Quick! We have to approve all the nuclear plants for AI now, before efficiency from optimization shows up

Check into panpsychism.

The use of exotic means actually places a signature on the work.

Plausible deniability is avoided, so that a clear example is presented for other would-be challengers.

It’s great marketing though

See also: Differentiable Vector Graphics Rasterization

https://people.csail.mit.edu/tzumao/diffvg/

What happened to just being honest, communicating respectfully, and doing the right thing?

I've often wondered if the inauthentic calculativeness of modern (and particularly Western) culture had its source in Dale Carnegie's book.

That disappeared for the author the moment he worked for Meta, which hides the truth, encourages flaming and negativity via their algorithms, and facilitated genocides.

There isn’t an equivalence between pierced ears, which is reversible, and circumcision, which is not.

Also: given the historic role of circumcision in religious and cultural conversion, one could view infant circumcision as removing that possibility for certain religious or cultural conversions later in life. In this sense, it might be viewed as culturally immunizing as well as being a cultural marker.

I remember around 2016 seeing videos on social media of Clinton endorsing circumcision campaigns.

Some people are traumatized by it. There have been suicides. These experiences never candidly enter public policy discourse, because keeping people from getting depressed etc. is important for productivity, birth rates, and trust in public institutions.