Jeff Bezos is making a big deal about moving from the Seattle area to near Miami. He doesn’t have to. We know he recently bought those two mansions on that artificial island off the Florida coast, so we wouldn’t be surprised if he decided to spend time there. But that’s not what he’s saying. He’s saying he’s moving from Seattle-ish to Miami-ish. It sounds like he’s turning his back on his mansions in Medina.
I’m resisting the temptation to ask if I can have one of the Medina houses he won’t be using. I actually can’t understand why people would ever want to live in a mansion. Think of the heating bill alone.
His most recently acquired mansion on the fake island is said to have seven bedrooms. That strikes me as rather a low number from what I’ve heard about mansions. I’m actually surprised that he can stand the claustrophobia.
Bezos listed his reasons for relocating to Florida as that his parents and his baby already reside there and that the Blue Origin Flash Gordon-esque spaceship, which launched from Cape Canaveral, is apparently close by. Oh, and he also needs a safe place to park his half-billion-dollar superyacht, so his options are severely limited. I’m sure he couldn’t get much use out of it on Lake Washington. Would it even fit in the Ballard Locks? It would be a shame if all he could do was use it on Lake Washington and Lake Union. That’s no way to enjoy a superyacht.
It’s hard to imagine how billionaires live. Let’s say you could afford to buy your own private golf course to use as a personal park. Would you really want it? Wouldn’t you rather just give it away for lots of people to share it? You know, like Central Park in Manhattan. Such a concept, a park. Shared wealth.
CNN is reporting something like this is being done with old, unwanted golf courses. These golf courses are being returned to plants and animals, who know just how to use them.
Meanwhile, Bellevue and Redmond look like they’re getting the light rail soon. Sound Transit is training drivers in the new routes. You’d think that the only thing they’d have to learn is the direction the train goes. But I’m told there’s lots more to it — having to do with physics, how trains hang together, knowing how and when to stop them. I think it has something to do with tensegrity, Buckminster Fuller and that it’s better to pull a train than to push it.
A Google search might help with the physics because Google is rolling out a new service that will solve geometry, physics and calculus problems. It’s only at the high school level for now, but I’ll bet in a couple of years, it’ll put college teachers out of work. Really good news, if you ask me. Who needs college teachers?
I do think, though, that if we can make college teachers obsolete, cars that drive themselves and golf courses that grow themselves, why can’t trains drive themselves? And while we’re on the subject, back to billionaires — what’s their use anyway?
We need to rethink everything in the light of the coming AI revolution. Billionaires can be replaced, too. Whatever Bezos and Elon Musk do, surely a chatbot could do just as well and without any of the ensuing waste of resources. A chatbot could easily destroy Twitter and throw money around buying too many mansions. Then the bot could give the mansions out to people who’d use them, return them to nature or use them as parks.
Speaking of unnecessary rich people, there have been lawsuits to keep Trump off the ballot in various states because he incited an insurrection and so he isn’t qualified to run, according to the Constitution. These lawsuits are bound to fail because they don’t take into account how governments work. There has to be control. It’s all fine to have driverless cars, but the cars still have to be driven by something. The decision to kick Trump off the ballot can’t come from a lawsuit. There has to be a government body directing the show, like maybe Congress. Yeah, that’s it; Congress can tell Trump he can’t be president again.
They already should have.
Dr. Wes is the Real Change Circulation Specialist, but, in addition to his skills with a spreadsheet, he writes this weekly column about whatever recent going-ons caught his attention. Dr. Wes has contributed to the paper since 1994. Curious about his process or have a response to one of his columns? Connect with him at [email protected].
Read more of the Nov. 8-14, 2023 issue.