SleafordMod

As we roll out more generative AI and agents, it should change the way our work is done

we expect that this will reduce our total corporate workforce

Are we done for?

This article notes that "right-wing governments, including the US and Hungary, are increasingly blaming falling fertility rates on a rejection of parenthood", as if today's young adults just don't want children.

But the author suggests that actually people do want children, and one of the main reasons they're having fewer children is because they can't afford many children.

Thoughts?

There is also another article in The Guardian about an open letter by nearly 400 British and Irish writers, calling Israel's war on Gaza "genocide". This seems to be a separate letter from the one reported by the BBC above.

Another thing I read this morning was this BBC story about a woman in Gaza who suffered a miscarriage due to the tribulations of trying to survive during Israel's military action. She and her husband also had IVF embryos at a fertility clinic in Gaza, but those have been destroyed by Israeli bombing, so this couple believe they may never have a chance to have children now.

Thoughts?

George Monbiot suggests that Labour shouldn't be supported because they're now pushing right-wing policies, in his view.

So he thinks people should tactically support progressive parties who support electoral reform (Lib Dems, Greens, SNP, Plaid Cymru), which may hopefully then lead to electoral reform, so that we end up with proportional representation. Then Brits will have more choices than effectively just two parties for future elections.

Thoughts?

Do you think AI is, or could become, conscious?

I think AI might one day emulate consciousness to a high level of accuracy, but that wouldn't mean it would actually be conscious.

This article mentions a Google engineer who "argued that AI chatbots could feel things and potentially suffer". But surely in order to "feel things" you would need a nervous system right? When you feel pain from touching something very hot, it's your nerves that are sending those pain signals to your brain... right?

Do you agree that Brexit has been "a pointless waste of time, money and effort"?

It seems the left dislike Starmer because he's tacking to the right, and the right dislike Starmer because he's not Farage.

Thoughts?

The Register mostly covers tech news but I noticed this story about defence spending.

Apparently the UK is now spending more of its defence budget with European arms makers. Do you think this is a good thing?

Justine Greening, the former Tory MP, argues that the current Tory strategy of going after Reform voters isn't working. She seems to think the Tories should try to capture centrists instead (which is what David Cameron did, I would argue).

The party has attempted to be a “mini-me” version of Reform UK, and unsurprisingly Reform voters prefer the real thing. And this strategy’s consequential alienation of Conservative-leaning centre-ground voters has seen them head off to either the Lib Dems or Labour, or to the Green party. The party has no winning majority in any age group of voters other than those over 70. This is no basis for a successful electoral strategy for the longer term.

This is a long article (excerpts from a book apparently) but it's interesting.

Basically the author, a man with Jewish heritage, makes a fake persona and joins far-right groups. He's assisted by the group Hope Not Hate.

What do you think of the far-right? One of the interesting points that is made in the article a few times is that some far-right adherents, met by the author, seem to want friendship more than anything else. At least that's the author's view.

This opinion article argues that Labour should support green policies for moral reasons, but the author also argues that Farage's anti-green message is not what the public want. Apparently "68% of Farage’s constituents in Clacton-on-Sea, Essex, declared themselves 'somewhat' or 'very' worried" about climate change.

The article links to this Bluesky thread from a pollster which is interesting:

Edit: you can right click the above image and open it in a new tab to see it full size.

I found this interesting. It's mainly about how Brexit has introduced extra red tape when dealing with Europe. The article says how the EU is the UK's largest trading partner, with the value of trade being over double that of the next largest trading partner: the USA.

Here are some quotes:

The days of freedom of movement for people, goods, and services between the UK and its neighbours are long gone.

The British economy has lost out and British citizens and businesses suffer from greater bureaucratic botheration.

Nor has immigration into the UK gone down since leaving the EU. The numbers have actually gone up, with people from Commonwealth countries, including India, Pakistan and Nigeria, more than compensating for EU citizens who used to come and go.