Obsidian
1yr ago
I don't think technocracy is once-in-a-generation hard, I just think our democracies are optimizing for something entirely incompatible
Obsidian
2yr ago
Meanwhile the African Americans at the Top 20% percentile of the income distribution have a higher arrest rate than white American's at the bottom 20th percentile.
Where could I find a source for this?
Obsidian
2yr ago
Look into ChatGPT plug-ins, tool-using AIs are already here and it's a matter of years before they're able to replace ~every mid-skill labor job, if not necessarily cost-effectively at first
Obsidian
2yr ago
It comes down to relative power. If you can make a weapon that lets any idiot (or, eventually, no idiot) destroy a main battle tank unassisted, then you don't need to worry very much about military training when facing tanks. Repeat mutatis mutandis for infantry, planes, drones, etc.
My take is that the West - including Turkey - is providing weapons to Ukraine that are decisively superior to what Russia is fielding.
Obsidian
2yr ago
This is a fully general prediction for any technology.
Yes, it is in fact a political philosophy of technology. I'm still chasing literature support and context for it to be better able to communicate it, but at this point I'm pretty confident in it.
Obsidian
11mo ago
If you read Homer somewhat more attentively
I want to stick a fork in the outlet here: famous writings such as Odysseus are probably best understood to depict not how things were, but how things were modeled, saying more about an ancient collective aspirational conception of self than as how we'd parse their society if we were alongside them.
Obsidian
1yr ago
It also makes such posts cattier, which is a disincentive in and of itself.
Obsidian
1yr ago
I’d say what distinguished the forum originally was more a commitment to free speech than to civility, though it had both of course.
In my mod days we experimented with keeping to a particular Overton window, above and beyond what was required to continue existing on reddit, in order to keep posters broadly comfortable. Drawing the line was frustrating and arbitrary and I hated doing it. Stuff like, don't insist on conspicuously misgendering trans posters, and don't lay 100% of the blame for any given issue on Mexicans/Jews/whatever. In any given specific situation we could have reasonably ruled in either direction, but if we'd radically committed to either free speech or civility the moderation would have become exploitable and the forum would have blown up.
Obsidian
1yr ago
I, a frog, would wish to team up with you on a peaceable separation campaign.
Federalists on either side are wretched people.
Funny, I very much experienced the "spiritual" aspects as cheap filler. They definitely set an intriguing mood, but they didn't populate it with a message.
It's vanishingly rare that we see spirituality or mysticism well done in sci-fi. The Starcraft II single-player campaign was another otherwise-decent story that was held back by poorly engaging with this. I just don't think most sci-fi writers have a connection with the divine. And godly men don't write sci-fi, mostly they write about the world they belong to.
I've been thinking that BSG with the "spiritual" bits expunged would be a much greater show. Though I'm sure something else would jump out as begging to be cut.
Obsidian
1yr ago
The devs quit way too early on that one. The learning curve is all over the place, and the horror effect lasts maybe one hour. Shame, it's such a cool game.
Obsidian
1yr ago
@FCfromSSC origin story is iconic. I relate to the terror and depression of cancellation, but I could never put it down like you did. I'd say "go on The Bailey" but that'd be missing the point.
Obsidian
2yr ago
Meditation helps. Participating to a men's group helps. Doing cool shit with people irl helps.
Either this is self-evident, in which case why post it? Or it's not, and you ought to unfold.
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