by Higgenbotham » Thu Jul 02, 2026 1:11 pm
Higgenbotham wrote: Tue Jun 30, 2026 1:37 am
AI has its limitations as demonstrated. Though I do believe that Burja comes closer than anyone I've run across to articulating the same reasons this is not an information age, why it's not, and what would generally be required to get to an information age.
Based on the topics of the last few posts, and since we are talking about a sociological viewpoint which aligns with that of this Dark Age Hovel, it might be useful to bring up a phenomena that I call Stacking. Everyone knows what Stacking is and, since it's a pervasively engrained late stage Industrial Age sociological phenomena, everyone has experienced it. It's what everybody does to some extent and nearly everybody does it willingly. So the only thing new here to anyone might be how it's framed and some of the specific examples to be discussed. But everyone has encountered their own specific examples.
Stacking might be thought of as like a Jenga pile.
For practically every individual in this late state Industrial Age, more and more responsibilities are stacked on top of other responsibilities and no responsibilities are ever removed in a planned fashion. So, for example, a supervisor may come to Smith and say, "Smith, this year your goal will be 7 projects instead of 4. Each project will be harder than the ones you did last year and on top of that you will do some training of your replacements, who will get lower pay than you. For the great job you have been doing, you will get a 2 percent raise, less than half of last year's inflation rate." Who hasn't been presented with something like this? What does it mean? Does it mean the economy is getting better and more efficient? Smith, if he understands Stacking properly, will say, "YES, SIR, I will try to do NINE projects, maybe even ELEVEN." Meanwhile, as far as Stacking and the Jenga pile goes, maybe Smith's health will suffer. Maybe he doesn't get cancer yet, but since cancer is a process that takes decades, the stage is set for him to get cancer 30 years down the line instead of 40 or never. Maybe his marriage suffers or his kid goes into the beginning stages of turning into a juvenile delinquent. In other words, fundamental blocks of responsibility are removed from lower in the Jenga pile in an unplanned fashion until on this particular individual basis, the entire pile collapses. The supervisor will never or rarely say, "Smith, since we are giving you more projects we are taking away X, Y, and Z to compensate." Smith will have to make his own compensation and the compensation will be a net long term negative.
The first example of Stacking that comes to mind is, again, around that 1971 time period, give or take a few years.
Higgenbotham wrote: Sun Apr 14, 2024 12:49 pm
I've mentioned in these pages that somewhere around 1971, give or take a few years, and it would vary from sector to sector with probably the more complex sectors coming first, that the US entered the maintenance phase of a declining civilization.
That was when, to my way of thinking anyway, The 97th Percentile said to the women in America, "Hey, have we got a deal for you! You are going to be LIBERATED! You see, you were all like SLAVES, didn't you know it? We are going to liberate you into the workplaces of America and get our own 2 for 1 deal." So at that point in time nearly every household in America transitioned to 2 jobs instead of 1 and the pay rate per job was slowly and methodically cut in half. And the people bought it hook, line, and sinker while the top 0.1 percent or so cashed in mightily. I could add a few paragraphs, but let's get to the main point.
The point I want to make overall here, is in no way is Stacking an Information Age sociological phenomena. There is no information involved with Stacking, just brainwashing. It is purely a late stage Industrial Age phenomena which has the effect of prolonging the maintenance phase of a declining civilization. And Stacking is purely 100 percent disinformation which is of no benefit to anyone except maybe the uber wealthy.
Stacking is probably why retirement has become such a hot topic of late. Retirement is the only way the average person can stop Stacking. The way retirement is sold is that if a person can just Stack faster and faster, maybe they will be able to Unstack sooner. Good luck with that.
[quote=Higgenbotham post_id=94702 time=1782797847 user_id=100]
AI has its limitations as demonstrated. Though I do believe that Burja comes closer than anyone I've run across to articulating the same reasons this is not an information age, why it's not, and what would generally be required to get to an information age.[/quote]
Based on the topics of the last few posts, and since we are talking about a sociological viewpoint which aligns with that of this Dark Age Hovel, it might be useful to bring up a phenomena that I call Stacking. Everyone knows what Stacking is and, since it's a pervasively engrained late stage Industrial Age sociological phenomena, everyone has experienced it. It's what everybody does to some extent and nearly everybody does it willingly. So the only thing new here to anyone might be how it's framed and some of the specific examples to be discussed. But everyone has encountered their own specific examples.
Stacking might be thought of as like a Jenga pile.
[img]https://i.postimg.cc/HxY63d5S/Jenga.gif[/img]
For practically every individual in this late state Industrial Age, more and more responsibilities are stacked on top of other responsibilities and no responsibilities are ever removed in a planned fashion. So, for example, a supervisor may come to Smith and say, "Smith, this year your goal will be 7 projects instead of 4. Each project will be harder than the ones you did last year and on top of that you will do some training of your replacements, who will get lower pay than you. For the great job you have been doing, you will get a 2 percent raise, less than half of last year's inflation rate." Who hasn't been presented with something like this? What does it mean? Does it mean the economy is getting better and more efficient? Smith, if he understands Stacking properly, will say, "YES, SIR, I will try to do NINE projects, maybe even ELEVEN." Meanwhile, as far as Stacking and the Jenga pile goes, maybe Smith's health will suffer. Maybe he doesn't get cancer yet, but since cancer is a process that takes decades, the stage is set for him to get cancer 30 years down the line instead of 40 or never. Maybe his marriage suffers or his kid goes into the beginning stages of turning into a juvenile delinquent. In other words, fundamental blocks of responsibility are removed from lower in the Jenga pile in an unplanned fashion until on this particular individual basis, the entire pile collapses. The supervisor will never or rarely say, "Smith, since we are giving you more projects we are taking away X, Y, and Z to compensate." Smith will have to make his own compensation and the compensation will be a net long term negative.
The first example of Stacking that comes to mind is, again, around that 1971 time period, give or take a few years.
[quote=Higgenbotham post_id=86650 time=1713113360 user_id=100]
I've mentioned in these pages that somewhere around 1971, give or take a few years, and it would vary from sector to sector with probably the more complex sectors coming first, that the US entered the maintenance phase of a declining civilization.[/quote]
That was when, to my way of thinking anyway, The 97th Percentile said to the women in America, "Hey, have we got a deal for you! You are going to be LIBERATED! You see, you were all like SLAVES, didn't you know it? We are going to liberate you into the workplaces of America and get our own 2 for 1 deal." So at that point in time nearly every household in America transitioned to 2 jobs instead of 1 and the pay rate per job was slowly and methodically cut in half. And the people bought it hook, line, and sinker while the top 0.1 percent or so cashed in mightily. I could add a few paragraphs, but let's get to the main point.
The point I want to make overall here, is in no way is Stacking an Information Age sociological phenomena. There is no information involved with Stacking, just brainwashing. It is purely a late stage Industrial Age phenomena which has the effect of prolonging the maintenance phase of a declining civilization. And Stacking is purely 100 percent disinformation which is of no benefit to anyone except maybe the uber wealthy.
Stacking is probably why retirement has become such a hot topic of late. Retirement is the only way the average person can stop Stacking. The way retirement is sold is that if a person can just Stack faster and faster, maybe they will be able to Unstack sooner. Good luck with that.