To the editor:

United States intelligence sources long ago concluded that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia bears responsibility for the torture and murder of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi. And yet, the president of the United States thinks otherwise. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services now reports that vaccines may cause autism, though not a single reputable study supports that conclusion. The secretary of that same department does not believe that germs cause nor that vaccines prevent communicable diseases. It is the official position of the United States government that human activity does not accelerate global warming. And over 70 million Americans just elected as president — based on his promises — a convicted fraud who famously founded a fake university, and who believes that countries are safer and richer without allies — or, at least, without any proven trustworthy in the past.

Now is the time, venture capitalists have concluded, to bet trillions of borrowed dollars on developing and marketing artificial intelligence. Well, if they see in all this any market for intelligence, artificial or otherwise, they see something I cannot. What I see is an insatiable appetite for ignorance, delusion and lies. But, on reflection, perhaps they’re crazy like a fox. If you’re a con man, fishing is good.

Dan V. Johnson,

Lawrence