Tag: dystopia

Fair Housing

SUSTAINABLE PROPERTY TAX

Jumping up property tax just gets passed on to renters and doesn’t make a dent in conglomerate owner profits.  The article recommended below proposes limiting property tax directly to inflation to achieve “Affordable Housing”.  But this would have to be paired with a partner legislation that would limit rent increases to inflation as well.  In other words, the value of a property stays constant.  It does not increase if a new shopping center is built next door.  As most tenants will tell you, the quality of life if you have to live there drops dramatically.  First there is the years of daily construction noise.  Then you have more strangers invading into your neighborhood.  There is no peace and quiet.  Crime usually increases.  And for this the renter has to pay more.

So the proposal is that no matter what price the buyer pays, property tax would stay constant with inflation, and my proposal is that so would rent.

So when people find a place they can afford to live, they can keep living there.

RECOMMENDED READING:

Utopia/Dystopia

URBAN DENSITY – ITS NOT THAT WE DON’T LEARN, ITS THAT THE RICH DON’T CARE

A 42 story tower where you can “trade a car for a condo” does not sound like affordable housing, which Vancouver desperately needs. It sounds like more wealthy people getting wealthier.  If someone can afford a car to trade, then they do not require “affordable housing”.  And yet metro VC homelessness has spiked sharply, including individuals who work full time jobs.  Rather than do something sensible about it, developers seem to be given preference towards making matters worse.  Note that while the top of the articles say “homeowners”, subsequent articles uses the term “rental properties”.  It is NOT affordable to rent for one’s entire life.

Simple solution to all the media headlining problems (affordable housing, food shortages, climate change) – small town zoning only.  Suburbs.  Local businesses.  1/2 acre minimum per house green space law.  People grow their own food in their own gardens, drive 10 minutes to work every day, and car pool with their neighbor.  Oh my gosh, that sounds like the 80’s!

Western society reached what may have been the most humane society in the history of history in 1980’s.  The Hippies grew up, but kept the dream of an Age of Aquarius in their hearts.  This is the time when I grew up, and those are the values I hold.  People were self-reliant but community oriented.  You knew your neighbors, and for the most part you liked the majority of them.  You knew everybody in town but had space for your own peace and privacy, even within your own home.   People had more freedom to do what they liked, because there was that space to do so.  Nobody thought twice about owning a car and owning a home, even the people on welfare had equity.

And that’s the simple solution – reduce urban density.  Keep the cap on the number of rentals. Tie how much a landlord can charge to square footage, not location.  If the tenant has to live in 450 sq ft, then the most rent can ever be is $450.  If someone wants to make $2500/month, they have to design apartments with 2,500 sq ft.  Simple math.  Not very profitable for the investors, but that’s what Affordable Housing would require.  When existing buildings become places to live rather than conglomerate investments, prices will shrink and housing will become affordable.

RECOMMENDED READING:

 

Robots/Artificial Life

FIRST ANDROID TO BE GRANTED CITIZENSHIP SAYS SHE WANTS TO HAVE A BABY

I presented a paper on robotic personhood more than 10 years ago, and most people laughed at my conclusion.  I said that whether a robot could pass a Turing test or not was irrelevant. Robots would be given citizenship just because people wanted them to have it.  Whether or not robots will become self-aware, feel emotions, or other indices of personhood, Sophia has been granted citizenship by Saudi Arabia.  Now there are problems with robotic personhood.  Robots were created to do work humans don’t want to do (too dangerous) or are unwilling to do (unpleasant, monotonous, repetitive).  So having robot persons do them introduces slavery all over again.

The  first article below points out that at this point of development, Sophia is primarily a chabox like Alexa, not a self aware sentient being expressing emotional desires for her personal happiness. I do not think Sophia has in any way demonstrated “life” as we currently define it, and yet a legal precedence has been set.   Science fiction has become science fact.

RECOMMENDED READING:

VIDEOS TO WATCH:

Death and Dying

CULTURE OF DEATH – WHY MAKE LIFE BETTER FOR OTHERS WHEN DEATH IS SO MUCH EASIER

We live in a sick and twisted society where narcissism is rewarded and hard work and integrity are punished.  We no longer have community values, we have “What’s in it for me” values. As for the “Why should I care” question, this is what happens when the people who are the biggest weasels make it to the top and you become inconvenient to their goals.  The historic old-age pension plan of community life – the young are cared for by parents who are then cared for by their children when they grow old – does not exist as a societal norm in the 21st century. No, when you are old and inconvenient, we are not going to take our resources and help your life be better, we are simply going to make death the easiest choice. And package our greed and laziness in such a way that it doesn’t bother our conscience and makes you the bad guy if you object to be told to go die because you need help.

 

RECOMMENDED READING:

“Suicide Machine” That Lets You Experience Death Now Ready for the Public to Try

Privacy/Spyware

HELLO I’M 5579A

“Sliders” episode “Please Press One”(S5E6) has the team sliding into a world where everyone is microchipped and reduced down to a number.  Pretty standard for science fiction. Every time you wave your hand, walk through a door, buy a newspaper – the chip records it all.  “In Time” (2011) starring Justin Timberlake got a little edgier where the currency was time rather than cash, but the technology was still embedded in each person’s arm.

The key scenario is that no action or transaction takes place without the system knowing it.  We all know GPS tracks your cell phone whether its turned on or off.  Every single transaction you make with your debit or credit card is recorded.  We’ve been living with Big Brother for years now.  But now…but now its in you.  Now you wont be able to leave it home.

This is a man in Wisconsin whose company just had the employees microchipped.  The company threw a party while it had it done.

company throws microchip party

A Three Market Square employee demonstrates how her embedded microchip allows her to buy a drink. MUST CREDIT: Photo for The Washington Post by Tim Gruber

Its here in the United States now.  The news report uses the language that Three Market Square is the first to “offer” this program.  But imbedding chips into human beings should have been one of the big things we fought as human beings to keep utterly illegal.  Its not “convenient.”  Its pervasive.  You wont be able to buy or sell without it soon.  You wont be able to open your apartment or start your car.  It may not be the biblical mark of the Beast, but functionally, there’s not a damn bit of difference.

Foundations for Ethics

WHAT IS BIOETHICS?

Bioethics tries to answer the Frankenstein question:  just because we can do something, does that necessarily mean we should do it?  It is the brain child of the Industrial Revolution.  It’s robots, cutting edge advances in medicine, genetically enhanced food, and technologically enhanced humans, just to name a few.  Technology is now an intimate part of almost every aspect of our 21st Century life.  But is technology producing a Utopia, or is there a darker Dystopia lurking in the background?  This blog will explore those subjects because we are the future everyone used to dream about.