Who Ya Gonna Call?

A hypothetical point in time at which technological growth becomes completely alien to humans, uncontrollable and irreversible, resulting in unforeseeable consequences for human civilization.

Technological Singularity/Wikipedia

The question is no longer, “Will we reach technological singularity?” Instead, the only missing variable is “WHEN will we reach it?” The answer, based on the attention to and rapid deployment of new artificial intelligence engines appears to be sooner rather than later. In his 2005 book The Singularity Is Near, futurist Ray Kurzweil predicts this point of irreversible and uncontrollable integration of biological and artificial intelligence will occur around 2045. At its current rate of evolution, 20 years between the current state of the art and this utopian or dystopian future, depending on your point of view, seems outdated.

The purpose of this blog post is to address a different singularity, one that already impacts our daily existence. It is singularity in the opposite direction, the integration of biological and technological ignorance and stupidity. A situation not at the mercy of ubiquitous autonomous apparatuses similar to SkyNet as depicted in “The Terminator” franchise, but one populated by a gaggle of human, yet inhumane, misfits who draw their energy from the complicity, apathy, and silence of those who have swapped critical thinking for unquestioned allegiance and personal gain.

Fortunately, there are still a few voices of reason in this wilderness of idiocrasy. Among the most vocal is a trinity of media players, all of whom are ironically associated with Paramount, one of Donald Trump’s prime targets. Of course, I refer to the recently cancelled Stephen Colbert (CBS) and Comedy Central properties “The Daily Show” with Jon Stewart and “South Park,” the product of co-creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker.

Of the three. “South Park” leaves no stone unturned. In Episode #1 of Season 27, Stone and Parker addressed the defunding of NPR, separation of church and state, the Epstein files, cancellation of “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” Canadian tariffs, and Trump’s Faustian deal with Satan. In Episode #2, school counselor Mr. Mackey becomes an ICE agent after losing his job due to school budget cuts. Stone and Parker then use this vehicle to skewer Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and introduce J.D. Vance as Trump’s “Tattoo” when Mar-a-Lago is depicted as Fantasy Island including Dora the Explorer as an underage masseuse.

However, something was missing, the potential for a synchronistic merger of these two opposing singularities: artificial intelligence meets artificial stupidity. The answer to this oversight arrived in an email from Microsoft, reminding me that I still had 50 unused credits for Co-Pilot AI (a new monthly benefit with an Office 360 subscription). My first thought. What if “South Park” Episode #3 introduced Stewart and Colbert as “TrumpBusters,” who come to rescue the residents from Trump’s evil scheme of turning the town into MAGAville.

I entered the following into the Co-Pilot dialogue box. “Create an image of Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert as ghostbusters a la South Park.” In less than a minute, the following jpeg file appeared.

Based on this first success, I requested a parody of the Ghostbusters’ theme song which included the phrase “I ain’t afraid of no Trump.” The AI gods denied the request as it violated some policy related to what might be considered a threat to a named individual. So I substituted the word “fool” for “Trump,” which produced the following.

🎶 Ghostbusters Parody: “Foolbusters” 🎶

If there’s nonsense in your neighborhood
Who you gonna call? Foolbusters!
If bad takes are up to no good
Who you gonna call? Foolbusters!

I ain’t afraid of no fool
I ain’t afraid of no fool

If you’re seeing cringe and hearing lies
You better suit up and neutralize
Zapping ignorance with style and sass
We bust the foolishness real fast!

I ain’t afraid of no fool
(Yeah!)
I ain’t afraid of no fool
(Bring it on!)

If you’re all alone, pick up the phone
And call… Foolbusters!

Which brings me to the latest piece of evidence we are living in the upside down. Yesterday, Trump called a press conference to announce the federal government would take over the Washington, D.C. police department and deploy National Guard troops to patrol the streets. What precipitated this authoritarian action? On August 5, former DOGE wunderkind Edward Coristine (aka “Big Balls) was assaulted at approximately 3:00 am near Dupont Circle. (Isn’t anyone curious what a 19 year-old employee of the Social Security Administration, the grandson of the-late KBG double agent Valery Martynov, was doing cruising downtown D.C. at 3:00 a.m. on a Tuesday morning?) Of course, Trump had to inflate the incident to declare the Nation’s capital the most crime ridden city in the United States. FACT CHECK: Violent crime has decreased dramatically in D.C. over the past two years plus the city is not listed among the 10 most dangerous cities in the USA with #1 being Memphis, Tennessee (Source: U.S. News Real Estate).

Sixteen minutes into his opening statement, Trump redirected the focus from public safety to beautification with the following word salad.

You shouldn’t have medians falling down into the roadway, median, you know, the metal things that are always — somebody had a great — a great lobbyist, because I’ve never seen them look good. I’ve been looking at those things with the little — right? They’re always broken bad, but here they’re really bad.

After reminding his “Late Night” audience that Fox News would have spent two weeks on Biden’s mental acuity if he had said something like this, Seth Meyers reiterated the importance of defining Trump through humor, closing with one final shade, “What do I know, I’m only a com-MEDIAN.”

For what it’s worth.
Dr. ESP