[ExI] As Fears of A.I. Catastrophe Magnify, Washington Stirs, but Mostly Slumbers

[Stuart LaForge]

On 2026-09-13 08:25, spike jones via extropy-chat wrote:
> From: extropy-chat <extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org> On Behalf
> Of John Clark via extropy-chat
> …
> 
>> …President Trump has been at the forefront of the
> “what-me-worry?” crowd, refusing to engage on how to balance the
> risks and rewards of A.I.
> 
> https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/13/us/politics/ai-catastrophe-fears-washington.html?unlocked_article_code=1.A1E.IcDp.A19Wf-9dpwqu&smid=em-share
> [1]
> 
> Here we see an exhibit of the NYT failing to understand the
> constitution.  It goes on and on about the White House this and the
> White House that, never realizing POTUS doesn’t have the authority
> to regulate something for which congress has passed no regulations.
> Congress is only mentioned most of the way down thru the article,
> almost dismissively.  POTUS cannot enforce law that doesn’t exist.
> POTUS is only a president, not a king.

Yes, but as time goes on, more and more pressure mounts for an "imperial 
presidency". The failure of the Roman republic was not due solely to 
Caesar's ambition. If it were, then the "Liberators", the conspiracy of 
some sixty some odd Roman senators led by Brutus to assassinate Julius 
Caesar would have been successful in their stated goal of restoring the 
republic. Instead, all that the assassination succeeded at was 
demonstrating that Rome could not function without a dictator or emperor 
to call the shots. Everybody wanted the privileges of being a senator, 
but nobody wanted to make the hard decisions that Rome needed to be 
made. And it did not take the Roman legislature long to forget how to 
function properly. Caesar had only been dictator for 5 years at the time 
of his death.

People in general crave power, but ironically those same people are 
reluctant to make big wide-ranging life or death decisions. They seek 
the privileges of power while trying to avoid its responsibilities. The 
entire opinion polling and survey industry is a testament to this very 
fact, and the problem is that popular courses of action are seldomly the 
right ones or the smart ones.

If Donald Trump has a gift, it is that he never hesitates to make big 
life and death decisions even if they turn out to be ridiculously and 
catastrophically wrong.

Stuart LaForge