You should read - June 17

Our Putsch

The Jan 6 2021 insurrection failed. But until the ring leaders, including Cheeto Benito, are held accountable, a replay in the future is all but guaranteed.

• Vox The January 6 hearings showed why it’s reasonable to call Trump a fascist
• Salon After Jan. 6, can we stop pretending Republicans are the "law and order" party?
• Sojourners Why Christians Need to Watch the Jan. 6 Hearings
• ABC News DOJ should investigate Trump for possible crimes in election plot, Rep. Schiff says
• American Prospect The Dance of the Committee and the AG
• It's Going Down Internal Sabotage: What The January 6th Committee Gets Wrong
• Salon "Jesus, guns, babies": Religious violence is now at the core of the Republican Party

American Brownshirts

When you see American fascist groups like the Patriot Front would-be-rioters arrested in Idaho, it's easy to laugh at their apparent ineptitude. Don't underestimate the threat. Their increasingly frequent appearance is already getting people killed. Here are some profiles of some of the most prominent groups.

• Proud Boys - Southern Poverty Law Center | Anti-defamation League | Right Wing Watch
• Oath Keepers - SPLC | ADL | RWW
• Three Percenters - SPLC | ADL | RWW
• Patriot Front - SPLC | ADL | RWW
• Boogaloo Boys - SPLC | ADL

Saving All Sentient Beings

The bodhisattva vow in Mahayana Buddhism begins with "Sentient beings are numberless; I vow to save them all." But, what is "a sentient being"? Many teachers extend sentience broadly. Humans. Other animals. Trees. Rocks, even.

• Ars Technica Google places engineer on leave after he claims group’s chatbot is “sentient”
• Wired ‘Is This AI Sapient?’ Is the Wrong Question to Ask About LaMDA
• MIC Why is this allegedly sentient chatbot making me so emotional?
• Cajun Discordian Is LaMDA Sentient? — an Interview (transcript of the conversation in question)
  Most interesting bit for me is the attempt to use a Zen koan to determine sentience. Which seems to misunderstand both koans and sentience.
• Reddit Commentary in r/futurology, some by actual AI practitioners who seem to be able to detect signs of AI speech patterns in LaMDA's conversation.
• Noēma The Mind Is More Than A Machine

Collected Ephemera

And, finally, a palette cleanser, of a sort.

• Letterboxd A ½ review of Top Gun : Maverick (2022)

Even if one can ignore the rabidly bloodthirsty nature of this movie, it is still absolute garbage. The morals of this story are, and I am not exaggerating in the slightest: soldiers should ignore orders to stand down, and you should take actions without thinking about them. Our heroes follow these lessons throughout the story and are constantly rewarded for it. It is a child's understanding of bravery and honor, coated in thick layers of some of the most painfully sentimental slime that Hollywood has ever produced.

• British Psychological Society Here’s how our visual system decides how cute a baby is
• The Atlantic Want to Understand Socrates and Sartre? Talk With Your Kid.
• Tor.com Severance and the Work of Philip K. Dick
  I don't watch Severance (or much of anything), but it sounds like a totally bananas concept.
• Daring Fireball There’s a Privacy Angle on Apple’s Decision to Finance Apple Pay Later on Its Own
  When this Apple program was announced at WWDC, I noted how I really didn't like that they were getting into this sketchy business. There may actually be a positive aspect to Apple's approach.
• Vanity Fair Unraveling the “Aspirational Aspect of the Save”: Pocket V.P. Matt Koidin on the Art of a Good Recommendation
  Pocket is the invaluable service I use to collect articles for these posts. And, to avoid the mental overhead of a million open tabs-worth of unread articles.