Generative Ai is dangerous, Just look at a Twitter feed.

I mean it. There are lots of Twitter accounts presenting some interesting, and clearly AI manipulated,  photos and movies. These same accounts are presenting these photos and movies as “evidence” of various conspiracy theories. 

There’s one video that “shows” someone cutting what appears to be stone and claiming that the mineral band being cut is fossilized blood of a giant. Thereby proving that giants, (Godzilla sized), existed in the past. I lost interest after that it was a lot of blah, blah, blah, from a monotone computer generated voice.

The shape of the material in the video appeared to be more treelike, the saw being used was similar in appearance to a saw I’ve seen used in logging operations to cut logs to a uniform size prior to loading them onto a transport truck. The saw moved far too fast to be cutting stone. 

There’s another montage of “Ancient” sites that looks like really old black & white photos. The video provocatively claims that governments around the world are hiding “The Truth” from us all. Some of the photos are of buildings or sites that I have seen before with clever additions that look like variations of the “Stargate”, from the movie of the same name. This montage of still photos interestingly has film artifacts, (dust, debris, voids in the emulsion, etc.) Why would a new video montage of “Old” still black & white photos have film artifacts throughout it? Why would the video be jumpy as though it was taken in motion when the subject is a still photo? Why do so many of these photos look as though the scale of the objects shown has been manipulated to make the object appear larger than the “Humans” in frame?

Don’t get me wrong, the image manipulation is very cleaver and quite good. With time, I believe that I have the tools on this computer to learn to manipulate images in a similar fashion. The AI can simply do that kind of manipulation faster and easier.

Therein lies the danger. 

There are a lot of people whose grip on reality is tenuous enough without having their reality disrupted by images that must be looked at critically to determine if they’re real or not.

There are tons of people who look at the incoming flood of data from sites like, TikTok, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and whatever other social media, as the absolute truth.

These videos are all come ons, they’re supposed to get the gullible to go to a web site to “donate” so the purveyors of these “Hidden Truths” can continue their good work uncovering what’s been hidden from the world. With Twitter and Instagram  subscription models they’re even able to make money just from folks interacting with their wacky videos.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m from the P.T. Barnum school of capitalism. I simply wish I’d thought of it first.

I also want to believe that there are aliens, or unexplained things beyond the mundane scratching and scurrying of the insane apes on this planet.

That’s what these videos and sites capitalize on…

The human need to believe that there is something bigger, better, and more majestic than ourselves.

Religions around the world are based on this need. The Catholic Church in particular has been quite good at monetizing the human need to believe, especially if the rumors about the wealth contained in Vatican City are true.

There have also been a number of “Free Energy” videos recently. These are laughable until you look at the account’s follower numbers. Then you think, “How are that many people, this dumb?” Entropy always wins.

These videos typically show what is clearly the armature from a DC motor. Probably taken from a toy. The windings look like they’ve been done by machine. Anyway the video is often a bit jiggly, (why are a lot of these videos are jiggly? To add / imply excitement at “discovery”?) , but shows the armature mounted such that it can spin freely. There are two wires trailing out of frame, the ends of the wires that are visible, are laid against the contacts of the armature. An LED or LED strip sitting next to the armature, is presumably connected directly.

The scam is that you see two human hands bringing curved magnets (probably from the original casing of the motor) near the armature, and it miraculously begins spinning. But the second miracle is that the LED lights up. Ohhhh Ahhhhh. It’s magic!

No it’s a DC motor. The LED is either being powered by another power source or is in series with whatever is providing power to the armature itself. The coils on the armature create a magnetic field when current is applied. This field is attracted to the fixed magnets the human is holding, causing rotation of the armature. The spacing of the contact pads on the armature causes the coils to be energized and de energized as the armature rotates. So what you have is temporary electromagnetic fields sequentially being attracted to the fixed magnets being held nearby. 

This is not magic. It’s not free energy. It’s science. Worse, it’s simple well known science. 

The account directs you to a ‘free energy” site where you can subscribe, or buy “Plans” for your own free energy generator to experiment with.

Maybe I’m the odd ball. But I was doing shit like this in my bedroom, in a flyover redneck state, at around the time of the Cuban Missile crisis. (Okay perhaps a little later than the actual crisis.) The point is, when my toys broke, I took them apart to see if I could fix them, or to figure out how they worked. I was learning by doing.

Later in school, I was fortunate enough to attend schools with robust science curriculums and since those schools didn’t look or act like prisons, we could bring things from home to augment science classes.

Apparently these days the basics of science are not being taught in school. Which leads to at least one, maybe several generations of gullible rubes, ripe for the P.T. Barnum treatment.

Two of my favorite Barnum quotes are:

“Many people are gullible, and we can expect this to continue.” – P. T. Barnum

“There is a fool born every minute” – P. T. Barnum

The common thread is that there are people making money from other stupid people. That has been true for as long as there’ve been people and money.

My concern is that people are geared to believe what they see.

Videos have become so easy to make, Generative AI has become commonplace and easy to use. When you factor these things together you’re begging for a new techno dark ages.

All the knowledge of humanity will be available on the internet instantly.

But it’s mixed in with absolute garbage. And a lot of people don’t have the reasoning capacity or facts to separate the truth from the fiction or even to resolve conflicting information using simple logic.

I seriously wonder if, no, when the powers that be unleash disease X as the WEF and WHO dubbed the next pandemic, how gullible people might be.

I could see a scenario like this, on so called “Truth” websites generated by AI using compelling images and fear.


[WARNING! DO NOT DO THIS! THE SCENARIO BELOW IS FOR ILLUSTRATIVE PURPOSES ONLY]

A Montage of ambulances and fires in a generic city. Headline in the montage, “Disease X Ravages Country, Film at 11:00″

Then images of sick people on ventilators, skin and bones images from the AIDS crisis being portrayed as happening now,  Headline “They’re hiding the truth, they want you to die. We have the cure. Discovered by German scientists in World War I and used to cure diseases running rampant among soldiers in the trenches, this cure can save your family.”
A web address pops up on the video. “With just two chemicals likely already in your house you can protect your family and be safe.”

The web site asks for a one time payment of $29.95 for instructions on how to be safe.

The “Cure” is this. Duct Tape your doors and windows shut. Put on a surgical mask to protect yourself during the “Home Sterilization process”. Then mix Bleach and Ammonia in every sink and toilet in your house. 

The instructions inform you that any discomfort you feel is the invisible mist seeking out and killing Disease X, if you feel discomfort, it means you’re infected and purchased the cure to the disease just in time. Good Job! That $29.95 is money well spent, you’ve saved your family.


A person from my generation wouldn’t do this. Even if we don’t remember why we were taught not to do this. I was taught this as part of a science class in elementary school. I vaguely recall perhaps some flammability? I’m not even sure what the gas produced is. I want to say Hydrogen Chloride but it’s been too long… I don’t remember clearly. I only remember that the combination produces a poisonous gas. Which in an enclosed space is deadly.

I remember science classes being fun because where practical, the principals were demonstrated. There was always a lit bunsen burner in my classes.

These days, with the generations after mine, I don’t honestly know if they’d have the safety protocols in their heads to say, “Uh Nope! That’s a really bad idea.”.

If a convincing AI video said it was safe and effective, or worse if the generative AI used a trusted human face and voice to provide instructions, then people without grounding in basic science, who are fearful and gullible, could be convinced to do something really dangerous.

The scenario above hits on three points in human decision making.

Fear, desire to believe (hope), and payment (if I purchased it, it must have value.) There’s an optional fourth point. Mistrust. 

People are far more likely to believe that the government, the elites, or the powers that be, are either withholding information OR that everything said by this group is 100% factual. We saw this in COVID. There were two very clear camps and questioning the dogma of one of those camps was heresy of the highest order.

For god sake, there are still loads of people in Seattle and Portland running around wearing masks.

That’s the power of belief.

I think generative AI is really dangerous because of all of the above. Plus this one more thing. Humans seem to need to believe that computers are infallible oracles of truth.

That need to believe our creations are superior to the minds that created them, can so easily be manipulated it terrifies me.

AI has the potential to help, in so many ways. The trouble is, in the wrong hands AI can cause great harm and I think even destroy what we know.

Like all tools AI is neither good or bad. That is up to the user of the tool. History however, suggests that AI, particularly generative AI will be used for harm.

If you thought random wikipedia edits were annoying, you haven’t seen anything yet.

Okay, So I have a guilty pleasure…

Alright… I have many guilty pleasures! Some of which will not be discussed at this moment.

The guilty pleasure I’m going to talk about is enjoying watching Ancient Aliens, Skinwalker Ranch, and lately, Beyond Skinwalker Ranch.

I’m not a believer per se. But I really enjoy the outlandish conclusions based on what could be nothing more than embellished legends or spurious electrical emissions. Oh and by the way… I want to believe, and if possible I want to ShipJack some poor alien tourists to get off this rock! 

Ancient Aliens I tend to tear apart pretty quickly. There are simply so many other possible explanations for what the “researchers” present as truth. The other half used to roll his eyes, smile, then ask me why I was watching if I didn’t believe their conclusions. He also used to point out that my watching the show and the advertising meant I was complicit in supporting absolute bullshit! 

Skinwalker Ranch, was a little more interesting and a little more difficult to rip apart. The other half just rolled his eyes and went back to his reading.

Now with Beyond Skinwalker Ranch, where two other “investigators” are wandering around with instrumentation and sampling the environment. It’s possible, that instead of proving anything about Skinwalker ranch, they’re simply proving that “odd” things are actually normal in a lot more places than we thought.

Skinwalker Ranch -.But one thing that makes me really start ignoring Beyond Skinwalker Ranch is the goofy ignoring of science. Well known science in fact.

One one episode they’re looking at odd electromagnetic readings and said those readings we disconnected from radio transmissions they were seeing.

Uhhh NOPE!

And at the time there was a guy who builds Tesla Coils standing there. Believe me, Tesla Coil guy knows all about radio interference. His neighbors must love him… On another episode there was a HAM operator who heard these guys say something similar. Neither of these guys corrected the “Hosts”. Both had the credentials to correct the bullshit. Neither of them should have let it go, They should have told the hosts “Nope, you’ve got that wrong, here’s why, and let me demonstrate the principal for you.”

Something that caught my attention was an anomaly on a bridge. The bridge crosses a river at 90° and is a pretty low, standard construction. Concrete, rebar, asphalt, Beyond skinwalker ranch.In the middle of the bridge their TriField meter spiked for no apparent reason. I admit that’s weird… That’s the kind of stuff that intrigues me. Something like that isn’t a cue for the spooky music. It’s an effect that says “Hey look at me, I’m interesting! Can you figure out why I’m doing this? When you do you’ll say that’s cool!”

They drove the bridge a couple times and verified their results. They probably should have switched to another meter. They could also have found another bridge, and just to be thorough measured dry riverbeds and bridges crossing water at different angles. If other bridges exhibited the same behavior and dry riverbeds were different than riverbeds with water flowing in them, then we all could have learned something.

Machinery moving through the ocean can become magnetized. I don’t know if submarines and ships become magnetized because of friction between the hull of the ship and water, or if it’s the flow of water itself that generates a magnetic field. I only know that the Navy regularly demagnetizes ships, to make it harder for potential enemies to identify various ships in a flotilla by their distinctive magnetic signature. 

I’m pretty sure that a Navy scientist could explain the interaction between a ship moving through the ocean and magnetism.

Water is a conductor, the earth has a lot of naturally occurring magnetism. I know that moving a conductor through magnetic fields generates electricity. Which also propagates magnetic fields.

I have no idea what a flowing fluid conductor like water, or mercury would do. Interesting question though. I wonder what happens if the flow is not smooth. Creeks and rivers often have turbulent flow or turbulent sections. How might that impact conductivity or magnetism? Cool question… Maybe one of those fancy drones with a magnetometer could quickly and easily answer it.

My point is that it’s possible the flow of water is interacting with the grounded rebar in a bridge that’s generating a magnetic anomaly. It doesn’t have to be some Spooky Music scenario.

Science! Physics! Both can be stone bitches. But they provide people like me a foundation. Well, maybe it’s more like a security blanket. 

Both Skinwalker Ranch and Beyond Skinwalker Ranch make a big deal about 1.6 Ghz transmissions or interference. As somehow special.

I can think of half a dozen machines including the computer that I’m typing on right now that could generate 1.6 GHz. I often see evenly spaced interference on my radio if I’m using my big computer monitor and laptop dock. The monitor and dock both have processors in them and I suspect the emissions are leaking from one or more of the cables connecting the devices. The interference is weak, but it’s there, with the frequency analyzer built into my radio I can detect it. The equipment I’m talking about is modern which means, it’s pretty low power and therefore low RF emission. 

This begs the question. What kind of emissions would you get from older or higher power equipment?

All of these shows, I think need someone that says, “Wait a damn minute… Before we freak each other out what does the actual known science tell us?”

Honestly, I think there might be a market for a Skeptics show. The reason I think there’s a market, is because if the skeptics can’t come up with an explanation then whatever is left, really is unexplained and mysterious. The fun could be, discovering if  the mystery simply the limits of our knowledge, our equipment, or really something to be spooked by. 

If we’re going to have scary camp fire stories… let’s make ‘em scary as hell.


02/26/2024 Update.

Sorry for the weird half sentences in the originally published piece. My favorite application for writing blog posts had an update. Everything on screen looked great, until the piece was published.

What you were seeing appears to have been a partial fusion of original text, autocorrected spelling, and various edits, all overlaid in a very strange way.

I may have to switch to the alternate application for a while.

OR… Cue the dramatic spooky music! There’s no way that the software could be affected that way… It must be Aliens!

Well There’s my problem!

I was reading… Scanning headlines as I often do and a headline caught my attention.

The Headline was something like Russia sanctions nuclear weapons in Belarus. I thought “Great!” A few less nuclear weapons in the world is probably a good thing.

Then I read the article a little further, and found that Russia was allowing weapons to be deployed in Belarus. 

Hmmm. 

But we impose sanctions on Iran to keep them from doing shit that nobody likes.

To the dictionary Boy Blunder!!!

Oh hell no!

This word has no fucking meaning at all does it?

As a Noun it could be a penalty or permission, as a verb it’s the same.

Why does this word even exist?

No wonder there are pallets of cash and uranium being moved around to our enemies. 

They wrote the agreements using a word that is as two faced as Janus. (Look it up…)

I don’t want to hear this word being bandied about by journalist, politicians, or anyone else ever again! I’m putting this word in my official “Weasel Word collection”. This collection is my personal list of words not to use, and words that when others use them are red flags that the person is lying to my face.


I was looking for references to Russia threatening to Nuke Berlin, DC, and a couple of other cities if the west really threw in to ensure Ukraine won the war.

This seemed to me to be something of interest. While I’d caught the headline, I didn’t have time or inclination to read something that would very probably depress me. 

Then happily, I remembered that I am a child of the 1960’s. I grew up living under the imminent threat of nuclear annihilation during the Cold War. 

Nukes! Smooks! Bring it on bitches!!!! I remember how to duck and cover!

Although I must admit I might be inclined to send Putin a box of chocolates if he nuked DC.

That would solve a number of problems at once. Crime… Homelessness… Shitty Government…

Ahh there’s the piece…

Russia Will Drop ‘Entire Arsenal’ on London, Washington if it Doesn’t Win Ukraine War

It’s a Breitbart piece. It looks like Medvedev was saber rattling for the folks at home. I wondered why none of the talking heads were breathlessly telling us this was a result of Tucker Carlson interviewing Putin. 

Apparently they didn’t believe the threat was credible. 

The media and others say Tucker Carlson is now a traitor… Yawn. He’s the puppet of Putin… Sigh. He’s a useful idiot to Putin… Whatever.

There was a time when a real journalist would interview Jesus and then Satan just to present both sides of the story. Carlson in my opinion did what any decent journalist would have done. He seized an opportunity to go directly to the source.

We’ve heard all kinds of stuff from Zelensky, personally I wanted to hear from Putin in his own words.

Putin may possibly be a bit crazy, but he’s not senile and infirm like our president. 

The Russian guards in dress uniforms looked a bit odd. It was like they didn’t want to risk eye contact with Putin but still needed to watch over him. They looked uncomfortable performing their task. I wonder if that’s a traditional holdover from the days of the Tsar. There’s something in my memory about not meeting the eye of the emperor or king because mere commoners weren’t equal to the emperor.

I’ll have to look it up, refresh my memory.

Anyway that’s enough randomness for this morning. Time to get breakfast, then walk the K9. Spring is around the corner and Im planning on talking to the realtor mid March.