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However, some observers suggested that Amodei's post was less about safety than about consolidating control over AI technology.

"Dario makes the case to stop open source and concentrate enormous technological and economic power with Anthropic," wrote Chamath Palihapitiya, an investor and co-host of the tech podcast "All-In".

Notions of slowing down or even pausing AI development have long been met with cynicism in certain corners of Silicon Valley, with critics accusing leading AI developers of hyping their technology as a marketing ploy.

Anthropic and OpenAI are both reportedly preparing for potentially record-setting initial public offerings.

Higgenbotham wrote: Sun Dec 25, 2022 6:28 pm I said there are two opposite modes of living in the United States. The first is an expectation that you will spend your entire life in one area with other people who will spend their entire lives in that area. The second is an expectation that you will go to high school in one place, college in another place, then career in several places (no longer at one company) with sole focus on that. Everything else is something in between. The first mode engenders real connections while the second mode engenders transactional relationships. An example of a transactional relationship would be something like, "I have a buddy who is also 420 friendly. He finds me really good dope cheap and I fix all his computers." The best example of a transactional encounter I can think of is prostitution. Also, in a big city, encounters are briefer. That's not to say there isn't some overlap.

I told her in the second mode of living, people are taught from an early age to look to the next step in their progression and to primarily engage in transactional relationships as a means to get to that next step. A high school kid might be told to be friendly to the teachers because they will be writing college recommendations or whatever. They would not be encouraged to be friendly to teachers they genuinely like and not be friendly to teachers they genuinely do not like. And so on when the kid gets to college.

Higgenbotham wrote: Sun Aug 09, 2026 11:35 am People had a strong sense of meaning in their lives. But then something happened. The
2:03
percentage of the population, especially young adults, saying my life feels meaningless. It started to creep up and
2:09
then and then explode. Something happened very recently, really only in
2:14
the past 15 years, that made life feel meaningless. And meaninglessness, the
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lack of meaning in life, lies behind the explosion of depression and anxiety.
2:25
So some people find meaning more easily than other people do. The number one
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predictor of your life feeling meaningful is is living your life in
2:35
real life. It's relationships. It's living kind of in the old way. As a matter of fact, it wasn't that long ago
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that almost nobody said, "My life feels meaningless." But having distance between you and other people, or having
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technological mediation between you and other people, for example, having a screen between you and your friends, you
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and your loved ones, you and your family. Well, that changes life. It takes it from in real life to something
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more like, I don't know, a simulation of real life, which is exactly what a lot of young people say today. When I
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interview them, they'll say, "My life feels fake. It feels like something's missing. It feels like I'm living in a
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simulation."

We cured boredom — and created a meaning crisis | Arthur Brooks: Full Interview
Big Think 53,388 views Aug 7, 2026

https://youtu.be/WP3wl1rsXjg?t=62

Higgenbotham wrote: Mon Sep 14, 2026 7:08 pm

Higgenbotham wrote: Mon Sep 02, 2024 7:58 pm She asked me what I thought of AI. I said the first thing that comes to mind with regard to any new technology is whether you believe the civilization is on the ascent or the decline. If you believe the civilization is on the ascent, and you are right about that, then AI will probably on net be a positive and force for good. However, if you believe that the civilization is on the decline...at which point she interjected, "Oh, definitely!"...and then I finished my thought.

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei says U.S.-China AI race poses "toughest dilemma"
Face the Nation and CBS News

We begin with the stunning news from Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei Saturday that he is urging a slowdown when it comes to the development of artificial intelligence. It was a pronouncement that his chief competitor Open AI CEO Sam Altmann and Elon Musk quickly agreed with. Our Jo Ling Kent sat down with Dario Amodei yesterday. He explained the thinking behind his decision.

"What we're building is essentially intelligence. When something's very powerful, then of course it can be used well and it can also be used for ill and and so I am worried about what we've seen..."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBoKkUQuNJ8

: the aspects of an action, policy, or decision (as in politics or business) that relate to public perceptions

… when a broken-down bailout recipient like Citigroup tries to pay its top executives gigantic bonuses or to acquire a new private jet, it has failed to reconsider the optics.
—Nick Paumgarten

Skilling said Baxter "was concerned about the optics of the conflict, but not about the ethics or propriety of the transactions," according to interview memos.
—Peter Behr and April Witt

Higgenbotham wrote: Mon Sep 02, 2024 7:58 pm She asked me what I thought of AI. I said the first thing that comes to mind with regard to any new technology is whether you believe the civilization is on the ascent or the decline. If you believe the civilization is on the ascent, and you are right about that, then AI will probably on net be a positive and force for good. However, if you believe that the civilization is on the decline...at which point she interjected, "Oh, definitely!"...and then I finished my thought.

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei says U.S.-China AI race poses "toughest dilemma"
Face the Nation and CBS News

We begin with the stunning news from Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei Saturday that he is urging a slowdown when it comes to the development of artificial intelligence. It was a pronouncement that his chief competitor Open AI CEO Sam Altmann and Elon Musk quickly agreed with. Our Jo Ling Kent sat down with Dario Amodei yesterday. He explained the thinking behind his decision.

"What we're building is essentially intelligence. When something's very powerful, then of course it can be used well and it can also be used for ill and and so I am worried about what we've seen..."

A new report from the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) looks at how common fatigue is among adults age 18 and older. Fatigue was measured by asking people how often they felt very tired or exhausted in the past three months; feeling very tired or exhausted most days or every day during the three-month period was considered "frequent fatigue." The report uses data collected in the 2024 National Health Interview Survey.

Quick summary of the findings

Nearly 3 in 4 U.S. adults felt very tired or exhausted at least some days in the past three months.

28.5% never felt very tired or exhausted.
54.9% felt very tired or exhausted "some days."
10.7% felt very tired or exhausted "most days."
5.9% felt very tired or exhausted "every day."

About 1 in 6 adults experienced frequent fatigue, defined as feeling very tired or exhausted "most days" or "every day."
Who is most likely to experience frequent fatigue

Women were more likely than men to report frequent fatigue (20% vs. 13%).
American Indian and Alaska Native adults had the highest rate of frequent fatigue (25.5%), followed by White adults (18%), Black adults (17.3%), and Hispanic adults (12.9%), with Asian adults having the lowest rate of frequent fatigue (9.1%).
Younger adults were more likely to report frequent fatigue: frequent fatigue was highest among those ages 18–34 years (19.5%) and the lowest rate among adults ages 65 and older (12.9%).

Yesterday the Trump administration announced it would pay furloughed troops by using funds Congress appropriated for research, development, testing, and evaluation (RDTE) for fiscal year 2026. Today White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump had “found a creative solution to keep the troops paid. And rather than congratulate the president for doing that, this unprecedented action to get our troops paid, the Democrats want to sue him for it. They’re saying that it’s illegal.”

Democrats are saying it’s illegal because it is illegal.

Trump’s assumption of power over the government’s purse is a profound attack on the principles on which the Founders justified independence from King George III in 1776. The Founders stood firm on the principle articulated all the way back to the Magna Carta in 1215 that the government could not spend money without consulting those putting up that money by paying taxes.

Why are Americans so tired? CDC report highlights who’s feeling it most

Fatigue is one of the most common concerns reported in primary care visits, yet not much attention is given to how often adults in the U.S. are coping with it.

Sept. 13, 2026, 9:00 AM CDT
By Gina Vivinetto

The cost of healthcare. Economic uncertainties. Fears of AI-associated end times. It’s enough to exhaust anyone.

About 71.5% of adults in the United States say they experienced fatigue on multiple days over the past three months, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). Women and younger adults are more likely to report frequent fatigue, meaning most days or every day, than men are.

Sociologist Natalie A.E. Young, lead author of the report, said fatigue is “one of the most frequently reported health concerns in primary care visits in the U.S.” It’s the first study about general fatigue from NCHS, which surveyed about 27,000 adults ages 18 and older in 2024 about their health and daily lives.

People with fatigue “are at higher risk of activity limitations and disability, including permanent work disability. Yet there hadn’t been much attention to the frequency of general fatigue symptoms in the U.S. adult population,” Young said.

Fatigue isn’t ordinary sleepiness. It’s “physical or mental tiredness or exhaustion that does not improve with additional sleep or rest,” the researchers said.

Higgenbotham wrote: Tue Jul 27, 2021 11:14 am Here in the US, The 97th Percentile has been running the rest of the population harder and harder on the hamster wheel for decades to stay in place, and I think the population is exhausted.

Higgenbotham wrote: Fri Sep 11, 2026 10:49 pm For example:

Higgenbotham wrote: Wed Sep 09, 2026 12:09 pm In dark age theory, I've said many times that late 2011 represented a cut point where the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bankers established the certainty of a new dark age by their actions.

and we see on the list:

Fractional-reserve banking and bills of exchange: Medieval Italian and Dutch merchants created credit networks and paper bills to transfer money without moving heavy physical gold. This vastly increased the fluidity of global capital.

What I mean by that is, foundationally speaking, it's important to understand how and why these systems came into being, what rules for their operation were established, what things should never be done so as to not undermine the system, and whether the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bankers by their actions in 2011 crossed lines that never should be crossed.

Bernanke Policies At Fed Broke His Own Rules Of Central Banking

Thomas L. Hogan And Linh Le06:26 PM ET 02/07/2014

As Ben Bernanke's tenure at the Federal Reserve drew to a close, many wondered how history will remember this controversial chairman. Although he is widely respected as an academic, economists are divided regarding Bernanke's actions during the 2008 financial crisis.

Some think the Fed did everything by the book, while others contend its bank bailouts were unprecedented, possibly bordering on illegal. Former Fed Chairman Paul Volcker, for example, said the Fed's actions "extend to the very edge of its lawful and implied powers, transcending certain long-embedded principles and practices."

Did Bernanke save us from another Great Depression, or did he sell out to Wall Street by bailing out the big banks?

One way to evaluate his performance is to ask what course of action most economists recommend in a crisis and see if Bernanke followed their advice. In fact, Bernanke himself has proposed exactly that. He claims to have followed the standard playbook for financial crises: the rules for a classical lender of last resort set forth by 19th-century economist Walter Bagehot.

Bagehot's rules are considered the most effective guidelines for central bankers in times of panic. In his famous book "Lombard Street," Bagehot proposed a course of action for the Bank of England in response to banking crises.

Bagehot was not an advocate of central banking, but given the role taken on by the Bank of England as a central banker, he believed that the bank should act as the lender of last resort in times of panic. Bagehot had four rules for a lender of last resort:

1. The central bank should lend freely to solvent banks. As long as they are backed by sound collateral, there should be no limit on the loan amounts.

2.The central bank should only provide last-resort loans at a high rate of interest. This penalty rate serves as a self-selection mechanism so only the banks that are truly in need of funds seek them.

3. The central bank should only lend to illiquid but fundamentally solvent institutions. During a crisis, the central banker is under pressure because many banks are short on liquidity. However, the central bank should only make loans that it expects to be repaid in the future.

4.The central bank should announce its policies before any crisis takes place. This creates an expectation that the central bank will help to stabilize the banking system in future financial crises.

It is clear that the Fed's bailouts deviated significantly from Bagehot's recommendations. The Fed did not charge a high penalty rate of interest on its loans to at-risk banks. To the contrary, the Fed lowered its lending rates during the crisis.

Nor did the Fed deal only in good securities. Rather, it freely accepted risky assets such as mortgage-backed securities in order to get these toxic assets off banks' balance sheets and replace them with safe, liquid assets.

Did the Fed announce its policy in advance? Hardly. It bailed out Bear Stearns, then let Lehman Brothers fail, and then bailed out everyone else.

Perhaps the most important deviation from Bagehot's rules is the Fed's bailout of insolvent financial institutions.

Who lauded Bernanke?

AI Overview

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has been widely lauded by a variety of world leaders, major institutions, and prominent economists for his academic insights and his aggressive management of the 2008 global financial crisis.

The primary figures and institutions who have praised him include:

U.S. Presidents

Barack Obama: When nominating Bernanke for a second term in 2009, President Obama strongly lauded him for his "calm and wisdom," "bold action," and "outside-the-box thinking," famously stating that Bernanke's guidance helped prevent a second Great Depression.
George W. Bush: When appointing Bernanke to replace Alan Greenspan in 2005, President Bush lauded his intellect, noting his speeches for their "keen insight and clear, simple language."

Global Institutions & Committees

The Nobel Prize Committee: In 2022, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded Bernanke the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences (alongside Douglas Diamond and Philip Dybvig). The committee praised his groundbreaking 1983 historical research into the Great Depression, which proved that bank failures propagate and worsen economic meltdowns rather than just being a side effect of them.
Time Magazine: The publication named Bernanke its 2009 Person of the Year, lauding him as the most important driver behind the containment of the global economic free fall.
The BBVA Foundation: In 2021, they presented Bernanke with the prestigious Frontiers of Knowledge Award for demonstrating how financial market flaws amplify macroeconomic recessions.

Academic Peers and Economists

Simon Johnson (MIT): The prominent economist and author noted that Bernanke deserved immense praise for his "improvisation" during the crisis, pointing out that Bernanke's ideas fundamentally shifted how the policy world responds to banks to prevent collapse.
John Hassler (Nobel Committee Economist): Stated that Bernanke's once-radical views on proactive central bank intervention during financial crises "have become the conventional wisdom."
His Peer Institutions: Academic leaders at Princeton University (where he chaired the economics department) and MIT (his alma mater) have heavily praised him for successfully bridging high-level academic theory with real-world crisis management.

(Note: While Bernanke has received extensive praise, his policies—such as implementing multi-trillion-dollar quantitative easing and Wall Street bailouts—also drew strong criticism from some members of Congress and free-market economists who argued his interventions set dangerous precedents.)