Hackable Humans
The future could see the world's human data, delivered through the rising power and reach of artificial intelligence, in the hands of a powerful few - a recipe for a dystopian tomorrow populated by "hacked humans," says Yuval Noah Harari. "To hack a human being is to get to know that person better than they know themselves. And based on that, to increasingly manipulate you."
Climate change and transgender issues, or transphobia, gripped the Australian election campaign, as if any of it had anything to do with how most people lived.
Most or at least many of those suddenly expressing their concern for transgender people had never met one, never slept with one, and were propelled by the same hysteria over bias that had transfigured the gay marriage debate and the triumphalism of the left, allowing no room for differences of opinion, or for religious or fundamentalist views.
The disrespect only ran one way; and ended up in a corridor or mirror maze of conflicting opinions of which only one could be anointed as correct.
All else was anathema.
Like finding a men's rights activist or climate change sceptic on the Australian Broadcasting Commission, there could be only one correct view in this totalitarianism of the mind.
We were lucky to be alive. We were lucky to be blessed. Tolerate free speech, as Marcus Aurelius once decreed. An aristocratic view, of course; as in, be content with your lodgings and your servants; while many, in the brutal range of human experience, had neither lodging nor servants.
Never mind. Each day is glorious. This is our time. We will shake the temple walls. Dead wrong there. In a world of shadow banning everything fell soft on a desert floor. Never mind. The river of time, of ascendency and decay, runs over all of us. "The nature of the universe is social."
As Gates and his crew of the brightest and the worst talked of superfluous, or useless, humans, of decreasing the world's population.
Useless to whom?
These claims were like saying that trees were useless, we might as well cut most of them down.
Or virus. Or bacteria. Or a myriad other lifeforms.
Yes, evolution was on the turn. Yes the saints and seers, the prophets of old and the prophets of now, all had pointed to this time as one of eruption and transformation.
But useless?
No, not that.
You forget the humus on the forest floor. You forget the styles of intelligence that arise from this.
Your arrogance precludes even the knowledge of suffering, or the value of life within itself.
In those remote valleys. In these remote times before the Fall.
"After the Tribulation, trust no man."
Each temple held its barking dog.
Each temple had its own guardian spirits.
And each infinitely delicate thread of time and incidence and coincidence was held in place by something beyond human ken.
And so these things too would pass.
And so it was, and so it would become.
THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA
NEWS
NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet’s private texts to Prime Minister Scott Morrison on the issue of transgender women and sport have been leaked to a newspaper as the civil war in the Liberal Party over the issue continues.
The Australian newspaper reported on Tuesday night that NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet had backed the Prime Minister’s position on women and sport - a position that put him at odds with the NSW Treasurer Matt Kean who has called for Liberal candidate Katherine Deves to be disendorsed over her controversial remarks about the issue.
“Perrottet has texted Scott his views on this issue and it’s strongly in support of the PM’s position,” an insider told The Australian.
News.com.au has confirmed that Mr Perrottet told colleagues that he did not leak the texts - suggesting the private correspondence could only have been briefed by the Prime Minister or his office.
SMH
COVID-19 IN NSW
Cases in NSW
People in hospital
1,623
14-day trend
1,4001,700
New cases
10,856
14-day trend
9,00025,000
Reported Apr 19 (Updated 10.28am, Apr 19)
NSW vaccine rollout
Aged 12 and over
62.2% booster dose
93.8% second dose
Aged 5-11
32.7% second dose
49.9% first dose
THE NEW DAILY
Labor’s primary vote slipped four places to be a point behind the Coalition – statistically line ball although the movement could be the start of a worrying trend – however only one of those points went to the government. The other three went to the minor parties.
But the big feature of the poll was the huge cohort of undecideds. In the preferred PM stakes, as many couldn’t make up their mind as nominated Morrison, 38 per cent.
And according to polling cruncher Kevin Bonham, applying standard two-party preferred analysis to the raw numbers Labor comes out in front with 52.5 per cent.
Many in Labor are relieved Albanese’s brain fade didn’t take a bigger toll and see the huge number of undecideds as real opportunity to repair the damage.
But there is an acceptance in the campaign the time has come for Albanese to play his strongest card and that is Scott Morrison.
Rejected is the taunt from their Liberal opponents that Albanese has to be more than “not Scott Morrison”, that he has to give voters a compelling reason to change the government.
THE GUARDIAN
Labor has promised an overhaul of the national disability insurance scheme’s appeals process as Bill Shorten launched a stinging attack on the leadership of the agency’s current boss, Martin Hoffman.
Unveiling the opposition’s vision for the $30bn scheme on Tuesday, Shorten said if elected the party would hire another 380 agency staff and crack down on rorting providers and the NDIA’s use of consultants and private law firms.
Shorten, Labor’s NDIS spokesman, said it was too early to say how much could be saved by cutting spending on consultants and the use of private law firms, on whom the agency has forked out $32m in the past eight months, up from $22m in 2020-21.
Shorten was also highly critical of Hoffman, though he insisted “no final decisions” had been made about whether he would stay if Labor was elected.
“You have to question the whole leadership of the NDIS in the last few years,” Shorten said. “That includes former chair Helen Nugent and Martin Hoffman. They presided over the independent assessments roll out which would have been a disaster and breached any remaining trust that people with disability had with the government.