The Rise of A.I. Fighter Pilots, Sue Halpern. “Artificial intelligence is being taught to fly warplanes. Can the technology be trusted?… Stop Killer Robots, a coalition of more than a hundred and eighty non-governmental organizations, including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the World Council of Churches, has urged nations to adopt a legal treaty controlling the use of lethal autonomous weapons. The U.S. is not among the nearly seventy countries that have so far signed on….” Posted on Americans for Humanity in Economic/Big Tech.
Monthly Archives: January 2022
Comments from Michael Johnson
Comments from Michael Johnson on The System, Systemic/Overview, Systemic/Problems, and Systemic Solutions.
The One Thing TV Characters Don’t Talk About
The One Thing TV Characters Don’t Talk About, Jordan Calhoun. “The topic of money requires the most awkward suspension of disbelief in fiction.” Posted on Americans for Humanity in Cultural/Resources.
The Gift: The Journey of Johnny Cash (Official Documentary).
The Gift: The Journey of Johnny Cash (Official Documentary). “YouTube Originals presents The Gift: The Journey of Johnny Cash. Johnny Cash stands among the giants of 20th century American life. But his story remains tangled in mystery and myth. This documentary, created with the full cooperation of the Cash estate and rich in recently discovered archival materials, brings Cash the man out from behind the legend. Taking the remarkable Folsom Prison recording as a central motif and featuring interviews with family and celebrated collaborators, the film explores the artistic victories, the personal tragedies, the struggles with addiction, and the spiritual pursuits that colored Johnny Cash’s life. The Original Score to the documentary is available now, featuring essential Johnny Cash recordings & original score by Mike McCready incorporating exclusive interview soundbites with Johnny Cash, June Carter Cash, and others. https://JohnnyCash.lnk.to/TheGiftOST. Posted on Americans for Humanity in Cultural/Music.
Reimagining the Public Defender
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Reimagining the Public Defender, Sarah A. Seo. “In Free Justice, Mayeux provides a historical example of a community-based public defender’s office that sought justice outside the courtroom. The Roxbury Defenders Committee, established in 1971 in a predominantly Black and poor neighborhood in Roxbury, Massachusetts, did fight vigorously for its clients in court. Its lawyers were known for “their eagerness to file motions, take cases to trial, and challenge actions taken by police and prosecutors,” all of which were possible because they strictly limited their caseload. But the Roxbury defenders also advocated for prisoners’ rights, hosted know-your-rights workshops for the community, published a neighborhood newsletter, and broadcast a weekly call-in radio show, as well as running a twenty-four-hour hotline for those who needed to speak to an attorney right away. As Mayeux puts it, the lawyers in the Roxbury office “reimagined the public defender not merely as a substitute for retained counsel…but as a friendly neighborhood resource.” Such legal services go beyond adversarial representation to further both individual and social justice.” Posted on Americans for Humanity in Political/Criminal Justice.
You Can’t Optimize For Rest
You Can’t Optimize For Rest, L. M. Sacasas. “…There are two key points. First, our exhaustion—in its various material and immaterial dimensions—is a consequence of the part we play in a techno-social milieu whose rhythms, scale, pace, and demands are not conducive to our well-being, to say nothing of the well-being of other creatures and the planet we share. Second, the remedies to which we often turn may themselves be counterproductive because their function is not to alter the larger system which has yielded a state of chronic exhaustion but rather to keep us functioning within it. Moreover, not only do the remedies fail to address the root of the problem, but there’s also a tendency to carry into our efforts to find rest the very same spirit which animates the system that left us tired and burnt out. Rest takes on the character of a project to be completed or an experience to be consumed. In neither case do we ultimately find any sort of meaningful and enduring relief or renewal.” Posted on Americans for Humanity in Systemic/General/Articles.
The Happiness Project
The Happiness Project — “In 2009, Gretchen Rubin’s breakout book, The Happiness Project, became a New York Times #1 bestseller and revolutionized the way people approach personal development. Over the last decade, she has taken her approach to creating a happier, healthier, more productive, and more creative life off those pages and into the daily lives of her readers and listeners through her books, blog, podcast, online courses, and weekly newsletter.” Posted on Americans for Humanity in Personal Growth/Advocacy-Services.
Two First Things in Building Collective Action
By Michael Johnson
“I have put 40 years into building and sustaining an urban intentional community of substantial size—the Ganas Community in Staten Island, NY. We began with seven, reached 100 in the 90s, and settled in at around 65 ever since. I have also studied collective action groups out in the regular world, especially worker co-operatives and solidarity economic groups.
So, do I have anything useful to pass on? I think so. At least a couple.
For me there is one lesson that stands out above all others in starting a community or collective action group: the group that starts and sustains the project has to learn how to talk to each other about the problems they have with each other.
How Ivy League Elites Turned Against Democracy
How Ivy League Elites Turned Against Democracy, Stephen Marche. “Some of the best-educated people in the country have overseen the destruction of their institutions…. What the Ivy League produces, in spades, on both the left and the right, is unwarranted confidence. Its institutions are hubris factories…. America’s less-educated and less-productive citizens drive anti-government patriotism, both in its armed and elected wings, but they mostly, despite themselves, pick their representatives from the ranks of the Ivy League and other similarly elite institutions around the country. Even in their rage against elites, the anti-elitists fall back on the deep structure of American power….” (COMMENT: But why do they submit?) Posted in Systemic Resources/Meritocracy
The Gender Gap Is Taking Us to Unexpected Places
The Gender Gap Is Taking Us to Unexpected Places, Thomas B. Edsall. “Women are just as competitive as men, Haidt wrote, ‘but they do it differently.’… Benenson writes:
From early childhood onwards, girls compete using strategies that minimize the risk of retaliation and reduce the strength of other girls. Girls’ competitive strategies include avoiding direct interference with another girl’s goals, disguising competition, competing overtly only from a position of high status in the community, enforcing equality within the female community and socially excluding other girls…. The result of these two somewhat conflicting motives is that girls and women seek high status but disguise this quest by avoiding direct contests.
Published originally on Americans for Humanity at Systemic/Domination.