The future of Windows

Chat about Zorin
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When you post a video or a text link that makes claims, then I would say that you are endorsing all the claims it makes unless you specify parts you disagree with.
That video may look legitimate on the surface but as the host of the video claims herself: "Dig a little deeper". Their sources are Conspiracy websites that claim that the Illuminati is directing the United Nations and seeking a One World Government. These same sites go on to claim that the Illuminati is in control of CERN, The WHO and other international entities - all without a shred of any kind of evidence... and, of course... that the Illuminati answers to the Zetans.
Zetans are described as a "lizard-like" alien race that has been in... Telepathic communication with claimed Psychics like Nancy Leider... Of which everyone forgets that she claimed they warned her that the earth would be destroyed in 2003.
Of course.... nothing happened. Because there are no Zetans.

The fallacy here, of course, is that we can replace "Zetans" with any fictitious creature of which there is zero evidence and get the exact same effect:

Summary

These same sites go on to claim that the Illuminati is in control of CERN, The WHO and other international entities - all without a shred of any kind of evidence... and, of course... that the Illuminati answers to the Chocolate Cheez-whiz snorting Space Dragons.
Chocolate Cheez-whiz snorting Space Dragons are described as a "lizard-like" alien race that has been in... Telepathic communication with claimed Psychics like Nancy Leider... Of which everyone forgets that she claimed they warned her that the earth would be destroyed in 2003.

You do use electricity. You use it to cook with, eat with, store food, transport food... To access this forum.

Summary

Yes, the UK's push toward sustainability and combating detrimental environmental effects is due to the UN's push toward global cooperation.
This is a good thing.
It is not a conspiracy - it is all public and out in the open and is open for discussion by the representatives and public at large.
It is not in any way whatsoever, some ulterior push for one world government.
What it is... Is a group of people saying out loud "We are being shortsighted.
We are making mistakes that will cost our descendents dearly.
We are in a position now to improve this and mitigate our mistakes
So we should be responsible and Do This."

5G does not cause Covid.
CERN is not trying to dominate the planet with Zetans and the Illuminati at the helm.
Wind Farms and Solar Farms are not some evil plan to rid the world of our poor defenseless farmers. Farms are still safe and food production will falter greatly without protections against Climate Change.

I am posting this in a summary tag because it is far off topic of the forum. But let's Nip This In the Bud Here And Now:
Once you go down this road:

  • where fallacies get unchallenged and claims made without any evidence
  • due to a person claiming to be some kind of skeptic, but are really just posting unsupported proposed alternative realities

You can claim anything. Literally - anything. You can claim that the ZorinGroup is a Microsoft puppet, turning GnuLinux users into Microsoft slaves.
All information becomes suspect.
All statements become absurdities.

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Exactly right, too much of this garbage is conspiracy theory BS, like the lizard people you mentioned. I am not worried about some lizard dude pulling strings like a puppeteer, because I don't really believe in that BS.

What I do believe however, is whats going on with AI right now, that deeply concerns me. Our nations and corporations, are spearheading this AI like a steam train, full steam, not carrying at all the repercussions in doing so.

But like all trains that run amuck, they derail, and cause a lot of damage in the process. You'd think that James Camron's Terminator, would put enough fear in people to realize the possibility, of unfettered AI.

But nope, were still pushing AI hard, with none of the 3-laws of robotics programmed into the AI whatsoever. And now, AI has gotten so good, that sometimes were chatting with AI without realizing it.

You know how many customer service desks online, now use AI instead of using a real person, because apparently none of them want to deal with us, so stick AI on there? And now Linus Tech Tips is talking about wanting to run a bot for their Tier 1 tickets as he calls it.

Sure, it makes it easier on you the person taking service calls, if you unload all the easy stuff onto AI, but at the end of the day, at what cost? How far is our species willing to give AI control, until AI gets so big, it runs the country?

If you really think about it, this complete blatant abuse of AI, without any laws programmed into it, will eventually spell out our doom, when some real life version of Skynet is born. Eventually, it will get smart enough to know whats the problem on this planet, its humans.

And once it realizes that humans are the problem for everything including global warming, which is at an all time high now scientists say, our glaciers are disappearing, the Antarctica is melting, AI will make the logical choice, that we humans must be stopped.

Plus, all this data collection that AI is tasked with. Did you know, that the Right To Privacy, a USA constitutional law, used to actually mean something? Not anymore, as AI is being used to do data collection on you, and greater amounts then what has ever done before.

There is no privacy anymore, both corporations and government, want to know exactly where you are, exactly what you are doing, at every minute of the day, everyday of the week. Our species position, has turned into one considered cattle.

I am just grateful that I am not some GenZ kid who was only just born today, who doesn't know what life used to be like, before all this tech spying. These kids today, are growing up in a world, where all of this is totally normal, and to always hit accept on your phone, in order to use your APP or website, while the thing data collects.

I remember a time, when there was none of this garbage. Sure, yeah, it was simpler times, I give you that, but in a lot of ways, it was better times. We were sold on a lot of promises, on how wonderful the internet was supposed to be.

But in a lot of ways, we were lied to. Our species creates the dystopia that were going through today. Lizard people called Zetans whatever, they are not going to be the ones who kills us. Its going to be our creation, AI, and like I said before, were like a train, full steam ahead, our ability to stay on the track be dammed.

Its a real sad state of affairs we've gotten our species in. But like most of us from my generation, were along for the ride, not much we can do about it, since were not the ones in power making the decisions.

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Are we the baddies?

There is a part of me that, letting go of personal self-interest wonders... If we are the problem, maybe Skynet aint exactly wrong...

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Who is?
That's a big ask and it's a question, AI will provide the answer.

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Well, think about it. A Machine which doesn't have the Weakness of the human Body ... Sure the technival Stuff can break but You can transfer the Data. I wouldn't directly call it Immortality but it could lead to a long, long Life. And there would be logical.

But now there is a big red Button. And when this Button is pushed all is over. And on this Button sits a Human. A fragile, stupid, emotional, aggressive, unbalanced and unlogical Being. Simply a weak Existence. And that sits on Your Death Button. It is a permanently Death Threat. So ... You have to neutralize this.

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A bit more Tolerance for Lizard People please.

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Funny enough, powering AI is probably among the top things that contribute to global warming, at least nowadays. So if AI becomes aware soon enough about global warming and tries to solve it, I'm not sure what they'll do first: destroy humanity or destroy themselves.

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Is the button maybe labelled "Accept"
(terms and conditions apply, but nah you don't want to read all that stuff)

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No, a Skull with crossed Bones (Humans need it simple).

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I love the turn this thread has taken :joy:

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Yeah, it got a little derailed... or did it?

Talking about companies like Microsoft these days requires talking about AI. And as funny as it may sound, there have been plenty of professionals that have raised concerns about the more than likely misuse of this otherwise amazing technology, not to mention the chance for unforeseen consequences, which has already happened as well — in trainings and simulations, but it has happened.

Incidentally, talking about any of this also means talking about the future of our society. For example, Microsoft is able and willing to ignore IP laws to get what they want, unchecked and punished.
How come companies like Microsoft & friends are able to ignore copyright and IP licenses, for a very juicy profit, while mere mortals need to dread downloading something "illegally" even if it's for their own personal use? Doesn't seem fair.

Even if we get past the topic of dystopian scenarios, the concerns that people had in regards to privacy — and the unavoidable push towards take over of consumer ownership — are still the same as they have been for over a decade. Except that now these concerns are amplified by the use of a technology that remains largely unregulated and that very few actually understand.

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I know, but I also made my comment because of other references there are about conspiracy theories and such. I didn't follow the whole thread well and I found it funny.
The whole AI thing is more than justified, no matter how funny or fictional it may seem. Science fiction has been predictive before on several occasions and there has always been a kind of feedback between art and science/technology where each is inspired by the other.

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The very fact that MS is turning to nuclear power to drive its AI demands is shocking! We're constantly told to reduce, reuse and recycle, but did anyone think of restarting a nuclear power station to fuel their desires?

I don't want Co Pilot or Recall on any machine that I'm using, so I'm leaving Windows behind completely next year.

I follow Chris Titus (and others) Tech on YouTube, so I don't believe the scare stories - the truth is bad enough.

AI does have its uses, but it is completely unnecessary to force it onto people, giving them no choice, except to turn their backs on companies like Google and MS. Sadly, a lot of people are completely ignorant, or just don't care.

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This is such a wise comment. I love this.

It really goes to show where the problem really is.
A.I. is energy intensive. Yes, we are told to reduce, reuse and recycle due to the damage we are causing the environment - then those same entities that preach that it is up to us to solve the problem they cause, they then worsen the problem by greedily desiring a very energy intensive process.
A very sad truth: The vast majority of pollution and environmental damage is done by industry and corporations. Yes, what we do as individuals matters and yes, we should do our part. But our part is smaller than theirs. By manipulating this to make it appear to be a public problem, they absolve themselves of doing their part. Which is the larger part.

@zenzen really nailed this. The average person is held under the law while the companies and people in power are not. Yet, companies can lobby? Or be protected under individual citizens rights instead of being treated as an organization or company? Really?

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Remember when microsoft tried to market Windows 365 as the new big thing? No, not office 365, I'm referring to their cloud pc version of windows

Yeah, they tried taking the "there is no cloud, just someone else's computer" to the next step in such an obvious way that no wonder the product stopped being advertised to average consumers not long after.

I've looked it up and the product seems to still be available, but only for enterprise, which I can only see using if the boss wants to spy on their employees, so it kinda makes sense there's a little bit of sales on there... similar type of use as to what Recall will ever be considered "useful" for, basically

I do remember seeing a few years ago that a ""cloud pc"" with only 4 GB of RAM costed so expensive that by the use of 2 years you could have gotten a way better real computer with the same money, which I thought was funny, but it would be really sad if they pushed towards that enough to forcefully replace real computers...

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I mean, I also started skimming through a lot of comments when I saw talks about the lizard people :smiley: It's also a bit depressing that a topic about technology rails out like this...

All in all, the future of Windows looks more like a warning sign to let us know that there's an unfinished bridge up ahead. We really should slow down a bit.

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Not just Microsoft.

Perhaps when CoPilot pops up there should be some small type "brought to you by Three Mile Island". Just to help educate the public as to the power required by these services.

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Lot of great posts in this thread, really get people to thinking. Some of this is why I left Windows - so I didn't have to get on Windows 11 when Windows 10 ends. I didn't know a lot about it but it just seemed like all the gimmicky AI stuff, which I didn't want or need, I started worrying about: will I need to buy a better computer to run it, will my computer be slow and annoying to use with all this extra stuff they want to do on it? And then I realized how ridiculous that is, to have to buy a better computer so that it runs well with all the stuff Microsoft wants to do on my computer that I don't even want. I'm not a gamer and I can get away with very inexpensive, lightweight machines for my needs. Why the heck am I having to worry about "Is my computer good enough to run all that poodoo Microsoft wants to do on my computer"? I'm so so glad I gambled and gave Zorin/Linux a try. I thought it was a long shot but have been pleasantly surprised. I have not used Windows since the day I installed Zorin on on a spare pc as a "test run".

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I wonder how many nuclear power plants will be needed if every linux distro would support AI and fuel their data centers :crazy_face:

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Actually, this isn't quite true:

"You know how many customer service desks online, now use AI instead of using a real person, because apparently none of them want to deal with us, so stick AI on there? And now Linus Tech Tips is talking about wanting to run a bot for their Tier 1 tickets as he calls it."

Linus and Luke discussed it openly and dismissed the idea completely, with Linus saying that it was important to him that commenters know that he is personally responding directly to them - taking his time out of a busy schedule to do so, and Luke pointed out that it wouldn't be long before any AI bot would start signing its comments with LS. The idea was completely dismissed. It was on the LAN Show a couple of weeks ago, although I can't remember the date.

I think we do have some power to change things. Simply by turning away from Windows to Linux, and Google to an alternative, using Containers for browsing, and avoiding Meta "social media" as much as possible. Doing everything we can to not use AI and speak to a person instead... Getting the news out to people that there are some VERY good alternatives to Windows, like Zorin and Mint. These also help to reduce e-waste and use much less energy.

The people do have power, we just need to use it better.

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