Extinction
We have known since August, 1945 that humanity has the power and the willingness to destroy all life on earth. Humanity’s ability for this destruction comes from our development of tools, all of which have the purpose for doing more than is normally possible. Our willingness comes from our ego-driven desire to be God. As I wrote yesterday, Artificial Intelligence may be the ultimate amplification. of humanity.
Consequently, I take serious the warnings raised by people working on the technology not because I understand the technology but because of my understanding of humanity. Our ego-driven lust of power prevents us from acting on the fact that there are things in the world that even though we can do them we ought not do them.
Six years ago the world suffered and many died because of a virus. Many people believe, some of whom are in positions of power, that COVID leaked from a lab. In other words, millions died due to a human mistake caused by an unwillingness to stop ourselves from doing something we know we shouldn’t do. I am sure the people who made the decisions to do that research believed they were doing so for the right reasons. I wish that Rand Paul could separate himself from his vendetta and the real lessons that would connect the dots between this type of “research” and this drive for AI.
Our inability to live with enough makes us our own worst enemy. The news every day drives home the point that there are no adults in the halls of power, and those in such positions who claim themselves Christian cannot divorce themselves from the idolatry of more.
iPhone Duo Quotables
I spent time this morning reading several articles about about the iPhone Duo and I look forward to the more detailed reviews to come. I think the biggest impact of the iPhone Duo will be with how it spurs software development for the form factor. My observation from afar of the Android based foldables has been that neither Google nor other developers have done enough to take full advantage of the form factor.
Apple’s Surprise and Shine Event: All the Small Things
John Voorhees https://www.macstories.net/news/apples-surprise-and-shine-event-all-the-small-things/
“Apple has released a six-video playlist on YouTube and in the Apple Developer app called “Get ready for iPhone Duo” to help get designers up to speed with the phone’s new format. The Human Interface Guidelines have been updated too.”
“Continuous Angle API lets developers receive ongoing updates about the Duo’s hinge angle to power interactive effects.”
Know When To Hold Them
Apple held their annual iPhone event/broadcast today during which they finally announced their long anticipated foldable phone, the iPhone Duo. When I saw the name leaked yesterday I thought to myself, surely Apple will not mimic Microsoft’s name for their first foldable, but that is the name so hopefully it will sell better than the Surface Duo.
Honestly, while I watch the Apple announcement broadcasts it’s hard for me to get excited by them as nearly all of Apple’s products now cost more than I will ever want to spend. Apple will get kudos for keeping the “base” model Duo to $1,999, which is still more than you pay now for either a Samsung ZFold8 at $1,899 or the Google Pixel 11 Pro Fold at $1,269. I will never spend more than $1,000 for a phone, let alone $2,000 even though it’s true that $1 to $2k purchase can replace the iPad Mini and phone.
Beside the price, I am put off by how the iPhone Duo looks. While it appears the “passport” sized foldable that Samsung and now Apple are using might be “the” winner, the rounded edges of the Duo when folded just look odd. The other problem I have with these foldables is how wide they are, which I think will feel bulky in a front pant pocket, not to mention the 8.96 ounce weight of the Duo is much more than the 7.2 ounces of my Pixel 10.
Given that I use my iPad Mini a lot, I am the type of person that fits the foldable use case. I personally think these devices should be marketed as foldable tablets rather than phones. The problem is, I can’t imagine a way for a foldable to never be bulkier than a smartphone, and I do want to be able to carry my phone without a bag.
Human Amplification
As I read articles such as this one by David Brooks I keep saying to myself, “we have learned nothing from the Internet.” At the beginning of the Internet there was all this pugnostication about how it was going to be democratizing, making the world better. What was not understood then is that the Internet amplifies the best and the worst parts of humanity. I think AI will be no different and that the focus on AI becoming generaliy intelligent or having a conscious is on the wrong thing, the focus should always be on all the ways humans can use AI for good and bad.
Humans always need rules to constrain their demons. Perhaps the greatest hypocrisy of conservatism is how their view of humanity leads to their creation rules against others but insisting on no rules to constrain their weaponization of capital against others for the sake of becoming wealthy.
Confidence Lost
Al Yellon on Greg Counsell’s decision to leave Boyd in the game to face Ortize in the eighth inning last night…
“The Brewers’ leadoff hitter in the eighth was a left-handed bat, Garrett Mitchell. So I figured Counsell would leave Boyd in to face Mitchell, then call on a right-handed reliever to face the next two bats, right-handed hitters Joey Ortiz and Jackson Chourio.
Ryan Zeferjahn, who’d been so good in his last two outings, was the righty in the bullpen. Unfortunately, Boyd walked Mitchell.
Still — the right call here is to bring in Zeferjahn to face Ortiz, right? With Ortiz being a right-handed hitter and Boyd now tiring at 93 pitches?
Well, you know what happened. Ortiz doubled down the line. Now Zeferjahn has to come in and face Chourio with two runners in scoring position with nobody out. His two-run single gave the Brewers the lead, and after a walk and strikeout, Jacob Webb was called in to clean up the mess. Another walk loaded the bases and a sac fly by Christian Yelich gave the Brewers a fourth run which, as it turned out, they needed.
Counsell should have taken Boyd out after Mitchell. Period. Not sure what he was thinking.”
I know what Counsell was thinking and it reflects a manager who has no confidence in his bullpen. Many of us have lost confidence too, therefore understand why Boyd was left in. The fundamental problem is that the Cubs’ manager is in a position of not knowing what to do in September!
I have resigned myself to believing that while the Cubs will make the playoffs as a wildcard, they will exit right away, probably in a sweep. What makes the Cubs interesting to watch is Pete Crow-Armstrong’s chase for 40/40 and NL MVP.
The 2026 Chicago Cubs are wasting a good lineup by having the worst pitching in the MLB. For me the root cause is Jed Hoyer treating the bullpen like a fantasy baseball manager, with turnovers every year and failure in real investment. The bullpen is foundational to pitching in the current era of pitching, and you see how teams like the Brewers who maintain consistency year over year and invest in the bullpen are competitive every year. In contrast, every year the Cubs try to build a new bullpen from the castoffs of other teams.
Now, while I put the blame for the pitching on Hoyer, I also have issues with Greg Counsells’ decisions with pitching. For example, it has been obvious that Shota Imanaga is not giving his team a chance to win when he takes the mound, so either Assad or Rae should take his place in the starting rotation. Instead, Counsell keeps starting him, hoping for a different result.
The Cubs will earn a wildcard spot in the playoffs, but the most likely outcome is a first round loss and regression from last year. Injuries will be the excuse but the reality is that the team is severely mis-managed from the owner on down. Not making changes in leadership and expecting different results each year is insanity. If Ricketts doesn’t want the Cubs to have a real chance to be in the World Series he ought to sell the team.
Live Life Without Regret
From around the web….
A 450-Year History of Blogging
Brennan Kenneth Brown https://brennan.day/a-450-year-history-of-blogging/
“In his 1574 A Regiment for Sea, William Bourne describes how, with a line tied to it, a log was thrown over the side of the ship, and the length of line was measured “while someone turned a minute sand glass” or in some cases “spoke some number of woordes [sic]” in order to measure the ship’s speed.[2] (The length was eventually counted by literal knots tied in the line at regular intervals; thus, our equally iconic term “knots.”) Recordings of the log-derived information, eventually replaced by the “chip log,” a weighted wooden quadrant, were entered into what would come to be called the “log board.”
— Janet Sorenson, “Logging-In: The Ship’s Log as Medium””
My mornings are the time of the day that has changed the most in retirement. I am not woken by an alarm and I spend it slowly drinking coffee while I catch up on the world. I am able to spend the entire morning outside on the patio if I wish, which is now easier to do on a day like today when the temperature is cool even with no clouds in the sky. The cicadas are still singing their summer song while a chipmunk frantically gathers food and stores it in her nest. I am blessed.
Browsing social media this morning was emotional due to all the tributes to Dolly Parton. A question often asked is, how is there so much evil in the world? Perhaps the better question is, why is there so much good in the world? Fortunately there are those in the world, like Dolly, who are in communion with the Divine such that light shines enough to provide glimpses of the Kingdom as it ought to be on earth as heaven.