Am I being paranoid?

[GunnyGene]

I had high hopes I was right. But what you say makes sense.

Btw, don't expect to see any significant regulations or laws to limit the growth and capabilities of this tech. There's way too much money at stake (Trillions) to allow the govt to interfere with it in any meaningful way. Gov itself is one of the biggest customers and investors in it.

 

[Mike J]

We might as well face it. They already know who we are & where we are & pretty much what we have. All they have to do is go through our forum & or F-book posts or our internet browsing & search history. Not much point in worrying about it now.

As for the shipping. It seem shipping/freight companies these days use the least efficient route possible. I have no idea why but it is something I've noticed.

 

[Randyzzz]

I've had several recent packages go to Salt Lake. Seems that is a good place for a 3-5 day siesta for packages. Also seems every package lately has multiple arrival/departure scans within an hour of each other.

Our local delivery person blames it all on Amazon. She says every day they get pallets of Amazon deliveries daily and there is no overtime- they keep track of the hours and then give you a month off in lieu of pay late fall. Take away all incentive for exceptional performance. And supposedly Amazon negotiated a deal so sweet that no matter the volume the postal service looses money.

 

[GunnyGene]

We might as well face it. They already know who we are & where we are & pretty much what we have. All they have to do is go through our forum & or F-book posts or our internet browsing & search history. Not much point in worrying about it now.

As for the shipping. It seem shipping/freight companies these days use the least efficient route possible. I have no idea why but it is something I've noticed.

You might be interested in what our government is doing in regards to AI enabled systems - or lack thereof.

If you guessed "forming a committee" you guessed right. Not even a committee actually. Just a "panel". Here's who's on it, and some other hints.

https://www.cnn.com/2024/04/26/tech/openai-altman-government-ai-safety-panel/index.html

Excerpt:

The 22-member AI Safety and Security Board is an outgrowth of a 2023 executive order signed by President Joe Biden, who called for a cross-industry body to make "recommendations for improving security, resilience, and incident response related to AI usage in critical infrastructure."

That same executive order also led this year to government-wide rules regulating how federal agencies can purchase and use AI in their own systems. The US government already uses machine learning or artificial intelligence for more than 200 distinct purposes, such as monitoring volcano activity, tracking wildfires and identifying wildlife from satellite imagery.

And additional info on what parts of the government are using AI now (not including the military). Over 200 purposes as of last Dec, with plans for 500 more. DOJ is one of the departments. Guess who is part of DOJ.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/12/tech/gao-ai-report/index.html

 

[el caminero]

Someone ( I forget who) once said, "Never attribute to malice that which can be just easily explained by incompetance." That's probably at work here.

Heinlein used that one a few times, he rarely said who he got some of his best lines from

 

[el caminero]

I was too-frequently accused of sending payments in late, and one time i was in negotiations with them to cancel their check and write a new one and it came back, looked like they had walked on it for a month instead of delivering it 50 miles away. so i put it, as-is, in a bigger envelope, sent it out again, and they never again argued when i told then it must still be in-the-system. North or south, or east, up in these mountains, often take over a week to get to a place i can drive to that day, but coming from the east may take only a few days.
Another time, a package was msg'd as delivered, but couldnt be found, was traced as delivered to the neighboring box, and that inadvertent recipient but Return To Sender on it. It got caught in jamaica bay, on the way back to the ukraine, and finally delivered.
Also, I dont like dhl, they like to open my packages and badly retape them, (but i havent lost a watch, yet) if they are not stuffing them between the garbage cans and signing my name themselves, so anymore i have any dhl deliver't to their depot at the airport.

 

[Fox Mike]

To answer your original question: "YES!"

 

[dhains1963]

So, here's the current problem with USPS: There's been so many deadbeats hired over the past several years that the system simply can't function. When there's more mail at the dock than is getting processed, at some [point the Supervisor realizes that his shift isn't going to clear the dock for the next scheduled arrival of mail from XYZ. They hook up a tractor to the loaded or partially loaded trailer and send it on a road trip to another facility. The load gets to that facility and they say "Hmm, that's not ours" and send it on another road trip back to the first place or just some random sorting facility in order to get it off their 'to do list'.
I can look at the scans on an in transit package and see this instantly. My state representative is gathering information to present to USPS in order to find a fix for this problem. I've offered my services as an advisor and may get put back on the payroll for this project.

The current problem is 20+ years of affirmative acton hiring, as well as a federal government that cannot enforce the law of the land. Best person for the job.

 

[BearBiologist]

I had a sergeant tell me "You are NOT being paranoid for thinking little yellow men are out to kill you if little yellow men REALLY are trying to kill you!"

 

[WV460hunter]

So, here's the current problem with USPS: There's been so many deadbeats hired over the past several years that the system simply can't function. When there's more mail at the dock than is getting processed, at some [point the Supervisor realizes that his shift isn't going to clear the dock for the next scheduled arrival of mail from XYZ. They hook up a tractor to the loaded or partially loaded trailer and send it on a road trip to another facility. The load gets to that facility and they say "Hmm, that's not ours" and send it on another road trip back to the first place or just some random sorting facility in order to get it off their 'to do list'.
I can look at the scans on an in transit package and see this instantly. My state representative is gathering information to present to USPS in order to find a fix for this problem. I've offered my services as an advisor and may get put back on the payroll for this project.

I recently ordered a gasket from a store 5 hrs. Away in the next state up from me. It went on a ride all the way to Delaware then Georgia and back and arrived after 10 days..I emailed the store I purchased from and sent them the shipping trail and the apologized profusely and said they would contact USPS about the problem..

 

[WV460hunter]

I had a sergeant tell me "You are NOT being paranoid for thinking little yellow men are out to kill you if little yellow men REALLY are trying to kill you!"