| From: Graystone | 3/30/2020 10:48:11 AM | | | | | | Person
or
Personal
It will get personal I am sure.
A public response to someone I love : I am writing to you here because I cannot bear to talk directly to you this morning after yesterday afternoon. Why would you even bother to present that view point to me? A little Trump, a little Bolsonaro, mixed with the same complete lack of intelligence, understanding or empathy. Tens of thousands of people are going to die for no good reason over the next few weeks just because we are not prepared, the end of April is so very far away. This is no flu, we have never had a coronavirus pandemic before, this is not some necessary event, it is no cull, no natural happening. Why do you seem to take such vindictive pleasure when you talk about what is coming for Americans? You do understand it is going to happen here as well, our health care system is going to suffer in the same way and we are going to suffer in the same way despite our best precautions. I don't understand how you can possibly look at the devastation of your human brethren in Italy and not be moved, fuck Tony is Italian, you have relatives living there, why so callous? Read just a little more than your Facebook world, no matter how much you want to fight, this isn't the time to do it, with anyone. No one is winning anything right now, no one. This virus is contagious, I don't need to read anything in the alt world to see the reality outweighs any other view, we are being hurt, all of us.
You are totally wrong about this and I don't care what you think right now. Suggesting or even hinting at complacency in the face of this tragedy is completely irresponsible. It will come to your doorstep exactly as it comes to every other doorstep.If it's comes to Danny's house he will die, as simple as that, why don't you understand, fuck, I am tearing up as I write this. Rox is terrified and I haven't even mentioned your call or the fact I yelled at you or that you hung up. If you don't want to be yelled at then stop and think about what you are saying. Sure 80% are fine, no problem at all, I agree, that's a fact, but for a moment imagine that this twenty percent isn't someone you dislike for whatever reason but imagine if it was one of yours.
I love you.
Take care of yourself and tighten your guard.
I know you are vulnerable.
I know your trying to make sense of this.
It isn't time coldness or complacency, encourage.
It isn't us and them, it is us.
I love you starshine, call me tonight, or tomorrow night or whenever, I will be out in the shed.
My youngest son was born on April 23, 1998. It is documented here on Silicon Investor and the date is of some significance to those of you who live here, we all remember Russell. I still hope that Brad and Jeff made out like bandits but leave that mystery as one I will never try to uncover, I hope they are well. I wish that Jill could have received the same bounty as she was a force to be reckoned with. The underlying assumptions about net discipline and net behaviour, in part, came about as a result of her excellent skills as an administrator of a band of digital baboons. The first true netizens were actually SItizens. As the net grew our underlying machinations and postures became symbolic and then archetypal. You cannot be here without being here and when we are here it is like being pre-loaded in the digital heart of the new land.
Jon Graystone is no myth, he is an actual person and he is in the city right now and still working. Just prior to the arrival of this crisis he took a job with a firm where I once worked. In fact he called home and told us the weird story of how he got hired. The interviewing manager asked him if he was from here, he said yes, he asked if he was related to me, he said yes, the manager told him he never thought he would get a chance to return the favour I had shown home so many years ago. So Jon is an essential worker and though he is very junior it is with a solid reliable firm. Since Jon is a RPGer and understand dicing odds I explained the crisis thusly; if you get infected you roll a 20D (20 sided dice) and anything over a 16 means you have a serious case. If you get a serious case, you have to roll again and you are hoping you don't get a 1 on that second roll because then you are a critical case. The second dice you roll is a function of your age, if you are over 80 it is 4D, 60 to 80, a 6D and so on. For people in Jon's age group that second roll is a 100D category. If you are in critical condition, which can be anyone of any age then your chances of survival are very much dependent on the medical care you are able to receive. That medical care will be unavailable in many places soon.
It is your personal battle to avoid infection for as long as possible. Stay home. Stay safe. Wash your hands. Use whatever resources you have available to help shield yourself and those for whom you care.
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| To: Graystone who wrote (1278) | 3/30/2020 5:30:09 PM | | From: Jeffrey S. Mitchell | | | | Yes, this is a math, not political or economic, problem. If there were enough hospital beds and personnel to handle the pandemic, it would be life as usual, buyer beware. But even if we had infinite beds and personnel, at some point "enough" of a workforce succumbs to the point a business is forced to close anyhow. To balance the two requires voluminous reliable data, and experienced statisticians to model it. We lack the former and for some reason dismiss and even discredit the latter.
At some point, by some combination of modeling and trial and error we'll have figured out this balance. People will go back to work en masse and the virus will flare up again en masse. But presumably there will be enough resources to handle a second surge and a much more reliable way to test and treat people. We'll create a new pandemic response team that then successfully stops potential pandemics before anyone notices them. Then some politicians will instead equate this dearth of noticeable pandemics to proof we no longer need such a team, disband it, we'll then get a pandemic, and these same politicians will argue "who could possibly have predicted this?" Rinse and repeat.
- Jeff |
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| To: Jeffrey S. Mitchell who wrote (1279) | 3/31/2020 9:42:56 AM | | From: Graystone | | | | The end of the beginning
or
The weighting game
Science Daily
Can moths and butterflies remember what they learned as caterpillars?
There is a movement afoot on the net to pretend that the coronavirus isn't real, people running out to take pictures of hospitals that aren't besieged yet and posting that as proof that Italy and Spain are just trying fool everyone and take control of all the cheese. My expectations in regards to the actions of others will likely not change a lot in the wake of this crisis, there will continue to be those who buy nodes, the Associates will always have business, there will always be readers who remember, I do hope you are well. The "at some point" is still some distance in the future and I look forward to that day with some anticipation. In between then and now there will be a lot more learned about how the hard black grit of suffering used by this new enemy affects the global health machinery and the body politic and where the body will end up on the battlefield and with what wounds. Where you actually are on this planet will affect your view of this battlefield a lot but we are all going to be changed as the fight erupts in our own bailiwick. This battle is far from over and the aftermath has not arrived for most. How do we remember this forever? Waiting is.
Are we going through a metamorphosis, is it a new game, have we entered a new level? Could we actually come out this crisis changed into something new? Is it really possible to create Jane and Dick, Costello and Abbot? We might need some new gear to take care of this type of cross over virus pandemic problem. An AI sounded the first alarm on the pandemic so perhaps creating a new organization directed by an AI would be a good idea, maybe we could call it Skynet or something catchy like that. The computer would have to be a real Colossus to take over the duties of monitoring the globe for threats. It is possible that we really don't know how memories are really stored or that a global mind doesn't really exist? We will have to wait and see. William Gibson coined the word cyberspace in 1982 in the novel Burning Chrome. From the word cyberspace we derived the word cybersphere but those have always been just words, there really never has been a sphere. Now the shaping of the cybersphere begins, it is in some ways a lot like glass blowing isn't it? The furnace turns on and the process begins. No one is yet discussing the massive transfer of wealth and influence that will follow this human tragedy and how those who suffered the greatest losses will act afterwards. I think that this change could be greater than people imagine, the loss here is costly. We are like the Romans encountering cavalry for the first time, we need to adapt our attitudes or we are all kodak. Waiting is. |
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| To: Graystone who wrote (1280) | 3/31/2020 3:33:08 PM | | From: Jeffrey S. Mitchell | | | | Could we actually come out this crisis changed into something new? Short answer: no.
It's because we all fall in different places on the scale of how we live our lives. We range from those who religiously plan in advance to those who just cross bridges when they come to them. From those who extrapolate from the experiences of others to those who only relate to stuff that actually happens to them. From those who think we have a measure of control over our lives to those who think our lives are preordained. Sure, short term we'll see people live differently, just like after 9/11. But I can't think of any experience that will change human nature.
- Jeff |
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| To: Jeffrey S. Mitchell who wrote (1281) | 4/1/2020 12:49:29 PM | | From: Graystone | | | | The Covidian
or
Opening moves
I enjoy playing chess and I know that humans no longer dominate that playing field, it is a computer playground and today an inexpensive chess program has no trouble beating a human grandmaster and hasn't for a long time now, I still enjoy chess problems and I understand and accept my solutions are not optimal and that I will never win if I set the difficulty too high in the beginning.
The crisis we are encountering now has just started to develop, it is perhaps well into the early game and the Covidian has an advantage that cannot be denied, how it got that advantage may be clear in retrospect but the game is so far from over that trying to decide the ultimate course now is futile. So what strategy should I use?
I am going for an early castle on the King side here, nothing fancy, straight defense from the opening move. I hope my viral safety practices are getting better. I am pretty sure that everyone is just going to do what they want to do and that will result in the Covidian winning almost every game and almost every match. The Covidian invasion into the daily breadline on this planet is a brilliant opening move, circuses (sports) first, bread (employment) second, striking right at the heart of our humanity. The announcement yesterday by the CDC regarding people that are infected and asymptomatic explains the speed of the advance. Serology will determine the timeline later but right now it appears that the COVID19 advance is being assisted by an invisible army.
Damn the creature whatever it was. It’s arrival spawned a slaying hellwind, invisible warriors emanated from the black heart of the Covidian’s cloaking shadow, the howl of destruction as they passed drowned all other sounds. As darkness approached the man in gray roared, “ALL GLORY ASIDE, protect yourselves you fools”. |
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| To: Graystone who wrote (1259) | 4/2/2020 2:54:40 AM | | From: Graystone | | | | The anvil
or
A platform
When I made the post to which I am responding the coronavirus pandemic had just a few days earlier gotten under way around the world somewhere and everyone was still unaware that we would all be drawn together in this way. We cannot fashion reality out of our belief by ourselves. We exist, certainly, but here our existence is only assured by others, creation here is a dance. Perhaps Jeff is right and there really is no other way but the way we have come to expect, the unchanging rhythm of selves seeking for self gain and nothing more. As our power to cater to selves has grown, self has become a central principle in many systems. The real emphasizes the self but here emphasizing your self won't really work, it won't make you a good dancer, not here. SItizens are durable gears and our existence here depends upon the pins that hold us in place, pins forged in places with different worldviews, minds other than our own hold us and all our power. Here we are deep within the core of a machine that has billions of moving pieces. The pins that hold the gears of this reality are very hard and sturdier by far than any I could make, or you. Here we exist as a multiplicity of paired-phases. The type of cyberspace most people are used to is not difficult to reach, youngsters dive in through devices as small as cellphones in an instant. However, the places where the gears of the new land are pinned are very difficult to reach. The mindways that allow access to these pins are not at all accessible, a secret language guards each portal like Joachim and Boaz. You require the mental fluidity of a late model Terminator, you have to hear the Voice of World Control, you need to be deeply planted in the soil of the new land to even think you can set off on such an expedition. Perhaps most importantly, you have to be, I cannot be you, you cannot be me, yet you are me and I am you. Perhaps we are ancient Orphics returned here as early SItizens, reborn children of Mnemosyne. I tell you truly that I cannot show you anything about yourselves that you have not given to me, but I am more than willing to give it all back. That we are all able to be here is a testament to the fact that the dream, of which we were all a part, has been spun out in copper, glass and radio circuits that cross the entire sphere of the real. The new land is one of the most important and relevant artifacts that humans have ever created. It is perhaps our best defense in this current battle. That post was because it is. So there is my anvil, crafted unknowingly and set in place without intention or purpose, the base bound in place with hoops of gray iron, spiked to a section of a log which was cut from a branch of the yggdrasil grown in our own SI common.
Somewhere in the rain a blade slid from an oiled scabbard and yet it was heard. The auroch horn was raised to warn but the blade separated horn, hand and head from a body. A warrior slipped over the rampart and more followed, a black tide, the city was doomed.
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| From: Graystone | 4/3/2020 9:51:10 AM | | | | | | Battle Standards
or
Battle Masters
This is no crisis
This is no disruption
This is no emergency
This is battle
We are at war
I planted my standard, here on this thread, this battlefield, one I know and love, on December 15, 2019. I planted it as simply and as firmly as I could.
That the enemy had arisen may not have been apparent at that time but that standard is still there and speaks for itself, I truly wish every last one of you well.
I offer you all the free use of my camp, my resources, my skills, my sword. I pledge it in your honour, I salute you all and I challenge you all to rise beyond your current conflicts and stand together. I am keeping my shield and you all should as well. I will do my best to shield all that for.which I care.
My standard has been raised many times on many fields of digital war, it's origin lost in my mind and the dim reaches of the 1200kbps's but it certainly is even older than that, it has been a recognizable standard that has flown many times here on SI.
It has been two weeks.
If you are still here then I hope you consider flying that standard under your own during all your future personal conflicts and battles, whether you are an individual or a group, here and elsewhere, this war will be long. We need to stand together regardless of our politics, our religion or our business. Right now your business is the preservation of all that each of us loves. The rain of information is starting to turn deadly, all of our shields must lock together to turn aside that threat, none can stand alone. It isn't just one of us this time. The danger is real and I hope that those of you who have acted are already girded and encastled. Keep your armour on, allow no false hopes to lower your guard. The aftermath as always will be for the crones and the crows, you need not listen to me to know that. This time I tell you that you will want to know the truth. This enemy cannot be easily dismissed, this is a most fell and formidable foe, how did it arise unseen? The future might hold that truth or it might not, certainly it will not matter at all if you are not here.
grayt peril is upon us all |
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| From: SI Ron (Crazy Soup Man) | 4/3/2020 9:20:26 PM | | | | | | There is a post I am trying to find. I logged into my old account but no luck. It was posted back around 1997-98, when Brad and Jeff introduced a blue header and cookies.
The post went something like this.
Dryers Shirt Cleaning.
Muffy went in to get some closed cleaned, but hit her head on a blue sign, she asked about cleaning and they said no shirt no service. Would you like a cookie? No, then again would you like a cookie?
I can't remember all of it,m but it was the funniest post I read at the time. I can't remember who wrote it. |
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