Homelessness

 HOMELESSNESS

I'm sorry, but I object to these fruitless discussions about homelessness.  If some person or persons live in a camper beside the road or in a tent in a park, they are not homeless.  Their homes are in a camper beside the road or in a tent in the park.  Simply because they don't have two bedrooms and two bathrooms and a kitchen does not qualify them as homeless.

Once again, some city council person complained about some guy with a grocery basket full of his worldly goods hanging out in various places, normally close to a fast food dumpster.  After all, a guy has to eat and there usually is plenty of food found in various dumpsters.  You just have to know where to look.  This guy is perfectly content which, usually, is the real cause of the city council person's complaint.

These people are not homeless; they simply have habitation habits not consistent with yours.  If they wanted to work at some menial job for minimum wage so they can afford some dump called an apartment, they can do so.  Hardie's, Burger King, McDonald's, KFC are all hiring all the time.  Go ask and you will receive.  Pretty simple really.

What we really object to is that these people object.  They object to our expectations.  We have come to expect that since we spend our lives in activities that in no way benefit us except in cash so that we can eke out an existence from a job that may be gone next week, they should have to do the same.  After all, we just signed a humongous loan to buy a $350,000 house that will be gone in the first windstorm and will cost me any  money I might  accumulate in insurance costs to reimburse me from that first windstorm.

I saw a photo of the campers lining the ocean side streets of Malibu with a huge smile.  These people have it made - - beautiful climate, leisure, ocean on one side and a road to town on the other.  What more could one ask for?  What is even more delectable: the multi-million dollar mansions across the street, most of which are only inhabited by the people who take care of them, have owners worth millions if not billions who hate those people littering the neighborhoods in which they have invested, causing a depreciation in the value of their very expensive houses.

It's not that these people are missing out on anything important.  What do most of us do anyway at home besides finding something to eat, go to the bathroom, either watch TV or surf the net after dinner, and then take some medication to help us sleep another night.  Oh, I forgot, mow the yard and wash the car that you owe $40,000 on.  What's so great about that when I can do exactly the same thing (no mowing or washing) by the ocean without huge loans to pay on every month.  If you need a little extra cash for a vacation, just drop in to the local Pizza Hut for a few weeks and wait some tables.  It's all good.

Richard E H Phelps II

Mingo

What's Next?

 WHAT'S NEXT?

If one were to pay attention to current developments, one would realize that there are, at a minimum, two things that will change our lives immensely and these two things are   not material:  they exist only electronically.  These two things are AI and quantum computers.  But, they will affect every aspect of our lives.

Let's talk quantum computers first.  These will be with us shortly, within a decade.  From what one reads, these computers will be millions of times faster than traditional computers: the computers that we have had now for approximately 80 years.  If one were to stop and look, one can see for oneself that the computer as we know it has changed the world we live and work in.  It is not the same world as it was before the advent of computers.  Now we will have a method of computing that is unimaginable and our lives will change dramatically because of it.

The human species, us, have with difficulty, been able to adjust to all innovations.  Innovations have always, and presumably always will, benefit some and destroy others.  The industrial revolution is our model for the effects that technology has had. There is no  reason to believe that the future will be different.

The second development, which is occurring now, is AI.  AI will be all-encompassing.  Being a criminal defense attorney, I see it already in the mischievous use of AI to defame, terrify and simply annoy others.  What AI will do to a population that spends its time online can not be adequately digested.  

An acquaintance said to me:  "I went on ChatGPT to find some interesting things to do in Des Moines:  that I could do with my eight year old.  My friend didn't call up an acquaintance, someone in the neighborhood, a cousin or other human being to help find something to do for the evening.  He used AI; he used an electronic knowledge bank.  I was not privy to the results of this effort.

But to think of AI, is not to analyse the result of a query,  but to think of the effect it will have on us as people or as friends, acquaintances, fellow workers, etc.  I no longer need to call Fred to discuss some matter or for suggestions and ideas, I use AI.  Who needs Fred when I have ChatGPT?

So what do you say!  So you don't need Fred anymore, so what?  Is there any reason even to know Fred?  And how are decisions to be made and how will these decisions affect others?  Where is the best place to rob a store?  What is the best way to liquidate a rival?  How was the decision to attack Iran made; was it a person or was it ChatGPT?  

Let's say a major decision has been made using ChatGPT and that decision has had consequences not envisioned nor beneficial, but devastating.  Who do we blame?  Who do we hold accountable?  What this really comes down to is that we need to start thinking about these things collectively.  Our legislatures, rather than worrying about someone being transgender or a book in the library depicting a gay teenager, might start considering how we are going to deal with the tremendous societal changes that are coming through quantum computing and AI and others we may not even be aware of. 

Our lives are going to change and we need to think about what will be happening to us and the people we care about.  This should be a collective effort.

Richard E H Phelps II
Mingo