One eye up, the other, down ...

The Laputian - Granville 1838, Illustration for Gulliver's Travels, (Alamy's copyright)

Why this work again? Because of what is happening regarding AI, the degradation of common sense and culture and lastly, the end of empire being run by idiots and zealots of all stripes channeling Elmer Gantry and immortality, all in the pursuit of money and power.

But to start off this conversation correctly requires a summary of Gulliver's 3rd voyage to Laputa
to show why this take by yours truly has legs.

Click here for Gulliver's Travels. :)

"HE COMMANDED HIS GENERALS TO DRAW UP THE TROOPS."

To wit

On Gulliver’s third voyage he is set adrift by pirates and eventually ends up on the flying island of Laputa. The people of Laputa all have one eye pointing inward and the other upward, and they are so lost in thought that they must be reminded to pay attention to the world around them. Though they are greatly concerned with mathematics and with music, they have no practical applications for their learning. Laputa is the home of the king of Balnibarbri, the continent below it. Gulliver is permitted to leave the island and visit Lagado, the capital city of Balnibarbri. He finds the farm fields in ruin and the people living in apparent squalor. Gulliver’s host explains that the inhabitants follow the prescriptions of a learned academy in the city, where the scientists undertake such wholly impractical projects as extracting sunbeams from cucumbers. Later Gulliver visits Glubbdubdrib, the island of sorcerers, and there he speaks with great men of the past and learns from them the lies of history. In the kingdom of Luggnagg he meets the struldbrugs, who are immortal but age as though they were mortal and are thus miserable. From Luggnagg he is able to sail to Japan and thence back to England.

Example one. The Constitution of Claude

Shutterstock / Futurism

There’s no AI company in the world more obsessed with the idea that their models
may be conscious than Anthropic.

According to new reporting from the New York Times, the company has for months been wining and dining religious scholars across the world in secret, NDA-secured meetings to convince them that AI models think and feel, too. 

Anthropic even reportedly went after the most iconic of all religious leaders: the Pope.

Christopher Olah, a cofounder and senior researcher at the Claude chatbot maker, aggressively lobbied the Vatican after learning Pope Leo XIV’s official position on AI, per the reporting.
His attempts, though, weren’t successful.

In May, the Pope published his first papal treatise, or encyclical. Titled “Magnifica Humanitas,” one of its chief concerns was upholding the sanctity of human life in an age of AI. The Pope didn’t mince words on the topic of AI consciousness.

“So-called artificial intelligences do not undergo experiences, do not possess a body, do not feel joy or pain, do not mature through relationships and do not know from within what love, work, friendship or responsibility mean,” the Pope wrote in the religious document. 

Example 2 - The Bibi/Trump Iranian war fiasco

Iago came to Washington and whispered in Othello's ear. Destroy Iran for Greater Israel. 

Let it be written, let it be done - Rameses

No big links here, just yours truly's take on a possible WWIII foisted upon the world

by two monsters, one sane and calculating, the other demented and insane.

Click here to see why this take rings true.

Self inflicted stupidity reigns supreme here regarding the Israeli US war against Iran, a disaster started in 1953 when the CIA placed democratically elected prime minister Mosaddegh under house arrest in order for England to get Iranian oil. 

Initial conditions rule.

Example 3. Starmind

Think Giedi Prime and why the Space Elevator makes sense while Starmind does not. 

Giedi Prime is an industrial wasteland with a low photosynthetic potential, the planet's bio-resources depleted and its environment fouled with industrial pollution.[4] Rich in mineral resources, the economy of the planet is based on mining, refineries, and industrial manufacture. In Dune, Baron Vladimir Harkonnen and his heirs live in the "family city of Harko."[4]

Due to its ravaged environment, Giedi Prime has to import almost all of its food. Society on Giedi Prime has evolved around power and conquest, and the weak rarely survive.

Gammu - AKA Giedi Prime

Any questions?