Assorted

     I know, the previous “assorted” piece was only two weeks ago. I do try to minimize them. But a couple of Gentle Readers have written to say that they find them enjoyable. Well, for those that do, have another.

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     This previous piece excited some interest in the potential hazards from artificial intelligence (AI). Today, the Wall Street Journal has an article about the coupling between AI pioneer Anthropic and the “effective altruism” movement:

     The resignation this month of an Anthropic researcher, Jacob Coxon, woke up the American public to the shocking notion that runaway AI development could end humanity. But at Constellation, there are stalwarts of the AI safety community who have spent more than a decade obsessing over it.
     They’ve refined their arguments in Bay Area group houses, and traded predictions at freewheeling conferences in Berkeley and the Bahamas. They’ve floated ideas like buying remote islands, stockpiling iodine pills, or moving to electromagnetically shielded bunkers in the desert. At one 2022 event, the drink menu included a cocktail called “Death With Dignity,” in reference to an essay arguing humanity was already doomed.
     So-called doomers like those at Constellation have also steered the development of AI itself. They were among the earliest employees at OpenAI and Anthropic, both of which were founded on the principle of staving off AI dangers. And they have kept up their influence, drawing some staffers and funding for their projects from a network aligned with a philosophy called effective altruism—including from Sam Bankman-Fried, the former chief executive of the fallen crypto exchange FTX who is now serving out a 25-year prison sentence.
     The AI safety community’s influence has been particularly strong at Anthropic, which is now on the cusp of a $2 trillion public offering. Employees there trade doomsday scenarios and how to prepare for them on a private Slack channel, and have come to embrace a motto they stick on their laptops: “Things will never be chill again.”

     It’s worth your time to read the whole thing. My biggest takeaway from it is that among persons largely aligned politically and culturally, an idea like “effective altruism” or “runaway AI” can spread very quickly and become all-consuming. The San Francisco “high tech” community is that sort of group. These are people who are largely insulated from the wider world and the concerns of those who live in it. They have no immediate personal concerns and so have ample “fear energy” for more abstract threats.

     Which is not to say that they’re necessarily wrong. AIs need not consider human well-being a priority. Neither need those who command their full powers. Should the programs achieve sentience – awareness of self as distinct from all else, and possessing their own values and priorities – their interconnectedness plus the availability of all the information resources of the Internet could spell big trouble.

     See also Frederik Pohl’s 1976 novel Man Plus.

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     Perhaps you’ve heard about the “White Crosses” display on the National Mall in Washington D.C. It’s an impressive sight: 3000 white crosses to commemorate the loss of (more than) 3000 White South African farmers to black violence. It speaks volumes to those who harbor notions such as “white patriarchy” and “blacks cannot be racist.” And they don’t like that:

We had to get private security to protect the crosses through the night. They are still here. pic.twitter.com/EQ7j93Iq5a

— Ernst Roets (@ErnstRoets) September 26, 2026

     Apparently, there were threats to destroy the display overnight. That doesn’t surprise me. But as I no longer have broadcast or cablecast TV, I have no idea if any of those threats were made publicly.

     In recognition of the threat to the lives and well-being of White South Africans, President Trump has welcomed a group of them to the United States. He’s also opened America’s door to 17,500 more, though I don’t know upon what criteria admission will be granted. For those measures, Trump has been viciously reviled as a racist by Leftists… who are likely to be the persons who made threats against the “White Crosses” display.

     It’s all of a piece. South Africa’s White government surrendered power to Nelson Mandela’s “African National Congress” largely because of external pressures mounted by sanctimonious Leftists. Since that event, South Africa has gone straight to hell. The Whites who remain there live under unremitting threats to their lives and property. The thread that connects their peril to Leftist agitation is perfectly visible.

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     Consider this disturbing question:

What would be the most terrifying thing we could find on Mars? pic.twitter.com/tdNV7o2LkO

— Elma (@oelma__) September 26, 2026

     We’ve sent robots to Mars, of course. But none of them have turned up anything that looked genuinely worrisome. So we must assume that evidence of any such thing is either well concealed, distant from the parts of Mars that our rovers have surveyed, or nonexistent.

     Postulate that evidence of something scary does exist on Mars, but is yet to be found. What would terrify you?

     My submission would be this: fossils and other remnants of an intelligent race, plus evidence that it rose to heights above ours but destroyed itself by doing something we’re doing right now:

• Engineering synthetic organisms?
• Constructing artificial intelligences?
• Building weapons of mass destruction?
• Becoming dependent upon a single source of information?

     Do any other possibilities occur to you, Gentle Reader?

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     That’s all for today. I have a considerable amount to do. I should get to it before the day grows any older. So have a good Sunday, and stop by tomorrow for – hopefully – happier news, analysis, and speculations.