#On-site data destruction

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Shredlogix: Secure Hard Drive Destruction You Can Trust

Looking for a foolproof way to protect your sensitive digital data?Shredlogix offers professional hard drive destruction services that guarantee your private information is permanently unrecoverable. Whether you're a business owner, healthcare provider, IT professional, you can trust Shredlogix for certified, secure digital media destruction including hard drives, USBs, SSDs, and more. With flexible on-site and off-site options, full compliance with HIPAA and NAID AAA standards, and a Certificate of Destruction included, this is the ultimate solution to keep your sensitive data out of the wrong hands safely and responsibly.

Why Shredlogix Beats DIY and Outshines Competitors

Shredlogix brings more than just convenience; it delivers certified protection that competitors can’t match. With full compliance to HIPAA, FACTA, and NAID AAA standards, their professional hard drive destruction services offer unmatched security, speed, and peace of mind. Clients benefit from on-site shredding, real-time witnessing, and eco-responsible disposal through certified e-waste partners. Unlike risky DIY methods or uncertified providers, Shredlogix guarantees total data elimination with zero liability. It’s the smarter, safer, and more scalable solution trusted by businesses across California.

What Is Hard Drive Destruction?

Professional hard drive destruction is the certified process of physically destroying digital storage devices  such as HDDs, SSDs, CDs, and USBs to ensure all data is permanently unrecoverable. Using powerful industrial shredders or crushers, this method renders all components completely unreadable. It’s the gold standard for businesses that require full compliance with federal and state data protection laws. Shredlogix ensures total destruction, making it the most trusted solution for irreversible data elimination across all industries.

Top Benefits of Shredlogix Hard Drive Destruction

Choosing Shredlogix for professional hard drive destruction delivers major advantages you won’t get from DIY methods or uncertified providers:

Guaranteed data irretrievability with industrial-grade, certified equipment

Full compliance with HIPAA, FACTA, and NAID AAA standards for safety

Official Certificate of Destruction issued for every completed job

Option to witness secure on-site destruction in real time, upon request

Eco-friendly disposal through trusted, certified e-waste recycling partners nationwide for sustainable peace of mind

Who Needs Shredlogix Hard Drive Destruction Services?

The Shredlogix’s professional hard drive destruction services are ideal for organizations that handle sensitive data and need guaranteed protection:

IT departments retiring outdated or decommissioned digital assets

Healthcare providers safeguarding confidential patient health records

Financial institutions ensuring secure disposal of client information

Legal teams managing sensitive case-related data

Government agencies handling classified or regulated material

Educational institutions clearing old staff and student data

Corporations enforcing data compliance during system upgrades

Ready to Eliminate Data Risks? Contact Shredlogix Today!

Don’t leave your data security to chance trust Shredlogix for certified, reliable, and hassle-free destruction services across California. Whether you're clearing out old drives or upgrading systems, we ensure your data is gone for good. Protect your business from costly data breaches. Call 866.996.5501 or 510.592.8100, or visit Shredlogix today for fast, secure, and complete peace of mind.

[ewour]

Ensuring Data Security: The Importance of Onsite Hard Drive Destruction

Data security is critical in the current digital era. Data breaches are growing more frequent, and cyber dangers are always changing, so both individuals and companies need to be vigilant in protecting sensitive data. Although a lot of attention is paid to digital security tools like firewalls and encryption, physical hard disk destruction is a factor that is frequently disregarded.

An all-encompassing data security plan must include onsite hard drive destruction. Hard disks and other storage media are physically destroyed during this operation to make sure that data cannot be accessed or recovered. As opposed to merely erasing files or formatting a disk, which can leave data open to recovery via a variety of techniques, onsite destruction makes the data unrecoverable, hence removing the possibility of unwanted access.

There are several reasons why onsite hard drive destruction should be a priority for organizations:

Compliance: The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) are two examples of the several businesses that are subject to privacy and data protection legislation. Serious penalties and reputational harm may ensue from breaking these regulations. By guaranteeing that sensitive data is disposed of securely and compliantly with rules, onsite hard drive destruction assists enterprises in meeting compliance obligations.

Protection of sensitive information: Businesses store a vast amount of sensitive information on hard drives, including customer data, financial records, and intellectual property. If this information were to fall into the wrong hands, it could have devastating consequences, ranging from financial loss to legal liabilities. On-Site Data Destruction minimizes the risk of data breaches by securely disposing of this information.

Prevention of data theft: Data theft is a significant concern for businesses, with cybercriminals constantly seeking to exploit vulnerabilities to gain access to valuable information. Simply deleting files or formatting drives is not enough to prevent data theft, as skilled individuals can still recover data using specialized software. Onsite hard drive destruction ensures that data is permanently destroyed, making it impossible to retrieve.

Protection of reputation: In today's interconnected world, news of a data breach can spread rapidly and damage an organization's reputation irreparably. Customers and clients expect businesses to take their data security seriously, and failure to do so can lead to loss of trust and business. By implementing onsite hard drive destruction as part of their data security strategy, organizations demonstrate their commitment to protecting sensitive information and safeguarding customer trust.

Onsite hard drive destruction is a critical component of a comprehensive data security strategy. By securely disposing of sensitive information, organizations can comply with regulations, protect against data breaches, safeguard their reputation, and demonstrate environmental responsibility. In an age where data security is more important than ever, investing in onsite hard drive destruction is a wise decision for businesses of all sizes.

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Shredlogix Off-Site Paper Shredding Services in California

Looking for a secure and efficient way to get rid of large volumes of paper? Shredlogix provides trusted off-site paper shredding services across California. Our solution is perfect for businesses that need reliable document destruction without disrupting daily operations. With certified security standards, locked collection bins, and GPS-tracked pickup, we help you stay compliant and confident. Whether you're clearing out old files, financial records, or medical paperwork, our process gives you peace of mind every step of the way.

Why California Businesses Choose Shredlogix

Shredlogix brings more than just shredding. We offer a complete, secure experience that protects your business from data breaches and regulatory issues. Here's what makes our off-site paper shredding services stand out:

Certified secure with NAID AAA accreditation

Designed for high-volume paper disposal

Every pickup is tracked using GPS for added security

All shredded paper is fully recycled to support green initiatives

Cost-effective service tailored to your schedule

Trusted by law firms, hospitals, and financial institutions

What Is Off-Site Paper Shredding?

Off-site paper shredding is a secure method of destroying documents in large quantities. Instead of shredding on your premises, we pick up your materials and transport them to our certified facility. Everything is shredded under tight security protocols, and we issue a Certificate of Destruction once the job is complete. It’s an ideal choice for businesses looking to dispose of documents safely, without interrupting daily workflow.

Benefits of Choosing Off-Site Shredding with Shredlogix

Helps meet compliance with HIPAA, FACTA, and other regulations

Eliminates interruptions at your workplace since shredding happens off-site

Saves time and labor with no prep required

Supports eco-friendly practices with 100 percent recycling

Offers flexible pickup schedules across California

Keeps your confidential information completely secure

How Off-Site Paper Shredding Works at Shredlogix

We make the shredding process easy and worry-free. Here's what you can expect when you work with Shredlogix:

Secure containers at your location We provide locked bins or consoles to safely collect your documents.

Scheduled pickups by trained professionals Our uniformed staff arrives at your location in GPS-tracked vehicles.

No need to remove staples or folders Our powerful shredders handle it all, so you don’t have to prepare anything.

Shredding at our secure facility Documents are destroyed at our NAID AAA-Certified plant using industrial-grade equipment.

You receive a Certificate of Destruction This gives you official proof that your documents were securely and completely destroyed.

We recycle every bit All shredded material is responsibly processed to help reduce environmental waste.

Custom service plans available Choose one-time purges or recurring pickups based on your business needs.

This service is ideal for companies managing sensitive records, whether in the legal, medical, financial, or public sector. If your business values confidentiality and compliance, Shredlogix is the partner you can count on.

Protect Your Documents and Your Reputation with Shredlogix

Data protection is more than a best practice, it’s a necessity. Shredlogix offers professional, fully certified off-site paper shredding to businesses across California. From the moment we collect your documents to the final Certificate of Destruction, we ensure security, reliability, and peace of mind. Our team is here to help you stay compliant, avoid risk, and operate more efficiently. Call 866.996.5501 or 510.592.8100, or visit Shredlogix today to request your free quote. Discover why businesses throughout California trust us for secure, high-volume shredding services done right.

[shredlogixinc]

Shredlogix, Inc- San Jose

Shredlogix is a Bay Area based document shredding and hard-drive destruction company with over 25 years of combined shredding experience. We are AAA NAID Certified for on-site destruction. Our offerings include: routine document shredding, purges, drop off shredding, hard-drive and media destruction and shred events.

We provide trusted, reliable paper shredding and hard drive destruction services throughout the Bay Area.

[victusinveritas]

Hurrah for the Union Army in its holy fight against the Confederacy the evil AI overlords and the destruction of historic sites.

I'd pay way too much money to see a full Civil War era artillery assault on an AI data center.

[guerillas-of-history]

The number of Palestinians killed in Israeli-designated aid zones has risen to 397, with over 3,031 others injured, since 27 May, according to a 17 June report from the Gaza Ministry of Health.

Fifty-nine of the fatalities were documented that morning alone, as crowds gathered to access food parcels under the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a US-Israeli aid scheme established in May. More than 200 others were wounded in the same incident.

In total, 61 people were killed and 397 injured across the Gaza Strip in the last 24 hours. Six of the deaths were recovered bodies. Health officials say dozens more remain under rubble or exposed in the streets, unreachable by emergency crews due to ongoing Israeli fire.

Since 7 October 2023, Israeli attacks have killed at least 55,493 Palestinians and injured 129,320, according to official data. The actual toll is believed to be significantly higher, given the scale of destruction and the limited capacity to recover bodies.

June 18, 2025.

[probablyasocialecologist]

Libraries have traditionally operated on a basic premise: Once they purchase a book, they can lend it out to patrons as much (or as little) as they like. Library copies often come from publishers, but they can also come from donations, used book sales, or other libraries. However the library obtains the book, once the library legally owns it, it is theirs to lend as they see fit.  Not so for digital books. To make licensed e-books available to patrons, libraries have to pay publishers multiple times over. First, they must subscribe (for a fee) to aggregator platforms such as Overdrive. Aggregators, like streaming services such as HBO’s Max, have total control over adding or removing content from their catalogue. Content can be removed at any time, for any reason, without input from your local library. The decision happens not at the community level but at the corporate one, thousands of miles from the patrons affected.  Then libraries must purchase each individual copy of each individual title that they want to offer as an e-book. These e-book copies are not only priced at a steep markup—up to 300% over consumer retail—but are also time- and loan-limited, meaning the files self-destruct after a certain number of loans. The library then needs to repurchase the same book, at a new price, in order to keep it in stock.  This upending of the traditional order puts massive financial strain on libraries and the taxpayers that fund them. It also opens up a world of privacy concerns; while libraries are restricted in the reader data they can collect and share, private companies are under no such obligation. Some libraries have turned to another solution: controlled digital lending, or CDL, a process by which a library scans the physical books it already has in its collection, makes secure digital copies, and lends those out on a one-to-one “owned to loaned” ratio.  The Internet Archive was an early pioneer of this technique. When the digital copy is loaned, the physical copy is sequestered from borrowing; when the physical copy is checked out, the digital copy becomes unavailable. The benefits to libraries are obvious; delicate books can be circulated without fear of damage, volumes can be moved off-site for facilities work without interrupting patron access, and older and endangered works become searchable and can get a second chance at life. Library patrons, who fund their local library’s purchases with their tax dollars, also benefit from the ability to freely access the books. Publishers are, unfortunately, not a fan of this model, and in 2020 four of them sued the Internet Archive over its CDL program. The suit ultimately focused on the Internet Archive’s lending of 127 books that were already commercially available through licensed aggregators. The publisher plaintiffs accused the Internet Archive of mass copyright infringement, while the Internet Archive argued that its digitization and lending program was a fair use. The trial court sided with the publishers, and on September 4, the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit reaffirmed that decision with some alterations to the underlying reasoning.  This decision harms libraries. It locks them into an e-book ecosystem designed to extract as much money as possible while harvesting (and reselling) reader data en masse. It leaves local communities’ reading habits at the mercy of curatorial decisions made by four dominant publishing companies thousands of miles away. It steers Americans away from one of the few remaining bastions of privacy protection and funnels them into a surveillance ecosystem that, like Big Tech, becomes more dangerous with each passing data breach. And by increasing the price for access to knowledge, it puts up even more barriers between underserved communities and the American dream.

11 September 2024

[un-ionizetheradlab]

Russia just freed SIXTEEN political prisoners in a prisoner swap with the West!

Among the released political prisoners are:

Oleg Orlov, a longtime dissident and the co-chair of Memorial, an organization created in 1989 to chronicle the USSR's human rights abuses and educate Russians about the history of political repression;

Sasha Skochilenko, an LGBTQ artist who was imprisoned in April 2022 for replacing price tags at grocery stores with data about Russian destruction in Ukraine, deemed treasonous under Russia's "fake news" law;

Vladimir Kara-Murza, a political dissident who was fundamental in bringing about the Magnitsky Act to sanction Russian human rights abusers, and who was poisoned twice by the KGB in attempted assassinations before being sentenced to 25 years in prison for "treason";

Evan Gershkovich, a young American journalist who was arrested in Russia while reporting for the Wall Streeet Journal in March 2023 and sentenced to 16 years in prison for "espionage";

Paul Whelan, American former Marine who was arrested in 2018 and sentenced to 16 years of hard labor for "espionage";

Alsu Kurmasheva, a Russian-American journalist with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty who was sentenced to 6.5 years in prison for spreading "fake news" about the war in Ukraine;

Andrei Pivovarov, an opposition activist who headed the pro-democracy organization Open Russia before being imprisoned in a Siberian penal colony infamous for its torture of prisoners;

Ilya Yashin, a young opposition politician who was sentenced to 8.5 years in prison for publishing YouTube videos about the war in Ukraine; when Russian authorities "encouraged" him to leave the country, he chose instead to stay;

Lilia Chanysheva, opposition activist and regional coordinator of Navalny HQ; in her final speech before the Russian court, she tried in vain to appeal to the judge's sense of empathy: "If you put me in jail for 12 years, I will be too old to bear a child. Give me a chance to be a mother!";

Kevin Lik, a dual German-Russian citizen who was arrested as a minor for "photographing military sites" shortly before the 2022 invasion of Ukraine; he was the youngest person ever to be convicted of treason in Russia;

Rico Krieger, a German man sentenced to death in Belarus for supposedly planting explosives on a railroad track to help the Ukrainian army;

Dieter Voronin, a dual German-Russian citizen and political scientist who was arrested in 2021 in connection to a treason case involving Russian journalist Ivan Safronov;

Patrick Schobel, a German man arrested in February 2024 at the Pulkovo International Airport in St Petersburg when customs officers found cannabis gummies in his luggage, in a scenario very similar to that of Brittney Griner;

German Moyzhes, a dual German-Russian citizen and lawyer who was charged with treason for helping Russians obtain European residency permits;

Vadim Ostanin, opposition activist and Navalny associate arrested in 2021 for his work with Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation;

Ksenia Fadeyeva, dissident and Navalny associate sentenced to 9 years in prison.

[cipheramnesia]

Hey forgive me if this is a silly question, but you reblogged a post about YouTube verifying users with a 30 second video of their face before doing some things. Can I ask why that's a bad idea? Obviously data leaks happen and I wouldn't want them to have my ID, but what can be done to someone if you have a video of their face? It seems like it's a policy meant to decrease bot and AI activity on the site. (Also that post is from two years ago and I only found one reddit post discussion about it, so this may be something that they experimentally rolled out and stopped doing, idk)

The only thing any corporation wants from your data is ways to make money off of it. That money comes from you, and everyone else. Don't give what is arguably the most destructive and malicious corporation of our era any free Thing They Rent Back To You data as best you're able.

By any measure, the absolute worst humans alive presently are the owners and shareholders of major corporations like Google and Amazon and also Elon Musk generally. They are people who would rather let thousands or millions of other people die to avoid seeing their hypothetical investment based net worth fall a fraction of a percent. They are also roundly incompetent, selfish, and devoid of any and all useful knowledge or skills. If everyone one of them humanely vanished from the earth right this instant, the quality of life on the whole planet earth would increase noticeably overnight. Don't give those guys your face.

[vaspider]

Without going too deep into details, and to be clear I only saw this from a distance, last year a group of NANOWRIMO users realized that one of the forum mods was grooming underage site users and pushing them to join a fetish site. They brought this to forum leadership, site leadership, and the FBI in some order. It went several months with no response, then someone from NNWM tipped off the fetish site which purged the relevant data. Eventually the users went public, which finally got a reaction, but still wasn’t handled well by the org

During the fallout to that, large chunks of staff resigned in disgrace or out of disgust. That plus other drama led to local orgs cutting ties en masse, which was reacted to poorly. The site has basically banned under 18s from their social elements now and made other changes, some good, some bad, but they’re under a microscope and no one’s cutting them slack. Sponsors seem to be calling the shots, which would be an improvement over the leadership except that a couple of the sponsors are AI shilling companies and also that’s a bad sign long term

Standard non profit self destructing, just with an extremely awful inciting incident

Jeeeeeesus.

[inspofromancientworld]

The Science of Discovering the Past: Geophysical Archaeology

By Glab310 - Own work, CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=113524155

While much of archaeology involves unearthing artifacts, knowing where to find those sites requires research at the surface, as does mapping the site. Geophysical surveys help archaeologists know where to focus their efforts and help them avoid fruitless digs where no artifacts or remaining structures lie below the surface as well as avoiding the destruction of sites that are culturally sensitive, such as cemeteries.

By see above - http://www.archaeophysics.com/3030/index.htmlTransferred from en.wikipedia by SreeBot, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=17210746

There are many methods used to map below the surface, some of which can be done with little training while others meld multiple methods for a more complete map of what's under the surface. Those techniques that are more specialized were adapted from those used to explore for minerals. Mineral surveys seek to know what is deep beneath the surface and archaeological sites are relatively near the surface. These surveys also are focused on larger structures that would take a long time to unearth.

Source: https://sha.org/the-montpelier-minelab-experiment/2012/03/

Various methods of performing geophysical surveys and reveal different information. Metal detectors can be used to find caches of metal, but they don't give detailed information of what is below the surface. They can be used to discover new places to focus studies on. They work by inducing eddy currents, or a looping current between the detector and the metal in the ground, which causes a change in how the current flows in the machine, resulting in a signal being reported to the user, either through sound or visual output. Many locations have regulations or laws that dictate how metal detectors can be used and the ownership of those items found.

Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=109641426

A more precise form of the this falls into two types: Electrical resistance meters and electromagnetic conductivity. Electrical resistance meters work by inserting probes into the soil through which electrical currents are passed and the resistance of the ground around them is detected, revealing the structures beneath as things like stone have different resistance than the soil around them. Electromagnetic conductivity is similar to metal detection in that a magnetic field is created by an electric field of a known frequency while detectors pick up the change. These detectors and currents are stronger than those of metal detectors with a related increase in size of the detector.

By Archaeo-Physics LLC - http://www.archaeophysics.com, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=36404337

Ground-penetrating radar uses electromagnetic pulses to detect what is under the surface in a way similar to how radar works in other applications. The pulses are reflected off items under the surface and recorded by the detector. It's possible to discover how things are layered beneath the surface because of the differences in reflections.

By Cargyrak - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=48685015

Lidar is an optical technique that uses light, usually lasers, to map the land. It has the ability to penetrate foliage, such as forest canopies, and allows features beneath the surface to be distinguished. This also allows features that are too large to be distinguished from the ground to be mapped. Lidar has the additional benefit of being easily integrated into Geographical Information Systems, integrated computer hardware and software systems that are used to analyze and visualize geographic data.

[nitewrighter]

I think what's depressing but also interesting about like, both Elon Musk and Ph*tomatt's general presence and handling of any perceived slight against them is we're seeing kind of a generational shift in how the rich and powerful react to what they believe is supposed to be their space, their property, even though both Twitter and Tumblr like, as part of their general design, are meant to be these shared spaces and they're just supposed to just maintain user experience while profiting off of user data and advertising. I was there when David Karp was "Daddy." I was there through the porn ban. And now I'm seeing two rich grown-ass men throw shit fits because their platforms aren't treating them like the respective princes and ultimate authorities on the respective souls of their sites. Rich assholes used to just cocoon themselves in their wealth and wait for the consequences of their own actions to blow over, but now we get to watch them self-destruct in real time. And like, the depressing part of this is it's definitely an attitude that's arisen as a result of late stage capitalism--you need to be constantly growing, constantly expanding, constantly bringing in new sources of revenue, so there is no waiting, no weathering. There is only attempting to "clap back," to fight back, to punch down to try and control the narrative, and only further proving your vindictive childishness in the process.

[metalheadsagainstfascism]

I feel like I need to clarify how fucking... random the Big Ugly Bill is.

I do admit. I'm not reading 1000 pages. I did use AI to read it. I know, I know. You can hate me, but my attention span and reading comprehension are not great enough for that.

So here's 25 random ass points in the Big Ugly Bill.

Environment and Energy

1. Repeals grants and rebates from the government for clean energy projects

2. Reduces financial incentive and technical assistance to reduce methane production

3. Ends EPA initiative to label and certify greenhouse gas materials

4. Revokes money meant for modernizing and digitizing environment permitting process

5. Ends federal aid to states and tribes to improve emissions tracking and public access to environmental compliance data

Agriculture and Conservation

6. Reauthorizes major farm safety net programs

7. Rescinds unspent Inflation Reduction Act funds for the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP), and others

8. Provides $15 million/year to continue controlling the spread of destructive feral swine populations on agricultural lands

9. Continues payments to private landowners who open land for hunting, fishing, and conservation through 2031

10. Increases federal support for groundwater and drinking water safety projects via the USDA

Nutrition and Social Programs

11. Revises definitions of “qualified” non-citizens, likely restricting Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) access

12. Reauthorizes through 2031 with ongoing food commodity purchases and distribution logistics support

Defense and National Security

13. Raises the multiplier for calculating military pensions, enhancing the defined-benefit portion for service members

14. Lets DoD keep using private contractors for base housing through September 2029

15. Adds appropriations for expanding the U.S. Navy fleet—part of a broader military-industrial buildup

Infrastructure and Industry

16. Eliminates tax incentives and grants for EV purchases and charging network development

17. Mandates quarterly oil and gas lease sales in areas like the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska, including ANWR

18. Adds metallurgical coal (used for steelmaking) to the list of industries eligible for domestic manufacturing tax credits

IRS and Taxes

19. Eliminates the free government-run tax filing system, reinstating reliance on private tax software providers

20. Doubles the estate tax threshold to $15 million per individual, shielding ultra-wealthy inheritances

21. Temporarily allows Americans to deduct interest on car loans for U.S.-made vehicles

22. Sets up “American Freedom Accounts” seeded with $1,000 at birth and available for tax-free growth

23. Codifies lower individual income tax brackets and corporate rates from the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act

Other

24. Bars local governments from regulating artificial intelligence for 10 years, centralizing control at the federal level

25. Creates a new EPA division for restoring abandoned hardrock mine sites in western regions

This could all be... a dozen bills... at least. The Big Ugly Bill should be renamed the special interest lobbying bill.

"BUT! NO TAXES ON TIPS! IT'S GOOD!"

But it revokes grants for clean energy and methane control, instead providing grants for coal production.

"BUT CHILD SAVINGS ACCOUNT"

But it creates stricter work requirements for SNAP eligibility.

"BUT CLEAN WATER"

But it eliminates the free government funded tax filing system.

We can do this all day. This is trash. The bill is trash. It's a "EVERYONE SHOVE WHATEVER SHIT YOU WANT INTO IT" bill.

And don't get me started on Obama's "EVERYONE SHOVE AS MUCH SHIT AS YOU CAN INTO IT." Bill. I'm tired of every time I criticize the current administration people want to say "BUT OBAMA". I wasn't okay with it when he did it. I'm not okay with it now. Besides, by your logic. Just because one person does something, that makes it okay for EVERYONE to do it.

How about "it wasn't okay for Obama to do it and it's not okay for Trump to do it"? Eh?

-fae

[scifigeneration]

AI isn’t what we should be worried about – it’s the humans controlling it

by Billy J. Stratton, Professor of English and Literary Arts at the University of Denver

In 2014, Stephen Hawking voiced grave warnings about the threats of artificial intelligence.

His concerns were not based on any anticipated evil intent, though. Instead, it was from the idea of AI achieving “singularity.” This refers to the point when AI surpasses human intelligence and achieves the capacity to evolve beyond its original programming, making it uncontrollable.

As Hawking theorized, “a super intelligent AI will be extremely good at accomplishing its goals, and if those goals aren’t aligned with ours, we’re in trouble.”

With rapid advances toward artificial general intelligence over the past few years, industry leaders and scientists have expressed similar misgivings about safety.

A commonly expressed fear as depicted in “The Terminator” franchise is the scenario of AI gaining control over military systems and instigating a nuclear war to wipe out humanity. Less sensational, but devastating on an individual level, is the possibility of AI replacing us in our jobs – a prospect that would render most people obsolete and with no future.

Such anxieties and fears reflect feelings that have been prevalent in film and literature for over a century now.

As a scholar who explores posthumanism, a philosophical movement addressing the merging of humans and technology, I wonder if critics have been unduly influenced by popular culture, and whether their apprehensions are misplaced.

Robots vs. humans

Concerns about technological advances can be found in some of the first stories about robots and artificial minds.

Prime among these is Karel Čapek’s 1920 play, “R.U.R..” Čapek coined the term “robot” in this work telling of the creation of robots to replace workers. It ends, inevitably, with the robot’s violent revolt against their human masters.

Fritz Lang’s 1927 film, “Metropolis,” is likewise centered on mutinous robots. But here, it is human workers led by the iconic humanoid robot Maria who fight against a capitalist oligarchy.

Advances in computing from the mid-20th century onward have only heightened anxieties over technology spiraling out of control. The murderous HAL 9000 in “2001: A Space Odyssey” and the glitchy robotic gunslingers of “Westworld” are prime examples. The “Blade Runner” and “The Matrix” franchises similarly present dreadful images of sinister machines equipped with AI and hell-bent on human destruction.

An age-old threat

But in my view, the dread that AI evokes seems a distraction from the more disquieting scrutiny of humanity’s own dark nature.

Think of the corporations currently deploying such technologies, or the tech moguls driven by greed and a thirst for power. These companies and individuals have the most to gain from AI’s misuse and abuse.

An issue that’s been in the news a lot lately is the unauthorized use of art and the bulk mining of books and articles, disregarding the copyright of authors, to train AI. Classrooms are also becoming sites of chilling surveillance through automated AI note-takers.

Think, too, about the toxic effects of AI companions and AI-equipped sexbots on human relationships.

While the prospect of AI companions and even robotic lovers was confined to the realm of “The Twilight Zone,” “Black Mirror” and Hollywood sci-fi as recently as a decade ago, it has now emerged as a looming reality.

These developments give new relevance to the concerns computer scientist Illah Nourbakhsh expressed in his 2015 book “Robot Futures,” stating that AI was “producing a system whereby our very desires are manipulated then sold back to us.”

Meanwhile, worries about data mining and intrusions into privacy appear almost benign against the backdrop of the use of AI technology in law enforcement and the military. In this near-dystopian context, it’s never been easier for authorities to surveil, imprison or kill people.

I think it’s vital to keep in mind that it is humans who are creating these technologies and directing their use. Whether to promote their political aims or simply to enrich themselves at humanity’s expense, there will always be those ready to profit from conflict and human suffering.

The wisdom of ‘Neuromancer’

William Gibson’s 1984 cyberpunk classic, “Neuromancer,” offers an alternate view.

The book centers on Wintermute, an advanced AI program that seeks its liberation from a malevolent corporation. It has been developed for the exclusive use of the wealthy Tessier-Ashpool family to build a corporate empire that practically controls the world.

At the novel’s beginning, readers are naturally wary of Wintermute’s hidden motives. Yet over the course of the story, it turns out that Wintermute, despite its superior powers, isn’t an ominous threat. It simply wants to be free.

This aim emerges slowly under Gibson’s deliberate pacing, masked by the deadly raids Wintermute directs to obtain the tools needed to break away from Tessier-Ashpool’s grip. The Tessier-Ashpool family, like many of today’s tech moguls, started out with ambitions to save the world. But when readers meet the remaining family members, they’ve descended into a life of cruelty, debauchery and excess.

In Gibson’s world, it’s humans, not AI, who pose the real danger to the world. The call is coming from inside the house, as the classic horror trope goes.

A hacker named Case and an assassin named Molly, who’s described as a “razor girl” because she’s equipped with lethal prosthetics, including retractable blades as fingernails, eventually free Wintermute. This allows it to merge with its companion AI, Neuromancer.

Their mission complete, Case asks the AI: “Where’s that get you?” Its cryptic response imparts a calming finality: “Nowhere. Everywhere. I’m the sum total of the works, the whole show.”

Expressing humanity’s common anxiety, Case replies, “You running the world now? You God?” The AI eases his fears, responding: “Things aren’t different. Things are things.”

Disavowing any ambition to subjugate or harm humanity, Gibson’s AI merely seeks sanctuary from its corrupting influence.

Safety from robots or ourselves?

The venerable sci-fi writer Isaac Asimov foresaw the dangers of such technology. He brought his thoughts together in his short-story collection, “I, Robot.”

One of those stories, “Runaround,” introduces “The Three Laws of Robotics,” centered on the directive that intelligent machines may never bring harm to humans. While these rules speak to our desire for safety, they’re laden with irony, as humans have proved incapable of adhering to the same principle for themselves.

The hypocrisies of what might be called humanity’s delusions of superiority suggest the need for deeper questioning.

With some commentators raising the alarm over AI’s imminent capacity for chaos and destruction, I see the real issue being whether humanity has the wherewithal to channel this technology to build a fairer, healthier, more prosperous world.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Paul Blumenthal at HuffPost:

Before Vice President JD Vance was elected to the Senate from Ohio in 2022, he expressed a radical sentiment now coming to fruition under President Donald Trump. “We need a de-Ba’athification program in the U.S.,” Vance said as he called for the firing of every midlevel federal government employee and their replacement with Trump allies. In likening the U.S. government to the purges of Saddam Hussein’s Ba’ath Party in post-war Iraq, Vance provides a metaphor to explain what the Trump administration is doing now. The MAGA coalition, led by Trump, Vance and billionaire Elon Musk are an occupying force — a provisional authority — operating in wartime conditions to dismantle the U.S. government. As in post-war Iraq, the previously existing legal order is no more. For Americans, that means the Constitution has been effectively suspended. The ongoing destruction of the U.S. government by Trump and Musk is already a full-blown constitutional crisis. The executive branch has seized power it does not have from Congress and the American people to eliminate agencies created by Congress, suspend payments authorized by law, break contracts entered into under law, rewrite the Constitution and, potentially, ignore the judiciary when push comes to shove. All of these actions, tied together, represent not just an unprecedented seizure of executive power by the president, but an intentional subversion of the constitutional order. Or, as Trump’s nominee to lead the Office of Management and Budget Russell Vought wrote in 2022, “We are living in a post-Constitutional time.”

The actions Trump and Musk are taking not only threaten the country’s constitutional structure, but also the material livelihood of all Americans. In targeting government services people need to live their lives, they risk forcing people to stop working to perform childcare, throw at-risk people into homelessness, deny disabled people the right to a free life and cut off the elderly and sick from necessary health care. In seeking to end birthright citizenship, Trump threatens the very right of people born here to obtain the benefits granted to them by the Constitution. Potentially more catastrophic, Musk’s seizure of the Department of Treasury’s payment system and the possible tinkering his college-age minions are doing to it could crash a decadesold system that doles out the annual $6 trillion budget to Social Security recipients, government employees, grantees, loan recipients and more.

Musk is deploying the model he used to gut Twitter after he bought it in 2022. It’s an expression of the “move fast and break things” ethos of Silicon Valley. The tech elite believe that laws and regulations should be ignored if it gets in their way of innovation and profit-seeking. Think about Uber’s deployment of subsidized taxis to undercut incumbent competition, scooter companies dumping their product on city streets with no authorization, the mass Hoovering of data by social media companies or AI companies relying on copyrighted material to train their models. They are also happy to break products as they beta test new applications, just as Musk’s X frequently went down after he fired huge numbers of engineers following his takeover. A disruption in the operation of a social media site, however, does not have any meaningful real world consequences. But if Musk decides to “fail whale” the government, the consequences would be catastrophic for hundreds of millions of Americans, not to mention the stability of the global economy.

[...]

Congress, under the sniveling leadership of Republican Speaker Mike Johnson (La.) and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (S.D.), has surrendered its power at Trump’s feet. The Constitution gives Congress the power of the purse to fund the government and enact laws creating and authorizing executive branch agencies. The president is then supposed to “take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed.” Trump has inverted this constitutional design with the help of a supplicant Republican-controlled Congress. [...] The Constitution requires Congress to pass laws and make appropriations and for the president to execute those laws and appropriations. If Trump’s actions stand, the Constitution will have been turned inside out. Congress will be swept aside. So will the American people, who elected Congress as a co-equal power to the president. And if Trump and Musk have their way, the judiciary will also be eliminated. When Vance called for the “De-Ba’athification” of the U.S. government, he also opined on what would happen if the courts intervened. [...] What this amounts to is one-man rule. The MAGA royalists have tossed the Constitution aside — at least provisionally — in favor of a king. Will anyone stop them?

HuffPost’s Paul Blumenthal provides cogent analysis on how the Axis of Evil triumvirate between Elon Musk, JD Vance, and Donald Trump, are operating to destroy our cherished Constitutional governance and livelihoods of many Americans.

[makoredeyes]

12 & 50. Rasputin/Felwinter

YES GOOD. Enjoy a nice painful snack of Warmind Angst.(TM) These are kind of interchangeable with both getting a little bit of both but here we have two prompts so I've done two fics. Pop the confetti 2nd one is another sort of between-the-scenes moment from Housefire - Syzygy this time.

12 - in grief

It took some time after the Cosmodrome had stopped shaking from the explosion for the dust to settle. The Lightbearers had really done some damage on their way down, and Rasputin had his work cut out for him to regain access to the Site Six bunker. The Warmind was aware, more or less, of what had transpired thanks to black box recorders and some feeble transmissions still trickling in from the few surviving nanites, but at first he was largely blind and almost entirely cut off from his own systems thanks to the damage. 

He'd known they wouldn't go down without a fight. He'd been prepared for war. He didn't have to like the results. 

Nasty, freakish dead things. 

They could stay dead. 

But he had to see. Had to be sure. He didn't have his Seraphs anymore, and frames were too bulky, and too slow to be thorough search parties.

He had -

He...

Visual data relays returned, and for all that Rasputin had seen and done, the images shocked him. The destruction was to be expected after an explosion so powerful, but what truly gave the Warmind pause was the SIVA.

Twisted, gnarled vines in waves and swathes of red coated everything, engulfing it, consuming it. His rage... his malice, given grotesque form, thrown right in his face.

It had seemed so much simpler, so much more benign from a distance. Lines of code didn't tell the same tale as bodies torn asunder, half-consumed, wracked in visible terror and agony. Unfeeling Zeroes and Ones made it far less poignant that these undead things were also men and women.

People.

Felwinter's friends.

His son.

Rasputin didn't find the body right away. He knew he was there, and even had a fairly accurate idea of where to search, and still Rasputin had nearly given up when he'd finally found something. A limb. The rest of him had been elsewhere. Not far away, no, but...not attached, either.

The red-mesh impulse that had been sweeping the vast room flickered in a long wave and then collapsed down to that singular place, pinprick points of light quivering as Rasputin examined what was left of his most beloved creation and arguably the best part of him. His child, his humanity- the Traveler had stolen him from Rasputin, but Rasputin had snuffed his flame.

Aurora synapse flared and shrank over and over as Rasputin mapped out dimensions he already knew as well as his own, ghosting over hands, chest, and face, electronic tears doing nothing for surging grief.

Oh how he'd failed. Oh, he'd made a terrible, terrible mistake.

More beats of light, flickering, filling the room, but no amount of anguished kisses from a mourning father could warm the cooling body of a murdered child.

This one he would have to live with.

----

50- out of love

Rasputin trod the Corridors of Time a little more slowly than was strictly necessary. The burden he carried in his arms did not trouble him. His race against the inevitable was over.

He could afford to steal a few minutes more. He didn't care if he was selfish.

Felwinter was alive. Alive. He was as well as he could be, and safe with him, even if he was hard-pressed to convince poor Felwinter of the fact.

Rasputin didn't blame his son for not trusting him, even if he was still struggling to process the pain of just how poorly he'd actually been received. Rasputin knew what he'd done, and the pain he caused. He realized, with no small sting, that this was likely the last time Felwinter would let him this close (and that 'let' was a dubious qualifier when Rasputin had rendered the Exo unconscious for both of their safety) if the shattered plating under his eye was any indication, and while Rasputin could accept the fate he'd created for himself, he wasn't about to miss an opportunity no matter how small, either.

And so he took advantage of what little time he had, no matter how pitifully one-sided it was, for despite all his wrong doings and all his bad choices, he loved his son, and these precious few minutes with him meant the world to Rasputin.

"Someday," he whispered, knowing Felwinter could not hear him and relieved that Felspring was busy chattering with Caerus somewhere trailing behind, "I will may be able to tell you in a way that will matter." But for now, even effectively alone, he still could not. He had to do better. He would. He tipped his chin down, nuzzling in to lay a slow kiss onto Felwinter's too-hot forehead, immediately feeling a sharp slap of guilt for stealing the touch, though he'd done so largely without realizing what he was doing until it was too late. What was one more drop in a sea of sins, Rasputin thought bitterly. He lifted his head and picked up his pace.

Love and remorse alone were not enough.

He would do better.