The Enshittification has Begun

on finding a safe place to make a home for a public blog

It may have hit others on Substack before puny me. But just got my first substack subscriber who is a cryptocurrency bot. Could be a real person, so not trying to demean them. But really, once you are trawling for others people’s government tax credits to trade with, are you different to a zombie?

That reminded me, I was going to post a follow up note to Foraging for AI nuts on the youtube philosopher bros and academics who are paid to think, who deny free will. They might be actual Zombies. If so, the Chalmers Zombie Argument does go through. (Functional states are not conscious states. Naïve Identity Physicalism materialism fails.)

I will have a go at figuring out how to alert Substack admins about bot/scam/trawling accounts. In the mean time it’s a second or two only to apply a block. So we are back to blocking. We are never going to be free of this until human beings get reared with a spiritual education,¹ not just material.

Speaking of zombies. The New Zealand Finance person — we call them “Ministers” but in this instance it is too scary similar to an actual church of anti-Christianity (Tory Christian fundamentalist) — apparently put out a statement asking for bold and brilliant ideas from the public sector. (I did not waste my time reading it.)

A friend pointed out the Tory government already rejected several ideas that would have done what they wanted. What Nicola Willis and her freak show want is terrific ideas to increase the share of the rentiers and fat cats. The mystery is why she needs any political cover? Tory voters do not care what the policy is that funnels them their divine right share from worker wages. I guess they do after all care about a public persona and do not like appearing too rapacious and greedy. You may wear a pearl necklace, but not too showy. The Achilles heel of all fascists, they can never go full fash because they still want to be loved. Pitiful and tragic.

1. I am no great exemplar. You can tell if you are GenX how the youth of today are lot more virtuous, in a whoelsome way, than most kids we went to school with. Not just superficially. My daughters are at least a whole lot more kind and generous than I am, and they often teach me.