the grocery store but two liter soft drinks, chips in every fake flavor imaginable and snackin’ cakes are available with store coupon.
They want a mechanical, sterile world in their fantasy dreams of total, predictable control and the sycophants who surround them have reinforced this delusion. Not one of them would show up at a meeting in a town they plan to ruin with a data center. I read recently Musk plans on building the largest production plant on earth somewhere in Texas. Lucky us.
Ee-gads, that Altman fellow is an ugly spud. Ugly as his socipathic soul.
What will be interesting is in a place like North Dakota, where, in spite of everything, a lot of humans are still all-in for Trump, even as Trump is all-in for AI and the dystopian possibilities it carries.
“and turning everyone into stupid, artless emotional infants who can’t do anything for ourselves. Whether we like it or not.”
Speak for yourself. I build houses with my bare hands. Grow my own food. Live off the grid with zero utilities.
I agree, those evil psychos you mention gotta go.
I also have seen enough evidence with my own eyes to know that mankind is DEVOLVING. Evolution is clearly a lie. People 100 years ago were smarter, stronger and more spirited in every way. We have allowed our dependence on technology to make us weak and more dependent.
How far we have fallen…
100 years ago the West was between two world wars that killed 100 million people. And you do not build houses with your bare hands: you use tools, many electrical and buy materials made now by robots. 90 yrs ago, the entire West was mired in a cruel Great Depression with 25% unemployed setting the stage for the next war in which 70 million were slaughtered.
My bare hands carry boards up a ladder and put them into place, a robot can’t do that.
What do you do dale?
Armchair quarterback on the keyboard is your superpower?
I know a bit about the Great Depression. Did your grandparents teach you not to waste a drop of anything because you would eventually wish you had more?
Repurpose everything, it’s a lost art…
Caitlin, since you drew picture of JFK I want you to read my 2025 book about his son. Please
https://gumshoenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/TheHistoriansTaleRevised.pdf