Extremism ……..

[cowpatz]

An incident that unfolded last night has left me genuinely puzzled. Right outside a restaurant in Kumeū, a man attempted to set fire to the public toilets. What possessed him, I can't begin to guess—especially considering the structure is made of solid concrete block with a heavy steel roof. The only thing that caught fire was himself, moments after shouting “Free Palestine.” He survived, but his condition is reportedly dire.
It begs the question: what was the intended outcome? Did he truly believe that torching a small-town restroom in a country most people couldn’t locate on a map would somehow influence a deeply entrenched geopolitical conflict? Could he even pinpoint Palestine—or Israel—on a globe?
This seems emblematic of a broader global trend toward extremism. Whether it’s politics, religion, sexism, or just plain intolerance, the world feels increasingly polarised. People pick a side, dig in, and refuse to budge—even when their stance is demonstrably flawed. It’s tribalism dressed up as patriotism, often blind and unyielding.
And don’t get me started on social media and its latest offspring… AI.

[toprob]

You're right on the last point, I do think a lot of people will suffer because of AI, and are already suffering because of social media. The same way that people suffered because of the industrial revolution, and the tech advances over the last 100 years. Some people benefited from all these, but that's the way the world works.

But really the world has always been an extreme place when it comes to politics, religion and tribalism. In a lot of ways, it's getting better but seems otherwise because of the algorithms which feed up fearmongering, anger and titillation to get paid. I've reduced exposure a lot lately, although I'm still hooked on some aspects.

The other point, about the bloke setting himself on fire, seems a lot more like the result of alcohol, drugs, mental illness or a combination of those, so I'd need more info:) Which brings me to the fact that people seem to think that they are entitled to know about every little titillating fact in everybody's life, and have no trouble spreading rumour and just making up stuff.

[cowpatz]

I agree with all of your points Rob.
Moving forward it's going to be a case of trying to determine what's real and what's not and what is fact versus disinformation.

[deeknow]

I blame all the flight sim forums .. it all started with Boeing vs Airbus you know

[emfrat]

Funny you should mention that. I remember an FSX dev released a plane which had a textures folder. At that time, I always unzipped new planes in a folder named Area_0, to check that the file structure was correct. I saw this 'textures' folder, didn't know if it was valid or not, so I moved the whole thing to SimObjects/aircraft to see what would happen. Sho'nuff, all I saw was a black shape, so I renamed the dev's textures folder to texture and all was well. From the uproar that followed in the various forums very few other folk noticed the error.
A computer could not have done that. All a computer can do is add and subtract, albeit very very quickly. It cannot, of its own volition, make any sort of value judgment and form an opinion based on that.
If they could, I would already have mortgaged my house and put the lot on next month's Melbourne Cup winner.

[toprob]

I blame all the flight sim forums .. it all started with Boeing vs Airbus you know

Probably the only thing I don't have an opinion on. So, which IS the best?

EDIT: I just asked an AI, turns out Airbus is the winner.

[cowpatz]

I blame all the flight sim forums .. it all started with Boeing vs Airbus you know

Probably the only thing I don't have an opinion on. So, which IS the best?

EDIT: I just asked an AI, turns out Airbus is the winner.

See even AI can get it wrong......it's Boeing

If you haven't already seen it there is a very good British TV series on TVNZ on demand called "The Capture". There are 2 series, and it involves deep fakes and the deep State. Very thought provoking and quite disturbing, but more so now as we probably already have the technology.

[Splitpin]

Great post CP, and equally great replies.
I believe you have nailed the state of humanity ....and may I say very eloquently.
I won't be weighing in on this.... none of you have time to unravel my waffle.

deeknow "I blame all the flight sim forums .. it all started with Boeing vs Airbus you know " you maybe onto something big fella ...

[deeknow]

deeknow ... you maybe onto something big fella ...

I think "you know who" started it back in 2015 .. "Arbust!!!"
https://www.nzff.org/viewtopic.php?t=24781&p=8374788

All jokes aside .. I think that's another thing w the way peeps take on and reinforce these polarised views .. you can't joke w those types about anything at all these days without it seeming like an attack. They treat everything so black and white there's no possibility of debate or discussion in any way without them exploding into some tirade or other. It's a weird world.

[Charl]

Dinocyclopaedia... In the intervening decade things have changed a bit, eh? These days, I ask which airliner I am booking on, and if it's the wrong flavour I ain't going on your airline.

I read that NZ is a favoured destination for the bunker-building Nervous Super Rich of the world.
Do they also have a vision involving bearded ones wielding pitchforks, attacking Data Centres at night and puncturing their nuke power station water jackets, I wonder?

[cowpatz]

Well, if you have ever watched the Terminator movies, and believe that mankind discovered how to travel through time, then I reckon Sam Altman (Open AI and creator of it) should have been assassinated by a "Sarah Conner type" around 4 or 5 years ago. With autonomous robotic fighting machines, drones and the US military adopting AI to counter a hypersonic missile attack response (Humans too slow to respond.....think Skynet) then maybe the movies are prophetic.

A bit dystopian for a Sunday morning so time to fire up the flight sim for a VFR sortie, then bunker down for the Bathurst 1000.