I write a blog that focuses on public information, public health, and policy: https://pimento-mori.ghost.io/
I have to say I’m a bit worried he’s banking on receiving unlimited access to an insane level of surveillance data to use in the the $50B digital prison he’s building in Louisiana
Jeff Landry’s Intelligence Chief is Spying on New Orleans with Project NOLA
Louisiana’s use of NDAs in AI data center push raises questions over transparency
I mean, like everything, the ultimate goal is privatize, control/eliminate competition and profit via exploitation.
Nobody chooses academia over industry for the money. They do it so they’re not forced to compromise their values under the thumb of some micromanaging nepo baby demanding results they want to believe no matter what the data actually says. Investors not inventors.
If you get rid of publicly funded research, you leave a lot of talented scientists with no choice. It’s either industry, leave the country, or leave science entirely and start a new career.
And keep in mind, this is in addition to what OMB already proposed to do to all federal funding. Maybe they plan to hand Republicans a get out of jail free card by actually stopping the Vought/OMB proposed changes to federal grants just before the deadline in October, then achieve the original goal anyway after the midterms.
The memo directs agencies to rebalance their portfolios toward foundational research, and prioritize physical science over life science.
I mean yeah, why not. Listening to Peter Thiel’s hand puppet has certainly made America great so far.
Who needs funding for life science research when we got parasites and diarrhea outbreaks? Every American a walking incubator at this point.
What about community data ecosystems, and community AI partnerships?
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S002965542500199X
100% agree with you
https://debeaumont.org/programs/made-for-health-justice/
https://www.statnews.com/2025/08/27/medical-ai-needs-patient-community-engagement/
https://sojo.net/articles/opinion/pope-leo-thinks-nehemiah-can-lead-us-through-ai-age
The titans building towers will keep building. That is what Babel does. But for those of us who believe that the rejected stone is the cornerstone—that the child going hungry in Mississippi matters infinitely, that each of us has been given a calling and a section of wall—there is another project. Older, humbler, and far more durable.
Pick up your tools. Your section of wall is waiting.
Exactly, so why not demand ownership of our data?
When you look at data sovereignty in indigenous communities people are already establishing ways to do this.
What’s even more concerning than social networks, jobs, daily commutes, shopping habits, sexual preferences, political views etc. is health data. Not only is that extremely private, corporations recognize the monetary value is incredibly high.
Artificial intelligence models are ever-hungry black boxes that need boatloads of bits and bytes from a wide stream of real-world data in order to produce insights about patients and their care. To satisfy this need, a trove of companies have popped up to buy patient data from hospitals and sell it to those wanting to train AI or do research.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2667321525001775
In today’s digital era, data has evolved into an invaluable asset often described as the new oil making its governance especially consequential for Indigenous communities. Indigenous Data Sovereignty (IDSov) affirms the rights of Indigenous peoples to govern, control, access, and benefit from data that derive from their peoples, lands, and knowledge systems (Carroll et al., 2020). This principle has direct implications for population health because data governance influences how priorities are defined, how prevention and care strategies are implemented, and how health outcomes are assessed across communities (Rhodes et al., 2023). A long history of exclusion from decisions about data collection and use has produced exploitation, misrepresentation, and persistent mistrust in data-driven health initiatives (Fox, 2020; Mello and Wolf, 2010).
There are some models of data sovereignty where people are being given direct control of their health data, and it cannot be legally used for anything without their permission. Even if it’s granted permission to be used once for a certain piece of research, it’s then locked away again afterwards.
There’s also examples where people are paid directly/individually for allowing access to their data.
Imagine the value to be leveraged by people if all data (civic, digital, health) was locked away from corporations. And not sold, temporarily leased to whoever individuals or communities choose to lease if to.
Seriously, the author is a digital humanities prof at Dartmouth. If there is any hope, it’s going to come from people like her:
https://faculty-directory.dartmouth.edu/roopika-risam
Risam received the Massachusetts Library Association Civil Liberties Champion Award (2018) for her work promoting equity and justice in the digital cultural record and the 2023 International Association for Research in Service Learning and Community Engagement Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Award for her work on anti-racist community engagement.
Honestly have to wonder sometimes is it all well meaning but misinformed knee jerk reactions? Or is some of it targeted propaganda/misinformation aimed at undermining people who are the most dangerous to the future plans of oligarchs
what do you mean false? the idea of people taking control of data?
This isn’t saying sit back and let it happen, it’s saying it doesn’t have to be an either or Luddite rejection of technology or dystopian skynet, but it requires people demand control instead of allowing giant tech companies to just take it while making us believe we’re powerless and have no say in our own data
I’m head over heels in love with the idea of communities taking back control of their data and using it to leverage power.
But I also think we should be thinking in terms of how do we achieve this before 2126 bc we need to establish and gain control before it can be used to train anymore shitty oligarchy controlled AI that keeps failing to perform in the real world.
Even if this is just step one of a marathon, it seems like something most cities should be aiming to catch up with sooner rather than later:
https://debeaumont.org/programs/made-for-health-justice/
About MADE for Health Justice Modernized Anti-racist Data Ecosystems (MADE) for Health Justice partners with communities who are creating, using, and governing civic data on their own terms to advance health equity and more just decision making.
I must confess to this not being in my wheelhouse at all. I just started reading about the. esterday and I’m very interested in them as a people empowerment middle finger to the oligarchy
No idea how realistic this is but I find the idea of people eventually using these to achieve complete data sovereignty very interesting.
I do appreciate hearing from people who actually understand what it’s saying though
In addition to propaganda campaigns? It’s the same reason people try to shift the blame for most societal issues (financial, health, relationships) to a failure of personal responsibility.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/pulling-through/202505/why-we-blame-the-sick
It’s a comforting lie people tell themselves because it gives them a false sense of control. Honestly, kind of the same reason people start doing drugs.
Drugs or other habits can help people cope when they can’t keep believing a comforting lie, but also feel driven to their breaking point by too much reality/need to find a way to escape from the pressure.
The hallucinating, gaslighting, sycophantic chatbots that were hyped via propaganda campaigns that promoted them as the future and key to efficiency, are now destroying humanity and locking people in addictive cycles of delusion.
“Ya better hop on board! Don’t wanna get left behind…”
The hallucinating sycophantic chatbots are not only destroying the capacity for human relationships and interactions, they’re not even “efficient” and have destroyed most of the companies that have embraced them.
The economy is absolute shit. “AI” companies aren’t even making any money but the chatbot addicts are still throwing endless piles of cash at them to burn while chasing the high that will never deliver (the cycle of desperate delusions common to any addiction), because the chatbots have them convinced (deluded) they’re always on the edge of the big breakthrough that will finally make it all worthwhile.
And as the number of data centers increases, people are starting to take notice it sure does seem to be getting hot in this pot of boiling water… “Wonder what that’s all about? I’ll ask the company that owns the data center if it’s anything I should be concerned about?”
“… Nope, turns out there’s a reassuring explanation for why this is all fine and nothing is as it seems… It just feels like this pot of water is getting hotter to you, but facts don’t care about your feelings. You can’t argue with facts…”
“Just relax and come on in, the water’s fine!”
Honestly I think that’s the goal…
They only kept us around as long as they did bc they needed labor. Once they can actually replace everybody with bots why would they need to worry about an economy for anybody but themselves?
Hope everybody’s as jazzed as I am for Lazer tag to make a comeback 🔮
I bet that 16% have already let AI talk them into some really awful financial decisions
In many of the cases in the essay, chatbots responded to users with mystical language to suggest that users have heightened spiritual importance. The bots also implied that users were speaking with a cosmic being who was using the chatbot as a medium.
Idk, I feel like a true misanthrope would be able to read these 2 sentences and at the very least immediately swear off AI chat bots, if not move to a completely isolated cabin in the woods with no electricity or internet.
It’s like the broligarchy birthed a bastard child that’s just a composite of humanity’s worst qualities. All the traits they projected on to the masses as evidence to justify their antidemocratic savior complex bullshit. Impulsive/poor decision making, superstition, paranoia, narcissism.
They’re investors, not inventors, but they’re 100% convinced this bullshit is going to be man’s greatest and longest lasting contribution to existence, and that their names will go down in history as the technocratic leaders who changed the world… And their own delusions are probably being fueled by the same fucking chat bots, and sharing data between platforms in a never ending sycophantic circle jerk that’s spreading exponentially like the dumbest fucking virus to ever exist… I just… 🤦♀️
Tldr: These people don’t deserve the title of misanthrope.
Edit: I guess I should add the caveat that in the case destruction of humanity/civilization was always the actual goal of some 4-D misanthropic chess master behind the curtain, then bravo and hats off to them for being a real one, I guess?
I feel like there needs to be a more accurate name for whatever the phenomenon of AI fueled sycophantic delusion is. Because clearly it’s something, and more and more people seem to be noticing it.
It’s like the people who are closest to the person spiraling can see they’re watching a train headed towards a brick wall, and they can’t stop it. But the person experiencing the delusion is often still fairly high functioning, so other people who are a bit more removed from the situation tend to to be very dismissive of the comparison to psychosis.
At least until the poor decision making of the delusional person expands to their world, and everything starts going tits up for them too. Then suddenly they’re like “Gorsh, he just seemed so confident and he was wearing a suit, so I assumed he had his shit together. But now that he’s draining MY bank account, I think something might be wrong with his brain.”
Like what’s a better way to describe the high functioning level of AI fueled delusional? Where he hasn’t sold all of his assets and moved to the desert so he can fully devote himself to whatever breakthrough he believes he’s on the verge of discovering (yet), but somebody should really stop this guy before he does any more damage to himself or others?
Soft Psychosis?
Sure he would, he probably just means they will no longer need two full time incomes. Greatness awaits America in a future when only one adult from a household has to work full time.
Sure the other adult and some fraction of the (?/5+)* children that federal and state policies ensure they’re forced to give birth to, may need to take on some form of employment to keep food on the table or meet their state’s medicaid and/or food stamp work requirements.
But when that inevitably happens, they always have the freedom of picking up a few shifts at one of Daddy Bezo’s local warehouses,** guaranteed to be located in an American hellscape near you, and sandwiched conveniently between your local data center and concentration camp detention center.
If you’re from a really bougie area, you might just have a hospital across the street from your Amazon warehouse full of doctors trained at Wal-Mart’s new medicals schools (bc America thrives on competition 🙃), who will rely on AI for patient diagnosis instead of wasting time and money on all those unnecessary lab workups.
Yep. With the system working as intended and the Oligarchy steering us towards greatness, how could America be anything other?
(*Unknown/variable number will actually survive past early childhood in a country hell bent on bringing back so many preventable diseases. On the bright side, no more public education = no more schools = no more “germ factories.” Unless you’re counting the actual factories where American children will work instead of going to school.)
(**As long as it leaves them just below 40 hrs a week and unable to qualify for health insurance through their employer.)
The headline flows nicely with the whole “Is this reality, or just a very stressful fever dream?” vibe that is 2026.
yeah it’s intentional.
oligarchs are hoarding the resources and getting people to distract themselves by pointing at each other while they stockpile their bunkers.