KW-48 The reverse washing machine project.
with apologies for the unhappy doomerism at the end
There has only really been one job at the barracks this week, and that was to get as much wood into the shed as possible before it all got snowed on.
I did pretty well, and it was fun.
But I should really start with a quick word on last week’s non-newsletter.
Sometimes, it’s hard to get one out every week, and keep the standard if not high then at least at a level that I am ok with publishing. Sometimes, the words just don’t flow. Sometimes, they won’t even come out when forced. So I go to my photos, and look back on the images that I had taken in that week to aide the mémoire and see what sentences come out when I gather them up. Now, the only reason I take photos during the week is so that I can send them out every Monday morning, but it turned out that the week before last, I didn’t take a single one.
I think I was especially disengaged with my physical existence, even by my disembodied standards. I can’t imagine that I did nothing all week, but I have no idea what it was if it was a thing. When it came to writing about it, about my thoughts, about the week ahead, I had nothing to say. Not a single word.1
Anyway, I’m boring even myself now. To everyone who missed the newsletter last week, I’m sorry. I have started on the year-in-review one, and that will definitely be happening (my one paid subscriber-only post per year!)
And so back to the barracks.
I found an old washing machine. I’ve been trying to manifest an old washing machine for years. I’ve had the idea since before I came to the barracks, and wanted to try out this project since day one here.
So, primary-school physics. Electromagnetism - James Clark Maxwell, 1873 (pirate understanding, please someone correct me in the comments if I am being excessively naive here). A dynamo and a motor are the same thing. Magnets and coils of copper. If you put electricity through the copper, the magnets turn. If you turn the magnets, electricity comes out of the copper wire. So, if you were to attach bloody great big sails to the drum of a washing machine, and hung it out to dry, the wind would turn the drum, and electrcity will come out the other end. Right? Right??
This week’s project is to build a wind turbine.
And for the rest of the week, I have brought enough wood inside for now (including all of the Oak Which is for Making Things), and now it all just needs sawing, chopping, bringing inside, and drying. So I shall get on with the sawing and splitting. A couple of hours a day carrying got it all inside in a week. The same of sawing and chopping should see it all prepared. Next week, the same, but carrying it all inside, and apparently, it only take three weeks to make a year’s supply of firewood.
I thought I would write about OpenAI this week. I’m glad I didn’t. But, in short, I now have two things which scare me. Geo-engineering our way out of societal collapse was always number one, with everything else a quite mindful but distant second. Now that Sam Altman has been anointed dictator for life, with the entire staff ready to quit for him and the only break on his insanity (the board) being fired, I think that it is time to move the threat of AI into equal first place of things that genuinely scare me.
I’d like to finish on a happy note, but there ain’t much point, tbh
Sorry about that, feel free to disagree with me in the comments and until next week,
must piratey love,
Your Pirate Ben
xoxo
I also felt very disengaged from my subscribers, but I think I’ll put that at the bottom, where not too many people will read it. It sounds awfully wanker/creator to say that I was sad because no-one liked my newsletter, but sometimes it does feel nice to know that I am not typing into the void.
At least you put into words what many of us are thinking and worrying about (AI)
Thanks for all your wonderful newsletters, we're all busy reading them even if we don't manage to respond. Just wondering how you have the energy to do all your jobs. Great work!
Sue xoxo
I'm not sure Sam Altman is the most dangerous human on the planet (there are so many wonderful other choices to choose from though at least Kissinger did finally depart yesterday) but I agree that AI is dangerous, mostly because government and regulation always lag behind tech This tech is moving so fast, in all directions, that it's entirely conceivable to me that something horrible happens with it. And Sam Altman would certainly be partially to blame for that.
I always try to read your newsletter and will do better about being engaged with that fact and it and you. Godspeed on your wood chopping this week.