What’s your most controversial opinion?

@istillhaveanameitsrick more like most people who become parents shouldn’t be.

@ElviraLuvsPasta No, I truly believe bringing children into this violently psychotic world full of crime and war is child abuse. No child born today will be able to live a truly happy life.

@istillhaveanameitsrick I’m not sure anyone has ever a happy life 100%. Humans lives in a perpetual state of dissatisfaction. Despite that i believe you can provide a quality life for a kid if you have the capacity to give them the basic needs and a decent education.

@ElviraLuvsPasta Any child born today will die a violent death, either through crime or war.

@istillhaveanameitsrick I pretty much feel the same way. 😅 A bit selfish yeah?

@istillhaveanameitsrick a lot won’t though.

@ElviraLuvsPasta that's because a lot will be too fat to fight and will die of congestive heart failure instead, looking like little ham planets. Or be shot by an overmedicated ham planet in a mass shooting before the congestive heart failure thing occurs.

@istillhaveanameitsrick [quote]Any child born today will die a violent death, either through crime or war.[/quote]

What makes today any different from any other time in the history of the human race?? Not exactly a history buff I take it.

@2cool4school I am a big believer in the 2nd amendment but I think the number of psychotics in the United States randomly shooting innocent people is getting out of hand, there has never in history been as many mass shootings as there are today. I also believe that we are rapidly advancing towards a full scale world war that will involve nuclear weapons which will make the planet uninhabitable (if you think climate change is an issue now just wait). The war will happen within 10 years, China is already threatening, North Korea is threatening, Iran wants to threaten and will as soon as they get the weapons and Russia will likely resort to the use of nuclear weapons as it becomes more apparent that they cannot win the war against Ukraine.

@istillhaveanameitsrick You have plenty of valid points and I don’t doubt that war will happen in the next 10 years but I’m guessing that it’ll be a regional conflict. As that’s the typical route of most modern wars. I believe Russia will collapse before they escalate into a situation that loosens nukes on the planet. North Korea is a more of a paper tiger in my opinion, a loud bully with no real brawn. I’ve even speculated that NK gets paid off to quiet down but I have no concrete evidence. However I don’t think they would know what to do in the event of actual conflict and I agree it’s easy to imagine that a country would launch the worst weapons in existence before succumbing to their mortal enemies but I think all the countries that you have listed have a lesser known factor at play. The internal competition to succeed its current leadership. I don’t want to put all my faith in the hope that Putin will end up like Gaddafi but I believe it’s a definite possibility and a hidden variable not always accounted for. Iran is a horse of a different color because of the fact that they can’t even make ally’s with other Muslim majority countries even though Israel is more advanced in weaponry than all of them put together. I don’t think we as a part of the general public know all the cards in the deck that can be played at this point in time too. I’m not saying trust in the CIA to save the day but I’m not going to worry about impending war affecting my daily life until I see more signs of it’s apparent probability.
As far as the mass shooting problems plaguing modern society I really have nothing to give me hope that it will change. I don’t see any influential factors that could change it. I would probably send my children to school with plate carrier armor stitched into their backpacks and hope for the best and that’s a sad fact to face on a daily basis I can only barely imagine. 2A sanctuary states and cities and the power of the gun lobbyists and the actual manufacturers influence on the government is stronger than anyone will probably ever know. I can only compare it to big tobacco and even then it’s exponentially more powerful and financially fortified. It looks bleak now I don’t disagree but I feel like it’s always been this way and though there may seem to be more threats than ever there are more people than ever. I guess what I’m saying is that it’s a big game of sharks and minnows and it’s still in favor of the minnows and likely always will be. But things do change. Unprecedented things do happen all the time. So it’s not something that anyone can be certain about when predicting forthcoming events. I hope things change I hope things improve but I believe that things will pretty much stay the same.

@2cool4school I think if Putin realizes he can't win and may even lose the war with Ukraine, or he realizes that he will be deposed , he will launch nuclear weapons and the United States and most of NATO will retaliate, I think he is a certifiable lunatic bent upon his vision of rebuilding the U.S.S.R. and would rather take out millions of people rather than lose that dream. North Korea will not be the first to launch weapons but they will likely take advantage when China attacks Taiwan and the United States gets involved. North Korea will invade South Korea and quickly realize they cannot defeat South Korea in a conventional war so they will launch nukes. Iran has straight out said they want Israel destroyed and I think they will launch against Israel in an effort to wipe them from the map. As I said China will invade Taiwan within the next ten years and the United States, Great Britain, Australia and Japan along with some other possibilities will retaliate against China. I won't even go into the brewing problems between India and Pakistan or India and China.

@istillhaveanameitsrick I think AI might play a big part in starting World War III. We may be considered to be outdated technology and need to be purged.

@Jayciedubb hmm skynet fan huh??

@2cool4school lol I had never given it much thought more than for its entertainment value back in the day, but then I saw interview with Elon musk and saw his genuine concern about it and I've been thinking long and hard about it ever since. Once released, that Genie is not going back in the bottle and it's mostly released already by now.

You know those capcha(sp?) things we have to go through in order to prove were not bots so we can gain access into certain places online? AI has been able to get around them by using a human online service that you can pay to perform various tasks and errands.

It seems like the smarter they get, the dumber we get and soon we're going to get to that Tipping Point where everything is so automated that we don't need so many humans anymore. More and more, we are all interacting less with humans and more with computers.

There was a time in my lifetime when you would pull into a gas station and not just one person would come but a couple people would come to fill your car up up with gas, wash your windows, front and rear, check your oil, check your tire pressure and adjust accordingly. Then you go across the bridge to pay your 50 cents to one of the 40 or so attendants there at the toll plaza. I'm getting sidetracked here, but those jobs are all gone, Farming, agriculture, logging, assembly line production, the building trades, and on and on, has all been automated so much that they don't need as many people as we used to need to get more work done than we used to get done.

If machines get much smarter, it's not that far fetched of a notion for an AI decision to be made to start thinning the herd as we become a menace to the planet or possibly a menace to them because they don't need EPA regulations. Those are a place for us so that we can survive and they usually slow down production. While we're busy saving the Earth, they might get busy Paving the Earth.

@Jayciedubb You know I realized that I don’t even know enough about A.I. to make snide remarks.
So I’m trying to educate myself a little more and I’m currently half way through this interview: [media=https://youtu.be/bk-nQ7HF6k4]
Maybe this will help me understand a little more than I currently do.
I really do appreciate the way that discussions in posts go with you. You have a very polite manner even if someone disagrees with you. I appreciate that immensely and find incredibly rare especially on SW. I believe that the best way to exchange ideas and knowledge is to respect the other person/people who you’re talking with. And I just had to let you know that I’m grateful for your approach and I do truly hope to learn more about the things I don’t have much experience with.
This is the only way that I believe we get better as a group. And I certainly don’t want to just hear people that are echoing my opinion and point of view. Thank you for being you I’m very glad that you are here.

@2cool4school how did i miss this reply? Thanks for the kind words and acknowledgement.

But yea, i noticed long ago how even people who are on the same side of an issue could be at odds with each other on that same issue just due to an abrasive reply. Ultimately, i try to share my perspective and try to understand opposing perspectives. Also, i try to clear up any misinformation or dysinformation if i can.