I wonder if power is a limited substance - coz it seems like the more power these pricks vacuum up, the more powerless the normal person becomes. It flows directly from one to the other.

Excellent question. To what extent is power finite. Is there a limited amount, or can it be printed like money.

Speaking of money, I just took a break from watching https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7sWLIybWnQ. I'm sure the guest said that since 2009, 30 TRILLION dollars has been created by QA. 30 trillion, just created out of thin air. Created to soothe the masses, but it will all end up in the hands of those with power while the masses deal with the fallout which is inflation. Inflation that we're seeing now.

But what of power? How is it quantified? Wow. Great question.

There is a growing undercurrent of disaffection within society - i'm part of it - but i fail to see hardly any politicians willing to represent that space. The reason, i guess, is in the too big to fail thinking. If what we've witnessed is our entire system of experts complicit in spreading brazen lies due to self-interest, that suggests the solution lies in a wholesale revolution in how our societies are run.

I'm afraid you are correct here. The power structure is too strong for those with a vision to actually make a change from within. I've long held the belief that even revolution won't change things. I think we need to actually evolve as a species. Is that possible? Can we survive long enough to evolve our way out of this? But, of course, multiple revolutions will drive the evolution. But it's not like one or two or three revolutions will change anything. We've had plenty of those.

At the same time, one could argue that in some ways things are getting better. There is a global acceptance that slavery is bad, human rights is good, yadda yadda yadda, even though slavery still exists everywhere and human rights are trampled every day. So, maybe things aren't getting better?

Maybe any progress we've seen has been made possible by prosperity derived from scientific/technical advances, and once those advances cease to benefit the masses, that progress may collapse like a house of cards? Unless, of course, AI and human social engineering succeeds in turning people into complacent sheep. Happy sheep. Stupid happy sheep.

Regardless, I agree. I'm part of this growing dissatisfaction too. So is most everyone I know regardless of where on the political or spiritual spectrum they lie. Things are massively fucked up and everyone knows it.

Nobody in a position of power is going to go for that.

They got this far according to the rules of the hierarchical expertocracy - you're not gonna dismantle your own support system.

That's right! Why would they dismantle their own house?

Trouble is, AI, wielded by these whopper-tellers, is coming at us dumb-humans at a million miles an hour - it's already here. It's humanity-shaping. That sounds melo-dramatic, but it's not.

No, it's not. I see the kids I work with completely OK with how their privacy is being raped. Too bad this rape, which will end up owning them, means nothing to any modern culture. It's not only OK, it's rewarded.

Now is the time to recognize that reality, have a public discussion, decide how we want to deal with it.

If our lives have been invaded by the experts due to a disease caused by the experts, that must be addressed. I don't give a fuck if that's uncomfortable for some nice, rich scientists or not.

Ten years time will be too late. Now might be too late - but it's still worth a try. Once our freedoms, rights to privacy are gone - they're gone forever. As humans, we must have a say in that.

I agree, but how? Everyone is preaching to their own choir, and this gets back to the AI. It's by design. The AI assures that. The AI, the media, makes it difficult, even taboo, for people of different persuasions to have an open discussion. This is what we used to revel in! This is what makes us human! But now, being open minded is simply taboo, particularly if you are a politician.

I wish I had a good answer or solution. I think the next 12-36 months are going to be really, really bad. I think what's coming is going to make covid look like a day in the park. There's something happening below the lives of us normal folk (I almost used above, but fuck that. Those people are demons). The house of cards is way too tall to stand much longer, and it's mostly financial... the power hungry have been sucking the blood out of the world economy way to long and it can't be maintained. So, it's going to go through a massive shock, the economy that is, and this will give those in power even more power.

It's a vicious cycle. It's no lose for the rich and no progress for the poor and middle class. They hold all cards. House collapses? No problem. Inhale all the wealth in the world in the name of social safety and security, whether that inhalation be to the military, the banks (because they're too big to fail, not like you or me), reconstruction, or themselves.