Recommended shows

I have a lot more personal stress than usual lately, combined with the daily terrible global news (suddenly I care much more about how crappy the world is), makes for a depressing outlook and a general feeling of misery. 

So I'm going to talk about things I like today.

Recently I've seen some very good shows, so here are a few I recommend:

Upload: This is a light-hearted, techy, sort-of sci-fi dramedy (mostly comedy) and it's just been fun. It takes place in the near future (maybe 20-50 years), and I will say some of the predicted tech/gadgets are so dystopian, pessimistic and reflective of some of the worst innovations of today that they feel like certainties. 

Worth a watch if only for those, but the show has a ton of fun with the concept of uploading your consciousness into a digital "heaven" upon death that even when the story is lacking, everything else makes up for it. But don't worry, the story is mostly fine and so is the acting. Available on the evil Amazon Prime.  

The Expanse: Probably the best sci-fi show in the last 10 years. Possibly the best sci-fi show ever. 

Season one took me a while to get used to. I remember watching it years ago, and gave up after 3 or 4 episodes. But I re-watched them and started to like it. Once you get it, and get comfortable with it, everything clicks and the show is freaking amazing. I think maybe season 5 is the best, but 6 is pretty damn good too. But if you haven't watched it, and if you like serious sci-fi, and if you can take in 4-5 episodes of season 1, you will be immensely rewarded. Honestly, season 1 isn't even that bad, I don't know what my problem was. I think it was just getting used to the belter accents. 

Anyway, I don't want to spoil anything nor spend all day writing about it, so I will say this: the effects are as good or better than big-budget films, with realistic space physics, while using mostly realistic scale (space is huge), which is refreshing not to have your intelligence insulted for the sake of storytelling. The drama, politics, conflicts, and the people are compelling. A few questions remain unanswered at the end of the show, but most were answered and I cannot remember seeing such a great show with a worthy ending. Extremely recommended. Also available on Prime.

Reacher: I watched this recently and just felt compelled to binge watch it. It's like a book you can't put down. Almost non-stop action, not big-dumb-Michael-Bay action, but the kind that you can follow, makes sense, leads from one point to another, and provides the occasional twist. 

The show is a little surprising. Jack Reacher, the hero, turns out to be more than the one dimensional stereotypical action figure. I'll just say things aren't so black and white and it's very well done. Great acting, great action, great characters, good story, and it all works incredibly well together. Highly recommended. Also on Prime.

The Witcher: This show is almost great. But there are some questionable set designs and actors that prevent me from completely gushing over it. But I will gush a little because many things about it are well-done. 

Henry Cavill is perfect as Geralt and crushes the performance as well as Geralt slays monsters. Most of the CGI stuff is really good, I really can't complain. A lot of it feels like a lived-in fantasy world with real characters, but then other moments feel like they cheaped out and the sets are sterile, some of the dialogue is lazy (old-world style fantasy characters using colloquialisms straight out of 2022 America is sloppy), and the acting feels forced at times (typically from the secondary characters). Overall though, it's nice to have a mostly competent fantasy show. Available on Netflix.

Dystopia insurance

First, to better frame and illustrate what may or may not sound like paranoid conspiracy theories, the slightest hints of which I am strongly repelled against--which is something I realize I might need to correct for, I'll quote this from Scott Alexander at ACX:

In the Soviet Union, the government would say “We had a good harvest this year!” and everyone would notice they had said good rather than glorious, and correctly interpret the statement to mean that everyone would starve and the living would envy the dead.

Really savvy people go through life rarely ever hearing the government or establishment lie to them. Yes, sometimes false words come out of their mouths. But as Dan Quayle put it:

"Our party has been accused of fooling the public by calling tax increases 'revenue enhancement'. Not so. No one was fooled."

Imagine a government that for five years in a row, predicts good harvests. Or, each year, they deny tax increases, but do admit there will be “revenue enhancements”. Savvy people effortlessly understand what they mean, and prepare for bad harvests and high taxes. Clueless people prepare for good harvests and low taxes, lose everything when harvests are bad and taxes are high, and end up distrusting the government.

Then in the sixth year, the government says there will be a glorious harvest, and neither tax increases nor revenue enhancements. Savvy people breath a sigh of relief and prepare for a good year. Clueless people assume they’re lying a sixth time. But to savvy people, the clueless people seem paranoid. The government has said everything is okay! Why are they still panicking?

I don't think I am particularly skilled interpreting government statements when they aren't something close to the literal truth. But I do remember the government has lied repeatedly, and even when it appeared to be attempting honesty, it still managed to screw that up, repeatedly. Despite all that, I have this gut feeling that tomorrow will generally be the same as today. And 99% of the time, my gut is right. But that 1% can kill you (or 0.01%. But it isn't exactly scientific--some unlikely possibilities are much more likely than other unlikely possibilities. Like a fire burning down your house compared to an asteroid wiping out humanity). 

You can never be prepared for everything, but on the spectrum of preparedness, you can be less prepared or you can be more prepared. I want to be more prepared because I can't figure out if the harvests are going to be good or bad, the taxes low or high. Or if the liberal Western governments are going to respect our rights, our finances, our privacy, our lives for the foreseeable future. "But Mr. blogger, that's crazy talk," you say? Maybe you're right, but my gut is less certain today than yesterday, and that 1% can still kill me.

Just recently, pretty much everyone had their financial tools restricted, at what amounts to a press of a button. I'm not saying it's right or it's wrong, just that it happened:

JUST IN - VISA suspends all operations in #Russia: All cards issued in Russia will no longer work outside the country and any cards issued outside of Russia will no longer work within the Russian Federation.

— Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) March 5, 2022

And if you remember this from the "liberal Western democracy" that is Canada:

As of Sunday [Feb 22], the national police force said in a statement, 219 “financial products” had been frozen, 253 Bitcoin addresses related to protesters and organizers had been given to virtual currency exchange operators, and a bank had frozen 3.8 million Canadian dollars (about $3 million) held by a payment processor.

Lich, who is from Alberta, was the driving force behind a GoFundMe campaign that raised more than 10 million Canadian dollars (about $7.9 million) for the protest. About 1 million dollars (about $784,000) was turned over to her before the crowdfunding site shut down the campaign. Authorities charged Lich on Thursday with counseling to commit mischief, a serious offense under Canadian criminal law.

All of the accounts that have been frozen will remain so for up to 30 days from Feb. 14, the date of the national emergency declaration. But the government could extend or shorten that period.

I really hope there is a very clear, unmistakable line between blocking traffic and protesting the government, because if there isn't, that was a serious totalitarian display from our northern neighbors.

It's only a matter of time before you or someone you love is part of the out-group. And there's an increasing chance their financial tools/assets will be rendered inoperable.

Long time cryptocurrency critic and somewhat famous programmer David Heinemeier Hansson sees the writing on the wall:

Even just a few months ago, I would not have found it credible if you said a three-week peaceful protest in Canada could have lead to martial law, frozen bank accounts, and terrorist-financing laws being used to hunt protest donors. Unbelievable then, undeniable now.

I don't think we have any idea what kind of radicalizing seeds have been planted by Trudeau with these actions. This is one of those world events that you can imagine a documentary of the future opening with: "It all started when...".

But wherever this leads us next, it's clear to me now that I was too hasty to completely dismiss crypto on the basis of all the things wrong with it at the moment.

Hansson then links to a great twitter thread about the freedom to transact. I've embedded the first tweet of it below.

This article by Howard Anglin (former Canadian PM deputy chief of staff) links to that thread and worries about that 1% chance as well:

You can’t purchase many services with cash anymore. When my local coffee shop’s wireless service went down the other day and they couldn’t process digital payments, I offered to pay with cash. They didn’t know what to do. Like many businesses, they simply aren’t set up to handle physical money. And that’s assuming you have large cash reserves to begin with, as you can’t withdraw money from a frozen bank account. ...

The fact that weaponizing the financial system against nonviolent protestors and their distant supporters was the government’s tool of first resort should worry anyone who understands the role of civil disobedience in democracy.

So here is the first tweet of 6529's Freedom to Transact thread (there are 56 tweets in total):

1/ There are no other constitutional rights in substance without freedom to transact

Being meaning to write this for 6 months, but the Canadian response to the trucker protests is illustrating this so vividly, that today is the day.

— 6529 (@punk6529) February 17, 2022

Maybe I am being paranoid, maybe the world merely overreacted a bit, maybe I don't have the whole picture (so why not tell us, or at least give us a bigger picture? Is transparency bad now? More reason I have grown skeptical of both the media and government). 

Given recent events, I feel the need to painstakingly prepare for the 1% chance me or someone I love is going to need dystopian insurance. Something like cryptocurrency (and hardware wallets), something like Protonmail, something like encrypted devices on VPNs. Where does it end, at what point does preparing for dystopia become irrational, or worse, harmful? I don't know, but it's hopefully one of those you-know-it-when-you-see-it deals. I guess I will stop when the feeling of being unprepared is roughly balanced by the feeling of being a paranoid conspiracy theorist.

(Forever) covid surveillance

I'm increasingly a fan of Michael Tracey's work. He seems to be a center-left journalist with a hint of a libertarian streak.

His latest is solid gold. I want to quote everything and put <strong> and <em> tags around all of it. But I cannot, so here's a taste. Read the whole thing.

Vaccination was never the gateway to normalcy it was presented to be, and the only option is apparently to instate “Permanent Emergency” protocols with no cognizable “off-ramp” in sight, as a Duke University “expert” helpfully conceded this week. Reneging on these prior assurances is portrayed as some inherently unavoidable fait accompli, rather than a conscious policy choice undertaken to the exclusion of other vastly more sensible options. Choosing another option would mean re-assessing the underlying logic of constantly surveilling a 99% vaccinated population of healthy young adults with these increasingly dubious “tests,” and gathering their private data so as to opine about the permissibility of their social activities.

Australia is lost

I think this is the point of no return. It's now considered legal for the Australian government to delete, or even change their subjects' data. They could, theoretically, turn that rebellious tweet or facebook post into one making you look like a pedophile. The moment a citizen becomes problematic for the government, is the moment "serious" crimes are alleged, invented, or interpreted in creative ways:

A new law gives Australian police unprecedented powers for online surveillance, data interception and altering data. These powers, outlined in the Surveillance Legislation Amendment (Identify and Disrupt) Bill, raise concerns over potential misuse, privacy and security.

The bill updates the Surveillance Devices Act 2004 and Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979. In essence, it allows law-enforcement agencies or authorities (such as the Australian Federal Police and the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission) to modify, add, copy or delete data when investigating serious online crimes.

Via Instapundit.

All the more reason to further develop and promote blockchain tech and DeFi cryptocurrency, further develop a highly trusted real-life network. And stockpile certain commodities. 

Stick your finger in the air. You know more of this is on the way.

The dystopian boiling pot

As the fable goes, the frog does not jump out of the gradually-heated pot of water--it doesn't even notice--and is boiled to death.

I think dystopia will arrive in such a fashion (arguably has already). But the heat keeps rising:

Colombia-based call center workers who provide outsourced customer service to some of the nation’s largest companies are being pressured to sign a contract that lets their employer install cameras in their homes to monitor work performance, an NBC News investigation has found. 

I work from home too. Shortly after, the company wanted to encourage camera use for online meetings. Around the same time, they put out this electronic policy that every employee had to sign. As with most short-sighted, greedy companies, there was nary a word about privacy in that electronic agreement. Theoretically, a person who signed that policy and installed a camera could be spied upon in their own home, without their knowledge and the company would at least have that signed document (and arguably, the employee's consent) in their defense. I made my objections clear, as any self, spouse, family, and privacy-respecting person should. My camera remains unplugged and I never signed that piece of trash.

You have to push back. You, me, we have more power than one might realize. It feels good to use it now and then.

from Redditor Revolv_er