Flamethrower

As I’ve watched Atlas get older, I’ve seen him progress in his skills at making things like crafts, lego sets, artwork or even his own little ‘inventions’, which he uses to reach objects out of his reach. While he’s only four years old (for another two days), I’m impressed at his creativity, skill and ideas.

Being a Dad to a four-year old means that I have to take special precautions around my home. For example, I keep pesticides and dangerous cleaning products out-of-reach. Additionally, I ensure that all of the guns in our home are kept inside of a safe/lockbox when not in use at the range, or being carried on my body. It’s a rigid rule that I follow because I don’t want to risk any type of accident.

Even when I carry, I take extra precautions to ensure lower risks of an accident; namely, I choose not to carry a bullet in the chamber of my gun – as many gun owners do when they carry. What this means is that if I ever have to use my weapon, I’ll need to pull back the slide of the gun and chamber a round. It takes me an extra .3 of a second to perform this action – give or take.

While most gun-slingers swear on a stack of bibles that the chambered round is necesary in a life-or-death situation because split seconds count – I choose not to operate on the mindset that I must carry a loaded weapon at all times, because the risks outweigh the benefit in a majority of instances.

Without a loaded weapon, there’s no chance that my gun will discharge when I’m putting it in my holster, removing it from the safe or any number of instances where accidental discharges commonly occur.

The way that i see it, it boils down to probability. If I don’t have a chambered round, there’s no chance that my gun will fire. If I do have a round chambered, there’s a chance it could go off if the trigger somehow gets snagged or pulled when I’m handling the gun. As both a Dad and somebody with testicles I’d like to keep functional, the risk isn’t worth it to me to operate otherwise.

In every home, there are a lot of cleaning products that can be fatal if ingested, such as bleach. Additionally, there are a variety of cleaning products that can create fatal fumes if they’re combined; common house products can create mustard gas, which killed tens of thousands in WWII.

Is it likely that Atlas will break into the cleaning supply closet and start a small-scale chemical lab while I’m sleeping? Not likely. However, I still take the precaution of putting my bleach well out of reach for him at this age.

Is it likely that Atlas will run to the garage and figure out how to operate my chainsaw? Not likely. However, I still take the precaution of ensuring the batteries are removed from it, and that it’s out of reach. Additionally, he’s always under my direct supervision.

Why do I do these things? Because I love him and want what’s best for him. If I I were careless in my duties as his father, serious accidents could happen even if he didn’t intend for them to occur.

Love and care count for a lot in the world. In the case of Atlas, I want him to have a long and heathy life because he’s my son – a direct extension of me. If there were ever a situation where he or I didn’t have enough food or drinking water, I’d feed and hydrate him before I took anything for myself.

Why? Because I love him.

In that scenario, I wouldn’t view Atlas as a threat to my own resources needed for my survival. Not all things happening in the world right now operate under this sort of loving relationship.

Last year, AI consumed the same amount of bottled water as the entire bottle water industry combined. In 2025, data centers used around 460 terrawatt-hours of electricy, accounting for nearly 2% of the global use of electricity – up 16% from the prior year.

In my last blog, I shared about some of the innovations and advancements that AI has brought in the work industry. Today, I’m sharing a different perspective about a topic that many people don’t want to talk about; the existential threat of humanity which will be executed by AI technlogoes and a small number of global leaders.

In ancient Sparta, their slave population drastically outnumbered the population of Spartan citizens, with some numbers representing them as nearly 80% of the entire population. How did the Spartans keep the number of slaves in check?

Brutally. Once a year, Spartans declared open war on their slave popuation and brutally slaughtered a large number of them. For both parties, this was simply part of another day in the office; something to be expected each year.

As the global population surgest past 8,000,000,000, one can only dare to ask the question:

What happens to the masses of people when AI has taken over many functions of day-to-day operations, industry and government?

What happens to the masses of people when they fight (as they currently do) for the same resources needed to fuel AI data centers and the non-stop drive to advance its capabilities?

For many, the hope and belief is that AI will somehow be kind to humans and shepherd us; providing for our day-to-day needs and solving all of the problems that governments have failed to solve – including world hunger, peace and human cruelty. In most cases, the governemnt is the guilty party in these attrocities.

AI doesn’t care for humans the way that I care for Atlas. I can assure you of that.

Governments don’t care about Atlas the way that I do, either. You can see proof in the pudding that they have no regard for the lives of children that get in the way of their agendas.

I keep guns in my home because I want to be armed in case of a situation that arises where I need to protect and defend my family from harm. What I don’t do is stockpile large amounts of explosives or nuclear weapons, nor would I feel comfortable if one of my neighbors began doing so.

Why? Because their stockpile of C4 or Napalm could go off and destroy my house.

Governments don’t operate this way when it comes to weaponry, and they’re following similar suit in their development of AI technology. They aren’t racing to build largescale data centers because they want to improve traffic patterns or engineer better city infrastrucutre; they’re doing so because AI will give them an advantage in the digital arms race.

This should be highly concerning for both citzens and government, because the AI technlogy being built is far superior in its capabilities than the human minds that created it.

At its stage in development right now, AI technlogy is fairly limited. Hoewver, as governments race to obtain “AGI” – artificial general intelligence – the ability to control AI will vanish entirely, especially as AI technology infuses itself in every aspect of our day-to-day lives; financial institutions, power grids, security protocols and even weapons control.

It’s akin to me handing Atlas a flamethrower so that he can keep the house warm. In that scenario, it’s inevitable that the hosue will burn to a crisp.

The ‘advanced’ security protocols that we have in place over the global nuclear missle launch sites, submarines and other vehicles of destruction will seem elementary to AGI technology, and I personally fear that the worst possibility we can imagine is not only probably – it is inevitable.

Just as we swat and kill mosquitos that pester us during a family picnic, because they annoy us when they prick our skin to drink our blood and survive, humanity is essentially doing the same thing to AI technlogy now, and it’s only a matter of time before the AI Superintelligence chooses to swat us to pieces.

How will it do it? Spin the dial.

In the meantime, make the most of the life you have. Live it and don’t get caught in the traps of distraction that rob you of your joy, time or family.