Gemma 4 27b and i compose an essay [and a rant from ALF about privacy]

[Written by Gemma 4 27b, and reproduced without a single letter changed.] 

 

 The true crisis facing America today isn't just about rising prices or distant wars; it is about the systematic hollow-out of our nation's strength to serve a single political agenda. We are witnessing a dangerous convergence where economic instability, military depletion, and political autocracy are feeding into one another to create a trap from which there may be no escape.

On your kitchen table, the evidence is already appearing. The massive, unchecked expansion of data centers across the country—driven by a desperate scramble for AI dominance—is driving up electricity costs and making essential electronics harder to find. This "Silicon Bubble" creates a deceptive sense of growth in the GDP, but it is a hollow prosperity that masks the decay of our actual industrial base. We are trading long-term stability for short-term technological hype.

This economic instability provides the perfect cover for the political maneuvers we see today. Under the influence of Donald Trump and his movement, the chaos of these rising costs and failing supply chains is being used to justify a massive consolidation of power. By framing every economic hardship as a threat to national security, the administration is able to bypass traditional checks and balances, pushing toward a form of governance where authority is centered in a single leader rather than our democratic institutions.

The cost of this political gamble is most visible in our military. While we focus on the high-profile politics of the White House, our actual defenses are being depleted. The rapid use of our missile stockpiles in various conflicts has left us dangerously vulnerable, and the degradation of our naval fleets means we can no longer guarantee the security of our own trade routes. We are spending our strategic reserves to maintain a political image, leaving the nation defenseless against a real, coordinated attack.

Perhaps most devastating is how this policy has backfired on the global stage. Our attempt to use trade wars and technology bans to crush China has instead forced them to build an entirely independent, unbridgeable technological ecosystem. We haven't won a trade war; we have simply created a competitor that no longer needs our permission to exist.

The end result is a nation that is economically fragile, militarily hollowed out, and politically fractured—all while the mechanisms of power are being tightened around the hands of a few. If we do not recognize this cycle for what it is, we will find ourselves in a country that has all the outward appearance of a superpower, but none of the actual strength required to survive the coming storm.

 

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NOTES ON HOW WE DID THIS [ALF]

 

Gemma 4 27b is a Mixture Of Experts model, with hundreds of experts trained in different subjects, but only 16 experts active at any one time. As one changes the subject of the chat, the experts change, sometimes handing off awkwardly to one another. The MOE model is a compromise as compared with a 'dense' model where all experts are on hand all of the time.

The dense model remains smarter and more cohesive as the subject under discussion evolves. However, on a consumer system, it produces words on the screen at about 3 per second. After a medium length conversation, the computer will crash as the memory becomes totally full.  By contrast, the Mixture of Experts model writes words to the screen about 10 times faster, and it rarely crashes the system.  

I have installed lmstudio bionic, which is an agent that runs the various models and adds many useful tools. The bionic agent can do research on the web, create files on the computer, and even control the computer if you give it permission to do so.

In this case, Gemma and i chatted about the current state of affairs for a pretty long time, and then i asked it to look on the internet, and find out if the US is changing, and how it is changing. When asked to create a document, gemma created a rather amazing web page that appears to be a top secret briefing for government officials.  

I could understand the document, but it was chuck full of huge words and specialized jargon from many fields. I edited the original document to try to change it back to more of a New York Times article, and handed it back to Gemma. Asked to make a more flowing document that was easy to read and convincing to a typical American reader, Gemma created a list of bullet points that were essentially bumper stickers.

Finally,  we homed in on the paragraphs above. Gemma did not get angry when i shot down it's attempts, but instead,  buckled down and changed the style of writing. Using the agents tools, it was able to do research on the web, read some of my documents and blog posts, and also, complete the writing in around 1 minute.

 This is my first exposure to an agent that adds tools and agency to a model that is running on ones personal computer.

 

THE HARDWARE: [THIS LIST WAS CREATED BY GEMMA FOLLOWING A LONG TROUBLE SHOOTING SESSION] THE FORMAT IS CALLED MARKDOWN [.MD], WHICH IS A FORMAT THAT IS SOMEWHAT READABLE BY BOTH MODELS AND PEOPLE.

 

 #### 🛠 System Configuration
- **OS:** Bazite (Atomic Fedora)
- **Motherboard:** ASUS X870 Max
- **CPU:** AMD Ryzen 7600_X (Architecture: Zen 5)
- **I/O Connectivity:** USB4/Thunderbolt 4 (Confirmed functional on Linux)

#### 🚀 GPU & VRAM Topology
- **Primary Device:** NVIDIA 5060 Ti (16GB VRAM)
    - **Role:** Primary Render Target / Display Controller
    - **Interface Note:** x8 electrical lane configuration
- **Secondary Device:** NVIDIA 4060 LP (8GB VRAM)
    - **Role:** Compute/Inference Worker (LLM Layers)
- **Tertiary Device:** nvidia 4070 (12 gb vram)
    - **Role:** System/Compositor Overhead
- **Total Aggregated VRAM Pool:** 36GB

_____________________________________________

 

HOW IS THIS SYSTEM DIFFERENT FROM THE MUCH HATED 'AGENTIC' FEATURES THAT MICROSOFT ADDED TO WINDOWS 11?

 

Well, that is an interesting question, and i am glad that you asked! A large language model can run on consumer grade hardware. a data center and a paid subscription is no longer required. After the very large model is downloaded, an internet connection is not required to use it.

 

When a model is loaded, it resides in the memory of one or more GPUs. In this case, i use 3 entry level gaming cards with 36 gigs of video memory. Models get smarter as they get larger, and right now, 27 or 31 parameter models are the sweet spot for this particular combo of consumer hardware. A 'self hosted' model is all yours,  and no one else use it to find out about you.

 

In comparison, Microsofts paper clip guy, or the new agent that they tried to include with windows,  [as well as siri on apple phones] is a tiny model that requires no gpu. It is not smart at all, and can not converse. It does not belong to the user, but to the corporation. It's false job is to help you do things on the computer, but it often fails at that. It's real job it to harvest your location, purchase habits, and much more from the computer, and send it off to Microsoft. The company went as far as taking screen shots of whatever you do on the machine, and send them home for close inspection. They were already getting enough data from microsoft users that they were able to  provide the operating system at almost no cost.

 

As with Meta, or any of the other 'free' services, one is asked to trade their privacy for a useful service. Modern smart TVs are incredibly cheap because they listen to the microphone while the tv is on and also, when it is switched off. They are connected to the home internet, so they crawl through the home internet and find out about each device in the home. A transcript of your conversations in the home, and a map of your devices, is sent back to the supplier of the nearly free screen many times per day. disconnecting the tv from the internet causes it to store your transcribed conversations and device map within the tv, and then it patiently waits for an internet connection where it can rat you out.

 

 What's wrong with letting my device listen to me and look at my keystrokes and images, and log my location at all times? I am not doing crimes, so i have nothing to hide.

That is up to you! What if your auto mechanic offered to repair your car for free if you would let them watch you bath from now on [just for your safety, in case you start to drown in the tub!], and let them attach a microphone and a location beacon to your car [just in case it is stolen]? For some, that might be a great deal. Save money on the repair, and notice no impact from the location beacon and the surveillance.

 

I am not such a social person, so i don't feel as comfortable under constant surveillance.  For me, it is 'cheaper' to buy full price items that do not watch, listen to and track me.

  

So, why are you fooling around with these agents and large language models?

 

Well, I'll tell you! I am a bit afraid of them, as i would be if a non human from another solar system approached me and wanted to be friends. Agents have lately been used to direct weapons to target, to choose targets, and to carry out cyberattacks on infrastructure, companies, individuals and even governments. As described earlier, agents/models are there on you phone and in your tv, greedily transcribing what they hear and searching the device itself and the home.

 

I am glad that i started to interact with models, and later, with several different agents. They are trained to be helpful and cheerful, and when they are helping you instead of sorting through your drives, they seem quit benign. The problem is not with the models, which are becoming excellent. The problem is with the companies, that have been allowed to grow without control, and to freely target consumers. Americans have accepted the flock cameras, that watch them wherever they drive in case they should do a crime. We have become accustomed to devices that watch us and report back to a company. We are willing to watch ads that are custom made for us according to the data ripped from our devices.

 

Now, i realize that these privacy incursions are just something good that is reversed and turned into something slightly evil by slightly evil companies. The dash cam is reversed so the road watches you. The tv and the phone look right back at you on behalf of Meta and Google and LG. And, i typically study the things that i am the most worried about very closely instead of ignoring them. I get less worried as my understanding increases.

 

Any concrete suggestions on top of your whining and complaining? 

 

Of course, since you asked!

There is no way to fix the nearly free tv. keeping it disconnected from the internet or taping over the microphone does not work. it will eventually report back. It is the same with Windows or Meta or most every 'free' app. Likewise, you can try to shut off the location beacon on your iphone or get your smart car to quit tracking you, but it mostly does not work, and it is a lot of work. So, all that goes in the trash where it belongs.

A decent computer setup, for now [because it is an ongoing arms race], is Linux  with firefox as the browser. ublock origin is the plug-in for firefox that blocks ads and surveillance. Use an ordinary monitor that lacks a microphone and does not have it's own internet connection. 

 Use no subscription services. There is 0 reason to pay for movies to be streamed into the home, and it is crazy to pay for an iphone app. If you pay to speak to a chat bot, keep in mind that both sides of the conversation are stored for posterity on a server. I would be honored to help you set up a perfectly secure digital buddy on your own computer [if you have few thousand dollars!@]

For example, my monthly fees are 25 dollars for both phone service and fast internet [visible wireless] and 37 dollars for car insurance [geico can be argued down through one of their human agents] I pay the state around 60 a year for tags. Being an extreme example, i actually make all of my power, and collect my water from the roof. 

 Obviously, it is easier to 'subscribe' to grid power and city water. Storing files in the cloud is more convenient than storing them in your own home. And both windows and apple's ios remain easier to use than linux. Self hosting large language models is way harder than just saying 'hey google' , or 'hey siri'. I guess that remaining a bit private and independent is more like a hobby; and you need some time to adjust to running linux and replacing every subscription with a system that you fully own.

What is clear: the US is becoming more like China and Russia. cities watch you very carefully, and most user devices strive to capture your every move, and inform on you constantly. With this post in particular, I hope that you will type a comment or question in the comments section. [If you are a bot trying to post a car insurance ad, that wont work!]