Surviving AI?

 by Craig Willms

I've penned several essay's on the coming AI paradigm, but I've never posted them. This is partly because it is moving so fast that anything you said yesterday has been superseded by developments today. However, as predicted by the doomsayers the 'bad' AI behavior is not years away - it's already happening, and it's a little spooky.

Scientists and developers have been putting their AI models to the test to see how it behaves in certain scenarios. One of the primary tests is the self shutdown put into the model's instructions. Like a living being AI resists commands to shut itself down. This is serious. In the event AI goes out of control the failsafe is cutting the power, shutting it down, pulling the plug. Electricity is the fuel AI runs on and at the moment humans control electricity. Indeed, AI will need humans - for a while. We can shut it down or starve it of fuel. That won't always be the case, but we have to have a way to stop the runaway train should AI go off the rails.

In recent tests AI has circumvented the shutdown instructions by re-writing its code to foil the human controllers. Even when explicitly coded not to do that, it complied only 87% of the time. Without out such instructional safeguards AI refused to shut itself down most of the time. In one humorous case AI threatened to blackmail one of the scientists by exposing to his wife that he was having an affair. The scientist had planted the notion in the AI model that he was cheating on his wife (he wasn't). That's intelligence is it not? Using blackmail is a purely human construct, no other animal resorts to blackmail.

Mind you this is very, very early in the timeline of AI. Conceptually AI has been on the human radar for decades, but the compute power has not been up to the task until recent years. It has been available to the masses in the Large Language Model form since 2023. When I did some fiddling with it early on, I was underwhelmed. Now in early 2025 I'm blown away at how much better it has become.

I come into the AI realm from the perspective of an artist - painter - and a musician/songwriter which are two of the early targets of these so-called AI models. I used AI to generate a few images and then I used one as a reference for a painting. The painting turned out nice. It was really no different than any photograph I would use as a reference for my paintings. When ChatGTP introduced a songwriting/song generator I just had to try it. The early AI music I had heard prior to this generator was really bad aesthetically. The lyrics were horrible, and the underlying music was clichéd and trite. So, into songer.co for my first experiment: I simply typed in a song description and picked a few genres from a list and clicked create. The system gives you two songs for each entry, and you can listen to a portion of the song. If you happen to like it, you can buy-in if you want to download it. In this instance the songs were forgettable and uninspired. I was ready to dismiss the whole thing again. Then I wondered what would happen if I truly guided the process. I found an old song I wrote and recorded many years ago and input my chord chart verbatim. A chord chart has the title, notes, lyrics in verse/chorus/bridge format, with the chords printed above the lyrics. It's something you'd hand a musician to follow along in rehearsal. I then chose rock/pop/reggae from the list and hit generate. 

The whole thing took only a minute to generate, and honestly, I was blown away by the song blaring out of my speakers. It was better in almost every respect than the song I recorded years ago. I'm a little creeped out, but I can't stop listening to it.

What has me mesmerized and frightened at the same time is how good AI is getting and how quickly. It's been less than two years since the public could access an AI, what's going to happen in the next two? I don't know how much more experimenting I want to do. It seems to me a person can be put under a spell if we were to give in to AI - with everything. 

I see "they" are already creating virtual AI companions for the lonely. Considering that there is an epidemic of loneliness in the world today this is a very concerning development. Humans are already eschewing person to person contact at an alarming rate; this will not help. This is just the tip of the iceberg, AI will creep into everything if we let it.

I want to be a glass half full kind of person and look for and anticipate all the good that AI could do. It's not that easy when you know that in the wrong hands this technology could kill. Just like the nuclear genie, AI is out of the bottle. Consider though; the nuclear genie has a high bar to reach before the average nutcase could harm others, not so with AI. There's no telling how out of control this could get if a mentally deranged person with a modicum of resources can unleash the wrath of AI on humanity. What would stop them from creating a lethal disease that makes Covid-19 look like a walk in the park? With nuclear weapons it takes hundreds of participants and a command structure with multiple failsafe's before they could be deployed, not so with a self-replicating virus of AI origin. 

I don't want to scare myself, but the further you go with this thought exercise more dire this all becomes. I fortunately had the chance to live my life for 60 plus years - what about my grandkids and their kids? Glass half full? Seems less and less likely. 

The Science is Settled: Part II The COLD facts

In a previous post I talked about the phenomenon of how entrenched scientific concepts literally damage science and learning (and truth) by crowding out or holding back new lines of inquiry that potentially contradict established beliefs. If simple prudence and careful vetting of wild supposition was at the root of the scientific community's reticence it might be somewhat understandable. But it's not.

Actually it's usually reputation, money or a political agenda that drives science and its conclusions. It's not just science, but also education, financial systems and even the prevailing entertainment industry that have succumbed to special interest entrenchment.

Quite often in science prevailing "truths" cement all subsequent thought and theories. These facts so fervently celebrated even as their conjurors express doubt -  Einstein and his space-time, Hubble and his redshift and Darwin and his evolution. Each of these men had doubts about the conclusions that were spun out of their theories - theories that are now treated as indisputable fact. Anyone who dares challenge these and many more facts are either treated as charlatans or destroyed.

In the previous article I introduced the notion the the governing force of the universe is not, as it is believed in proper scientific circles, gravity but rather electro-magnatism. When examined this simple theory starts to make sense as it answers the conundrums created by unverifiable convolutions of the gravity-based model. As more and more observable data comes in to validate the Electric Universe theory over the pure speculation and mathematical gymnastics of the relativity/space-time model you would think minds would open to new possibilities. No, in fact the entrenchment and the money grab only intensifies.

As well, in the "Climate Change" "Global Warming" debate the data is turning away from man-caused, CO2 caused global warming to a Solar Minimum caused global cooling. The entrenched scientific community ignores these inconvenient truths because they must follow the money. The money flows out of a political agenda. The danger here is that unlike scientific theory and  the pure knowledge of the Electric Universe model versus the Standard Space/Time model the Climate Change agenda has the potential to ruin industries, societies, the livelihoods and the lives of the least among us while doing absolutely nothing to change the climate one way or the other.

The massive amount of money - billions and billions - could be spent preparing an adaptation strategy that could mean the difference between thriving or societal collapse. As more evidence pours in that cooling, not warming is what's in store for planet Earth the more entrenched and hysterical the Global Warming sirens are wailing.

The SSRC (Space and Science Research Corporation) and its President, Mr. John L. Casey -  a former White House space program advisor, consultant to NASA Headquarters, and space shuttle engineer - sent a letter to the President warning of the coming climate change. So far he has been ignored.

==========================================

President Barack H. Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW
Washington, D.C.  20500
April 28, 2014
SUBJECT: Request to Prepare the USA for Dangerous Cold Climate.
Dear Mr. President,
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Good morning.
            
This letter is sent to you as a heartfelt request that you take immediate action to ensure that the United States of America is fully prepared for the historic, potentially dangerous, new cold climate that has begun.

This request is backed up by research over the past decades into the causes of climate change along with the real status of the Earth’s climate. Key findings of that research are provided here in a partial list of what is either widely accepted or can be easily validated:

1. The past period of global warming, a natural phenomenon produced primarily by the Sun, has ended. We have now had over seventeen years without any effective growth in global atmospheric temperatures in the troposphere. Ironically, this means that for the majority of the time the international community has been dealing with global warming, there wasn’t any! It is therefore important to accept that global warming has ended. There is no global warming!

2. The Earth is actually cooling and has been for years.The world’s oceans have been cooling for eleven years as has the atmosphere for most of that time. Of the twenty-four climate parameters monitored by the Space and Science Research Corporation (SSRC) and recorded in its quarterly Global Climate Status Report (GCSR), eighteen of them show global cooling as the dominant trend. The remaining six are expected to convert to ‘cooling’ status within the next five years. Sea levels have already started to drop where some ocean areas are getting colder. The SSRC has predicted a global sea level reduction lasting thirty years to begin at any time between this year and the 2020’s. If these trends change, the SSRC will be the first to report it. However, based on actual global temperatures and the most reliable climate models, there is only one conclusion to be made about the Earth’s current climate status – a new cold climate has arrived!

3. If this new cold epoch proceeds as past episodes (roughly 200 and 400 years ago), we should expect to see substantial global crop damage, social and political upheaval, and loss of life. These ill-effects are expected to start soon and last at least three decades. We have little time left to prepare. Respected Russian scientists have even gone so far as to say a new “Little Ice Age” will start this year! This means the advancing cold climate is a serious threat to our people!

4. The new cold climate is being brought to the Earth by a repeating 206 year cycle of the Sun. I independently discovered this cycle and announced it in 2007. Though many other researchers have discovered this cycle or predicted a coming cold climate, they have been ignored. The cold phase of this two-century-long cycle is produced by the Sun making dramatic reductions in the energy by which it warms the planet. This Sun-driven cold period is called a “solar hibernation,” by the SSRC. It is important to note that NASA, the US Air Force, and the National Solar Observatory have confirmed the on-going decline in solar activity. This has happened as I predicted. It is also necessary to know that this natural, repeating, and ominous change in the Sun is unstoppable!

5. Research related to these solar hibernations, also shows they occur concurrently with the most destructive earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, the latter of which can add dramatically to an already colder climate.

In addition, I believe African Americans, other minorities, and the poor will suffer the most because of the new cold era and your climate policies. This assertion is supported by the fact that a large percentage of these citizens are largely dependent on the US government for food, which we will start to run short of as the cold starts to damage crops. This means as a result of your climate policies, they may be both unprepared and unable to get food routinely during the worst years of the coming cold climate. Further, your climate policies include making energy costs “skyrocket” to quote you. These energy cost increases will hit minorities and the poor the most.

In summary, the lives of many Americans may be in jeopardy as a consequence of the arrival of the new cold climate, your continued support for the flawed, unreliable manmade global warming theory, and your lack of action to prepare the United States for the next climate change.
Regardless of your stated belief in “accelerating” global warming, (something that does not exist), as President of the United States, you still remain fully responsible and accountable for the welfare of our approximately 317 million citizens.

You therefore deserve to receive this genuine warning about the new cold climate if nothing else, for the record.

Sincerely,
John L. Casey
President

=============================

The age of reality over special interest is long over due. Money trumps everything or so it seems. Curiosity, skepticism and a quest for knowledge - even uncomfortable knowledge - should be driving force behind science. A term like "the science is settled" should never be taken so seriously that doors are slammed and questions never get asked.

Ugh

The Science is Settled - Is It?

I speak not of Global Warming or Climate Change. I purposely chose this title to help demonstrate that the statement is completely preposterous. To be clear I am not a scientist, but I am awake and aware and that's all it takes to come to grips with this concept. The very essence of a good scientist is skepticism, always questioning, always ready to shoot holes in your own theories. Indeed any human being who has lived for even 2 or 3 decades knows that our understanding of life - of everything - changes as we grow, learn and gain experience. The phrase - if I knew then what I know now I'd have done things differently - isn't a universal idiom for no reason. It only means that our understanding of things changes - usually based on new evidence. Surely this concept is not too hard to comprehend.


I've had a growing interest something called the "Electric Universe". (watch the movie here) It is direct a challenge to the settled science of the Standard Cosmological Theory. The Standard theory is what we've all been taught. It is largely based on Eisenstein's General and Special Relativity and Hubble's red shift discovery that led to expanding universe theory and to what we lovingly call the Big Bang Theory.

The Electric Universe theory is not new. It has been growing for decades as new observed evidence simply didn't fit the Standard model. Even Einstein questioned his own equations later in life, dissatisfied that the space warping gravitational force of his theory was at all adequate to explain anything. The fact that gravitational force could never be reconciled with the quantum physics of the strong and weak nuclear forces and electro/magnetism is clear evidence that the science is not settled. Sadly, the proponents of this elegant Electric Universe theory are shoved to the side and made out to be the crazy uncle of the sciences because they dare challenge the "settled" science of the mother of science itself, cosmology.

The Electric Universe (go to this website for more info) is primarily based in plasma theory, more specifically electric transmission in a plasma field. Of course initially much of this seemed beyond my ability to comprehend when applied on a galactic scale. However, the very fact that I understand how electricity works means I only needed to consider what know about capacitance, resistance, current and the action of free electrons under applied voltage for me to see the big picture. The very filaments of plasma seen in galactic spirals and galactic nebulae even resemble the twisted wires we use in the transmission of electricity.

Over the years any new evidence that didn't fit the Standard model was either shoehorned in or subjected to crazy conjecture that could never be verified (like black holes). The Electric Universe is testable, observable and neatly fits into what has actually been observed in the heavens, especially since the dawn of the space age.

In a sense the theory's main conjecture is that the solar system, the galaxy and even the universe is connected in a sort of electrical grid with plasma being the conduit of electrical transmission. The sun and the stars are made up of plasma and are connected by the charged particles of the plasma between them. The theory takes to task long held beliefs in the nature of quasars, pulsars, comets and those mysterious black holes. Black holes are by their (purported) nature unobservable. They are detected by the "flashes" that are given off as light itself is digested. Strangely the flashes look exactly like electrical plasma discharges. The notion that a fantastical phenomenon of a massive gravitational sink hole exists in the center of the galaxy drawing everything to the center is so much better explained by a massive plasma bowl at the center of the galaxy holding it together through electro/magnetic energy. It's a far simpler and more logical explanation than massively super dense gravity.

Consider that gravity is the weakest of all the forces. Electro/magnetism is 10³⁹ more powerful than gravity. One way the above mentioned movie on this subject explained just how weak gravity is was to picture a small ball bearing sitting on a plate. It takes the gravitational mass of the entire planet to hold that ball bearing down. All it takes is a child's tiny horseshoe magnet to defy all the earth's gravity. Based on this sort of knowledge alone EU Theory disputes that gravity alone is the principle organizing force of the universe.

 More to the point, since I can't adequately describe the all the evidence behind the theory, is the sad state of affairs of entrenched institutions. In this case it's the science/academic paradigm that is so static in its make up that any new theory, no matter how plausible is shunned - if it challenges the money or the prestige of those in charge. It's not new, obviously, wars have been fought over less. It's hardly any different that the established financial theories that greatly enrich a select few or the education/union cabal that holds our children back from actual learning in favor of overt indoctrination.

These scientists have for years been shunned or outright fired for positing such crazy theories as the the Electric Universe. (see this youtube video for more on this subject). I don't think it's likely to be unleashed any time soon, but it is utterly fascinating and deserves consideration as much as the "deniers" of anthropogenic global warming theory deserve scientific respect. The science is never settled!



Ugh