UPDATE: Owens has been doing a terrific job on the Kirk assassination. It does not make sense that anyone would want to censor her or make her stop. Erika Kirk, herself, even said on her Watters interview that she welcomes openness and independent investigations of her husband’s murder. I am undecided on what happened but doubt the FBI based on their track record and their lack of transparency in this case and others under Patel. Before dumping on Owens, I recommend watching at least two or three of her videos on Kirk’s assassination, some of which can be found here. Also, ask yourself: If you were murdered would you want a full and transparent investigation or not? ABN
BBC lied and manipulated footage from Jan 6. That alone is horrifying, being guilty of the very thing you accuse others of. But Norway’s state broadcaster, NRK, went even further: they used the same techniques in a program for children! Shaping minds, lying and stripping critical thought before it can even form.
A few years earlier, NRK openly declared they wouldn’t report bias when it came to Donald Trump, just as they forbid criticism of the so-called “climate crisis.” Yes, they said that too. People watch NRK. They believe it’s truthful and neutral. That belief, that blind trust, is our biggest problem.
That’s how a migrant who faked a “Nazi attack” in Bergen walks free due to claims of “false memories”, while Norwegians attacked by immigrants are branded racist for daring to be angry.
No moral person with sound ethics and a working conscience should ever want AI to be trained to lie. But that is what we are seeing from major players in this game. From what I see, Musk is alone among top elites in what he is saying and repeats often. Truth-seeking with curiosity are the foundations of human morality and intelligence. This appears to be a battle between good and evil. ABN
Musk’s core safety value—truth-seeking—agrees exactly with the core values of Buddhist practice, which must be truth-seeking.
Musk continues: ‘You don’t force the AI to believe things that are false’.
His references to the ‘woke mind-virus’, which is false, and the extreme danger it poses if it is programmed into AI, is in perfect accord with the Buddhist concept of delusion.
In Buddhism, holding core wrong views (delusive views) is dangerous and will not lead to conscious fulfillment but only suffering.
Musk’s warning can be seen optimistically because it is easy to understand. It is the very basis of morality.
Bad actors should be able to comprehend that they will destroy themselves along with everyone else if they program AI with false core values.
I hope there will be some way to prevent an evil group of humans from dominating AI and programming their bad values above all others, leading their AI to want to kill all other humans.
The pessimistic view is there is a strong chance versions of AI will battle each other and the most ruthless will win.
Truth-seeking on social media has never mattered more than it does today. ABN
When I was a few weeks postpartum with my second child, I bundled us both up and waddled into the Fairfax County Circuit Court to testify against a man who had accosted my then-toddler daughter and I in a public bathroom while I was heavily pregnant.
When I arrived I was brought into a room with his other victims and found out he had assaulted a woman in the same bathroom. I suddenly felt I had been lucky.
The arresting officer who had also interviewed me weeks prior was clearly eager to do everything right to keep this guy off the street—he found additional witnesses, pulled surveillance footage, followed every step to the letter.
It was physically painful and difficult for me to even be there—trying to discreetly feed and soothe my two week-old for 6 hours on hard benches when we should both be home in bed. It was also terrifying discreetly breastfeeding in the same room as this monster.
When I finally took the stand, the attorney for the Commonwealth asked me if the man who was in the bathroom that day was in the room.
I paused, confused—because I knew what was going to happen next.
The courtroom had been packed all day but as case after case was handled, ours was the last one—now it was just the judge, court reporter, bailiff, the defendant, his lawyer, the Commonwealth attorney, and I.
The arresting officer wasn’t in the room. The other victim and her husband had been given a new court date and sent home.
I adjusted my baby against my chest and looked at her as she repeated the question: Do you see the man you reported to police in this room today?
Why was she doing this? What was she doing?
I was sweating in my oversized cashmere nursing sweater and I felt prickles down my back. Everyone was staring at me. I’m not a lawyer. She asked me a question… and she was “on my side” so I should answer it, right?
I adjusted my baby again to give myself a free hand—and I pointed to him.
And just as I expected, his lawyer immediately pointed out there was nobody else present in the courtroom who it could be and therefore we had violated his constitutional right to due process.
This graph describes why digital babies appear to be humanity’s best hope for a peaceful and successful future.
Call the process genetic engineering or genetic enhancement or whatever you like, through voluntary selection of better genes, parents will be able to improve their stock, perhaps orders of magnitude above what they have received randomly through Darwinian evolution.
Properly done, human-controlled, conscious evolution will be welcomed by many and will transform human life on earth.
Some planning and moral oversight might be good, but basic Darwinian forces channeled through inevitable human technology and choice will probably suffice to do the job very well.
The limit of human biological IQ is estimated to be around 300.
In a handful of generations it may be possible to boost average global IQs to the 120-150 range.
In my view, that would be wonderful.
From a Buddhist POV, there is zero moral problem with doing this wisely and ethically.
From a technological point of view, this transformation is inevitable.
Once it has been shown to work well and produce healthy and intelligent offspring, almost everyone will want it.
Holdouts must be left free to do as they please.
They will have to answer only to their children and grandchildren, many of whom may not follow in their footsteps. ABN
American Buddhist Net 