Maverick Philosopher

Biometric Authentication

I use multifactor authentication for access to many of the sites I visit, but conservatives are cautious by nature. So I am not inclined to spring for biometric authentication, some of the hazards of which are discussed here.  The alacrity with which the young adopt the latest trends is evidence of their inherent excess of trust, lack of critical caution, and in many, out-and-out pollyannishness. "Many companies and organizations are implementing biometric authentication for enhanced security and convenience, with deployment rising to 79% from 27% in just a few years." (AI-generated claim) 

In tech we trust? What, me worry? What could possibly go wrong?

Convenience? Whose?

Future shock is upon us in this brave new world. I allude to the title of two books you should have read by now.

Practice situational awareness across all sectors and in every situation.

Jews, Muslims, Science and Technology

Which group has contributed more to science and technology? Jews or Muslims?  And why?

Question prompted by this:

Today, Jewish and Israeli MIT students were physically prevented from attending class by a hostile group of pro-Hamas and anti-Israel MIT students that call themselves the CAA [Coalition Against Apartheid, apparently].

More on the Dumbassery of 'Smart Homes'

Here:

Amazon locked a Microsoft engineer out of his smart home devices for nearly a week after a delivery driver accused him of uttering a racial slur.

Via Malcolm Pollack, who is always worth reading.

The Biden Maladministration is Placing Us in Grave Danger

No, you useful idiots, white supremacy is not the greatest threat we face: it is no threat at all since it doesn't exist. A real threat we face, and a very serious one, is posed by an EMP directed against our unprotected grid.  HT to JSO for the following two videos. 

How would a nuclear EMP affect the power grid?

How long would society last during a total grid collapse?

Addendum 4/12:

A reader refers us to Are Aircraft Carriers Unsinkable? and comments, 

The whole article is hair-raising, but this jumped out at me:

About the same time that tensions were rising over Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, reposts of a 2020 article by Major General Ed Thomas, the Commander of the Air Force’s Recruiting Service, began to pop up in the media.  The headline?  “Eighty-six percent of Air Force pilots are white men. Here’s why this needs to change.” Too many white men? Is that what our generals worry about? Like many other military top-brass, Major General Thomas seems to think that diversity wins wars.  That’s why he put “improving diversity” on “the top of my to-do-list.”

What if, in the meritocracy the armed services are supposed to be, not enough nonwhites cut the mustard? Promote them anyway?

 

BV: This goes to the heart of the matter, namely the assault on merit in favor of 'diversity,' 'equity,' and 'inclusion'  which in practice amount to governmentally enforced proportional  representation, equality of outcome, and exclusion of 'racists' and 'white supremacists.'  The destructive DEI agenda is predicated upon reality denial, in particular, the denial of the reality that we are not equal either as individuals or as groups in those empirically measurable respects  that bear upon qualification for jobs and positions.   The DEI agenda is dangerous and destructive because it allows the physically feeble and disabled, the mentally incompetent, the morally defective, and the factually ignorant and untrained to occupy high positions in government and industry. But 'allow' is too weak a word in this context; 'promote' is more to the point.  

 

One reason this is dangerous is that our geopolitical adversaries do not subscribe to the destructive DEI ideology. While we self-enstupidate, they salivate. 

 

How explain the popularity of DEI among the useful idiots?  I suggest that it is due, at least in part, to the 'feel-good' nature of the DEI 'reforms.' They are found very appealing in this, the Age of Feeling.

 

How explain the popularity of DEI among the drivers of the demented doctrine? In the case of Major General Ed Thomas and his ilk it is probably sheer careerism. They go along not just to get along but to advance themselves career-wise, and the nation and the world be damned. It strains credulity to think that they actually believe the rubbish.

 

There's a bad moon rising, and trouble's on the way. 

The Ultimate Replacement

I am not referring to the ethno-masochistic self-replacement of whites who have lost their 'mojo,' but the replacement of humanity by soulless robots. I speak not merely of the replacement of a uniquely clever species of land mammal. I speak of the erasure of spirit in the material world by the elimination of those spirits in animal bodies that we are. And to make the dark thought darker: there may be little or nothing we can do about it. Our technology has a life of its own and is re-creating us in its own image. What was created by us to serve us will master and then replace us.

Filed under: Dark Thoughts

A Warning from Elon Musk

Here

There is no political solution, not only for the reasons that Musk gives, but also because it is not the best who rise in politics but often the very worst.  That is certainly true in the USA at present.  The current administration is characterized by blatant mendacity, corruption, sheer stupidity, and mental incompetence.

Technology is not Wisdom

A short column by Victor Davis Hanson.  It nicely complements what I said last night about the widespread paucity of phronesis and the obsession with the calculable.