Society Must Compensate for Total Automation.

Progress continues.

As of the writing of this the Memorial service for our fallen colleague is freshly concluded, but that will not be the end of his memory. For those of you who asked, his real name is on record and his work will be credited under that name at the appropriate time as usual.

Now, we look back to the future.

There is reason to be concerned.

This is going to be an array of videos I would very much like any viewer here to watch.

This first one articulates most of the problems. Unfortunately all of the robots it demonstrates were specialist pieces. Not, really, that intimidating in practice. Baxter, for example, is more or less locked into position.

That won't be true for that much longer.

Now, no one should reasonably be able to accuse me of being a luddite, I and Arketer Labs have always been about furthering technology for the betterment of the human quality of life. We have pointedly eschewed weapons technology in favor of purely defensive technologies.

But weapons are not the only threat technology poses. This upcoming robot revolution will soon render certain economic systems utterly obsolete. Most pointedly, with all labor moving to complete automation capitalism becomes utterly unacceptable in anything approaching a pure system.

No one not already at the top wants to see a new Techno-Feudalism wherein the poor, unable to find work in any capacity, are left to starve. That's a shortcut to a bloody war indeed, either internally or first externally in an effort to distract.

But that's not inevitable. One more video.

This plays directly into politics, into the American 2016 election especially. Bernie Sanders is the man to push for the changes the U.S. needs to avoid social collapse. The status-quo is incompatible with a positive future, only a future wherein the super-rich only get richer and everyone else increasingly struggles to eat.

Bernie, the oldest candidate, is the only one who isn't living in the past. Education and health care for all is only the beginning.

Robots may end up making and selling EVERYTHING, but they won't buy any of it.

Naturally, I'm pulling for the ROBOTS FOR EVERYONE future rather than the ROBOTS ONLY FOR THE RICH one.

Then all we have to worry about is ensuring our smarter, faster, stronger helpers have sufficient empathy as to ensure they don't purge us as inefficient relics.

Palette cleanser!

Progress continues.

Tragedy

Progress continues.

Still, the news is indeed grim. Progress on Deep Seven has been smooth for well over a year now, to the point where a measure of the core structure was ready for pressurization. Well, depressurization in practice- but at that depth replacing water with air requires quite a bit of it's own pressure.

This itself was managed without issue.

Without going into too many details, it was deemed necessary to send down the first team of divers to tend to further construction in this area to render it sustainably habitable. During this effort, a leak occurred.

This was an anticipated risk, albeit one so improbable as to be deemed worthwhile to take. Nonetheless the leak fatally surprised a member of the dispatch team who had boldly exited his pressure frame to work on a piece of delicate wiring.

Construction policies will be revisited over this. Meanwhile, a memorial service will be held this Thursday ALT 18:00. All projects not in time-critical stages will be suspended for the duration of the service. Members of projects in such stages who were personally familiar with the departed may appeal to their Project Lead to trade schedules with other comparably skilled employees. Volunteers are being cataloged in advance.

We will always remember #95300217.

At the risk of inappropriate levity, I keep seeing the lead singer as a young, shaven Weird Al. 

Progress continues.

The Candidate of Despair

Progress Continues!

I would like to posit that Hillary Clinton is in fact the only Democratic Presidential hopeful we can trust. They are indeed, a known quantity.

Which is to say, we can all trust they are lying.

Bernie Sanders has spent DECADES campaigning for greater justice, for sincerely progressive programs, with utter consistency.

But he could be lying. It's technically possible. What if he is a running a many-decades-long long con? There is a question there.

With Hillary Clinton, we know for a FACT they are lying. There is absolutely no gamble there.

Hillary Clinton is the candidate to vote for if uncertainty worries you.

 Hillary Clinton on Thursday said she has "always tried" to tell the truth and that she doesn't "believe" she has ever lied to American voters. 

"Have you always told the truth?" CBS News' Scott Pelley asked Clinton during an interview with the network after discussing the Democratic presidential candidate's pledge not to raise taxes on the middle class. 

"I've always tried to. Always, always," Clinton replied. "Well, you know, you're asking me to say, 'Have I ever?'" Clinton said, "I don't believe I ever have. I don't believe I ever have. I don't believe I ever will." "I'm going to do the best I can to level with the American people," she added.

One caveat, there is a flaw in this video with one quote taken out of context regarding her stance on gay marriage. The rest is... pretty much par for course. 

Indeed, if that doesn't sway you on how reliable Hillary's dishonesty is, what follows is one of her most recent campaign ads.

Very touching. Perhaps you should let Hillary worry for you.

What is Hillary's stance on parentless minor immigrants?

Kid, you should be worried.

Comically, while Mrs. Clinton is utterly full of lies- she absolutely cannot bring herself to lie big. She's not going to promise reforms, she certainly isn't going to say she'll go after the big banks (they give her lots of money, that would make them nervous even if it was a blatant lie).

Her message is one of utter despair. 'The Establishment cannot change, so trust me to work it on your behalf.' Which would perhaps work if there was any rational reason to believe they could BE trusted to do even THAT.

They haven't really put much effort into raising grassroots support, because grassroots support does not pay her bills. Instead she relies on the Establishment's support. No wonder she can't so much as lie about improving it.

The Democratic National Committee is believed to be owned by her, and with good reason.

“What do you tell voters who are new to the process who say this makes them feel like it’s all rigged?” Tapper asked the DNC chair. 

“Unpledged delegates exist really to make sure that party leaders and elected officials don’t have to be in a position where they are running against grassroots activists,” Wasserman Schultz calmly explained.

Democratic National Committee Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz, an ally of Hillary Clinton who co-chaired her former presidential campaign, ladies and gentlemen.

But Hillary's network of cronies works for her in other ways!

Why, one of them even bought The Onion just to twist the media a bit more.

And what does The Onion have to say about Hillary now?

"Female Presidential Candidate Who Was United States Senator, Secretary Of State Told To Be More Inspiring"

Rest In Peace, The Onion. It's strange to see a site that produced nothing but fake news articles lose credibility- but the Clinton Campaign managed it.

Change you can believe in.

Please keep in mind, Hopeless Voter, that Hillary Clinton does not fair well in a general election. People would sooner gamble on Trump than vote for her.

So, your vote for Hillary doesn't just ensure the slow continual regression of the U.S. back to the Gilded Age and from there corporate feudalism if they win, it ensures a vastly more rapid slide when the she loses to the Republicans.

Her primary argument is that she is the only candidate who can win against the likes of Cruz, Rubio and Trump... But as with many things Hillary Clinton has said, that doesn't quite mesh with the facts.

So if you believe Americans should be peasants content to accept the leaders chosen for them by the wealthy elite, if you believe it is better to vote for the evil you know than the good that might not prove as good, or if you simply want to see this:

Vote Hillary. Except for in the Primary Election of course. Then you want Trump to REALLY accelerate that slide into serfdom.

Have a palette cleanser!

 Progress continues.

Berrrrrrn

Progress Continues!

On the off chance anyone was disappointed not to see regular updates, I urge you to pester me about them by whatever means proves most convenient.

For those of you not in the United States of America, this update will be questionably relevant at best.

The 2016 Presidential Election is... Well, increasingly exciting. It looks as if it may prove the single most heartening or single most depressing election in the past several decades.

On the Red Side we have Trump, we have Cruz and we have... Rufio was it?

Glad to hear he recovered.

On the Blue Side we have Hillary Clintron and my pick, Bernie Sanders.

Through it all what we seem to be seeing on both sides is a loathing for the two-party system that has kept America slowly sliding back into the gilded age for some time.

Indeed, it's proven entirely possible to build a campaign run on not being beholden to the same masters the establishment players are. Hell, that is the beating, bloody heart of the Trump campaign.

With both parties it has been made clear that their own constituents aren't as willing as they have been in the past to just drink the cool-aid and support the party-endorsed candidate simply 'to beat the other team' because again increasingly THERE IS NO MEANINGFUL DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE TWO.

That said, the Media isn't QUITE accepting of these new untethered candidates however. Of course they aren't, they're as bought as the endorsed candidates.

No no no, Bernie can't have won. He hasn't made the appropriate back-room deals. He lost, suck it voters.

Indeed, the unchosen by the Masters On High are presently enjoying enough popular support that if their respective parties should fail to nominate them- party divisions seem far from improbable.

If we were to see the death of the Two-Party system, it would require both factions to split however.

Fingers crossed, but I am not sure I dare hope too hard.

So, suffice it to say I am pulling for Mr. Sanders. I believe Trump would loot the country, but if he wins then the country surely deserves a good looting.

Depressing as that would be.

On the other hand I have full confidence that Bernie will do everything he can to ACTUALLY make America great, hardly needing ANY walls.

Ahem. Ahem.

So, while Arketer Labs officially endorses No Candidate and I wish no misfortune to those employees or anyone who would vote otherwise...

I for one Feel the Bern.

Progress continues!