"Tech leaders gathered in Austin for the South-by-Southwest conference a few days ago. There they showed a video boasting about the wonders of new AI technology.
And the audience started booing."
There's a video of it on X, and it's pretty heartening!
No robber baron ever amassed a fortune without exploitation, and Apple is no exception. As you astutely mention in this excellent piece, it's a matter of scale -- we've never seen the likes of this kind of consolidated wealth and power before.
For god's sake, wake up, humanity. Take back your attention, your sovereignty, your intrinsic power, before you no longer even remember what those are.
While we sweat the small stuff and bumble around, the Big Guys are working at breakneck speed to create the future they want for us. I don't believe that anyone ever asked me for my input. Clearly, they don't need it or want it. They've already got it all figured out.
Thanks for the alarming news, along with helpful suggestions for how to resist the mad rush to oblivion.
Sam, they prey on our weaknesses, complacency, and convenience! Could you imagine what would happen if most, if not all, of us, were to push back on just a couple of the technologies of convenience and complacency?
They are merging?! That is scary! I was going to ask why you didn't mention Google or Amazon and where they measure up in terms of worth compared to those other big companies, because I know android phone far outnumber iPhones for example.
The following quote is now very standard for some odd reason, but not true, "______ years ago, no one could have imagined______________". Present conditions are an approximate result related directly from someone imagining this scenario and obtaining the appropriate funding to make it happen. Whether or the not Ruling Families are driving this train or not I do not know. The modeling and engineering of our shared reality is the core directive for all commercial enterprises now. Government is a commercial enterprise. Homeostatic control processes necessitate a pushback, likely through the growth of spiritual movements that actively seek to reduce the oxidative effects of excessive commercialism in our lives. Money/Financial Technology has become too centralized and this threatens biological integrities across many scales, both time and space.
The simple answer why people say this phrase so much is that technology is progressing at such an incredibly fast rate, ten years ago we lived in a completely different world than the one we live in today. It's challenging for most people to understand it and keep up with it.
Ten years ago I very much doubt anyone in the general population imagined holding onto a smart phone 24/7. However, as I point out, artists, creative people imagine many things and those in power, the vampires, take those imaginations and turn them into something profitable. Science fiction is my favorite genre. If you want to know the future, read science fiction.
Thanks. Understood. Important ideas to discuss in this essay. Do you think that the pandemic reflected a major dispute among members of the power elite? I can no longer abide by acting as a member of the general population. Some level of parasitic colonization can be beneficial for overall immune function. Perhaps the world has too many rich folk?
An interesting question. I don't know that all of the elites were in on creating the pandemic, but they sure knew how to take advantage of it. They've moved on to the next exploitation. I don't know any of these people personally (if they have enough humanity left to call them people). As I've written about in other essays, the further up the ladder a person goes, the more they must compromise their integrity and the more they have to justify those compromised to themselves. So perhaps some like Bill Gates has convinced himself that he truly is doing what he does for the "good of humanity". Which is pretty scary.
As I quote in The Three Faces of Evil: “People who claim that they're evil are usually no worse than the rest of us... It's people who claim that they're good...that you have to be wary of.” - Gregory Maguire, Wicked https://khmezek.substack.com/p/the-three-faces-of-evil
And I don't think I've ever considered myself as part of the general population. I've had too much trouble being cancelled my entire life--by both left and right!
The negative high frequency beings who inhabit the controllers are curious about emotions, which they don’t have, and are creating devices to learn about the human being's emotional ability, so they can replicate it for themselves. I agree. Don’t use anything that wants your biometrics. I say this with irony typing on an iPad. Sigh!
It is ironic, isn't it. I don't believe technology is inherently bad. It's what is being done with it. I also like to think that we are adding something positive to the algorithms. If we all just left it, it would be a very dark place indeed. At least as a writer, I'm fighting that battle 🙂
I agree. Technology is neither good nor bad, and certainly depends upon who is using it. Many of us are doing our best to navigate the treacherous outer world by doing profound inner work. In a world of frequency, I’m trying to stay clear and true to purify the smog we’ve all been poisoned with. I so appreciate your substack!
I was doing some contract work recently and saw how the employees of a meat packing plant are required to punch in with their fingerprint....that would be a no-go for me, but the employees there don't seem to mind...I think they see it to be a technological advance. Creepy.
Mar 20·edited Mar 20Liked by Karen Hunt aka KH Mezek
wull how'd ya like them apples? thanks fer shinin' a light on Apple without any polishin'!
The magnitude of the con (on us!) is commensurate only with the magnitude of the profits for "corp-orations" (tho' they don't speak for ALL our bodies!) like Apple. I had no idea just HOW MUCH the power an' profits increased durin' covid--more 'n I'd have guessed...dang. Meanwhile we kin barely afford gas, food, basics...
The thing is, it's purdy interestin' they call them'selfs apple as there's always been a kinda Janus-Faced aspect (symbolically speakin' ) ta the famous fruit... Thinkin' how apples have always had dual meanin' an' purpose--kinda like the covid jabs--both health "measures" (ostensibly ta help n' heal us--ha!) an' "countermeasures" (military-commissioned bioweapons ta be used against the enemy--i.e. US!)
The apple has always been known ta be healthy (an apple a day!), a symbol of love 'n affection (apple of one's eye, love apples!, apple-cheeked children) an' symbolisin' the harvest--mother nature's gifts! An' yet, too, the association with original sin / "sinful" knowledge, shame, rot (wormy apples)
My hometown the "Big Apple" where every day folks once took juicy bites--ended up bein' the Rotten Apple (rotten to the core, I'm SO sorry ta say)--moldy an' teemin' with vermin too (literally...) I'm also thinkin' of the apple-as-symbol-of-deadly-temptation an' how poor Snow White was poisoned by an apple--would the story have been the same if it wuz, say, a pear 'er peach? Nah....
It (a)muses an' bemuses me why Jobs (did 'e have the patients of Job? sure took a loooong time ta see them billions...) chose APPLE as the name of his company--the company that would transform life on Earth, literally (in biblical perp-portions!) I think the image will (at least for some time...) be always co-opted by his product--you say apple an' ya think not just the fruit but the product--which is sad....
Apart from all the evils ya list (an' boy golly, many there are!), Apple is also known fer child labor, an' the minin' of the "rare earth" minerals that make the blasted devices of course literally devastate otherwise arable land, towns, an' the health of all who "synthetically harvest" the stuff--
I DO use a 'puter (which I'm sure contains rare earth minerals of it's own) but the only kinda apple that appeals ta me is the real kind... (NOT coated with Apeel (tm) gm Gates-funded trackin' nano coatings either!)
They've taken away our real-not-virtual comfort an' way of life, our fruitful human connections!, our seeds (veggie, fruit--all tainted...) and human (-seeds, i.e. fertility), our peace too...
I truly hope these chump'anies fall an' fail an' folks drop their weapons (not swords but apples!) an' turn 'em inta plowshares (or food co-op shares instead!) -- hopefully some of us who remain wary of all things Apple kin be "seeds of change" an' grow back reality (!) from the one Truffula seed remainin' as we've all figgered out the Lorax wuz right...
ps the soul-suckin' of these deVICES sound like JK Rowlings Dementors--they suck your soul out leavin' you as just an inert shell.... I wunder whut she wuz thinkin' about when she created them--thinkin' about pure evil for sure... (HP fans this fam...)
Apples truly have gotten a bad wrap. The Bible never says it was an apple, just a fruit. Somehow that turned into a apple. Apples are healthy! I love apples! Apple pie!!! 🥧
Wow, never knew that re the bible an' it was just non-specified "Fruit"--we always learned "apple" an' so much art reinforces that view (Tho' I cain't quite see the snake handin' Eve a banana!) I am aware stuff gets mucked up in translation--gotta book on that I haven't yet cracked open!
Indeed, apples now have such a bad rap an' Apple Inc is part of it (now partnerin' with don't-be-evil evil google).
Also, I near-forgot about the America we all knew an' loved which wuz described in apple-lingo--"as American as Apple Pie!" -- apples bein' wholesome, hearty, bright--an' then there's Johnny Appleseed too! I guess if it's good they try to co-opt it fer their own use an' take advantage of the former associations...
Mar 20·edited Mar 20Liked by Karen Hunt aka KH Mezek
PS just sawr today that former Apple employees branched out to create a wearable AI brooch or pin called (oh the irony) HUMANE! Costs $699 (if that ain't satanic wacky numerology what is?!) dang again!
("Cosmos, understands your intention and learns your context: where you are, what you like, and what you’re doing, so it can give you what you want automatically—all without downloading or opening apps.") OH how FUN (?!) not...
There is only one way to destroy the "Manchurian Candidates" - APPLE, AMAZON, DNC, FACEBOOK, MICROSOFT, WALMART, etc.. Unfortunately, we have become an arrogant, soft, lazy, couch-sitting, me-me, blame it on others people unlike Revolution era colonists who picked up any weapon they could find and drove the power-hungry blood sucking throng from our Republic.
It's so out of hand, it's beyond comprehension. It's hard to fight when the enemy is everywhere and often not even something you can see or touch. It becomes a spiritual battle.
I understand your point. I've thought about that, however, they are the "elites" of this world. I'm sure my feeling about them come across in what I write 🙂
One more thing, a hopeful one, from Ted Gioia:
"Tech leaders gathered in Austin for the South-by-Southwest conference a few days ago. There they showed a video boasting about the wonders of new AI technology.
And the audience started booing."
There's a video of it on X, and it's pretty heartening!
No robber baron ever amassed a fortune without exploitation, and Apple is no exception. As you astutely mention in this excellent piece, it's a matter of scale -- we've never seen the likes of this kind of consolidated wealth and power before.
For god's sake, wake up, humanity. Take back your attention, your sovereignty, your intrinsic power, before you no longer even remember what those are.
Thanks for this essay, Karen.
🙏
While we sweat the small stuff and bumble around, the Big Guys are working at breakneck speed to create the future they want for us. I don't believe that anyone ever asked me for my input. Clearly, they don't need it or want it. They've already got it all figured out.
Thanks for the alarming news, along with helpful suggestions for how to resist the mad rush to oblivion.
Yep. It's disconcerting to think that while we get up in the morning, drink our coffee, go about our daily lives, this is happening in the background.
Sam, they prey on our weaknesses, complacency, and convenience! Could you imagine what would happen if most, if not all, of us, were to push back on just a couple of the technologies of convenience and complacency?
Thanks Karen - I’m hearing Google is merging with Apple with their latest AI and plan to put it in iPhone -
Yes, they are. I didn't add that here, it was long enough already, but the alliances between these top companies solidifies their power
They are merging?! That is scary! I was going to ask why you didn't mention Google or Amazon and where they measure up in terms of worth compared to those other big companies, because I know android phone far outnumber iPhones for example.
They aren't merging, Apple Is in talks to let Google Gemini power iPhone AI features.
As I said in the essay, Apple is the most successful company in the world, more successful than Goggle or Amazon.
I am working on an essay that lends more insight into Amazon. But here's where I mention Amazon in this essay:
During 2021:
Microsoft’s profits rose 44 percent to $15.5 billion.
Facebook’s profits nearly doubled to $9.5 billion.
Alphabet, Google’s parent company, more than doubled to nearly $18 billion.
Amazon posted $8.1 billion in profit, an increase of 220 percent from the same period the year before
The angelic voice of Karen Hunt…
www.WallStreetonParade.com
www.antiWar.com
www.TrendsJournal.com.
www.TradersChoice.net.
🙏
Well done Karen
🙏
The following quote is now very standard for some odd reason, but not true, "______ years ago, no one could have imagined______________". Present conditions are an approximate result related directly from someone imagining this scenario and obtaining the appropriate funding to make it happen. Whether or the not Ruling Families are driving this train or not I do not know. The modeling and engineering of our shared reality is the core directive for all commercial enterprises now. Government is a commercial enterprise. Homeostatic control processes necessitate a pushback, likely through the growth of spiritual movements that actively seek to reduce the oxidative effects of excessive commercialism in our lives. Money/Financial Technology has become too centralized and this threatens biological integrities across many scales, both time and space.
The simple answer why people say this phrase so much is that technology is progressing at such an incredibly fast rate, ten years ago we lived in a completely different world than the one we live in today. It's challenging for most people to understand it and keep up with it.
Ten years ago I very much doubt anyone in the general population imagined holding onto a smart phone 24/7. However, as I point out, artists, creative people imagine many things and those in power, the vampires, take those imaginations and turn them into something profitable. Science fiction is my favorite genre. If you want to know the future, read science fiction.
Thanks. Understood. Important ideas to discuss in this essay. Do you think that the pandemic reflected a major dispute among members of the power elite? I can no longer abide by acting as a member of the general population. Some level of parasitic colonization can be beneficial for overall immune function. Perhaps the world has too many rich folk?
An interesting question. I don't know that all of the elites were in on creating the pandemic, but they sure knew how to take advantage of it. They've moved on to the next exploitation. I don't know any of these people personally (if they have enough humanity left to call them people). As I've written about in other essays, the further up the ladder a person goes, the more they must compromise their integrity and the more they have to justify those compromised to themselves. So perhaps some like Bill Gates has convinced himself that he truly is doing what he does for the "good of humanity". Which is pretty scary.
As I quote in The Three Faces of Evil: “People who claim that they're evil are usually no worse than the rest of us... It's people who claim that they're good...that you have to be wary of.” - Gregory Maguire, Wicked https://khmezek.substack.com/p/the-three-faces-of-evil
And I don't think I've ever considered myself as part of the general population. I've had too much trouble being cancelled my entire life--by both left and right!
Need to explore the Theory of Addiction to Power and Control.
The negative high frequency beings who inhabit the controllers are curious about emotions, which they don’t have, and are creating devices to learn about the human being's emotional ability, so they can replicate it for themselves. I agree. Don’t use anything that wants your biometrics. I say this with irony typing on an iPad. Sigh!
It is ironic, isn't it. I don't believe technology is inherently bad. It's what is being done with it. I also like to think that we are adding something positive to the algorithms. If we all just left it, it would be a very dark place indeed. At least as a writer, I'm fighting that battle 🙂
I agree. Technology is neither good nor bad, and certainly depends upon who is using it. Many of us are doing our best to navigate the treacherous outer world by doing profound inner work. In a world of frequency, I’m trying to stay clear and true to purify the smog we’ve all been poisoned with. I so appreciate your substack!
I was doing some contract work recently and saw how the employees of a meat packing plant are required to punch in with their fingerprint....that would be a no-go for me, but the employees there don't seem to mind...I think they see it to be a technological advance. Creepy.
It's all so much more " convenient".
wull how'd ya like them apples? thanks fer shinin' a light on Apple without any polishin'!
The magnitude of the con (on us!) is commensurate only with the magnitude of the profits for "corp-orations" (tho' they don't speak for ALL our bodies!) like Apple. I had no idea just HOW MUCH the power an' profits increased durin' covid--more 'n I'd have guessed...dang. Meanwhile we kin barely afford gas, food, basics...
The thing is, it's purdy interestin' they call them'selfs apple as there's always been a kinda Janus-Faced aspect (symbolically speakin' ) ta the famous fruit... Thinkin' how apples have always had dual meanin' an' purpose--kinda like the covid jabs--both health "measures" (ostensibly ta help n' heal us--ha!) an' "countermeasures" (military-commissioned bioweapons ta be used against the enemy--i.e. US!)
The apple has always been known ta be healthy (an apple a day!), a symbol of love 'n affection (apple of one's eye, love apples!, apple-cheeked children) an' symbolisin' the harvest--mother nature's gifts! An' yet, too, the association with original sin / "sinful" knowledge, shame, rot (wormy apples)
My hometown the "Big Apple" where every day folks once took juicy bites--ended up bein' the Rotten Apple (rotten to the core, I'm SO sorry ta say)--moldy an' teemin' with vermin too (literally...) I'm also thinkin' of the apple-as-symbol-of-deadly-temptation an' how poor Snow White was poisoned by an apple--would the story have been the same if it wuz, say, a pear 'er peach? Nah....
It (a)muses an' bemuses me why Jobs (did 'e have the patients of Job? sure took a loooong time ta see them billions...) chose APPLE as the name of his company--the company that would transform life on Earth, literally (in biblical perp-portions!) I think the image will (at least for some time...) be always co-opted by his product--you say apple an' ya think not just the fruit but the product--which is sad....
Apart from all the evils ya list (an' boy golly, many there are!), Apple is also known fer child labor, an' the minin' of the "rare earth" minerals that make the blasted devices of course literally devastate otherwise arable land, towns, an' the health of all who "synthetically harvest" the stuff--
I DO use a 'puter (which I'm sure contains rare earth minerals of it's own) but the only kinda apple that appeals ta me is the real kind... (NOT coated with Apeel (tm) gm Gates-funded trackin' nano coatings either!)
They've taken away our real-not-virtual comfort an' way of life, our fruitful human connections!, our seeds (veggie, fruit--all tainted...) and human (-seeds, i.e. fertility), our peace too...
I truly hope these chump'anies fall an' fail an' folks drop their weapons (not swords but apples!) an' turn 'em inta plowshares (or food co-op shares instead!) -- hopefully some of us who remain wary of all things Apple kin be "seeds of change" an' grow back reality (!) from the one Truffula seed remainin' as we've all figgered out the Lorax wuz right...
ps the soul-suckin' of these deVICES sound like JK Rowlings Dementors--they suck your soul out leavin' you as just an inert shell.... I wunder whut she wuz thinkin' about when she created them--thinkin' about pure evil for sure... (HP fans this fam...)
Apples truly have gotten a bad wrap. The Bible never says it was an apple, just a fruit. Somehow that turned into a apple. Apples are healthy! I love apples! Apple pie!!! 🥧
Wow, never knew that re the bible an' it was just non-specified "Fruit"--we always learned "apple" an' so much art reinforces that view (Tho' I cain't quite see the snake handin' Eve a banana!) I am aware stuff gets mucked up in translation--gotta book on that I haven't yet cracked open!
Indeed, apples now have such a bad rap an' Apple Inc is part of it (now partnerin' with don't-be-evil evil google).
Also, I near-forgot about the America we all knew an' loved which wuz described in apple-lingo--"as American as Apple Pie!" -- apples bein' wholesome, hearty, bright--an' then there's Johnny Appleseed too! I guess if it's good they try to co-opt it fer their own use an' take advantage of the former associations...
PS just sawr today that former Apple employees branched out to create a wearable AI brooch or pin called (oh the irony) HUMANE! Costs $699 (if that ain't satanic wacky numerology what is?!) dang again!
("Cosmos, understands your intention and learns your context: where you are, what you like, and what you’re doing, so it can give you what you want automatically—all without downloading or opening apps.") OH how FUN (?!) not...
Instead about that. They are all in competition with one another. And then making deals. Lots of intrigue.
Thanks KHM. Brilliant work!
🙏
I knew there was a reason I don't like Apple (or the other behemoths) Thanks.
....if only it would stop....
There is only one way to destroy the "Manchurian Candidates" - APPLE, AMAZON, DNC, FACEBOOK, MICROSOFT, WALMART, etc.. Unfortunately, we have become an arrogant, soft, lazy, couch-sitting, me-me, blame it on others people unlike Revolution era colonists who picked up any weapon they could find and drove the power-hungry blood sucking throng from our Republic.
So true. It's a formidable foe and people are enjoying the "convenience" of the machines too much to make a fuss about it. I just read Saudi Arabia reportedly in talks with VC firms like Andreessen Horowitz to create mammoth $40 billion AI fund. https://www.cnbc.com/2024/03/20/saudi-arabia-in-talks-with-andreessen-horowitz-to-create-ai-fund.html
It's so out of hand, it's beyond comprehension. It's hard to fight when the enemy is everywhere and often not even something you can see or touch. It becomes a spiritual battle.
Karen - thanks for this article.
I really wish you would find a better, more appropriate term for these parasites than “elites.”
I understand your point. I've thought about that, however, they are the "elites" of this world. I'm sure my feeling about them come across in what I write 🙂
Boycott Amazon.
I'm working on a piece about that.
Remember Google Glass from around ten years ago? It was a flop. There is hope yet.