Omar > Recent Status Updates

Apart from Mark [Andreessen], I think most other people can see the complexity of AI and the complexity of its impact. (321)

“Wikipedia is probably the best single example of what I wanted the web to be.”

Really interesting how extended the drama at Ithaca is. When younger I recall more of the story tilted toward the journey home but that is not the case!

“He met extraordinary suffering with extraordinary endurance and courage. He needed that strength. Other than death itself, going deaf is the worst thing that can happen to a musician. That is easy to understand, terrible to bear.”

(226)

By 1798, the first parts of a great puzzle were falling into place for him….The enlightened and revolutionary ideals of his childhood in Bonn, the French Revolution, the rise of Napoleon, Haydn's masses [….] How could he lift his art to a new level, to the territory of scope and ambition where he had always expected it to live? How could he step out of the role of entertainer and into the stream of history?

Interesting moment.

“He was ashamed to let them see him cry. Each time the singer paused, Odysseus wiped tears, drew down the cloak and poured a splash of wine out of his goblet, for the gods. But each time, the Phaeacian nobles urged the bard to sing again—they loved his songs.”

“Now Mozart was dead. In part, Beethoven’s coming career as a composer would be predicated on having no real rival in his own generation.” (126)

The language flows very clearly and indeed, I’m struck by how *funny* some moments must have appeared to the audience (like naked Odysseus)

“Fortunately, the hostility to algorithms will probably soften as their role in everyday life continues to expand.” Interesting take re formulas as being better than judgments prone to biases. Relevant section for AI.

Invaluable.

It’s interesting to be able to recall aspects of this story. I’m on the part about the introduction of Apple Maps and it’s an interesting case study in how *not* to launch a product—as I remember the bad press it got.

“Remember what followed the invention of the printing press in Europe: a century and a half of religious wars.”

The book really starts to find its momentum when comparing the American and British industrial revolutions - prior to that I was getting wary (and still am) of the lack of a central thesis. But perhaps that misses the point.

Didn’t realize the Dutch-Anglo connection…

They could produce a rehearsed simulacrum of human empathy, but they seemed incapable of comprehending their own role in the story, and impervious to any genuine moral epiphany. They resented being cast as the villains in a drama, but it was their own stunted, stubborn blindness that made them so well suited to the role. They couldn’t change.

“…[T]his was the very scenario he had feared: the prosecutors in a little satellite office in Abingdon devoted a substantial chunk of their careers to putting together an airtight case against Purdue, only to have handful of white-shoe influence peddlers in Washington go straight over their heads and short-circuit the whole endeavor.”

“Richards argument about OxyContin mirrored the libertarian position of a firearms manufacturer who insists that he bears no responsibility for gun deaths….It is a peculiar hallmark of the America economy that you can produce a dangerous product and effectively off-load any legal liability for whatever destruction that product may cause by pointing to the individual responsibility of the consumer.”

A narrative page-turner, not without an aspect of tacit dry humor from the author:

But the space program was a great coup and priceless publicity for the company. "Splash-down!" a Purdue Frederick advertisement clamored, noting that while NASA might use Betadine for space germs, it was also available, here on earth, as a "mouthwash/gargle."

I’m now all for Washington’s vision of an America where its people can achieve “greatness and felicity.”

Enjoying the episodic nature of the narrative.

“Activists began to discover the annual meeting of corporations as a venue for bringing forth concerns over the role of the corporation in society, first with Dow and napalm manufacture, then over South Africa.”

I have a newfound respect for palynology. Still assessing the author’s broader assertions, though.

I’ve learned more about Montana than I ever planned to; but I think it will fall in line with the theme of the work. Enjoying the discussion of Easter Island at the moment.

Currently: neat details on how Sauron convinced a subset of Elves to help him forge the Rings of Power…

Learnt of the forests and sea-farers of Númenor…

“To that point in my presidency, I’d maintained a fundamental confidence that no matter how bad things got, whether with the banks, the auto companies, Greece, or Afghanistan, I could always come up with a solution through sound process and smart choices. But these leaks seemed to defy a timely solution, no matter how hard I pushed BP or my team…” (569)