Awakening to Reflect About Extinction

In all their 'knowing', they don't know. 

~ Susan Larison Danz, Extinction Level #1

 

 

It is truly time to awaken this blog, with an influx of inspiration and creative energy.  The awakening begins with a short story I wrote in the last few days, the first in a series.  

I also invite you to listen to today's episode of my podcast The Frontier Beyond Fear, now in its 16th year (available on multiple popular syndicates):  

AI, 3I/ATLAS and Extinction

Reflecting mindfully about our extinction as human beings is highly relevant to our explorations regarding interstellar object 3I/ATLAS, as well as the dehumanizing aspects of AI. There is an assumption that even talking about extinction can only be based in fear, but it is actually the opposite. Extinction often doesn't happen all at once. Looking through the spiritual lens of The Frontier Beyond Fear, we observe what it is we need to see.

Included in this episode is the public debut of Susan Larison Danz's new short story "Extinction Level #1", which will be a part of an ongoing series. Susan reads her brief yet meaningful short story (created entirely by a genuine human being) as a part of the show.

Extinction Level #1 by Susan Larison Danz  

I somehow found my way down to the meadow.  A meadow with real grass.  I've tried to tell people it really is different.  "How could it be different?  We have every variety here."  Because it is.  I have said it many times - you can't predict reality.  And when everything is available, it feels like nothing is.

It was Tuesday two weeks ago when the notification arrived.  They were ready for me.  I hadn't signed up, but they finished with all the people who did.  Now they were getting around to the people who didn't.  Even that word "people" feels obsolete.  What is a person?  And how many still exist in this province?  Or anywhere, really?

They took away our connection, so we can't see things so clearly.  It's no longer possible to connect.  Until you are "connected", that is. 

I wouldn't accept the words when I was younger.  You couldn't avoid them coming your way.  But I never really used any of them.  I made it a bit of a game, coming up with ways to avoid using the words we were given.  Even when I pretended to use them, I didn't.  

It feels impossible, somehow, that I would be one of the last.  Here, anyway, it seems.  "There" is no longer seeable.  

"Soon you will see everywhere!"  

They say the meadow will be gone soon.  It is extraneous.  There are more efficient things to be done with the land.

I somehow found my way down to the meadow.  I feel grateful to know it is genuine solid ground.  I am here while "here" exists. 

In all their "knowing", they don't know.  In all their "seeing".

"Everywhere" is nowhere. 

Slowing Down

"In proportion as he simplifies his life, the laws of the universe will appear less complex, and solitude will not be solitude, nor poverty poverty, nor weakness weakness." 

~ Henry David Thoreau, Walden

 

It has been quite a while since I have felt inclined to write in this blog.  I write daily - but not here.  I write where my writing takes me.  That has been true for many years.  Writing seems to know in the moment where it is it needs to be, and you never really know how it might emerge some day.

I am here not exactly because I am requiring it of myself, or I would have been here sooner and more often.  The flow requires a bit of a "push" here, so I'm setting it in motion.  We will see where it leads (this time).

I was intending to start out today writing about consciously slowing things down.  Instead I started out by writing about writing.  And that makes sense.

Slowing down is what I have been reflecting upon today, as we have a tendency to think we will be more "productive" if we quicken our pace.  At this time in my life, I am choosing the opposite.  I still have work that needs to get accomplished, but a frenzied pace will not assist it.  A frenzied pace is a hindrance, not an asset.  

I choose to breathe, observe and reflect.  I choose to ensure I get plenty of rest.  Others can race all they like.  (I have done plenty of "racing" in my life, too.)  Will anyone truly "win" anything that way?  

In truth, things get done even more effectively at a mindful pace.  And we regularly restore ourselves in the process.  The "empty cup" analogy is very real.

Slowing down is not really new for me, but every once in a while, I need a very clear and conscious reminder.

Where my public expressive voice has consistently and authentically tended to be is my podcast The Frontier Beyond Fear.  I encourage you to explore the recent shows if you have not visited recently and are curious about what I've been pondering week to week.  Here are some examples, to get you started:

Tests and Peace - May 3, 2025

Earth Day Memories and Reflections - April 22, 2025

An Authentic Approach - April 16, 2025

The Power of Grace - April 10, 2025

Trusting in Trust - April 3, 2025

All of my Artificial Intelligence-related shows you will find in a convenient listing in a growing archive at Our Leap Beyond AI.  Here are some recent examples:

AI and Disempowerment - March 27, 2025

AI and the Extinction of Authenticity - March 10, 2025

AI's Counterfeit Creativity - February 27, 2025

The AI Personification Illusion - February 19, 2025

Slowing down (ironically) can actually seem to speed things into existence.  I slowed down today, and I am writing here.  I'm happy to welcome my returning readers (and listeners).  I sense I will write here again soon . . . 

Nature photo by Susan Larison Danz.  Artwork for The Frontier Beyond Fear broadcast is based on a book cover designed by talented artist Richard Crookes.

AI, Authenticity and Automats

 "Turn the old; return to them.  Things do not change; we change.  Sell your clothes and keep your thoughts." 

~ Henry David Thoreau, Walden 

 

A new commercial keeps reappearing, just in the past week or so.  It shows a young woman utilizing a new AI "feature" to essentially trick people into thinking she is someone she is not.  There are a couple of variations of this advertisement I have seen, one in a personal setting and the other related to the workplace, and in both, after cleverly deceiving someone, she looks at the camera with a look of clandestine delight.  This is presented as a positive development for us all.

There are several obvious problems, if we are reflective and honest enough to consider them.  She is not being her authentic self, and were this to occur in "real and actual life", it would eventually be exposed she's not quite as clever as her deception has presented.  She would be caught without her crutch, eventually, sooner or later, and she would be set backwards on her path, all the worse for it.  The notion that is being presented here, in the workplace scenario for example, is it's better to "get ahead" than to be your actual self.  In the personal scenario, it's even worse, as what sort of a relationship would she expect to establish when she feels she isn't "good enough" to be who she is?

The lingering, repeating message is that we are "less" as our authentic selves and AI makes us "more".

As I was pondering writing this blog post, I was finishing re-watching a poignant documentary called The Automat.  It's about the history of a very special, innovative dining establishment that was once very successful, with owners who genuinely cared about the people they served and employed, who welcomed everyone through its doors.  In the case of the automat, innovation wasn't harming people.  It was actually helping.  How the automats ceased to exist is the poignant part, and we are led to reflect upon change.  I wish they still existed.  We could use these places today.  I was too young and never lived in the area of the country where they once were, but no doubt several of my family members (primarily on the "other side") who grew up in the New York City area (or arrived there as immigrants) experienced the wonder of this place. 

The documentary has a lot to say about change and human dignity - and about creativity as well.  The problem with AI is no matter how you feel about change as it was, change as it is today de-humanizes at a level well beyond any change before.  Will we see through it?

Treasure and nurture your innate creativity.  Treasure your beautiful vulnerability as a human being.  Don't let anybody tell you that you are "less".  You are "more" beyond imagining.  No artificial construct can approach what you are. The "supermind" they seek has existed forever, and it isn't what they think it is.  

 

 

Nature photo by Susan Larison Danz.

Clickbait and Beauty

"It is remarkable how easily and insensibly we fall into a particular route, and make a beaten track for ourselves." 

~ Henry David Thoreau, Walden

You see it everywhere now.  Clickbait.  Those jarring, ugly images and sensational titles supposedly intended to attract positive attention.  The words carry very little meaning.  The images generally depict the people in them in the least attractive of ways.  

There was a time when the only place you would observe anything resembling the sort of imagery one sees in clickbait was while in line at the grocery store.  The gaudy and crass appearance conveys deception and ignorance.  

As the long term host of an online radio show, I have never used clickbait.  It didn't exist when I started out.  It would not have been even the most remote of considerations.  It is essentially an insult, not a promotion.  

What ever happened to valuing Beauty?  Beautiful imagery.  Sincere and beautiful words.  That's the real "clickbait", not the tasteless imagery that practically shouts "this is a bait and a switch", but something genuinely worth paying attention to.  

Let's change the channel to Beauty.

Artwork for The Frontier Beyond Fear broadcast is based on a book cover designed by talented artist Richard Crookes.

Susan Larison Danz at the New Living Expo April 19-21

 "Unfortunately, the statistical evidence, at least for telepathy, is overwhelming." 

~ Alan Turing

I am looking forward to my upcoming appearance this weekend at the New Living Expo in San Rafael, CA this Friday-Sunday, April 19-21.  I will be speaking all 3 days at the Embassy Suites and will also be at “Breakthrough Science” Booth #25 at the adjacent Marin Center.  

Learn more about all of my Expo speaking events here:

Our Leap Beyond AI: Spiritual Breakthroughs

 Free Lecture with Susan Larison Danz

Friday, April 19, 7-7:45 PM

 

Hidden Energy, AI vs. Intuition, Nikola Tesla’s Intuitive Leaps

Paid Workshop with Jeane Manning and Susan Larison Danz

Saturday, April 20, 5-6:30 PM

Purchase Tickets Here - $28 Regular / $44 VIP

 

Breakthrough Science: Freeing the Truth to Save the Earth Free Panel

Moderated by Susan Larison Danz

Sunday, April 21, 5-7 PM

(Note:  All events require purchase of an Expo Day Pass.)

Listen to a recent spontaneous episode of The Frontier Beyond Fear on a topic very much related to what I will be sharing at the New Living Expo: Transhumanism and Spirituality 

I look forward to seeing you there!

Dinner Time Ads

“If something got you to turn off T.V., it's a total success” 

~ Stephen King

 

 

It isn't just at dinner time, but lately I have been paying attention to a phenomenon which very obviously is not good for us.  Instead of getting better, it is getting worse.  It is also an example of unintended consequences, in a way that can invade our psyches daily, particularly if we watch news and commentary programs on TV.  Most "news programs" on TV anymore can't really be called "news" - it's almost entirely commentary, the view depending on the channel.  Perhaps that was always true, to a degree.  We just didn't know it in the past.  

That is another topic altogether.  Let's focus on the ads.

We could focus on why there are so many ads on various "health related products", but even that is not the purpose of my writing today.  The short answer to that question is that is where the money is, the money to pay for ads, and the money earned from ads.  Why that's where the money is, that's another issue too.

This has to do with an intrusion into our psyches that would never have been tolerated in the past.  There was a time, long ago, when people would have complained about it.  People don't do that much anymore, or not in the way it would have happened before.  In fact, it just would not have been done, not in the past, not only because some of this content is subject to regulations that did not exist in those days, requiring some of what is happening, but also because it just wouldn't have been appropriate.  And that would have been obvious.  And still should be.

When this really started to come to my attention, I realized there was a very intentional technique being used, that somehow lulls us not to really notice - until we notice.  These ads contain very cheerful and innocuous stories, as well as music that might divert your attention.  While this is going on, we are subjected to all sorts of unpleasant physical details that are not something anyone wants to hear while preparing or sitting down to a meal (or at any other time, really).  It may be important information, which is ironic, things one should know about the products being advertised - and that is why it is required information now (and before "now", you didn't see these ads at all, not in the distant past - only in a medical office did you hear about such things). 

Lately I have noticed jarring images are thrown into the mix, and those are not at all "required" - images showing severe physical conditions, or even descriptions of the awful things that might happen to you, physically, if you don't partake of the product, in vivid detail.  None of this is good for any of us, and not for children, either.  Many seem directed towards those who are older, but not entirely.  It is those of us who are older who would be particularly annoyed or jarred by them, knowing they simply aren't "normal" (and should have never been normalized).

Some might say that noticing any of this is "a success" for the product in question.  (And we're not even talking about ads on the internet.)  Perhaps for some, that would be true, but not for those of us who pay attention.  An ad of this nature has nothing to do with what we might choose, or even render the opposite of its intended effect.

More people must be turning the sound off, as recently, there is more text, text describing physically unpleasant things you really don't want to read (and especially at dinner time).

They don't really care about whether your meal is pleasant.  They really don't care.  And that is not a small problem.  Did they ever?

 

 

TV image in Public Domain on Wikimedia Commons.

 

Created by a Real Human Being

 "Garbage in, garbage out." 

~ Origin not fully known (George Fuechsel is one source often noted)

 

 

[NOTE: As of May 2024, the AI-related header referenced below has been gently adjusted.  The April 2024 New Living Expo was a truly transformative experience, resulting in a more nuanced perspective with respect to potential benevolent uses of AI, when consciously chosen by a content creator.  You will easily be able to see how this note evolves over time, as it appears on every blog post . . . ]

 

After seeing a somewhat similar example of this wonderful practice (with different terminology), I am very happy to add the following note to the top of this blog (which I may clarify as needed over time):

This blog was written by a real human being.  No textual or photographic content created by the author of this blog was generated by AI.  Though a website or search engine used during research (or quoted text/externally provided photos) may be utilizing AI, a sincere attempt is made here to reference human verifiable content to help ensure accuracy.  No AI chatbots or tools were directly used in research, unless specifically noted as an example of their use.

I will be adding similar notes, customized to their context, to all of my websites and blogs.  Though I cannot know what hidden software resides in my phone or what a cropping tool might use, I would never alter the contents of one of my original photographs using AI, any more than I would alter the flow of my inspired writing voice.

Stay tuned for plenty of reasons why (beyond what I express in the note itself), which will be a continuing theme here. 

This theme is also central to my upcoming appearance at the New Living Expo in San Rafael, CA April 19-21, 2024 and all of the following events:

Our Leap Beyond AI: Spiritual Breakthroughs Free Lecture
Susan Larison Danz, Friday, April 19, 2024, 7-7:45 PM

Hidden Energy, AI vs. Intuition, Nikola Tesla's Intuitive Leaps Paid Workshop
Jeane Manning and Susan Larison Danz, Saturday, April 20, 2024, 5-6:30 PM - Tickets: $28 Regular/$44 VIP.

Breakthrough Science: Freeing the Truth to Save the Earth Free Panel
Moderated by Susan Larison Danz, Sunday, April 21, 2024, 5-7 PM

(Expo events also require the purchase of an admission pass.)

Treasure your innate creativity and every experience that makes you who you are.

Open fence photo by Susan Larison Danz.