2500 & Counting

2500 blurbs, not bad, not bad at all IMHO as the notion of writing this many articles simply was not even imagined when BRT was founded on the insistence of a good friend, Marty H', who actually thought I might have something of worth to say to the world back in 2007. Now let's think about this, anyone of us rubes, connected to the web, can say things of value at literally no cost, save for hardware linked to the web. To yours truly, astounding says it all in light of just how immense and complex the internet truly is.

With this notwithstanding, where are we as a species on planet earth in early 2018 with so much going on, both good and bad. Well for starters ...

• Back in 2007, AI was taking off, in one way, by ascertaining credit worthiness when one applied for a credit card.
• The smart phone, revolutionized by Apple, made the scene, thus transforming how the world communicated on a most personal level.
• The web went prime time in NY minute.
• The woeful era of "W" was coming to an end with a black president coming into view.
• The tech titans were admired almost to a fault without the spectre of fake news circa 2018.
• Amazon was starting to become the major online resource to buy stuff.
• Web 2.0 was the next big thing with emphasis on video, graphics and social media.
• Twitter, as short blurb machine, came online.
• The slow death of print started gathering speed.
• Writing. as art form. started to atrophy due to, in large part, texting, the voluntary approach to Newspeak given to just how limited texting truly is on, you guessed it, the smartphone.
• Conversation, as art form, to the young, starts to atrophy due to, yet again, texting on the smartphone.
• The iPad goes live in 2007.
• They Live, the prescient SF film of the 80's, becomes reality due to the obsession us rubes have with the smartphone. 
• News become no news with pundits gossiping on air about one story for one hour as this saves money by not having reporters on site actually reporting the news.
• News is now Network writ large.

Fast forward to 2018, a partial list at best. :)

• Tech is everywhere with people obsessing over the smartphone more than ever.
• Global warming is finally accepted as fact.
• Facts are disdained by the uneducated as facts are hard to understand, ditto science.
• News is dumbed down due to the statement above.
• News is dedicated to selling ads and holding onto the demographic watching the news in question. i.e. Fox, MSNBC, CNBC, ect, ect, ect.
• Robots become real.
• Drones become real.
• AI becomes real.
• Crispr becomes real.
• GMOs are everywhere, ditto franken chicken, beef and pork.
• We are under surveillance 24/7'
• Our civil rights have been trampled upon thanks to "W" and Obama.
• The Arctic is unraveling.
• The oceans are acidifying.
• The Gulf Stream gyre is slowing down thanks to the loss of Albedo, thus causing the Arctic to become a heat sink.
• The Antarctic is melting as is Greenland.
• Resource depletion and environmental degradation is a given.
• There are too many of us on planet earth.
• Overshoot is moving toward June by 3 days a year. We need 1.5 earths to keep us going.
• People are trying to save species but the outlook looks grim.
• Earth doesn't need us.
• Fake news is now starting to be written by AI.
• Imaging and audio software, thanks, in part to Adobe, can now create artificial and modified entities that cannot be discerned from the real thing. Think an artificial Trump, god forbid, or any other person in public view.
• Cinemagraphic video is everywhere.
• China is now a superpower.
• Trump and company look backward not forward as sustainable tech begins to take control.
• Infrastructure is essential for a country to be viable, a notion Trump and the Deep State seem not to understand.
• George Carlin was right, the real owners of the country don't want people capable of critical thinking.
• The US is in decline, thanks to inept politicians, bought and paid for by the deep state who depends on never ending war to keep the money coming in.
• Everything has a cost, there "ain't" no such thing as a free lunch due to the two laws of thermodynamics.
• Sustainable tech becomes real.
• Russia is coming back while America is losing it.
• Trump threads a needle with the Electoral College and becomes president.
• The US has no vision.
• AI will replace many white collar jobs in the months and years ahead.
• As per Bill Joy, The Future doesn't need us.
• Never ending war is a prime part of US foreign policy as the nation no longer has a vision of itself in 2018.
• Amazing things are happening in tech and science as we speak but one must look for it to see why this is true.
• The web is now privatized, thanks to the mendacious stupidity of the FCC's Ajit Pai, the bought and paid for puppet of Verizon but the fight to turn the Net into a utility is not over yet thanks to the overwhelming majority of Americans who want the net left alone.
• Obama was right, the existential threat we face, if Trump doesn't start a nuclear war, is Global Warming.
• Governance is at risk due to the incompetence of all three branches. The cabinet also thanks to Trump loading it up with fools and mendacious entities who shall not be named.
• The repugs don't know how to govern, the dems don't know how to think. 
• A third party is definitely needed without question.
• Dollars are now bits while Bitcoin is the tulip craze of 2018.
• Last but not least, we will survive but it won't be easy.

"Nuff said ... for now. :)