Will be back tomorrow. — Darren

10 search-engine keyphrases bringing traffic to Afflictor this week:

1. julian assange helping trump win why
2. first computerized election coverage
3. edward luce interview david petraeus
4. benjamin franklin anti-vaccination
5. walter kirn article on surveillance
6. sculptor hendrik christian andersen and mussolini
7. sweden doing away with cash
8. robot teaching assistant
9. k tel founder philip kives
10. saul bass interview

This week, Peter Thiel called Gawker a “singularly sociopathic bully,” which is also an apt description of the Presidential candidate he supports.

• Why Mark Zuckerberg is wrong about Peter Thiel and “diversity.”

• Long before Comey tried to tip the election, the media created Emailgate.

• Transhumanist Presidential nominee Zoltan Istvan did a Reddit AMA.

• Dave McKenna profiles journalist Jennifer Frey, who drowned in alcohol.

• Odious “pharma bro” Martin Shkreli is still treating life like a zero-sum game.

• More information often means less in the Digital Age.

• Dubai is introducing robot police officers to “make people happier.”

• Data will impact transportation and privacy in America in the near-term future.

• Driverless cars will be designed to be crowdsourcing “lifelong learners.”

• It’s confusing to analyze the Internet Age economy and automation’s impact.

• Uber sold itself as an agent for social good, which has always been bullshit.

• Mars settlers would be significantly altered in short order by their new home.

• The peddling of “packaged air” is a horrifying sign of the times.

• Technology start-ups aim to disrupt the end-of-life industry with Death 2.0.

• Death is coming earlier to a surprising number of Americans.

• Old Print Article: The Muse brothers were from Virginia, not Mars. (1927/28)

• A brief note from 1924 about a schoolroom electric chair.

• A brief note from 1943 about flying cars and trucks.

• This week’s Afflictor keyphrase searches: Tasaday hoax, Marvin Minsky, etc.

10 search-engine keyphrases bringing traffic to Afflictor this week:

1. marvin minsky he was our yoda
2. is robert mercer a racist?
3. eldridge cleaver penis pants
4. jesse ventura conspiracy theory
5. new ted kaczynski book
6. eliza computer psychotherapist 1960s
7. charles manson busted picture spahn ranch
8. a nimrod of the old west
9. xiao dong evidence for a limit to human lifespan
10. the stone-age tasaday hoax 1971

This week, Anthony Weiner sexted yet another lady.

• Donald Trump’s political aspirations are one flush from disappearing down the vortex, but the stench will linger.

• American democracy could fall apart despite our laws and customs.

• Utopia is no longer a goal of U.S. communities outside of Silicon Valley.

• President Obama’s embrace of Silicon Valley is both good and bad.

• Guaranteed Basic Income may be just a palliative, more bread & Kardashians.

• Paul Mason thinks information technology had a unique impact on capitalism.

• Zoltan Istvan explores Jacque Fresco’s automated, resource-based economy.

• Buckminster Fuller’s ideas still resonate in the Digital Age.

• Automated weaponry is a linchpin of America’s military future.

• Charlie Brooker talks the challenge of being a satirist in an extreme era.

• Future crime may involve AI stealing the voices and faces of the unsuspecting.

• The E-sports arena spectacle is booming. Is it lasting?

• In 1975, Brian Wilson needed a lifeguard but Ahab showed up.

• A brief note from 1910 about a movie that was too realistic.

• This week’s Afflictor keyphrase searches: Italo Balbo, Aaron Burr, etc.

Someone saying he represents BuzzFeed thinks I’m a “Human Vampire,” but I’ve never claimed to be human! From today’s Afflictor inbox:

10 search-engine keyphrases bringing traffic to Afflictor this week:

1. scott kelly astronaut psychological effects
2. italo balbo fascist technocrat
3. dog barbers
4. david remnick donald trump
5. cheap brain emulations
6. aaron burr’s last days
7. vladimir nabokov road trip america
8. can anyone save the new york times?
9. john markoff machines of loving grace
10. can a lunar colony be profitable?

This week, President Obama told Donald Trump to stop whining about the election.

Such a nasty woman!

Who, me?

• Steve Schmidt talks the aftermath of Donald Trump, the Worst American.™

• Derek Mead writes of the hidden cost of Trump’s ugly campaign.

• Douglas Coupland wonders if the U.S. two-party system is near its end.

• Texas, as we’ve long known it, may not be America’s future or even its own.

• Billionaire Robert Mercer is drawn to crackpots, including Trump.

• Yuval Harari sees utter fecklessness to governments in a high-tech age.

• Stephen Hawking and Ted Kaczynski agree: Machine intelligence may kill us.

• Pedro Domingos discusses ultimate learning machines, robot babies, etc.

• Video may “help us digest more information,” but there are downsides.

• Marc Levinson argues that secular stagnation is actually business as usual.

• Kurt Vonnegut was wrong in his judgments of Bob Dylan and Larry Flynt.

• Elon Musk’s near-term Mars colony isn’t the sanest way to explore space.

• Wholly automated airplane flights are a distinct possibility.

• A brief note from 1934 about a daredevil promoter.

• A brief note from 1936 about the “Duckpin Killer.”

• Old Print Article: Carveth And Zetta Wells, Married Adventurers. (1929/1945)

• This week’s Afflictor keyphrase searches: Bob Dylan, Gloria Steinem, etc.

10 search-engine keyphrases bringing traffic to Afflictor this week:

1. bob dylan d.a. pennebaker
2. virginia heffernan trump howard stern
3. you can fit the entire u.s. population in texas
4. texas is the future of america
5. michael crichton predictions about the future
6. nixon phone call astronauts on the moon
7. gloria steinem profile in spiegel
8. carl bernstein the idiot cuture
9. richar dawkins recent reddit ask me anything
10. people who see imaginary gangs of stalkers

This week, Donald Trump demanded he and Hillary Clinton take a drug test before the next debate, a suggestion which was readily adopted.

Drop trou and go to town, Butterbean.

I’m a classy man, and I’ll only take a leak in a champagne flute.

You done, Beefsteak Charlie? Now give me the sample.

Wait a minute. All that urinating made me thirsty. I need some ginger ale first.

You just drank you own whiz, Doctor IQ.

Refill, Donald?

Don’t mind if I do.

• Some GOP wonks have been belatedly awakened by Trump’s rise to the party’s racist identity politics.

• Wired talked AI and more with Barack Obama, future President of Mars.

• The U.S.C. Dornsife/LAT Daybreak poll is baffling for a couple of reasons.

• The CDAN blog who purports to know which of your favorite stars are felons.

• Charlie Rose, a handsome and agreeable robot, interviewed a fellow robot.

• Tad Friend penned a great profile of Sam Altman & Silicon Valley’s VC culture.

• Superintelligence is risky, but so is the absence of it.

• Silicon Valley’s life-as-a-computer-simulation groupthink is troubling.

• Tyler Cowen says driverless and drones may spark a suburban renaissance.

• China leads the world in early adoption of Virtual Reality. Why?

• Paul Mason encourages a re-embrace of the Geneva Conventions.

• Our next friends may seem human but not be human.

• Old Print Article: Prophecies of apocalypse provoke panic. (1925)

• Old Print Article: California “Pagan Love Cult” raided. (1927)

• A brief note from 1894 about a barbershop monkey.

• This week’s Afflictor keyphrases: Peter Thiel and Gawker, etc.

10 search-engine keyphrases bringing traffic to Afflictor this week:

1. peter thiel and gawker
2. the religion of technology
3. lucian truscott iv writer
4. evidence for a limit to human lifespan
5. steven dubner discussing immortality
6. gene wilder young frankenstein
7. designer micropig pets
8. claudine wife of andy williams
9. hugh hefner paul snider
10. post-humans and space travel

This week, after the revelation of his disturbing “grab them by the pussy” remarks, Donald Trump went to desperate lengths to convince people he still has female supporters.

• Graydon Carter considers Donald Trump in this Baba Booey of an election.

• Virginia Heffernan analyzes the Howard Stern-Donald Trump dynamic.

• Michael Che of SNL thinks Trump isn’t a racist ignoramus. That is wrong.

• Gary Hart, who may have reversed the Reagan Revolution, talks the election.

• David Letterman didn’t address Trump’s bigotry when he had the chance.

• Julian Assange could have been useful despite himself. That did not occur.

• Margaret Atwood and Richard Dawkins consider our future, if we have one.

• Our minds may become an “amalgam between brain and device.”

• Elon Musk thinks disseminating knowledge about AI will make the world safer.

• Automated-weapon systems might enable a robotic Cold War.

• Some geneticists believe humans will never age beyond 115.

• George Plimpton’s participatory sports journalism is reconsidered.

• Old Print Article: A misbegotten baby show is staged at Midget Hall. (1877)

• A brief note from 1891 about a gloomy entertainer.

• A brief note from 1931 about truth serum.

• This week’s Afflictor keyphrase searches: Douglas Engelbart, Stanley Milgram.

This week, Donald Trump was trounced at the first Presidential debate. He quickly blamed the microphone, and he was right.

Apparently the technician, a fatso with a sex tape, forgot to…

completely turn off his volume.

• In the debate, Donald Trump was slowed by a case of the sniffles and a case of being a complete fucking idiot. The sniffles may go away.

• Edward Luce looks at the U.S. Presidential race, a sort of Reality TV show.

• Freeman Dyson writes of Space Race 2.0 and a biotech version of Noah’s Ark.

• Economist Tyler Cowen opines on the Internet, biotech, war, AI, etc.  

• Ryan Avent discusses the future of work in a highly automated world.

• Zume Pizzeria is using robots rather than humans to prepare pies.

• Lawrence Summers wonders if male worker are dinosaurs.

• Many think the world is going to hell when data says the opposite is true. Why?

• Elon Musk’s proposed Mars mission reflects on society as well as science.

• One issue with Musk’s space ambitions is that “Mars is not prime real estate.”

• It’s possible the Digital Age will necessitate a new New Deal. 

• Technology needn’t run amok to result in a chilling scenario.

• Old Print Article: Raymond Orteig sparks aviation development. (1927)

• A brief note from 1886 about a plasterer who sold his wife and five children.

• This week’s Afflictor keyphrase searches: “130-year-old man Charlie Smith.”

From the November 7, 1886 Brooklyn Daily Eagle:

10 search-engine keyphrases bringing traffic to Afflictor this week:

1. lincoln watching john wilkes booth act
2. snl devo
3. trump golf fathead
4. jacqueline susann on what’s my line?
5. henry miller big sur
6. arnold schwarzenegger posing in museum
7. milton berle and richard pryor fight on tv
8. story about tarring and feathering
9. gerard o’neill space travel predictions
10. world’s oldest man charlie smith 130

This week, we learned that if you’re a new Saturday Night Live cast member who’s made racist tweets, you’re in trouble, but if you’re a…

…far more racist Presidential candidate, you get to host the show.

• Donald Trump Jr. and Milo Yiannopoulos, odious, alt-right trolls, are profiled.

• Elon Musk wants us to move our brains deeper into the cloud.

• Andrew Sullivan claims before his Internet addiction, he was a human being.

• In 1970, Ramsey Clark feared U.S. citizens would lose their privacy.

• Ryan Avent writes of the challenge of managing the mass automation of work.

• In a more automated society, it isn’t likely everyone can be rapidly upskilled.

• Crowdsourcing driverless-car ethics may leave many dissatisfied. 

• Apple’s Airpods might be a “gateway drug” to technological implants.

• Richard Hollingham wonders if all extraterrestrials might be AI.

• H.G. Wells’ social predictions were as vital as his scientific ones.

• Despite the bloody sores on my hands, the paperless office may be upon us.

• Philosopher David Livingstone Smith analyzes the nature of creepiness.

• Old Print Article: Wilbur Glenn Voliva preaches “Flat Earth.” (1924/31/42)

• Old Print Article: Dr. Marage’s synthetic talking machine. (1901)

• A brief note from 1929 about kissing rules in Kansas.

• This week’s Afflictor keyphrase searches: Joe Pyne, Jack Van Impe, etc.

10 search-engine keyphrases bringing traffic to Afflictor this week:

1. televangelist jack van impe
2. the jesus people documentary 1972
3. satanist anton lavey with joe pyne
4. erich von däniken chariots of the gods
5. commune leader saul newton
6. american heiress patty hearst jeffrey toobin
7. does the internet dream of itself?
8. gordon lish raymond carver
9. jerry stahl thomas mann
10. mike tyson when young

This week, talk show host Jimmy Fallon was criticized for humanizing Donald Trump, a racist troglodyte who mocks disabled people and POWs. It was reminiscent of his interview with Idi Amin.

Thank you for inviting me on your show, Jimmy.

It’s great to have you. What have you been up to lately?

I’ve been torturing to death my political enemies and eating soup made from their severed, boiled heads.

That’s so much fun. I’m a foodie, too. You’re great. Everyone’s great. I don’t drink too much. There are no problems. Now let’s play beer pong with Busy Phillips.

• New statistics show Donald Trump’s political rise is about identity politics.

• Trump and his followers possess a perplexing appreciation for Vladimir Putin.

• Alan Rusbridger and Edward Snowden, key players in the NSA leak, converse.

• Yuval Harari says humans may be upgraded into gods or become extinct.

• Nicholas Carr’s Utopia Is Creepy analyzes the likely biotech revolution.

• Peter Diamandis’ vision of a future of “haves and super-haves” is flawed.

• Reason reviews Eve Herold’s new book, Transhumanism Is Inevitable.

• Scott Beauchamp writes about the consequences of an automated military.

• Cory Doctorow has an excellent essay about the coming IoT privacy wars.

• A bold near-term plan aims to remake Los Angeles transportation.

• Playwright Edward Albee, who just died, HATED Digital Age technologies.

• Jack Hofsiss, director of the NYC stagings of The Elephant Man, just died.

• Old Print Articles: William James Sidis, Child Genius. (1910/19/44)

• A brief note from 1904 about a lion tamer in Florida who went insane.

• A brief note from 1951 about the death of an Alabama snake cultist.

• This week’s Afflictor keyphrase searches: Harold Robbins, Dave Eggers, etc.

10 search-engine keyphrases bringing traffic to Afflictor this week:

1. hugh hefner technology
2. executioner robert g. elliott
3. nim the monkey raised in manhattan apartment
4. robert mcgee scalping victim who survived
5. it’s time to turn off the dog
6. popular author harold robbins
7. doping problem in e-sports
8. hacking cars and taking them hostage
9. dave eggers covering donald trump speech
10. anti-doughnut laws

10 search-engine keyphrases bringing traffic to Afflictor this week:

1. the first person to live to 1,000 might be 60 already
2. michael graziano human consciousness
3. automatic body washing machine
4. sylvia anderson moon suits
5. david foster wallace denis johnson
6. what did h l hunt eat?
7. george spahn ranch charles manson
8. jaron lanier discussing h.g. wells
9. pat brown’s meatless hamburger lab
10. vladimir lenin’s brain

This week, Donald Trump went to Mexico to appear Presidential, but it was all a ruse to deliver him to…

El Chapo!

I was tricked!

Finish him, Gigante Gordo!

Wow, so this is heaven. Hey, St. Peter, that’s some tan you’ve got!

St. Peter?!? I mean, duh, I’m wearing horns.

And I’m wearing the kind of underpants that mutes farts. Hey, this is a big piece of real estate. Have you ever thought of developing it?

How so?

We class it up, Pete. Casinos, golf courses, Eastern European models and my name in big gold letters everywhere.

That sounds hideous! It would actually make this place even worse. You’ve got a deal.

Great. But first we need to install some air conditioners. I’m sweating like Rubio in this dump.

Not happening, Hamburglar.

• Rudy Giuliani created a template for Donald Trump’s odious campaign.

• Trump, Father Coughlin reborn as Yucko the Clown, is at odds with the RNC.

• The GOP’s disdain for reality has become full-on delusion in the time of Trump.

• Nicholas Carr wrote a great essay about Silicon Valley’s assault on reality.

• After a year in Mars-like isolation, the HI-SEAS crew “returned to Earth.”

• Werner Herzog discusses AI, VR and traveling to Mars.

• A Stanford study provides a sober assessment of AI’s future.

• Technology may or may not be the main obstacle to driverless.

• Nick Bilton analyzes Uber’s existential threat: autonomous cars.

• Gawker’s Nick Denton talks about the insulated nature of institutions.

• Algorithms anticipating lawlessness is, of course, problematic.

• Living under Texas border country surveillance is disquieting.

• In 1974, Gene Wilder was interviewed on the set of Young Frankenstein.

• Old Print Article: Electronic brain translates language. (1954)

• Old Print Article: Georges Claude was the “French Edison.” (1931/44)

• A brief note from 1889 about a tiger with a glass eye.

• This week’s Afflictor keyphrase searches: Colleen McCullough, psychokinesis.

10 search-engine keyphrases bringing traffic to Afflictor this week:

1. high tech texas megachurch
2. bob guccione vanity fair profile
3. thorn birds writer colleen mccullough
4. roman polanski sharon tate murder house
5. mind control laredo texas
6. astronaut edgar mitchell psychic research
7. psychokinesis in the 1970s
8. american heiress jeffrey toobin
9. the apocalypse has becme big business
10. old nyc butcher shop for horse meat

This week, Donald Trump’s physician, who said the nominee would be the healthiest individual ever elected because “all the rest of them are either sick or dead,” diagnosed another Republican with just a mild headache.

• Edward Luce profiles longtime Donald Trump consigliere Roger Stone.

• Paul Wolfowitz explains why he’s horrified by the political rise of Trump.

• Whither Kim Jong-un, North Korea’s “Dear Respected Comrade”?

• Gonzo Ramparts editor Warren Hinckle just died. Read some of his best work.

• It was better to have Gawker than not have it. Why does its demise mean?

• Farhad Manjoo says Gawker’s influence lives on. That’s mostly true.

• Yuval Harari’s brilliant essay says Humanism is giving way to “Dataism.”

• Top scientists try to answer 20 big questions about the future of humanity.

• “Another Earth” near Proxima Centauri is discovered. What does it mean?

• Despite recent business deals, Elon Musk may fail to electrify the world.

• Paul Taylor thinks about the near- and long-term future of machine learning.

• The arrival of the Internet of Things is subtle, which may not be good.

• In 1976, MIT’s Michael Dertouzos predicted the future of computing.

• David Pescovitz discusses the (perhaps) bold future of libraries.

• The Economist reports on the disorienting struggle faced by Postmormons.

• Americans are longer among the world’s tallest people. Why?

• Tama Janowitz, 1980s NYC bright young thing, publishes a memoir.

• A brief note from 1891 about hunger artist Charles Owen ending his fast.

• A brief note from 1945 about a volcano salesman.

• Old Print Article: Bruno Hauptmann’s executioner grows nervous. (1936)

• Old Print Article: General Lew Wallace dies at Indiana home. (1905)

• This week’s Afflictor keyphrase searches: Barbra Streisand, Peter Thiel, etc.

10 search-engine keyphrases bringing traffic to Afflictor this week:

1. henry miller predicting the future
2. mark singer writing about donald trump
3. jesse ventura is full of shit
4. frank pierson article about barbra streisand
5. peter thiel arrogant and thin-skinned
6. simulated virtual reality food experience
7. mazie phillips bowery doyenne
8. frank rich commenting on wendy wasserstein
9. lucille miller san bernardino murder
10. president obama on automation and basic income