My son came home with a sociology assignment the other day, and somewhere between helping him understand Weber’s verstehen and staring at a curriculum that still treats Karl Marx as a founding pillar of scientific inquiry, something clicked for me.

Sociology has a problem. Not a small one. A structural one. And the frustrating part is that sociology’s ow…

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The “Model Wars” of April 2026 have officially turned into a super-collision. I was recently talking to a friend who felt the only way to save the human workforce was to stop AI in its tracks—a sentiment shared by many watching the current Musk vs. Altman trial. I made the point that had we actually done that last year, we would still be using AI today,…

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What’s in a Name?

Let’s be fair right up front.

The term “Artificial Intelligence” was coined by John McCarthy in 1956—a legitimate pioneer, a foundational figure, and by all accounts not a man sitting around t…

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Throughout history, societies have faced the same recurring problem.

The boundary between private initiative and institutional coordination never stays still.

As technologies change, populations grow, and resources shift, societies must continually renegotiate where that boundary lies.

Who builds infrastructure?

Who regulates markets?

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If civilization runs on two engines—private innovation and institutional coordination—then stability depends on keeping both engines operating.

History shows what happens when that balance breaks.

Systems pushed too far toward either extreme eventually become unstable.

They may appear powerful for a time. They may even achieve impressi…

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How do those engines actually interact?

Ideas do not move directly from invention to civilization. They travel through a sequence of stages—a process that Sparksism calls the innovation pipeline.

The pipeline has four steps.

Individual origination.

Diffusion.

Institutionalization.

Universalizat…

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If civilization runs on two engines—private innovation and institutional coordination—then an obvious question follows:

Where does one engine stop and the other begin?

The answer is: there is no permanent line.

Instead, every complex society operates with a moving boundary between the two systems. Sparksism calls this boundary the Economic …

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Most arguments about economics start with a false choice.

They assume a society must pick one guiding force: markets or institutions, private initiative or collective coordination, entrepreneurs or government.

History suggests something simpler.

Every civilization runs on two engines.

One engine generates ideas.

The ot…

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*Everyone is watching the kinetic players. Nobody is watching who benefits.*

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There’s a particular kind of diplomatic language that exists not to communicate but to *not* communicate — a verbal fog machine deployed by serious people who know exactly what they mean but have calculated, correctly, that saying it plainly would cause more problems than i…

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50 Shades of Democracy: The Rise of Political Fanfic

A Very Special Episode….

Politics, at this stage, feels less like civic participation and more like fandom management. Every election cycle is a sequel. Every debate is a crossover episode. Every scandal is treated like leaked footage from a show we can’t stop hate-watching.

Welcome to political fan fict…

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This was a powerful night celebrating Ozzy’s legacy, and I’m thrilled to share this moment with you.

If you dig it, hit Like, Subscribe, and share with your fellow Ozzy fans. More tributes and live covers coming soon!

#HalSparks #MamaImComingHome #OzzyOsbourne #UltimateJamNight #OzzyTribute #LiveMusic #RockCover #HardRock

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Trump Just Greenlit a Saudi Oil Price War (Again)

By Hal Sparks

Let’s talk oil. Not the kind Diddy cornered the market on... The kind that powers industry, covers sea birds in Goo, and occasionally crashes so hard it makes crypto look stable.

Regular viewers of my show know that I have been saying there is an Oil Glut coming and it will arrive sometime thi…

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Have you ever wondered why the cutting-edge technology that only billionaires could afford a few decades ago is now sitting in your pocket or living room? There's a fascinating pattern to how technology becomes both better and cheaper over time, and today I'm introducing a concept I call..ahem… "Sparks' Law" to explain this.

The Basic Concept

At its core,…

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A Timeline of a Cultlike Group

In recent news, a shooting involving a U.S. Border Patrol agent in Vermont has brought to light a cultlike groupknown as the Zizians, allegedly at the center of multiple homicides across three states. This post aims to provide a timeline of events and explore the evolution of this group, led by Jack LaSota, also known as "Ziz".

Who is Ziz?

Jack LaSota, who uses feminine pronouns, is a computer programmer and transgender woman who began writing a blog under the persona "Ziz" in 2016. The blog featured complex and sometimes rambling theories about technology, gender identity, and human cognition. LaSota became involved in the rationalist movement. The rationalist movement is a community that seeks to understand human cognition and is concerned with the potential dangers of artificial intelligence.

The Split from Rationalism

LaSota's involvement with rationalist groups was short-lived. They rejected her theory that the two hemispheres of the brain can hold separate values and genders.

Confrontational Content and Protest

By 2019, LaSota began publishing increasingly confrontational content:

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A blog post titled "punching evil" suggested there would be "no moral obligation not to perform self defense" if "the state has been seized by vampires".

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They warned CFAR alumni to learn how to escape containment.

In November 2019, LaSota and three others were arrested during a protest against sexual misconduct within rationalist organizations. They were arrested on suspicion of felony child endangerment, false imprisonment, and conspiracy, as well as misdemeanor counts of resisting arrest, wearing a mask while committing a crime, and trespassing.

Disappearance and Resurfacing

In August 2022, the U.S. Coast Guard responded to a report that LaSota had fallen out of a boat in San Francisco Bay. No body was found, and an obituary was published. However, in November 2022, LaSota resurfaced during a violent altercation in Vallejo, California.

Violent Incidents and Investigations

Since then, LaSota has been connected to multiple violent incidents:

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November 2022: Landlord Curtis Lind was stabbed with a sword, and Emma Borhanian was fatally shot in Vallejo, California.

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December 2022: Rita and Richard Zajko were shot and killed in their home in Chester Heights, Pennsylvania.

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January 2025: U.S. Border Patrol Agent David Maland and Felix Bauckholt were killed in a shootout in Coventry, Vermont. Maximilian Snyder is charged with the murder of Curtis Lind.

Court documents filed in January 2025 connected LaSota to multiple violent incidents through their associates, noting relationships with "other individuals suspected of violent acts" including those involved in the Vermont border patrol shootout. As of 2025, LaSota's whereabouts are unknown, and they are wanted for failure to appear in court.

This story if ongoing.

American citizens should have the right to know if the account they are arguing with or befriending online is an actual person and, when it comes to politics, whether or not that account, if it is a person, is a US Citizen. Period.

This is the initial draft of a piece of legislation I will be presenting to the California legislature. I believe that simil…

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