Self-checkouts were introduced as a multi-purpose solution to labour shortages, rising wage pressures, and consumers’ appetite for speed.
In theory, they would modernize the grocery experience while reducing operating costs. In practice, they have become a source of irritation for many Canadians — and a growing liability for retailers.
THE founder of ChatGPT, Sam Altman, has joined a clutch of tech billionaires contributing to the $30million funding of a biotechnology business called Preventive which aims to ‘correct devastating genetic conditions for future children’. The US company has plans to edit the DNA of babies before they are born, a process known as human germline genetic engineering, which is banned in 70 countries. Preventive is seeking a country which will give it permission to carry out its experiments. No doubt the New Zealand Gene Technology Bill, currently awaiting its Second Reading, which will liberalise decisions about gene technology experiments and place them in the hands of a single regulator, will have brought NZ to the attention of Preventive.
Healthier babies, fewer cruel diseases, a better start for every child: it all sounds irresistible. This week, the Times reported that gene-editing techniques are now being considered for routine use in human embryos. Each step is presented as modest and benign, yet beneath the soothing language lies a shift that takes us from caring for the sick towards treating children as projects to be optimised.
The pagans optimized their offspring
The year is 1 BC, and Hilarion, a pagan migrant worker, has found a good job in Alexandria. His colleagues are heading home, but Hilarion wants to stay a bit longer and earn extra money for his pregnant wife, Alis. Concerned that she might worry about his not coming back with them, he writes Alis a letter begging her not to worry and assuring her that he’ll send the money soon. Regarding the unborn child, Hilarion instructs Alis to keep it if it’s a boy — but if a girl, to “cast it out.”
The letter — an actual document from the ancient world that survives to this day — reveals a man capable of deep feeling. The fact that Hilarion could be so flippant about discarding an unwanted newborn, all the same, may seem shocking to us today, but it reveals much about the pre-Christian pagan culture that formed him. The pagan Greeks and Romans had no trouble dehumanizing newborns, and they thought nothing of making choices about which babies should live and which die, based upon their own needs and desires.
According to a recent report from The Blaze, citing the former running mate of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Nicole Shanahan:
Nicole points to transhumanist companies that are currently manufacturing human eggs in a lab “without any input from a female ovary” and then fertilizing them with either “real sperm or synthetic sperm, which can also be grown.” In other words, pseudo-human beings are being created by machines in laboratories.
To quote the old Church Lady from SNL’s days of yore: Well, isn’t that special?
The Chinese scientist who was imprisoned for secretly creating the world’s first genetically-engineered babies has claimed he will be remembered as China’s Charles Darwin for ultimately eliminating natural selection.
He Jiankui, who shocked the scientific world in 2018 when he said he had rewritten the DNA of two twins, Lulu and Nana, told The Telegraph that he had no regrets over the controversial experiment.
An investigation by Chinese authorities – which also revealed a third gene-edited baby – resulted in a three-year prison sentence.
In 20 years, gene editing in human embryos will be as popular as iPhone pic.twitter.com/BWoJ52h6ei
— Jiankui He (@Jiankui_He) December 21, 2024
A new class divide?
The federal IT department on Monday said they are “working to establish digital credentials” for Canadians without parliamentary go-ahead.
MPs have repeatedly rejected introduction of any electronic national ID system as expensive and risky, per Blacklock’s Reporter.
A few years on, Silicon Valley’s brief obsession with the metaverse has assumed the quality of a bad dream, half-remembered. Legless avatars beckoned us into barren digital landscapes to … stand around and talk about NFTs? Parcels of “property” sold for millions of dollars? It was a … virtual world? No? A mixed-reality game? No? A new frontier? An escape from meatspace? A layer on top of it? Companies raised and spent billions of dollars on the metaverse without ever quite getting their stories straight about what it was supposed to be or do — they didn’t just lack a good pitch beyond “getting in early,” they lacked a coherent concept to pitch in the first place.
The project’s signal achievement was to light untold quantities of money on fire
So pack it all in then. Away with the wisecracking butterfly that sits on your shoulder during work meetings. Out with the Gamorrean Guards who play Texas Hold’em with you around a floating table.
The metaverse, Mark Zuckerberg’s fever dream of a virtual-reality infused world, is dead. That’s assuming it was ever alive and kicking in the first place.
Tractor maker John Deere has agreed to give its US customers the right to fix their own equipment.
Previously, farmers were only allowed to use authorised parts and service facilities rather than cheaper independent repair options.
Deere and Co. is one of the world’s largest makers farming equipment.
Consumer groups have for years been calling on companies to allow their customers to be able to fix everything from smartphones to tractors.
Mark Zuckerberg’s metaverse may be facing a troubling future after worldwide shipments of VR headsets and augmented reality (AR) devices dropped more than 12 percent to 9.6 million in 2022.
It’s frickin 3d Glasses with another name. People have soon tired of 3d Glasses every time they’ve tried to resurrect this gimmick.
