The Industrial Revolution eliminated many jobs but also made man things previously unobtainable by many achievable. Clothes, cars, etc….

As a small alternative perspective:
1) San Fransisco wasn't built on the gold found in the hills.
It was built on the trains, saloons, and brothels.
And the multitude of disposable hopefuls.

2) Denver was built on people finally crossing the great plains through the hazards of injun territory and cold wind to witness the great mountains in front of them.
"Congratulations. Y'all just got through the easy part. You are halfway there."


But for this new A.I. I'm not quite so sure.
-Look at the Otto cycle. Almost every bandaid has been thrown at it. I've thought of a few myself. So have people a hundred years ago.
-Look at Hollywood movies. They take the same old routine, randomly pick a word from the dictionary, and make a 'new' story line' based on it.

The Industrial Revolution was perhaps the second greatest human achievement, progressing to our modern Electronic Age with all the machines and toys to make life easier. Easy times make for weaker men. And it feels like we today don't match up to the philosophical deep thinkers of the past. The ones who carefully used water clocks, sunlight, sticks, and mathematics to prove the earth was round and the heavenly bodies moved with purpose.

A.I. can all do the above in a few minutes. And it can dig ditches better.

Thanks Mike, I'll take a listen.


:confused: There are a lot of reasons for bankruptcy, I declared 30 years ago having put 93K into Modern Dad magazine to learn that FirstTime Dad was the right market. Anyway, historical causes aside, the AI paradigm shift has the power to either help or decimate small business, IMHO, in the coming years. That's the discussion and the analysis should prove interesting.

What AI is doing right now is essentially sending spies in to ALL businesses to work for next to nothing (free or $30/mo for AI services) who document everything they see and report back to the mother company.

Said mother companies being run by a very few tech billionaires who have Trump's ear and are telling us all 'let us do as we please or China wins'.

Said mother companies are also lobbying (as quietly as possible) POTUS and Congress to not have to pay for the infrastructure they need to sell us their services. This is fundamental to the business plan and should not be ignored.

There is no scenario where the outcome is benign.

I’m only parroting what I’ve read from local businesses who close their doors. Fortunately not something that I have experienced.

But wait, there's more!

Impersonation seems to legal...for interests, product suggestions, relationships, maybe even political matters...you know where this is going.


https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2026/02/meta-granted-patent-that-allows-facebook-users-post/
A patent granted to META in December gives an inside look at how Facebook users may still be able to post beyond the grave.

According to the patent, the large language model will be “simulating the user when the user is absent from the social networking system, for example, when the user takes a long break or if the user is deceased.”

The AI model would essentially replicate the deceased person’s digital presence by analyzing data such as their writing style, tone, and expressed beliefs, allowing it to continue posting content and even commenting on friends’ posts in their voice.

It gets stranger.

The patent also referenced technology that would allow users to have phone calls with the deceased or even video calls.

Yeah, this isn’t going to be like the industrial revolution.

NSFW but darn funny.

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You all saw that Dorsey sacked 40% of his company - because AI.

THE promise of AI, THE thing that spurs investment in it, is the ability to fire most of the workforce and cut payroll.