19 Comments

The Machines Have Already Replaced Us!! The future has been cancelled. It is easy to image the end the end of the world than the end of the mega-machine of the techonomic singularity.. The Machine is considered superior precisely because it does not suffer from the ailments of compassion, ethics and the need for spiritual fulfilment. People are nothing more than components in a mega-machine and the moral sentiments, etc are nothing more than a noise in the signal of 'profit motive' that must be eliminated. Thus the sole function of man, in the machine, is to create his replacement - better components free of the noise of the spiritual dimension. An AI God assembling itself from a future in which humans, along with most animals, are extinct as 'Von Neuman machines' devour the earth.

This is not a nightmare but the dream, and obsession of the vast majority of people who not only sacrifice their daily lives to make it so, but the entire world itself.

As for me, I one of those mad people that everybody hates for whom this machine future is a hellish nightmare made real.

Despite all of this I will continue to be the noise in the machine, hoping that somehow our life affirming signal will override the machine signal of the profit motive. Sigh.

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Beautifully said. Thank you for this. Noise in the machine is not an issue to be solved but a life to be lived.

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Found this section to be so resonant for me:

"We are the first culture in history to be so poor that millions of us cannot attend to the most precious, intimate moments of life. That poverty of the sacred is the result of the obsession with the measurable."

Will gladly share this with anyone who will listen

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Love everything you write, stand for, spread and live by example Charles! Another great one! Thank you!

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i have about 50 fountain pens and endless bottles of ink which i often mix to get the right color for the piece i'm writing. Even though I've moved too many times due to the continued rising rents which worked in tandem with you will own nothing and be happy agenda- i chose my pens, ans paper over Beige and Gray affordable housing. Mine is an experiment in surrounding myself with handmade to stay connected to the human hand and imagination of creativity. I do believe our collective ability to have thoughts and desires of the spiritual realm - freedom from the illusion brings us closer to the truth.

PS George Lucas wrote star wars with a number 2 pencil - even the ones written in the 90s on notebook paper placed in binders. I know this, becUse i had to find a lot of pencils and old paper. I always wondered why we were all so busy with all the gadgets, while he was not caught up in all of that. 🤔

Thank you for spreading the fundamental message for the quick plan of extinction which was probably written by AI- which doesn't respond to emotion, just prompts. We can rewrite the script and many are. Keep writing and if you'd like a fountain pen, a place to gather during your own sojourn- we are many.

Sarita

Marin County, Ca

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I sat at the desk that George used to write Star Wars. He gave his former house in Marin to his assistant. An enlightening moment; so from that personal perspective; the view should also be considered. Skywalker should also be considered. A complex recipe that cannot be reduced to a pencil or a typewriter. Although I love my pens and my typewriters, but now I could not do this without my phone an computer. So both and.

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That was a much needed listen. Thank you

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Wendell Berry does not write on computer. He writes by hand. I never considered that may be why his sentences are such complete thoughts.

I’ve come to appreciate the Homemade life. I’d much rather eat a meal at home cooked by myself or a loved one than eat a meal in a restaurant cooked by paid staff. (Even if it’s a five start restaurant, nothing beats a homemade meal). I’d rather make jokes with friends than pay to watch a standup comedian in a club. I’d rather swim in the cold ocean over chlorinated a pool. The list is endless really.

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Charles, that was a much needed perspective in a culture obsessed with efficiency and production.

Presently, it appears that in our American society, only the affluent, well-connected, and privileged have the luxury of occasional reprieves from a world that prioritizes quantity over quality. While it's true that less fortunate Americans may opt out of producing more, they're often compelled to use and consume mass-produced goods that not only damage the environment but also pose risks to their own well-being as consumers.

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Dude you’re freekin amazing. Just what I needed at atm. I still feel like an underdog though. Depressed

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Charles

Gratitude for your presence in my life & universe.

And for verbalizing what I am feeling.

Ellen

Carmel

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Gorgeous.

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Hello Charles,

This is Grace. I listened to your last essay. Thank you so much for your latest work which has truly resonated in my Heart.

This audio felt like part of your article. It’s our beloved Master Teacher of A Course in Miracles. Quite and Alien Old Man which awoke spontaneously having been in an American Soldier and experienced the devastation of the second world war, having seen the horrors of the aftermath of the atomic bomb, having become and alcoholic veteran and having recovered through the Grace of God through the spiritual process of the AA’s 12 step program.

I tell you all of that because of how current his life experience is at this dark times and how mysteriously the awakening can come to us.

This talk is about glandular communication and computers! i feel follows quite nicely to where yours left of.

I love you Charles

Thank you

https://themasterteacher.tv/audio/archive/toowoomba-australia/TOO-03

(To listen to the whole audio you can subscribe for free in the page, however i will also try to send it in a file to you through our friends)

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I really appreciate your audio versions

Thank you Charles

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Very interesting, with much to think about. I believe, however, that understanding that machines will not replace us is only the first step to our not destroying ourselves. We are the last of the hominids. Those prior species, that reached extinction did not fall before the digitization of machine worlds, but from something deeper, and more entrenched in our own default settings. I am hopeful we can do a better job than the rest of our fellow hominids. Time seems not our ally in this regard.

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An interesting and robust take on the phenomenon of AI, especially in creative applications. I tend to agree that if we as humans focus again on those things that can't be easily replicated or manufactured, we might avoid a kind of hell of meaninglessness as quantity replaces quality. I recall Star Trek and its replicators, which provide so much of the raw sustenance of material in their Universe, but still people value the "real mccoy" when they can get it, growing grapes for fine wine for example, possessing ancient sculptures and woodcuts in their ship quarters as a link to the implicit value of human creativity. People encouraged to take up a craft or seek their own new horizons, even though so much of the raw sustenance of their livelihood is automatically produced and there is no real quantitative strife. It will be curious to see how humans persist in being human after this informational and economic singularity strips that which people in this culture seemed to value up until just now.

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Love this! Thankyou!1

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I thoroughly enjoy the style you share with your listeners…it’s nice to be able to hear that I’m not the only one who thinks deeply about the way the universe is unfolding. Machines will not replace us is my hope as well. I prefer to embrace technology as it unfolds and to utilize it to make my experience in the universe better. Listening to your podcast is a case in point!

As a teacher I’ve been exposed to all the technological advances over the past quarter century and I chose to embrace it as opposed to denying it. I had to adapt my classroom lessons and ways of teaching style to these new technologies and since I thrive on change that worked for me.

I spent the past 17 years teaching mathematics and science in 7 different countries in elite private schools where technology was not only welcomed but my very survival depended on it. I can’t imagine how alone I might have felt without social networks and FaceTime so I could keep my relationships going with family, friends and colleagues who were all over the world.

Again, Charles, thank you for giving me a peak into your perspective and intellect, it’s wonderful to listen.

P.S.

I’m located in South County, RI at this specific time ~ I think we might be neighbors

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