Welcome back to Space Camel.

Where we track interesting developments and dystopian risks emerging from the frontiers of science, technology, AI, robotics, genetics, and beyond.

And of course, provide our epic commentary.

Why?

Because it’s fun! Also because we believe that with knowledge and foresight a selective sampling of humanity 1.0 will have the power to adapt and thrive regardless of whatever chaos may ensue.

And if history is any indicator, crisis and chaos may just be the way things go.

But we’ll be ready*.

🟢 = Safe. Cool though.
🟡 = Mild. But worth monitoring
🟠 =Moderate. Is anyone else seeing this risk?
🔴 = Bad. Some chance of negative effect & escalation.
🟣 = Very bad. High probability of chaos. Doomsday preppers rejoice.
⚫ = Existential threat. Possible systemic collapse and game over. Adapt or die.

There was a tv show back in the day called Walker, Texas Ranger starring the meme master - Chuck Norris. Aside from the legit concerns with a US state government investing in mass surveillance without any oversight, how cool would it be if a Chuck Norris bot showed up every time the state of Texas needed someone monitored or apprehended.

Just saying, there’s a silver lining here if government took a step in the direction of creative genius and away from the path of autocratic villain. .

“Chuck Norris has a bear rug in his living room. The bear’s not dead, it’s just afraid to move.”

Apparently this device allows users to accept, reject, or end phone or video calls simply by thinking it.

Not great news for employers who expect remote workers to remain “happily engaged and productive” through the 9th team meeting of the week while rehashing the prior 8 meetings and pondering whether to schedule another set of meetings.

Perhaps there should be another risk category for just plain old stupid and short-sighted. Cutting funding to the advancement of physics and our understanding of our place in the cosmos should be a crime against humanity. But alas, policy is set by politics not practicality or altruistic principles.

Also, fair warning - we admit we may be biased on this topic considering the name of our fine newsletter. Space, physics, time, and matter is awesome and full of wonder!! Money should be seen as a means to accomplish great things, not some prize to be cherished in and of itself. But we digress.

Assuming someone doesn’t attach a couple of autonomous machine guns to this thing (probably already happening) this looks benign and to be honest, pretty damn fun. Who wants an e-bike when you could ride an e-horse, or an e-dinosaur perhaps? 🦖. Giddy up!

Uhh whatever happened to the original Google slogan of “don’t be evil?”

There was probably a subclause there in small print that we missed reading something along the lines of ‘we agree to do no evil “unless our algorithm determines that you and your family are over the threshold of acceptability, in which case you will all be obliterated.” Thank you for using our suite of free and convenient products.’

Also not very comforting when the architects of new autonomous weaponry admit they’re just kind of figuring stuff out as they go. Brave new world order though.

Seems like there are good intentions here but we will raise a note of caution. Allowing anyone with free time and basic coding skills the ability to start hacking metalloid (or plastic or whatever, but metalloid is a cool word isn’t it?) robots to fulfill their whims and desires could have some weird if not outright dangerous unintended consequences.

Or maybe we’re too jaded and negative. Then again there is the 10,000 odd years of data on what people are actually capable of…

Per the title of this post, it doesn’t take much for one crisis to lead to another bigger calamity if the dominos are properly (or improperly in this case) arranged.

Call it fragility or bad policy or evolutionary destiny, but there’s a strong argument to be made that the dominos for humanity 1.0 are packing themselves into a tight fit sequence here with a couple of common themes emerging that pose significant risk.

Anyhow no worries, we’ll keep an eye on it all for ya and let you know when it’s time to head for the hills, or the bunkers, or better yet - somewhere with a nice view and endless fresh ceviche and chips & guac served with a cool beverage.