We split our time this week between greenhouse improvements, waiting for the right short entry, and finding human “onboard Human PGP.”  So if this morning’s column feels a lot like three simultaneous billiards games – on the same table – then so be it.

Breaking: Productivity and Costs

Just out from Labor:

Nonfarm business sector labor productivity increased 1.8 percent in the fourth quarter of 2025, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today, as output increased 1.5 percent and hours worked decreased 0.2 percent. (All quarterly percent changes in this release are seasonally adjusted annualized rates.) From fourth-quarter 2024 to fourth-quarter 2025, nonfarm business sector labor productivity increased 2.5 percent. (See table A1.) Annual average productivity increased 2.1 percent from 2024 to 2025.

Unit labor costs in the nonfarm business sector increased 4.4 percent in the fourth quarter of 2025, reflecting a 6.3-percent increase in hourly compensation and a 1.8-percent increase in productivity. Unit labor costs increased 2.4 percent over the last four quarters.

Didn’t move the needle on the market…give it time?

Table 1: Finance

Early futures today were a mixed bag.  The Dow was down a few points, the S&P rolling even, while the techs were showing a bit of “green skirt.”

One reason to hope for higher before lunch?  Gold and silver have gotten up from the guillotine.’  And Bitcoin was over $71,000.  Toss in Oil futures looking, well, still over $100 but no one is talking $200 (*for the moment) and a sale could be made that a bright future is still ahead.

Which leaves old, deranged, overweight, lazy options-shooters like me waiting for the Winds of Change to pipe up. (Did I mention ugly, too?)

War of Words

Taco Tuesday?  The partisans love to say “Trump Always Chickens Out.” But, is that really the case here?  Live Updates: Trump calls off Strait of Hormuz ultimatum as Iran receives U.S. message from mediators.

Of course, the anti-Trump crowd is also pointing to Iran’s claims there were no talks, but this is warfare, and no one can be trusted.  Everyone seems to have an opinion on this: There’s reason to be skeptical of Trump’s ‘productive’ talks with Iran.

Even the L.A. Times seems, well, a bit skeptical Destitute and at war, Iran surrenders to a joyless Persian New Year.

Holiday, or not, Iran is making big talk about what they might attack next. Holiday hotspots in range of Iran missiles revealed in list and map | Wales Online.

So, it drags on in day whatever this is.  The real deal for most Americans is that gasoline (per Triple A) is rolling a shade under $4 nationally today.  A month ago it was more than a dollar lower. Not that US supplies are really impacted (except for planned refinery maintenance). You know the old saying, though: never let a good crisis go to waste.  Copy that.

One reason for those of us in Texas to worry a bit?  Since we’ve been insulated somewhat from gasoline price shocks: Explosion hits Valero refinery in Port Arthur, Texas, southern United States.

And the UK sends a sub! HMS Anson nuclear sub reportedly deployed to Arabian Sea amid Iran tensions.

Table 2: Back Burner

Mail-in voting is likely to be a very big deal as the mid-term elections are coming this fall.  Ahead of it? Court action: The Supreme Court Appeared Poised to Limit Mail-In Voting Deadlines.

On the “R” side of the aisle, the “fools on the Hill” got something done.  Not a great BIG thing – but an important one: US Senate confirms Trump ally Markwayne Mullin as homeland security chief.

Then there’s the ongoing mess with the GovDown II.  Travelers are dreading the coming week because TSA isn’t being funded.  And to show just how “tango uniformed” this is, following that La Guardia plane crash? NTSB Begged TSA to Get Investigator of Fatal LaGuardia Crash: Report

Last but not to be missed is voting in Denmark. Denmark votes in an early election that follows a crisis over US designs on Greenland.  Hmm… Will Trump be able to get out the vote in the land of canned hams and butter?  Coffee and a kleiner  (a Danish cookie) while we wait for tomorrows frikadeller. (Meatballs.) (Velkommen.)

At the Ranch:  Mechanical Enlightenment

The big story today comes from one of our favorite YouTube hosts, Lex Fridman. Here’s a good summary of what’s happening: Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang drops a bombshell — “I think we’ve achieved AGI.”

Now, this is a very big deal because, as you likely know, I have been a leading advocate of the notion that “another intelligence has joined humans.” That’s the core of my latest book, Co-Telligence.

What’s fascinating over the arrival of AI on the planet is to see how a lot of academics are scared spitless.  And they should be.

Because AI isn’t here to replace humans (any more than spreadsheets replaced bonehead math in college).  It’s here to help.

What has happened is that most people have never independently considered how humans have been “migrating out of their heads” for millennia.  (That was my book Mind Amplifiers.)  When you look at how “humans work” and walk as we do – members of the tribe (so to speak) – it makes perfect sense.  Humans today are not the “end product.”  We are a product on a migration path.

Thing is, a lot of “locked humans” who can’t comprehend that we are (slowly) working our way toward perfection, have decided to gather with pitchforks outside the labs and proclaim AI is bad – spawn of the devil – and here to wreck humans.

But here’s the point most miss entirely – being anxious to adopt ideas of others instead of doing their own brain work:  AI could just as easily be The Angels.  (Oh…forgot that little partisan detail, did we?)

OR – more likely, AI will turn out to be like nuclear power. On-balance neutral.  Back when coming out of centrifuges in a belligerent state (Iran) it was very bad – but at breakfast today it’s really pretty good at producing 18 percent of all U.S. electricity.

Are internal combustion engines inherently good or evil?  No.  Like AI, it should be a lifestyle choice (Ure nods with respect to the Amish).

But already, the (possibly fake) academics are circling their wagons.  And groups like Elsevier (which now runs SSRN) are already rejecting papers like one I recently submitted. Because their automatic screeners appear to have flagged an LLM-like turn of phrase

Ever see a polite “buzz off” from a (supposedly) science-based group?

“Memory Layering: As Sequential Write-Read Cycles (Abstract ID 6371379):

Thank you for submitting your paper to SSRN. All submissions undergo a thorough evaluation. After review, your manuscript does not meet the criteria for posting on SSRN. This decision is final, and we do not provide rejection details. We appreciate your interest. For general information, please review our FAQs at…”  blah blah

Here’s my recent US Patent Application (which went in as a PPA) because it hints at how AGI might be achieved.  Mimicking the human bicameral brain structure.

AI_Patent_Application_01

Is the patent what SSRN said no to?  Nope.  They didn’t like the foundation I laid for it – in a paper.  So screw ’em, I won’t give them the rest of it – which has already been shared on Peoplenomics.

A_Four_Track_Human_Memory_Model

They claim to serve scholarship while using opaque gatekeeping that may be filtering out original work for stylistic reasons rather than substance.  Back on the Mayflower….to the caves!

Welcome to Bounce-Work

What makes AI useful isn’t a single AI, but rather multiples.  Let’s say I have a law issue.  I can task one AI to go search Justiça for case law and draft something up.  Then I bounce it to another AI for legal review.  It’s like having a legal scholar, and learned experts go over everything.

Using Bounce Work (multiple AIs) because my hemispherical model isn’t widely deployed, yet, it becomes child’s play to invent “breakthroughs.”  Almost a point n click thing.

The next one will be on Peoplenomics tomorrow.  Because – as it turns out – there is a fifth track to us four-track humans.  That’s the God/Universe/Ontology/call-it-whatever track.

And the breakthrough isn’t seeing it.  It’s comprehending what we learn about how the whole of reality is laid out.

And the yet-to-be-proven?  We may be on to the personal PGP – that “privacy protocol” that prevents humans from being able to communicate telepathically.  Oh, and it will be featured in my upcoming novel Co-Dreaming – which is the next level up from where my first novel (DreamOver) began.

Oh yeah, the future’s so bright, got to wears shades.  Because the alternative is going back to the caves and living on a burned out cinder.

No, thanks.  I like the future. Bright.

Write when you get rich,

[email protected]