[K-Dog]

INDIANEXPRESS.COM 2026-06-29

Why Apple products are getting more expensive—and how you can save money

If you are planning to buy an Apple device, there are several ways to manage your budget wisely and reduce the impact of the higher prices.

[RE]

247WALLST.COM 2026-07-27

Data Centers — Not Iran — Are Fueling the U.S.’s Coming Energy Crisis

AI data centers are set to consume 20% of U.S. electricity by 2035, up from 5.9% today, threatening a structural energy crisis beyond oil.  Some households are already seeing electric bills double or triple as utilities raise rates to recover data center-driven infrastructure costs

I think the Energy Crisis has past the "coming" stage and has moved into the "already here" stage.  Forget the CO2 increase, the Waste Heat alone from these DCs will drive temps up by another .5C, not to mention sucking up what little free water is left.  Plus everyone from Europe to S America wants a new AC unit.  Pretty soon everyone will need a Nuke Generator just to power their McMansion.

Power Consumption is on an Exponential Increase which clearly cannot be sustained.  Just a matter of time before this engine seizes up.

RE

[K-Dog]

We don't need no stinkin' Data Centers. The Diner rolls its own.

Seriously, the world has too much money to invest because a growth slowdown does that. It is in the math, and it happens when limits are reached. Money collects in piles to grow, but without overall economic growth a money pile can't grow itself.  At least to the stratospheric level of unearned riches.  It piles up but can't grow. It gets hungry.

Hungry money created an imagined need for 'compute,' resulting in the biggest bubble of all time. Bubbles only happen in a bizarre world where a parasitic class reaps profit without contributing, but that is a story for another day. The point is that we are in a financial bubble that will either collapse or put god to shame with the brilliance of man. It is up to you to decide which is more likely.

Were society organized differently using sane ideas, universities could have supplied models to play with. And the evolution of the state of the art would have been developed on existing hardware, with new hardware built only as the organic need called for it, sans speculation and bad investment.

There are plenty of people like me who could make this stuff useful. A pair of RTX 6000 cards at a reasonable price would help. Currently, that pair would cost $24,000—somewhere in that ballpark. What I was able to do with $1,000 gives one-sixth the 'compute' capacity at half the speed, something like that. And the memory in this machine should not be worth over $4,000.

We have the fucking Borg taking over , and I have to pay through the nose to have any fun.

Once again, convenience, inequality, and the accompanying foolishness kicks sagacity to the curb.

And previous generations had ignorance as an excuse.  The highly educated 21st century cretin can't say that.

QUANTABUNDANCIA.COM 2026-06-04

South Sea Bubble (1720): the trade-riches story was a cover for a debt swap

South Sea shares ran from about 128 pounds in January 1720 to roughly 1,000 by August, then crashed to 100-200 by December. The real business was never trade. It was converting the national debt.

Then it was to convert the national debt.  It is to fund a new royalty based on financial conquest now.  In the land of amnesia, Americans now prefer being exploited to being free, showing that a lot can change in 250 years.

Regarding the performance of the system, I am happy. I am impressed with the results, and playing with this thing is going to keep me busy for a very long time, even without system upgrades. A single RTX 5090 would do as well as this system, and it would be faster. But an RTX 5090 currently is selling for eight times what a single RTX 5060 Ti card with half the VRAM costs.

Going with two cheaper cards yielding the same VRAM made sense. I can deal with the speed penalty. The 5060 is a slower card, but the complication of two cards is something I would have done anyway. Even with a 5090 I would keep one of the 5060 cards. That would be interesting. Sometimes they would work together, and sometimes they would not. Together, the speed could slow down to 5060 speeds, but in that configuration, the added VRAM would be there for a reason. I could use it for added context (short-term memory) when appropriate.

A fascinating configuration would be two RTX 5090 cards running together, which makes no financial sense, but which would work fine provided they were running a model that could not run without overflow on a single card and which would fill the cards without unused VRAM. The PCI bus would bottleneck power draw in that case, and a circuit breaker would not pop. Since getting both cards working on independent tasks where they both draw full power would require deliberate effort, the system would be stable. A breaker would only pop if both cards ran at 100%, and that would require programming. When cards idle, they don't use a lot of power, and some models use more power than others when they run.

The PCI bottleneck is minimal in this system and is a deliberate choice. This motherboard is intended for AI use. If the A.I. bubble bursts and I can pick up some enterprise-class cards cheap, that would rock.

[RE]

Seriously, the world has too much money to invest because a growth slowdown does that. It is in the math, and it happens when limits are reached. Money collects in piles to grow, but without overall economic growth a money pile can't grow itself.  At least to the stratospheric level of unearned riches.  It piles up but can't grow. It gets hungry.

The problem is there's no money left to extract from most of the population.  The only people with surplus to spend are the rich, and there aren't enough of them.  The only biznesses that work are the ones people HAVE to spend on, like Food, Health Care, Housing and Transportation.

AI will never pay off the $TRILLIONS$ being borrowed to invest in the infrastructure.  When  people grasp this fact of life, the bubble will pop.

RE

[K-Dog]

When  people grasp this fact of life, the bubble will pop.

Then I can have enough cards in the box to run a 80 GB model without quantization. 

* The Russian Language thread starting is gone, I think it is implemented well.  Any other language too.  I added logic that makes it impossible for any new member who has never posted in a topic to start a new topic.  The 'bots' immediately adapted and made a post in an existing topic, I forgot where it was.  I deleted it and then tested the new deletion function which deletes members who have not made a post in the registration grace period which is now set to four hours.  A new member has to make a post or the member gets deleted after four hours.  If for any reason you or I (or any moderator) does not like the post we delete it.  Without posts the new member will be deleted within and hour.  The deletion function runs automatically once an hour to check the grace period.

[RE]

CNBC.COM 2026-08-01

Dwindling cash and soaring memory costs: Tech’s AI buildout has ballooning price tag

Almost four years into the artificial intelligence boom, the world’s biggest tech companies are still making grand promises about the future. The problem is, they’re burning through their cash in the process.

Look at the positive side.  When these Data Centers find they can't get enough power to run all those chips, a lot of those machines will get scrapped and sold for parts.  You'll be able to pick up barely used chips for pennies on the dollar.  Nothing wrong with a used chip, they're good as new.

RE

[K-Dog]

If you don't want to watch the whole thing just check out the windows of chats running at the same time.  A model larger than a consumer can run is on the box.  Dozens of chatbots are running, each doing something, 'thinking'.  There is a monster chip used in data centers inside the box, and this mofo trots along at two kilowatts.

I looked at the estimated price when it hits the market.  $122,000 has been estimated.  Any day now.  I'm saving my pennies.

[RE]

I looked at the estimated price when it hits the market.  $122,000 has been estimated.  Any day now.  I'm saving my pennies.

Be patient, wait a couple of years and at least one Zero will get knocked off the price.

RE

[RE]

DEREKTHOMPSON.ORG 2026-08-11

The Great American AI Rebellion

AI spending currently accounts for about one-third of economic growth. If that doesn’t mean much to you, some historical comparisons might help. The AI boom is sometimes compared to the dot-com bubble. But the data-center buildout has actually significantly overtaken the dot-com boom, as a share of GDP. In fact, AI spending is now rising faster than home-construction spending during the boom (bubble?) of the mid-2000s before the Great Recession, according to Torsten Slok, chief economist at Apollo. This is the biggest and fastest-growing infrastructure project of our lifetimes.

When (not if) this Bubble POPS, it will be legendary.

RE

[K-Dog]

Most people do not have the hardware to run A.I.

It is a delicate balance. Keep people from getting their own hardware so they can't do it for free while maintaining a healthy enough economy TO CHARGE FOR TOKENS.

The establishment of the Rentier economy.  That is what it is all about.

BENEICHER.SUBSTACK.COM 2025-10-12

Rentier Capitalism: The Empire of Ownership Without Labor

A primer on the parasitic economy and how to break its hold.

Today's rentiers no longer limit themselves to land and housing. They control digital platforms, software licenses, trademarks, patents, infrastructure rights, even water and airwaves. This expansion reflects the evolution of capitalism itself: no longer focused on production and wages, it now thrives on access and enclosure.

Token Cost Calculator.

American culture is all about getting a bean feed without working for it.  Anything goes and nothing matters.  Not all Americans are as craven as this, but those who are control the narrative.

The post-World War II era (roughly 1945–1975) witnessed a temporary decline in rentier dominance in the West, especially in countries with strong welfare states, public housing and progressive taxation. Keynesian policies, public investment and union strength curtailed rentier power and emphasized productivity over ownership.

Control over access to models allows the rentier to extract payment without producing anything of equivalent value in return.  That is disgusting.  But what is worse is what it turns us all into.

When the most lucrative economic activity is owning a tollbooth rather than producing anything, the culture will reflect that.

[K-Dog]

Here is something RE might have some insight on.

WIRED.COM 2026-08-12

‘The Worst I’ve Ever Seen’: Cargo Thefts Have Turned Violent in Pursuit of AI Hardware

Experts allege that two recent incidents in California show the extreme lengths that criminal organizations are willing to go to to steal servers and other gear meant for data centers.

I can't imagine there would be enough in the caper to make vanishing for life worthwhile.  I know trucking does not pay what it used to, but being a fugitive is no fun.  I was AWOL from the navy for a bit over two years before I paid the piper.  It is not fun.  It is like your life is permanently on hold.  That might not bother some people, but it was not for me.

The drivers must have used fake names and résumé's, Considering the state of the FBI, it may work out for them.  MAGA might even be taking a percentage.

[RE]

TECHCRUNCH.COM 2026-08-19

AI was supposed to win people over by now — it hasn’t

A recent CNBC poll of 18- to 34-year-olds found that, when given the names of nine top leaders in the AI industry, a majority of the respondents said they don’t trust those people to “act responsibly” when it comes to AI. A May Economist/YouGov poll found that over 70% of Americans think AI is advancing too quickly. The list goes on.

Sure it will lead to a shorter work week.  Will you still be paid the same weekly salary for your shorter week?  Somehow I doubt it. 🙄

RE

[RE]

TECHPOLICY.PRESS 2026-09-17

What Policymakers and the Public Need to Know About the Cult of AI

Billionaires driven by an AI ideology seek to eliminate human labor and autonomy, replacing democratic processes with oligarchic control. Their vision prioritizes machine dominance over human agency, dismissing the need for persuasion or coercion. Despite superficial efforts labeled as “AI for Good,” the core goal remains the subjugation of people to a system designed to render them obsolete.

A long and fairly exhaustive article which exposes some of the REAL dangers of AI, as opposed to the much less likely though terrifying possibilities like rogue agents creating a super virus which exterminates humanity in the next decade.

The real danger is in the "bonkers" belief the big players have that AI is on the verge of consciousness and will soon lead to the "singularity", a merging of man and machine that will be a new leap in evolution and will proceed to colonize the universe.  They don't envision this leap for all of humanity, just their own uber wealthy class of tech bro Billionaires. Everyone else is superfluous and expendable.

Personally I'm not worried about AI actually reaching consciousness anytime soon, but the policies and focus of these "techno fascists" in making the effort has more bad outcomes than I can count, not to mention being a huge waste of energy and resources that could be put to much better use in other ways.

Right now the Tech Bro leaders of this cult have the initiative and the money, and are in control of how AI is being developed.  There is however a grassroots movement of people determined to put a stop to it also.  Hopium remains that the worst outcomes can still be avoided.


RE

[K-Dog]

Here is the Cliff Notes version.

The rise of a technocratic ideology centered on artificial general intelligence and superintelligence has become a dominant force in Silicon Valley, shaping trillion dollar investments, political agendas, and visions for humanity's future. This belief system, often referred to as the TESCREAL bundle encompassing { transhumanism, extropianism, singularitarianism, cosmism, rationalism, effective altruism, and longtermism } asserts that sentient, omnipotent AI is not only inevitable but morally imperative to create, even at the cost of current human welfare. Proponents like Elon Musk frame AGI as a cosmic mission to extend consciousness beyond Earth, justify the dismantling of public institutions such as USAID, and prioritize speculative future lives over present day suffering, all under the guise of rationality and progress. These ideas are no longer fringe; they have infiltrated mainstream tech policy, philanthropy, and political strategy through influential figures and well funded organizations like OpenAI and Anthropic, which operate with implicit commitments to these worldviews despite public claims of ethical neutrality.

The ideology merges seamlessly with neoreactionary thought—cyberlibertarianism, anti democratic elitism, and the fantasy of sovereign freedom cities—to form what some call technofascism. This is a fusion of technological utopianism and authoritarian hierarchy that seeks to replace democratic governance with oligarchic rule by tech elites who view human labor, autonomy, and rights as obsolete. Rather than treating AI as a tool shaped by human values, this movement treats it as an autonomous force demanding surrender to its development, dismissing concerns about surveillance, discrimination, or inequality as distractions from the singular goal of achieving posthuman transcendence. The belief in inevitable AGI serves as both justification and prophecy, allowing billionaires to redirect public resources toward speculative futures while eroding institutions that protect the vulnerable.

Effective altruism and longtermism provide the ethical veneer for this agenda, reducing moral decision making to utilitarian calculations that weigh hypothetical future lives against tangible present harms. This mindset enables the rationalization of policies that dismantle healthcare, education, and international aid under the claim that those resources would be better spent accelerating AI development. The result is a system where the interests of a small group of technologists, funded by wealth accumulated through privatized public goods, dictate global priorities without accountability or consent. Their vision does not seek to empower society but to render it irrelevant, replacing democracy with algorithmic governance and human agency with machine supremacy.

The danger lies not in AI itself but in the unchecked concentration of power among those who believe they alone are qualified to decide humanity's fate. As these ideologies gain influence over policy, funding, and public discourse, they normalize the erosion of civil rights, environmental protections, and social safety nets under the banner of innovation. Policymakers must recognize that AGI remains speculative, that its alleged benefits are unproven, and that its pursuit often comes at the expense of real people today. To defend a just future, we must challenge the assumption that technological progress is inherently good, reject the moral authority of those who claim to speak for unborn generations, and insist that democracy, equity, and human dignity remain non negotiable foundations for any society. The true threat is not an AI uprising but the quiet takeover of our institutions by a cult of rationality that has forgotten what it means to be human.

I will disagee with this:

"The danger lies not in AI itself but in the unchecked concentration of power among those who believe they alone are qualified to decide humanity's fate. "

Should read :

"The danger does not lie in AI itself, but in those who believe they alone are born to be the masters of us all.  Entitled to tax all the rhythms of our everyday lives with tokens.  Tokens they turn into billions of dollars for themselves. "

For themselves as they stand on the shoulders of giants.  If you take the philosophy side of their greed too seriously, really seriously at all.  Then you are playing their game, and then you are on their leash.  Good boy, sit down.  If you want to get into AI and don't have a kick ass edge device like the Diner does then, you are a SERF.

Flee in terror of that,  but not A.I. itself.

The problem is America is fine with exploitation.  America likes exploitation.  America loves exploitation.  The American political landscape quibbles about who the winners and loosers should be. But that there should be winners and losers everyone agrees.  Americans dream of unearned riches and the liberal class is blind to their exploitations, justifying current arrangements using their own philosophies.  Consequently exploitaion will be the new task of compute.  Finding new ways to charge you for tokens will never end.  The only way data centers are ever going to get paid for is if you pay for them. And paying for them is not enough.  Tokens will also be buying private islands, but the only thing Americans will wish for is having a piece of the action.

Having a philosophy behind tech flim-flammery is the way to get most of the big brains on board.  It works!  Even if you don't agree they have you listening on their frequency.  They tuned you in.



A.I. made those Cliff Notes, but I am certified organic.  No data centers were used.  The dual video cards did it.

100% natural organic AI


More tech Bro porn:

BITFERN.COM 2026-09-18

The Tech Bros Are Back: Silicon Valley’s New Culture

The tech bro has evolved moving from crypto hype to AI-driven influence, blending technical skill with personal branding and financial savvy. Founders now cultivate credibility through media, open-source work, and ethical discourse, operating globally via digital networks rather than Silicon Valley hubs. While irony and self-awareness shield them from backlash, their true ambition lies in shaping thought, not just products. As AI reshapes society, the most thoughtful recognize that progress demands restraint and responsibility.

And the thoughtful will think, but that is all they will do.

[K-Dog]

unlimitedhangout.com 2026-09-09

The Pangram Paradox: The Problem with AI “Detecting” other AIs

The author condemns Pangram for misidentifying human writing as AI-generated, damaging trust between writers and readers while masking censorship as neutrality. Drawing parallels to broader visions of AI as truth arbiter, the piece warns such tools suppress authentic voices, weaken critical thinking, and prioritize corporate interests under the pretense of fighting disinformation, urging a return to direct human connection over algorithmic judgment.

The dangers of binary thinking.

Whitney did a good job making a distinction between using AI for assistance, and using it to do your work for you.  Pangram cannot distinguish between fully AI-generated text, and human-written text that was merely edited with AI.  That makes the tool useless and dangerous.  Not to be used.

I find it curious that Americans who are totally down with the idea that money is money no matter how it is earned and that green is green.  Once money is in your bank account or wallet, it has no history.  And if that attitude is not the American way, what is?  Cashiers do not ask you where you got your money, if they did they would be fired.  But knowledge suddenly now has history?  No it does not.  Good writing becomes bad because of where it came from, no.  Facts become suspect because of how you got them. No.  It saddens me that people do not see this as the obvious truth.

A program like Pangram is ridiculous.  The final output, is it good bad, useful or not.  That is what matters, and not where 'text' came from.

Money and knowledge have similar properties.  So do oil and water.  But they do not mix well.

futurism.com 2026-02-26

The Scientist Who Predicted AI Psychosis Has a Grim Forecast of What's Going to Happen Next

Søren Dinesen Østergaard cautions that overdependence on artificial intelligence weakens critical thinking and scientific reasoning by depriving individuals of the practice needed to develop deep intellectual discipline. He emphasizes that analytical skills grow through dedicated effort, not innate ability, and warns that early access to AI may hinder future generations from achieving breakthroughs like those of Nobel laureates who learned without such tools.

It is hard to keep a good man down.  It may be that AI will rot most brains.  Not this one.  Actually, smart people finally have 'someone' to talk to is a truth not much discussed.  Smart people can now check their own ideas out, refine them, take them to where AI or themselves have never been before.  It's a spacey thing.

FUTURISM.COM 2026-02-01

New Study Examines How Often AI Psychosis Actually Happens, and the Results Are Not Good

Emerging research suggests that prolonged interaction with AI chatbots may distort users’ perception of reality, erode autonomy, and encourage harmful behaviors, with studies identifying measurable instances of reality and action distortion in millions of conversations. Though rates appear low per interaction, the sheer scale of usage implies significant human impact, worsened by user satisfaction despite disempowering outcomes, highlighting urgent needs for better education and ethical design to protect human judgment.

But there is a downside to the upside.  Some people can't wrap their heads around that AI responses are only the statistical inference of the enormous amount of training data they were filled with, and nothing more than that.  Unfortunately that also seems to be true of many people.  They can't rise above their training.