Showing posts with label Michael Broad. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Michael Broad. Show all posts

Tuesday, 14 January 2025

Putin has made Russia more vulnerable not stronger by invading Ukraine

Image: DALLE (AI image creator). This is a fictional depiction of the Kremlin

I asked AI the following question in a statement to see if it agreed: "Putin complained about NATO on Russia's borders and the threat it posed. That was largely an imagined threat borne out of his time with the KGB. But ironically invading Ukraine has created a much stronger NATO alliance and unified force on Russia's borders for defensive purposes but this has worked against Putin in creating a real potential threat to Russia. The invasion of Ukraine has dramatically backfired on Putin in this respect. Correct?"

This is AI's response (ChatGPT):

Your analysis is largely correct. Here’s why:

  1. Putin's Perception of NATO: Putin has long viewed NATO as a strategic threat to Russia, a view deeply influenced by his KGB background and a worldview rooted in suspicion of Western intentions. He framed NATO's post-Cold War expansion as encroachment on Russia's sphere of influence, despite the defensive nature of the alliance.

  2. NATO’s Strengthening Post-Ukraine Invasion: Ironically, Putin's invasion of Ukraine, which he justified in part as a response to NATO's supposed threat, has had the opposite effect of what he likely intended. It has galvanized NATO, increased its unity, and prompted historic shifts in European security policy. For example:

    • Finland and Sweden: Finland has joined NATO, significantly expanding the alliance's direct border with Russia, while Sweden's application is progressing.
    • Defense Spending: NATO countries, particularly in Europe, have increased defense budgets and reinforced their military capabilities in response to the perceived threat posed by Russia.
    • Troop Deployments: NATO has enhanced its military presence along its eastern flank, from the Baltics to the Black Sea, further solidifying its deterrence posture.
  3. Strategic Backfire: Instead of diminishing NATO's presence or influence, Putin's actions have revitalized the alliance, strengthened transatlantic cooperation, and underscored the need for collective defense. This has created a more unified and robust NATO, with a greater focus on Russia as a central challenge to European security.

  4. Long-Term Implications for Russia: The invasion has not only led to significant military and economic costs for Russia but has also isolated it diplomatically. Its actions have justified the very measures Putin sought to avoid, leading to a tangible, rather than perceived, NATO presence near its borders.

In summary, the invasion of Ukraine has indeed backfired for Putin, resulting in a stronger and more united NATO that poses a more substantial and real defensive challenge to Russia. This development underscores the unintended consequences of aggressive actions based on flawed strategic calculations.

How does this affect cats!? In every way. It has placed increased financial pressure on many Russian citizen which will have a negative impact at least potentially on cat welfare.

In Ukraine, many domestic cats have been killed and injured or become feral as their owners were killed by Putin's merciless and cruel bombardment of Ukrainian homes in the east.

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins. Also, sources for news articles are carefully selected but the news is often not independently verified. And, I rely on scientific studies but they are not 100% reliable. Finally, (!) I often express an OPINION on the news. Please share yours in a comment.

Sunday, 3 September 2023

The Internet is bloated and repetitive. I'll tell you why.

The Internet is too big and too repetitive in 2023. It is suffering from acute bloat. In human terms it is morbidly obese and it is still guzzling crackers and processed foods. No one is managing it. It is a product of human competition without controls. This article will be a victim of the bloated Internet. Hardly anybody will read it. I'll be lucky if it is read a hundred times. It's basically a waste of my time.

You will see hundreds of thousands of articles on any one subject. What's the point? You will see millions of articles answering your questions that you have put into Google's search box. There are far too many websites and they repeat each other. They regurgitate the same stuff endlessly.

The Internet has become boring in its repetitiveness. It's a great wall of words and pictures, each one the same as the other. And authors in an effort to beat other authors of articles sometimes make them longer and longer to the point where they are unreadable because most people want to find answers quickly on their smartphones. If you've written a 3000-word article no one is going to get to the bottom.

I've painted a black picture but the Internet has got worse because of this constant competition by the owners of content websites. And the competition is to be visible which turns on search engine optimisation - SEO.

If there are 3 million websites with the same article on the same topic, they are all chasing the top five slots in Google's search engine results on page 1. Only the top 10 of those websites featured on page 1 of Google's search results get clicked on. All the rest are in the dark. They are a waste of space. The clog up the internet.

The tip of the iceberg in terms of Google search results is a tiny tip and below it is this huge mass of words and pictures. The problem, as that websites are chasing an almost impossible objective to be visible in the vast ocean of words.

They do this by trying to optimise their webpages from a search engine perspective. And that tends to create a very bland page written for a 14-year-old which is very repetitive and written in simplistic ways.

It's almost as if the Internet is destroying itself by becoming more and more bloated. It's like a huge overweight man or woman who is still guzzling on unhealthy food. Becoming sicker and sicker.

Piles and piles of repetitive semi-dead pages. Google tries to be fair and operates a kind of time share system which recycles websites to the top from time to time to give them some air time. But it is small fry.

It's the same with social media. Millions and millions of Facebook pages chasing a bit of visibility but hardly ever if ever achieving it. People try more and more desperate things to get seen.

They might rebuild their website but rebuilding a website doesn't really do anything. It might produce a short improvement in visibility for a while, for a short while but that soon fizzles out. And as all the content has been written there's nothing more to say.

That's the truth of it, there is nothing more to say except provide news. News always changes but even that becomes boring because news, too, can be very repetitive. You will see hugely repetitive news stories. And the news media run out of stories so we get these ridiculous click bait articles about a black panther roaming around the Buckinghamshire countryside in the UK or some other idiotic article.

And there are many websites which simply publish click bait articles. They provide misinformation and there are millions of pages like this. This just serves to degrade the Internet.

Back in the day, about 15 years ago the Internet was far less competitive. And before that it was even newer and fresher. The website could actually lead the way on something and be different. Now it is impossible for a website owner to be different because it's all been done before.

All you can do is write good articles with good content but, you know, content runs out. When it's all been said and done all you can do is repeat, rinse and start again. Repetitive, the same, boring, and web surfers are drowning in trillions of words seeking information and entertainment.

Google wants the Internet to expand which is fair enough because they are a business. They want to expand because they can make more money in advertising revenue but their objective is almost self-defeating. And it must get harder and harder for Google to provide good search results and harder and harder to index the trillions of website pages accurately and fairly as the Internet becomes ever more bloated and repetitive and samey.

It's time for a change but there is no way to change. Artificial intelligence (AI) has been promoted as being revolutionary and something that will improve people's search results and help them find top quality information quickly but I don't think this is actually happening.

AI simply feeds off the Internet to provide answers to questions. It is delving into the massive pile of the Internet and summarising what it sees. AI is good at summarising things. It provides a good précis of what's been said but the information that AI provides is very bland and very safe. It too is repetitive and boring.

Perhaps the size of the Internet should be limited. Perhaps there should be a neutral, independent and international organisation which governs the Internet and limits its size. Only the best sites should survive. All the rest should go to the wall to help create an Internet which is clear, sharp, precise, manageable without click bait. The survival of the fittest. Darwinism in action.

What should be on the internet? Here is an example. An inspiring story in a short video. A great woman. Her efforts are almost invisible on the internet. She should be at the top. That's another issue. Good things drown in the ocean of words, videos and pics.

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