[ExI] My review of Eliezer Yudkowsky's new book (UBI)

[spike at rainier66.com]

From: John Clark <johnkclark at gmail.com> 
Sent: Monday, 6 October, 2025 11:59 AM
To: spike at rainier66.com
Cc: ExI chat list <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org>
Subject: Re: [ExI] My review of Eliezer Yudkowsky's new book (UBI)

 

On Mon, Oct 6, 2025 at 2:15 PM <spike at rainier66.com <mailto:spike at rainier66.com> > wrote:

 

>>…How do you feel about the fact that one of LIGO's two gravitational wave observatories… is going to have to be shut down permanently? Will this really make America great again?

 
> No.  I am a huge fan of LIGO and will be sorry to see it go.  

 

>…It makes me mad. Why doesn't it make you mad? 

 

It does make me mad.  I also recognize that federal budgets are reality, and the debt limit does mean something.  Half of congress agrees, for they are shutting down the government rather than passing a bill which extends that limit.

 

LIGO changed the way I thought of the universe.  I have never been so astonished in my adult life as Feb 2016 when I was in the huge packed auditorium at SLAC when that first verified result was announced.  I had invited a science-geek friend who flew out from Colorado, for he too heard there was a biggie announcement coming.  

 

I couldn’t force myself to believe beforehand that LIGO had detected a merger, for my understanding back then was that this kind of thing was once or twice a century event and that it was quite unlikely I would live to see one.  That they would turn it on and three weeks later have an event they could verify enough to hang their reputation on it, I just couldn’t bring myself to even hope for it.  Well, I was there.  I heard and I saw.  600 seat auditorium full of science geeks, plus a hundred more geeks violating fire code standing in the aisles and exits, we all saw and heard.  

 

When the announcement was presented, I saw something I have never seen in a lifetime of going to these kinds of events: a stunned silence, then a roar of applause.  The crowd went nuts, like we just saw the home team score the winning touchdown.  I saw tears of joy, I saw dignified science geeks hugging each other and acting like actual human beings.  I was there, I saw and I heard.  Oh that was soooo damn cool.

 

I have been following it ever since.

 

My prediction is that they will flap around for a while, then opposition unity will crumble.  They only need a few more senate votes and they will get funding for the month of October.  Then the whole thing starts again of course, and we can look forward to more of the same until they call you John, and you explain to the senators that US debt limits don’t matter, they are a mere formality, just borrow what you need, etc.

 

>>…

 

 >If we can’t balance the federal budget somehow, the other LIGO observatory will soon shut down as well.

 

>…Soon? Spike for well over a decade you've been saying we're on the verge of an economic apocalypse, and yet here we are…

 

Ja.  The difference between a decade ago and now is the amount of money the Fed is paying in interest.  

 

>…I don't know about you but I'm not living in a Mad Max world…

 

Ja, neither am I.  Last I posted to Max, he seemed in perfect mental health, but I can go with the theme.  Linear extrapolation from here is pretty easy.  The fed must borrow the funds to pay back what it borrowed and spent in the last year it claimed to have balanced the budget, not thru spending cuts but rather in an accounting change which allowed it to count surplus revenue coming into Social Security as revenue.  Then it could appear to have balanced its budget by treating the functional equivalent of borrowing as revenue.  It’s MAGIC!

 

Or it is an accounting technique to obscure having borrowed the Social Security fund and spent it back in the 1990s.  Or magic, take your pick.  But either way, that magic is being paid back now, and it keeps us bouncing off the debt ceiling.

 

 

>…But the refurbishing of the 747 that Qutar gave to He Who Must Not Be Named library is dependent on government funding…

 

Well there ya go, that can be stopped with the rest of the stuff.  Understatement: it IS stopped, until we don’t know when.  So no Qatari 747.

 

>…But nowhere in the budget could they find $19 million to keep LIGO operational.   John K Clark

 

Do let us hope cooler heads prevail.  

 

I understand now why the current POTUS (forget the name) is pressuring congress to pass the budget: he wants the plane.  I had failed to realize his motive there, all the sombrero videos and trolling and such.  It’s all about the plane.  His own team in congress is on board with getting the Qatari 747 flying for their guy.  

 

Those mean old stingy opposition guys are so determined to keep the plane away from POTUS, they are willing to shut down the government.  Those bad old stingy senators.  Give him his damn plane, move on!

 

spike

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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