So many sci fi fans tell us to fear the robot uprising citing movies such as Terminator and the Matrix, and authors such as Asimov, but we are already deep within an evil robotic uprising tearing apart the economy of this nation.
Over the past fifty years manufacturing has been increasingly streamlined with the use of automated machines allowing dangerous and menial tasks to be done without the cost of an additional blue collar workforce. Also, much automation has allowed many customer service jobs to be replaced by computers. All this was done to reduce cost and simplify workload.
Firing an entire factory's worth of car manufacturers and replacing them with robots has not allowed cars to become an cheaper. It has saved money only so that executives can sit on more. Had this process occurred in an benevolent socialist society, then cars and other manufactured goods would become cheaper as we are able to produce products with less expensive workforces. With more and more menial jobs replaced with capitalistic robots and an ever increasing population is resulting in a larger and larger economic ravine between the rich and the poor.
We are ripe for a socialist revolution, we can either embrace it as the next logical step. Or we need to defeat the robots and give humans their jobs back.
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Saturday, November 7, 2009
Our Next Civil War
If there was a civil war based on gay marriage which side would you be on? Before all of my conservative Christian friends say, "Kill those fags!" let me interject. If there was a war that started on the gay marriage issue it would not be solely because of that issue. The states that are allowing gay marriage have been resisting the remainder of the country on numerous issues (war-mongering abroad, climate change, health care, immigration policy, and so on).
So, this war will be entirely about Gay Marriage as much as the civil war of the 1860s was entirely about Slavery. Most likely the states to be on the Gay Marriage side would be the Pacific Coast and the northern Atlantic coast. So, California would be against the Flyover States. An important question to my Republican friends in California: if a bunch of Nebraskans invaded California, would you fight for your state, your friends, and your families; or would you fight for your cause? Most I have talked to picked the former, essentially saying one's region and one's people will overtake one's ideology.
Problems with this plan: 1) The people generally supporting progressive reform are either pacifists or acting hypocritically. 2) A war with the Flyover States would be a dangerous war. Country folks favorite amendment is the Second Amendment. Also most of our soldiers are from there, while most of our citizens aren't. 3) Most of our nukes are in Middle America, and they probably wouldn't think too deep about the consequences.
Basically, this most likely won't happen, but, consequently, Robert E. Lee was justified in fighting with the South, even if he did disagree with the cause.
So, this war will be entirely about Gay Marriage as much as the civil war of the 1860s was entirely about Slavery. Most likely the states to be on the Gay Marriage side would be the Pacific Coast and the northern Atlantic coast. So, California would be against the Flyover States. An important question to my Republican friends in California: if a bunch of Nebraskans invaded California, would you fight for your state, your friends, and your families; or would you fight for your cause? Most I have talked to picked the former, essentially saying one's region and one's people will overtake one's ideology.
Problems with this plan: 1) The people generally supporting progressive reform are either pacifists or acting hypocritically. 2) A war with the Flyover States would be a dangerous war. Country folks favorite amendment is the Second Amendment. Also most of our soldiers are from there, while most of our citizens aren't. 3) Most of our nukes are in Middle America, and they probably wouldn't think too deep about the consequences.
Basically, this most likely won't happen, but, consequently, Robert E. Lee was justified in fighting with the South, even if he did disagree with the cause.
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Torn
I spend a week at Hume and absolutely love it, having a hard time heading back to school. I then spend a week in SLO and absolutely love it, and I start having a hard time wanting to move on with life. As much as I really want to have a solid group of friends where ever I have to live, I hate the idea of leaving those friends behind as I move forward. But I found leaving a place on a good note, with the constant longing to return to the good times with good friends, is far, far better than leaving a place ready to get out. Then I also realize that pulling an all-nighter for a Senior Project is something I never want to have to do again. I am ready for school to be done.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Movie Quote Game (and Consequently some of the greatest movie lines of all time)
"Here's the game.
1. Pick 20 of your favorite movies.
2. Go to IMDB and find a quote from each movie.
3. Post them in a note for everyone to guess.
4. Strike it out when someone guesses correctly, and put who guessed it and the movie.
5. NO GOOGLING/using IMDB search functions. That's cheating and it ruins the fun."
1. "Y'know that ringing in your ears? That 'eeeeeeeeee'? That's the sound of the ear cells dying, like their swan song. Once it's gone you'll never hear that frequency again. Enjoy it while it lasts."
2. " I would tell you to go to hell, but I think you're already there."
3. "So if you wake up one morning and it's a particularly beautiful day, you'll know we made it. Okay, I'm signing out."
4. "I am Jack's smirking revenge"
5. "Have you ever crossed the road, and looked the wrong way? A car's nearly on you? So what do you do? Something very silly. You freeze. Your life doesn't flash before you, 'cause you're too f-----' scared to think - you just freeze and pull a stupid face. But the pikey didn't. Why? Because he had plans of running the car over."
6. "Whether or not what we experienced was an According to Hoyle miracle is insignificant. What is significant is that I felt the touch of God. God got involved."
7. "Get me a hardtop with a decent engine and make sure it's got a big trunk."
8. "Unfortunately, THIS guitar said, 'When I get back to Georgia, that woman gonna feel my pain.' THIS one said something along the lines of, 'Why yes, these pants ARE lycra.' THESE said, 'I'm very sensitive, very caring, and I have absolutely no idea how to play the guitar.' "
9. "For England, for home, and for the prize!"
10. "After watching the footage of the Kent State shootings, Bobby Jay, then seventeen, signed up for the National Guard so that he, too, could shoot college students."
11. "Have you ever fired two guns whilst jumping through the air?"
12. "There's a time when a man needs to fight and a time when he needs to accept that his destiny's lost, the ship has sailed and that only a fool will continue. The truth is I've always been a fool. "
13. "It was not my intention to do this in front of you. For that I'm sorry. But you can take my word for it, your mother had it comin'. When you grow up, if you still feel raw about it, I'll be waiting."
14. "He who questions training only trains himself at asking questions."
15. "Love is not a feeling, Mr. Burns. It's an ability."
16. "Lizzy, how can you put your faith in a man you spectacularly binned for being unreliable? A man whose idea of a romantic nightspot and an impenetrable fortress are the same thing? It's... This is a pub! We are in a pub! What are we going to do?"
17. " Look at this. Look at what they make you give."
18. "Charlie Chaplin once entered a Charlie Chaplin look-alike contest in Monte Carlo and came in third; that's a story."
19. "Do you know the Tristan Rêveur quote about bad art? It's 'bad art is more tragically beautiful than good art 'cause it documents human failure.' "
20. "I'm no martyr. I did it for the money. But it's not worth much if you can't face yourself in the mirror. Respect is the ultimate currency. I was stealing from a man who traded his away for a few dollars. And then he tried to wash away his guilt. Drown it in a lifetime of good deeds and a sea of respectability. It almost worked, too. But inevitably, the further you run from your sins, the more exhausted you are when they catch up to you. And they do. Certain. It will not fail."
1. Pick 20 of your favorite movies.
2. Go to IMDB and find a quote from each movie.
3. Post them in a note for everyone to guess.
4. Strike it out when someone guesses correctly, and put who guessed it and the movie.
5. NO GOOGLING/using IMDB search functions. That's cheating and it ruins the fun."
1. "Y'know that ringing in your ears? That 'eeeeeeeeee'? That's the sound of the ear cells dying, like their swan song. Once it's gone you'll never hear that frequency again. Enjoy it while it lasts."
2. " I would tell you to go to hell, but I think you're already there."
3. "So if you wake up one morning and it's a particularly beautiful day, you'll know we made it. Okay, I'm signing out."
4. "I am Jack's smirking revenge"
5. "Have you ever crossed the road, and looked the wrong way? A car's nearly on you? So what do you do? Something very silly. You freeze. Your life doesn't flash before you, 'cause you're too f-----' scared to think - you just freeze and pull a stupid face. But the pikey didn't. Why? Because he had plans of running the car over."
6. "Whether or not what we experienced was an According to Hoyle miracle is insignificant. What is significant is that I felt the touch of God. God got involved."
7. "Get me a hardtop with a decent engine and make sure it's got a big trunk."
8. "Unfortunately, THIS guitar said, 'When I get back to Georgia, that woman gonna feel my pain.' THIS one said something along the lines of, 'Why yes, these pants ARE lycra.' THESE said, 'I'm very sensitive, very caring, and I have absolutely no idea how to play the guitar.' "
9. "For England, for home, and for the prize!"
10. "After watching the footage of the Kent State shootings, Bobby Jay, then seventeen, signed up for the National Guard so that he, too, could shoot college students."
11. "Have you ever fired two guns whilst jumping through the air?"
12. "There's a time when a man needs to fight and a time when he needs to accept that his destiny's lost, the ship has sailed and that only a fool will continue. The truth is I've always been a fool. "
13. "It was not my intention to do this in front of you. For that I'm sorry. But you can take my word for it, your mother had it comin'. When you grow up, if you still feel raw about it, I'll be waiting."
14. "He who questions training only trains himself at asking questions."
15. "Love is not a feeling, Mr. Burns. It's an ability."
16. "Lizzy, how can you put your faith in a man you spectacularly binned for being unreliable? A man whose idea of a romantic nightspot and an impenetrable fortress are the same thing? It's... This is a pub! We are in a pub! What are we going to do?"
17. " Look at this. Look at what they make you give."
18. "Charlie Chaplin once entered a Charlie Chaplin look-alike contest in Monte Carlo and came in third; that's a story."
19. "Do you know the Tristan Rêveur quote about bad art? It's 'bad art is more tragically beautiful than good art 'cause it documents human failure.' "
20. "I'm no martyr. I did it for the money. But it's not worth much if you can't face yourself in the mirror. Respect is the ultimate currency. I was stealing from a man who traded his away for a few dollars. And then he tried to wash away his guilt. Drown it in a lifetime of good deeds and a sea of respectability. It almost worked, too. But inevitably, the further you run from your sins, the more exhausted you are when they catch up to you. And they do. Certain. It will not fail."
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