GARBAGE IN, GARBAGE OUT?
The following article (sent by K.M. - thank you!) is very very short, but the implications could go on for millennia if one stops and thinks about it. And I'm blogging about it because those implications concern a wild and wacky scenario that I've been kicking around in my head for a few years now, and this story gives that scenario a bit more credence. Up until now, the only confirmation of that wild and wacky scenario has been the occasional stock market "flash crash". If you've hung around this website for a long time, you'll be aware of my thoughts on algorithmic trading and flash crashes: they reflect markets wildly disconnected from actual human market activity. I know that being a traditionalist I'm supposed to love capitalism and private property and all that stuff, but I don't, at least not the kind of crony finance crapitalism that makes money by trading paper with computer algorithms, and not making things and selling them.
But anyway, I've yammered on enough... it's time to get to the very very short story:
Zillow Scrambles To Punt 7,000 Homes For $2.8 Billion As AI Flipping Scheme Ends In Disaster
Note the following details:
On Sunday we reported that Zillow Group's AI-powered house flipping operation was a dismal failure - with 93% of homes in their Phoenix, Arizona portfolio (the company's second largest) currently listed at less than what the real estate company had paid, as revealed by an Insider investigation.
In Phoenix, 36.5% of properties currently for sale were listed below their purchase price, while the remainder of the 93% started higher, only to have price reductions.
Launched in 2017, Zillow's iBuying arm uses a wide array of real-estate data with the goal of quickly and efficiently acquiring properties to flip for a profit. The program has vacuumed up properties across the country to flip, only to be met with fierce competition from services such as Redfin, Offerpad and Opendoor. (Underlined emphasis added)
Summing all this up, we have the following:
(1) a real estate company (in this case Zillow), thought it would be a really good idea to gather all sorts of real estate data; and,
(2) have a sophisticated computer program crunch all that data and tell said company's buyers what houses to buy; and,
(3) make some improvements to said houses and "flip" them, i.e., sell them for a profit over and above the purchase price plus the cost of the improvements.
So colour me suspicious.
Suspicion Number One:
If you're familiar with former Assistant Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (mortgage division) Catherine Austin Fitts' story, this will sound very familiar. After leaving HUD, she founded her own company called Hamilton. She put together a software program that could track money flows county by county. The crooks and criminals in fedgoobernment did not like that, contrived to steal the software, and cooked up charges against Fitts, and brought her to trial... and lost, costing her a fortune to litigate, ending her company. But where's her software? Well, to my ears, Zillow's effort sounds a bit like what she and her team at Hamilton had invented. If you're familiar with the Inslaw-PROMIS software story, we all know what happens to software the government wants to steal: it ends up all over the place in dozens of modifications with a trail of possession that it would take a software program (like PROMIS) to trace.
Now I mention Suspicion Number One because it's only the backdrop to my main point, and Suspicion Number Two:
For some time - as I observed in the opening paragraph of this blog - I've been wondering if there isn't a very simple explanation to all the craziness we're witnessing in the world. What if our so-called technocratic "experts" were simply doing what computer programs - AI's? - were telling them to do? What if virtually every policy and/or decision was being gamed out on super-computers and the technocrats were simply the human agents executing those "decisions"? At the beginning of the planscamdemic, for example, we were told all sorts of dire stuff would happen... as the result of "computer models". We're constantly preached to about "climate change," itself a concept coming mostly out of computer models. So what happens when those models are flawed, and moreover, plugged into an artificial intelligence which is capable of modifying its own program as circumstances dictate? I rather suspect that if the original program itself is the product of inherently flawed humans, that a flawed "core" will still remain flawed and as the modifications to its own programming grow, that the effects of the core flaw will only grow, perhaps exponentially. And while we're at it, let's plug in Elon Musk's warning of a few years ago: what if, in inventing artificial intelligence, we open the gateway for some sort of "hyper-dimensional entity" to take over that system, unbeknownst to its human inventors?
The result would be Zillow: chaos, as decisions are not being made any more in a genuinely human way, and a market not reflective of real human market concerns and activities, but a virtual one... divorced from reality.
But in Zillow's case, they got it wrong. I doubt, however, that the lesson will be learned. The real danger is that the technocrats view even themselves as machines. All it requires is simply the right programming, and we'll get it right.
See you on the flip side...
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Real estate is not a computer generated construct and cannot be speculated on the same way stocks are. Real estate is called “real” for a reason. It is akin a very diverse, constantly changing and fragmented living organism that cannot be gainfully bought and sold with based on an algorithm, without an intimate personal knowledge of its tiniest parts in real time.
Joseph and GDS members, there is a biological entity that exists on Planet Earth that mirrors the very best human designed AI machines.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/m00103fr/the-blob-a-genius-without-a-brain
‘The Blob’ is a single cell organism that challenges our current concept of life and what it means to possess intelligence and the ability to learn.
You must watch this BBC documentary – it is mind blowing!
Joseph,
Off topic. Massive numbers of dead fur seals in South Africa. In this case it seems they died from starvation.
Remember the 737 Supermax!!!
How ironic that materialists who do not believe are more than willing to create artificial intelligence that they can worship and obey. Are our elites the penultimate thralls trying to create the perfect master they can serve.
This url below isn’t about AI – it’s about vaccine injuries, mostly to physicians in the US. All of us are under coercion to get these injections, and most of us know there’s something wrong with what’s going on.
I like credible numbers versus anecdotes, but I don’t think credible numbers are available in the US, and this seemed to be a steady informed piece of writing.
https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2021/11/01/doctors-blow-the-whistle-on-vaccine-deaths-and-injuries/
If you are right, Dr Farrell, about the AI’s calling the shots in the current insanity, then it is high time for a Frank Herbert style “Butlerian Jihad”.
All of the “mistakes” by the system greatly benefit a small group of people at the expense of the rest of us, and it’s always the same group. Therefore there is no AI running things poorly, it is just a regular conspiracy.
If midwestern farmers suddenly have their milk being bought for x2 the regular price and no one knows why, I’ll rethink my stance.
The term “AI” is largely marketing hype. Any sufficiently advanced software on a sufficiently fast computer can mimic functions of logic or rational “thought,” simply because those things have rules and process that humans follow when doing them. Humans also remember things, but no one was calling it “artificial memory” when computers got the ability to store data in circuits. Memory is part of intelligence and the process of rational thought, but just because machines can mimic certain functions of the human thought process doesn’t make them intelligent. Learning is also only a part of intelligence, and does not necessarily denote any kind of real consciousness.
I have yet to see a true example of “artificial intelligence,” and doubt that I ever will, because the people trying to program it are clueless as to what “intelligence” really is, much less consciousness. The cognitive sciences don’t really understand these things, and as long as they are stuck in reductionist materialism they never will. We don’t have a decent definition for intelligence any more than we have a decent definition for “energy.” Add in the fact that people are almost completely clueless about how to define “consciousness,” and one can easily see that the world of AI is largely smoke and mirrors; deception and self-deception.
For example, I have a pretty high IQ (top .03 percentile – gifted, but below genius level), but there are many, many, many things which less “intelligent” people can do far better than I. While many people equate intelligence with IQ, the fact is that the only thing IQ correlates with directly is how well one will do in school, not in any other area of life. The AI folks use parameters like IQ as the definition of what they are trying to create, which is why they continue to fail to create true AI.
What most people in the field of computing and cognition don’t seem to get is that rather than proving that humans are just machines, the constant failure to create true intelligence in a computer proves that there is more to the mind than simple computing of data, learning, or solving complex problems quickly.
If one understands that what materialists regard as the full human being is merely a physical construct acting as an interface in a specific layer of reality, then the idea of a computer becoming conscious is seen to be absurd and even quite stupid. That is like thinking one can copy the circuitry and a portion of the electrical signals of a television without knowing where the real programs come from, and call that “artificial TV.” Obviously an idiotic idea. Good marketing scam for bilking the peasants, though.
Our physical body is like those old deep sea diving suits with the big brass helmet: the energetic gestalt which is our consciousness “puts on” that suit to “dive” into this particular area of existence to be able to operate in it. Our physical bodies are more like deep sea rovers than our “real” selves.
When we sleep, much of our energetic gestalt leaves the body (i.e. goes back to the tender on the surface to take off the diving suit and breathe fresh air in our “native” environment) for a respite in the area of reality which is our primary field of existence in this life. The dreamworld is the “native” environment for the consciousness which we identify as ourselves in this life. The physical, material world is like the deep sea where we go exploring. Our “real” existence is far more complex, far more energy-based, and covers far more dimensions than we can understand from the 3D physical view of our life. Try and extrapolate a fancy French restaurant or Disneyland from the perspective of a sunken wreck to see what I mean.
The Universe is a psychological-energetic construct of infinite layers, dimensions, realities, and methods of organization and perception of energy, information, and communication. Human science hasn’t even begun to scratch the surface of our tiny physical arena, and already has quite a few absurdly wrong ideas about it. Most human science is on a dead end path.
There are certainly far more advanced computers in the black projects world, and they may follow a corollary of one of Clarke’s laws: any sufficiently advanced computer can seem magically like a real intelligence. That doesn’t make it one.
Joseph also raises the most pertinent point: programming makes or breaks the computer’s functioning. Considering the personalities some people in programming, to use their personalities as a template for machine intelligence would be disastrous. Many of them are not necessarily functional in regular human society, and that would be reflected in their attempts at AI. To the degree to which they are sociopaths (or psychopaths), their AI computers will be that way as well.
An important point Jaron Lanier would frequently make was anytime your looking at something artificial, meaning built by human hands, whether a chair or a computer your looking at people. Machines aren’t autonomous, they don’t make themselves and even if they could in some hair brained circumstance the impetus would have been people. The higher must proceed the lower.
Stupid spelling correct I meant ‘precede’ duh.
> Many [programmers] are not necessarily functional in regular human society, and that would be reflected in their attempts at AI. To the degree to which they are sociopaths (or psychopaths), their AI computers will be that way as well. <
Bingo!!
Sorry, off topic maybe, but anyone here know anything about ‘dirty’ electricity? A psychiatrist friend of mine was blogging about the dangers of electric cars and it lead me to start looking at the subject of dangerous electrical effects.
Morals and ethics are not programmed into the digital intelligent program… Just wait until they program health care decisions on who gets to live or die.
Of course there will an override in case the person who would be ended has money or is in a certain network.
The way the US is manipulated by finance is a very big example of the tail (finance) wagging the dog (the overall economy, of which finance should just be a small subordinate part).
Way before computers, in the tulip mania, I think it got so extreme that a certain type bulb went for the same price as a good house.
In this Zillow example, we don’t know if it was a money loser or not *for the people running it*, over the entire length of the trading, just that the game finally ended, and hardly anybody is good enough to get out at the exact top. Zillow company may or may not come out ahead, but the people running it probably did well.
The 2008 housing finance debacle went fine for those up on top of the game, who knew very well it was based on corrupt practices, and who knew that the legal and regulatory systems wouldn’t do anything about the corrupt practices – they were “covered”.
Didn’t doc write an white paper on some critter who had an “S” on the back of his uni ? Made up of “pipes& ? & ?” & some kinda “software”type stuff ? ? Maybe artificial intelligence…isn’t so artificial or maybe artificial intelligence is “another” “way” for ole ‘S’’ on the back of his uni & ‘his’ minions to come in to our dimension? Or maybe artificial intelligence is ole ‘S’ it’s self ??????. Or maybe My reading of that white paper is ….off base ? & am I the only person that just senses something EVIL about artificial intelligence☠️?
UT OH!
The dreaded scourge of platform monopoly craptilism: compet1tion!
So true; “they” do have a clockwork mentality.
Their economy is based on a rock[gold].
Earth is viewed as a rock[oversimplifying to drive the pint home].
A living universe is an anathema to “them”
A living Earth is definitely against their religion[although they can mouth “green” from here to green Earth’s extinction w/o losing a heartbeat].
An economy based on “living wealth”; is one that would work for all living life on Earth. Just don’t let the devil in on the details. That would definitely require a whole newly realized mindset, one that works w/a living universe, not against it.
The algorithmic tyranny most are beginning to wake up to is:
the algorithm boss. And you thought your human boss was from hell.
Think again. Oops, your algorithmic boss does that for you; and you don’t want a lower social credit score, do you.
Don’t think about it!
Be Happy!
You don’t own anything; so no worries!
I find this hilarious – Garbage-in/Garbage-out indeed. I wonder what they programmed into the computer as a primary objective since the computer can make it’s own adjustments to some end? Also, I’m curious why Zillow didn’t put those properties up for rent? I mean, it seems like a better business model than selling them at a loss.
Homes are suppose to be available to new young families but instead are being traded and priced out of their reach. Thus family stability is at an all time low and disfunctional youth and society at an all time high. Our leaders are evil fools and the general society has proven not to be much better for allowing all this; and falling for all the cultural programming to increase their disfunction. The wealthy like social disfunction because it allows them to exploit more youth in more wicked ways. It’s all by design. But corruption of the human spirit leads to the destruction of humanity and those who corrupted them to better exploit them. Technocracy and AI are dismal failures like every other system that lacks morals and virtues. Humanity has already destroyed themselves and most of life on Earth but most just haven’t figured it out yet. It’s not the carbon it’s all those nuclear reactors that are about to fail when humanity falls to all the corruption the fools in power promote. Goodbye humanity, better luck next the wheel of creation spits you out into the Universe. You failed to evolve spiritually enough to survive this level of technology this time around.
The fat lady has sang yet.
But, she is mentally preparing herself – to walk on stage.
But, so is the audience preparing to boo & throw tomatoes!
I don’t see CAF’s software (meant to track money flows) anywhere near Zillow’s. I doubt it was a true AI in any event. The corpse of PROMIS being dragged out adds nothing. That software was from the mid 80s. It may have been a novel approach at the time, but you’re up against systems now that have huge amounts of changes in terms of code updates, drivers and the ability to use vastly greater amounts of RAM and hard drives. I’d be curious to the see the architecture of the PROMIS code, but since it’s nowhere to be found, it’s gained a Jesus-like assignment of power and ability. Overall, I wouldn’t want to use a TRS-80 to handle anything now, even though it may have been quite the thing back in the day…
As for Zillow, even based on interior pics of a house, how could it determine how much to put into renovations? You have to really look at the foundations, basements, look for clues of termites, etc. unless you want to end up holding the bag on a money loser. Zillow wanted to vacuum up properties that it had early dibs on, make minimal changes and essentially pump and dump to the desperate retail buyers. They got greedy, with their own managers hiding their laziness and incompetence with “but, but, the AI told me to keep buying.”
Ancient AI has been running things for a very long time. What? Do people think current humanity is the golden age of human understanding and wisdom….hah. This current humanity is just a remnant of a once incredible, technologically, spiritually advanced humanity that has left incredible monuments to their wonders. How long has the secret space program been going on that has been allowed into the public view?? What about Tesla tech and where did Tesla get his technology from? I could go on but I think we understand that the ancient AI is breaking down and has been for a while. The powers that be are trying to fix or insert some form of new technology to replace the old AI but they are still having serious teething problems. Needs some deferent bloodlines that are way more inventive than the current crop of ancient bloodlines who have been living off the dead husk of ancient humanity.
I can give Tesla his due for being a genius and a workaholic.
Michael Cremo et al have given plenty of proof of earlier full-human remains being found in layers of earth over 180 million years old and even older out of place artifacts. However, I don’t see any AI proof. No, stuff like the Black Knight satellite isn’t proof since we can’t get at it to see what’s inside. It’s all speculation until you’re under the hood. I’d have enough reasons to believe that “space cousins” exist, but is there some box vending magic answers? Nope. I can even believe that this place might be a plantation or a zoo. But any of the so-called elites here are just more inbred humans with an overinflated sense of importance, making up Sky Daddy stories to bolster their own positions.
… and let us not forget the pandemic “modeling”. A couple of interesting related reads … Flash Boys by Michael Lewis (on High Frequency Trading) and an article by John P.A. Ioannidis, et al. on the Failure of Covid Modeling (Aug. 2020)
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7447267/
Nice find Scarmoge!.
And by the way the whole AI thing, is just a phase. I don’t believe for a minute that man ever growing ego will let the machine run the show. At some point man’s ego will get jealous of AI and with one, six other will arrive and that will be the end of AI. I view this Zillow story as one of many cover up for fraud, steal and robbery. Financial loss became one of the best way to cover fraudulent sources of money. Similarly fortunes that grew up exponentially in a short time are of the same dubious provenance. Musk, Bezos, even Karthrashians anyone.? These and many more, are money laundering machines with the ties to MIC and ultimately to breakaway civilizations.
On the same page in more ways than one.
The Parthenogenesis program calculated succession, as matter producing more matter, without plan of man, because of single mum.
PARTHENOGENESIS
Lizzy Lizard spawned Lord Incubus,
out of space reptilian uterus,
and hatched from egg
came snake leg,
wriggling around mum’s cactus.