I recently came across a news item that made me reflect on our strange political environment —always a painful experience.
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me → come → environment
Bernie Sanders, the ancient socialist senator from Vermont, delivered a tirade against artificial intelligence, claiming that it had provided the tools for unscrupulous hackers to break into unauthorized bank accounts.
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hackers → deliver → accounts
Even as he railed about an “evisceration of our privacy rights,” Sanders introduced legislation to “ban artificial superintelligence and temporarily pause advanced AI development.”
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Sanders → rail → development
It turned out that Sanders got his facts wrong.
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facts → turn → ?
There had been no AI-induced assault on bank accounts, just a new way of accessing these accounts that was authorized by the users but not the banks.
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that → induce → users
But I was left wondering: Did Sanders really think you could stop the global spread of a revolutionary new technology by passing a law?
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you → leave → law
And if you could — which you can’t — why on earth would you want to do it?
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you → want → it
Why would a politician who considers himself “progressive” declare war on the future?
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himself → consider → future
When one delves into the matter, a pattern emerges.
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pattern → delve → matter
Virtually all AI doomers — from politicians like Sanders and fellow senator Elizabeth Warren, through tech barons like Sam Altman, to “effective altruism” practitioners like Sam Bankman-Fried — hail from the left side of the political spectrum.
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doomers → hail → spectrum
They are terrified of change.
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They → terrify → change
Perceived objectively, without preconceptions, the left turns out to be radically conservative – trying, in case after case, to freeze our restless society in place.
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left → perceive → place
A good example is the curious hostility towards data centers — the server farms that stand upstream of the AI platforms.
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that → stand → platforms
My state of Virginia is pretty much the galactic headquarters for data centers, with hundreds of installations that have created tens of thousands of jobs and generated billions in revenue for the Commonwealth.
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that → create → Commonwealth
Yet Abigail Spanberger, progressive governor of Virginia, early in her tenure signed an executive order dumping a raft of regulations, a more restrictive approval process, and a bureaucratic task force on potential builders of new data centers.
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Spanberger → sign → centers
Spanberger evidently views the data centers with suspicion.
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Spanberger → view → suspicion
Many of her followers, however, look on them with open hostility and want a “pause” in their construction, very much like Sanders’ freeze on AI development.
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Many → look → development
Since Spanberger appears eager to please the progressive base, that may be the dismal end-point for this issue in Virginia.
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that → appear → Virginia
Again, one is compelled to ask: Why would you smother to death a technology in which your state leads the world?
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state → compel → world
Spanberger cites environmental concerns and the industry’s “secretiveness,” but the chief charge lodged against data centers is that they consume massive amounts of electricity.
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they → cite → electricity
Mostly, this is a pretext — but if it really is the case that the US electric grid is too flabby and under-juiced to support data centers, you should know the reason why.
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you → support → reason
Starting in 1957, American electric companies built around 130 nuclear power plants that produced a safe, clean, and sustainable form of energy.
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that → start → energy
At their peak, these plants generated 20% of the total electricity in the country.
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plants → generate → country
Today, less than half remain online, with just a single plant under construction.
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half → remain → construction
What happened?
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What → happen → ?
Well, nuclear power was the AI of its day — cutting-edge technology that mortified the innate conservatism of progressive elites.
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that → mortify → elites
Regulation, litigation, and propaganda, conducted by progressive individuals like Ralph Nader and advocacy groups like Friends of the Earth, implying dangers ranging from cancer, the “China Syndrome,” and Godzilla, struck a fatal blow to this robust source of electricity.
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Regulation → conduct → electricity
Progressives want to pause data centers today because they killed off nuclear power decades ago — a chain of causation that can lead, quite literally, to the dark ages.
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that → want → ages
The best illustration of the horror of change and lack of forward-thinking by this sect can be found in their favorite means of transportation: trains and bicycles.
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illustration → find → transportation
I mean, these are 19th-century technologies: the first steam-powered locomotive made its appearance in 1804 while the bicycle was invented in 1817.
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bicycle → mean → 1817
Nevertheless, progressives spend enormous amounts of taxpayers’ money to promote these comfy old machines.
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progressives → spend → machines
The socialist mayor of Paris, France, spent hundreds of millions of euros and destroyed her perfect city to install bike lanes.
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mayor → spend → lanes
Now, the French government is broke, French people are rioting and burning stuff in dozens of cities — but by God everyone finally has the opportunity to take their lives in their hands and ride a bike down the streets of Paris.
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everyone → riot → Paris
At least the bike lanes were largely completed.
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lanes → complete → ?
The state of California has blown $15 billion to build a bullet train between Los Angeles and San Francisco, and in the 18 years since this project began, not a single mile of track has been laid down.
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mile → blow → track
This disaster brings us to a wonderfully hypocritical manifestation of progressive conservatism, usually labeled Not In My Back Yard, or NIMBY.
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disaster → bring → Yard
Progressives are in the habit of loudly demanding intrusive government mandates, affordable public housing, and mass transit — but not in their backyards.
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Progressives → demand → backyards
In those pristine spaces, every brick and every bush must stay as it has always been, forever and ever, amen.
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it → stay → spaces
Against the mighty wall of NIMBY, the bullet train project bounced harmlessly off and soon lapsed into a mere funding boondoggle.
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project → bounce → boondoggle
A similar change-related neurosis afflicts the progressive attitude towards nature.
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neurosis → relate → nature
…and 30 more, not listed.
The Aporia
