But at least using power machinery doesn’t involve giving people like Zuckerberg the keys to your house 
1 Like
Or indeed
Pass the Soma!
If you have any of that Soma left over, I wouldn’t mind giving it a go.
The best quote in that article was not from Huxley but another interesting thinker.
“The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge.” – Stephen Hawking
2 Likes
Fun fact: the etymology of the word sabotage…
1907 (from 1903 as a French word in English), “malicious damaging or destruction of an employer’s property by workmen,” from French sabotage , from saboter “to sabotage, bungle,” literally “walk noisily,” from sabot “wooden shoe”
Although, somewhat sadly…
In French, and at first in English, the sense of “deliberately and maliciously destroying property” was in reference to labor disputes, but the oft-repeated story (as old as the record of the word in English) that the modern meaning derives from strikers’ supposed tactic of throwing shoes into machinery is not supported by the etymology. Likely it was not meant as a literal image
2 Likes
For SOMA read religion, Social Media, Soccer, etc.
1 Like
The dangers of AI and blindly accepting the information it spews out.
1 Like
Bread and circuses…
Or more worryingly, has AI discovered how to implement an experiment in evolutionary principles
2 Likes
Sabotage is throwing your wooden clog into the machinery.
1 Like
That’s what I’d heard before too, but I’m not so sure any longer that it’s not a historical myth. For example I read this…
https://www.guichetdusavoir.org/question/voir/136517
Bonjour,
Pour connaître l’histoire et l’étymologie du verbe “saboter”, nous nous sommes référés au Dictionnaire culturel en langue française Le Robert (2005) publié sous la direction du linguiste Alain Rey.
Voilà ce que nous apprend son entrée dans le dictionnaire :
Le mot est construit à partir de “sabot” (chaussure paysanne faite généralement d’une seule pièce de bois évidée, Le Robert) et serait utilisé depuis le XIIIe siècle pour désigner l’action de “heurter” et “secouer” (avec des sabots). Son origine est aussi provençale puisque “sabotar”, veut dire “agiter”. Dans ce sens au XVIe siècle on joue au sabot, à savoir à la toupie et le mot veut dire “faire tourner”.
Littéralement le terme saboter veut dire “piétine bruyamment avec des sabots” où, plus tard au XIXe siècle, “fouler (le drap) l’étoffe repliée entre deux sabots de bois”. Mais tout au long de ce siècle les usages du mot se multiplient : dans le langage courant le mot veut dire “faire vite et mal quelque chose” (bâcler, gâcher, torcher etc.). En 1842 : Garnir (un pieu, un pilotis) d’un sabot. En 1872 : entailler et percer les traverses des rails de chemins de fer avec des saboteuses.
Puis à la fin du XIXe saboter finit par signifier “détruire ou détériorer par acte de sabotage”. Au sens figuré c’est égal, il s’agit de contrarier ou neutraliser quelque chose (un plan, un projet etc.).
1 Like
Still, I’ll stick with the throwing of clogs into the machines. Satisfyingly picturesque!
2 Likes
It’s tantamount to putting a spoke in a wheel 
1 Like
Spoke. Clog. All good!
I’d hoped that sabotage was really the manufacture of sabots, just given a bad name.
1 Like
Saboterie doesn’t have the same ring to it😉
1 Like
1 Like
How could it be otherwise?
Meanwhile, citizens in UK are worried that the government plans for an ID card because it will maybe track them 
1 Like
No. UK citizens don’t want an ID card because they have never been required to have one before. There are issues of privacy related concern, but it’s seen as a loss of personal freedom.
I think that’s the point - the irony being that there is no loss of freedom because that went ages ago.
2 Likes