Square peg round hole

Leee said:

I’ve posted this elsewhere, but I don’t run a spare tire. I have five matching wheels and tires on everything I own, and I rotate all five through for equal usage.

Even my dinky little Honda Fit.

With such heightened concerns over “safety” in automobiles, there are two things I simply cannot reconcile.

Donut or space-saver spares, and plastic headlights that become cataracts in 3 years.
Fucking STUPID.

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rcole_sooner said:

Didn't you just have to stop at a tire place twice on your last trip?

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PeteK said:

Did tires just get better over the years or am I super lucky or what's going on? I haven't had a flat tire in like 20 years. We like to give "kids these days" shit for not knowing how to do stuff like change tires, but I've gone an entire young adult's lifespan without having to do it even once. When I was a teenager and into my 20's, I had to do it several times.

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James R said:

Could be that the tires are just lasting longer these days, but in my case, when I was young and broke I would run my tires ragged, so there was always a much bigger chance of blowouts.
These days, I run tires until they are ready to retire, then I retire them and buy new ones, so there's no bald or split tires to add the extra likelihood of failure.

I havent had a blowout in about 25 years, and only one flat but it was due to a screw I drove over during a dump run.

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JTM45 said:

Man everything in the world seems to be moving faster than ever, just keeping up with day to day life is becoming a chore
A/I has taken everything by storm and at work I don’t even know how to apply it.

Some of the younger generation are pretty damn smart when it comes to computers and electric gadgets but couldn’t change a flat tire so they buy the road side assistance package

At 60 I feel I have e a lot to offer the world, been through hell and back several times, I know how to make good survival decisions in business and in life but that’s quickly becoming obsolete

I wish I had the energy to keep up with this shit

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Roberteaux said:

Breathe easy, brother...

Seriously, man, I won't be joking or busting balls in this post... instead, I hope that what I've got to say to you is like aspirin to a headache.

So:

Waaaay back in 1970, a guy named Alvin Toffler wrote a book called "Future Shock"...

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Now-- hoping not to flip you out, but here's what AI offered as a summary of this book's contents. I could have typed it up myself-- I first read this book in about 1971-- but I want AI to tell you about it, just to kind of let you see that the shit is useful sometimes, though not entirely dependable. I've caught it making mistakes before.

But back to the book... here's what it was about:

"The Tofflers argue that this overwhelming pace of change can cause societal stress and dislocation, impacting various aspects of life, including family dynamics and information processing. The book emphasizes the human limits in coping with such transformations, contrasting with the optimistic views of earlier futurists."

Okay-- so what this book had to say was that rapid increases in technological sophistication would necessarily cause changes in social order and so forth. The Tofflers also insisted that this shit was gonna be stressful like you ain't believing. Way worse than the First and Second Industrial Revolutions, which sure as shit did the same kind of thing to people.

Just, not at this depth or with this intensity.

So the first thing I'd like to tell you is that you aren't strange, or an isolated case, or the Lone Ranger when it comes to this shit that's bugging you. I'd also like to mention, as Robert-- as myself-- that I have eyeballed the world incessantly to see how many predictions made by the Tofflers in this book of theirs might come true.

The answer is: pretty much all of 'em. The only thing that they got wrong was that I believe it took a somewhat-longer interval to set in on "society at large".

They figured that the age of information overload, of sweeping social changes as groups of humans became enlightened and once-confidential (or false, "conspiracy theory") information came to be known for a fact to be true was gonna happen a lot sooner than it actually did.

As I said: I've been looking at all this since the early Seventies.

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And along with the too-much information comes bad information sometimes... Garbage In, Garbage Out.

Then we have screeds galore from various whack job types who never really had a voice before the Internet. Consider the losers who call themselves incels... going around whacking chicks because they ain't got enough of a personality to even get laid. Shit like this just adds to the witches' brew.

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But that's just the superficial shit. Consider how much has changed whereas our manner of purchasing goods and services and etc. are concerned. Consider all tech advancements you can imagine and ask yourself if this is good shit or bad shit. You'll find that-- per usual-- it's about 50/50.

Automation has changed things drastically... and blah, blah, blah.

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I'd say that I was starting to notice what I'll call "tech fatigue" being mentioned frequently enough for me to recognize the pattern right around 1995. That is, it was about 25 years after I read Future Shock that I started seeing some of what was described in the book.

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To give us a breather, I'll mention that back in 1952 the novelist, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. wrote a book called "Player Piano". In this book, which was set in the future, literally everything was automated. About the only humans who still had a viable profession were corporate managers, engineers, prostitutes, and police.

You, me, and Bobby McGee had no job at all... but that was okay, because you got your own hovel to live in, they gave you food and meds, and you had 24/7 of free time to do nothing in. So we mostly sat around drunk all day every day.

Well, without dwelling too long on this book I wanted to tell you that the theme of the novel was really just to ask a simple question: what are people for, anyway?

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So let's go back to this shit-- how fast shit is moving, and how disorienting it might be:

We live in extremely turbulent times. Having an excellent memory of the Sixties though I was a child through most of that decade I tell you: things were just as turbulent then, and maybe even more so. The biggest difference was that at least the freakin' shit that had everybody at one another's throats made sense.

Today? Not so much!

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So here's the thing I do to deal with this kind of shit:

Let's talk about AI as an example. Now, as a person I am predisposed to note that no matter *what* new technology becomes available and reliable, it is always weaponized-- without fail.

'Twas ever thus; shall ever be. Look at the new Air Force combat systems-- all enhanced by AI, like a fortified breakfast cereal with extra Vitamin X.

Weaponized.

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But, just because everything and anything can be weaponized doesn't mean it's ALWAYS weaponized, or always bad. Just half the time, man.

I get along with AI very well, despite the fact that I have occasionally found the information it produced to be erroneous, and despite the fact that I don't trust it worth a shit or think it's just a Glorious New Day because the shit is up and running.

How do I use AI? Very simple: I reach it through a search engine...

To explain: I have a lot of hobbies that can be very complicated at times-- especially my hobby-boy machine shop. There's a book out there called "Machinery's Handbook" that's about 1,100 pages deep, but everything there is to know about machining is to be found in that handbook.

And I do mean everything, though it has been continually updated since January, 1914, when the First Edition came out.

The shit is complex sometimes. Let's say I need to produce a spring, and I need X foot-pounds of resistance in this spring. How do I make it-- what gauge wire? How many coils? Does it have to be heat-treated after fabrication?

Maybe I need to know what speed to set my lathe spindle at, what rate of travel for the lathe carriage to cut a specific type of metal. What would be the best settings?

Well, there's over 100 pages on Feeds and Speeds in that book, and I don't know how many pages when it comes to springs. So to dig that shit up can sometimes be very difficult and time consuming... and we're doing something with little margin for error, tight tolerances-- a real pain in the ass.

So, do I dig and dig until I find the right chart, the right paragraph with the right info?

Nope! I just go to google and I plug in what I want to know. I tell it what kind of metal I've got, what type of cutter I'll be using. What are the best spindle speeds and carriage travel rates to start with?

POOF! AI barfs out THE answer, and even better, will tell me what page and where I can see this same info in my copy of Machinery's Handbook! In this way, I can double-check AI...

So, I just saved a LOT of time and got a better grip on what I'm trying to set up and do. Got the information fast as I could suck it down mentally. Faster, even.

It's not as though I trust AI, or as if I feel that it will be the salvation of all humankind. And it's not as if I think that increased communications that lead to realizations people don't necessarily wish to realize or understand are necessarily "good" for people in some segments of society... though ultimately the truth is much better than its alternative.

For all I know, AI will become some trump card in the annihilation of the human species.

But you know: I can't do JACK SHIT about it, really. So, while I wait around to see what happens next, I use the shit out of that AI shit.

Stuff that would have taken me a long time to be able to do came to me quickly and easily enough, courtesy of AI.

Still don't mean I love the shit, though-- 'cause I don't. Just a fact of life to me, and per usual, I mean to exploit the shit out of it until something lowers the boom on my ass...

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And all this, before we even get into identity theft, computer scams, maybe getting swatted because some dork thought it would be fun for that to happen... a bumper crop of morons who are also psychologically disturbed.

Oh yeah, man-- and who can keep up with it for real? Sure ain't me!

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The bottom line? Same as it always was bro-- this, at least, hasn't changed at any point in human history.

What you have to do is to cultivate the ability to accept what cannot be changed, the courage to change what can be changed-- if you give a shit, anyway-- and the wisdom to know the difference.

That's the traditional "Serenity Prayer". But in the Roberteaux version I hope for a 4th thing: the ability to conjure total indifference to the abundant greed, stupidity, chauvinism, jealousy, and all other aspects of humanity that I find to be disgusting (except for when I note those qualities within myself)

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It was always gonna be a wild ride, my friend. I knew that since I was just a little kid and next thing you know somebody blew JFK's head off and I was under my desk in case we got nuked.

You just dodge what you can, roll with the punch when you can't avoid being hit, counterattack with greatest effect the very instant you see the opening.... and then lie to the cops about what actually happened. Make counter accusations.

Hey! It's always worked for me!

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Okay, back to being truly serious:

You ain't so bad off or far out as you're feeling-- and it is not JUST YOU who is exhibiting the symptoms you listed. You're not going crazy or something-- this shit is hitting everybody. Ain't nobody immune.

And you're gonna be all right, okay? I say again: it ain't just you feeling what you feel.

I'm not kidding about that. You just float with it, man. I know you can, and I know you will.

--R

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Juan Tumani said:

Is this the whole book?

Lol. TLDR! Used A.I. to summarize for me.

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Roberteaux said:

You know what else it does that screws things up?

It has a tendency to see what I'd call "the most well-known" explanation for stuff, without checking for variations.

Perfect example: everybody likes to say "Charles Manson" never was convicted for personally murdering anyone... which is the overwhelming understanding among our population and most writers.

But in reality, Charles Manson was physically present and took part in the stabbing murder of Shorty Shea. Thing was, the conviction never came along until a decade or so after Charlie was convicted for his role in the murders the "Manson Family" was most well-noted for.

Charlie, Bruce Davis, and Steve Grogan were all part of the murder team that was convicted for the slaying. Tex Watson was also there, but California declined to press charges, mainly to save money.

See, Tex is down for seven murders already, and probably ain't ever getting out. But let's say that some parole board was stupid enough to let him out: were that to happen, California is just gonna keep him locked down while they try him for the slaying of Shorty, for which there is no statute of limitations.

Now, if you ask AI about the murders of 1969, you're likely to get the story about Charlie not personally killing anybody. But if you rephrase the question, AI will get it. You just have to put some emphasis on Shorty Shea.

So, there have been times when I got the wrong info because of the way I phrased the question!

--R

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James R said:

Have you read Chaos yet? It opened my eyes to how much bullshit went into Helter Skelter, which i think is still considered the quintessential Manson Family story.

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