Quantumfreakonomics
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User ID: 324
Quantumfreakonomics
1d ago
America will never truly be free until one can drive from Barrow to San Juan. We need Cuba in order to build the Caribbean Super Bridge.
Quantumfreakonomics
1d ago
We cut aid to Ukraine in exchange for a Russian blessing of an invasion of Cuba. Who says no?
Quantumfreakonomics
1d ago
This is the most Elba possible option. He speaks the language, has more in common with his captors than his exilers, and would be subject to local political volitility. He would become a hero.
Quantumfreakonomics
1d ago
Getting Maduro personally is the easy part. All of the interests that he represented and championed are still there. How is an American puppet government supposed to have popular legitimacy given that we executed a smash-and-grab over the skies of Caracas in plain sight?
Quantumfreakonomics
1d ago
Oil. Venezuela has lots of oil, so they got a big dose of freedom. With a US-friendly government in charge, excraction costs will fall, enabling the high-tech petroleum refineries on the US Gulf Coast (which are helpfully in red states) to reap the producer surplus from the increased supply. AI demand for energy will keep the price up. GPT-7 will be powered by Venezuelan oil, brought to you by Exxon, I'm Lovin' It.
Quantumfreakonomics
1d ago
We can send him to Midway like Napoleon on Saint Helena.
Quantumfreakonomics
2d ago
AI-generated nudes of minors meet the legal definition of child pornography.
“child pornography” means any visual depiction, including any photograph, film, video, picture, or computer or computer-generated image or picture, whether made or produced by electronic, mechanical, or other means, of sexually explicit conduct, where— [...] such visual depiction has been created, adapted, or modified to appear that an identifiable minor is engaging in sexually explicit conduct.
If the Supreme Court ruled that sharing AI-generated deepfakes of actually existing 14-year-olds is protected speech, there would be a constitutional amendment. The general public will not stand for this, regardless of what weird tech-libertarians think.
Quantumfreakonomics
4d ago
I'm not going to sugarcoat it. The next few months are going to be the worst part of your life (so far). It really is that bad. People don't like to talk about things like this. I am only doing it because I'm a few drinks in on New Years Eve.
The one bright spot is that doctors tend to be pretty liberal with prescribing pain meds for stage 4 cancer patients. It helps if you and/or whoever accompanies your father to his doctor's appointments presents as not being the kind of person who would misappropriate generous opioid prescriptions.
You are going to be visiting him every weekend. Every chance you get to see your father is a treat. This is what will get you through the week.
Work will be the only time you will be able to get your mind off of the situation. In time, you will find this as something also to be cherished.
Things will be particularly hard on the primary caretaker. Dealing with the physical consequenses of the disease will be left mostly to her. I notice you said "his wife" instead of "my mother". Whatever her relationship to you, she is now the second most important person in your life.
Everything is going to suck for a while, and then you'll be fine. You don't have cancer. You have the rest of your life in front of you once this is over. You will survive.
Good luck. Your family is counting on you.
Quantumfreakonomics
4d ago
As always, the answer is written in the scriptures. Conservatism is an audiovisual culture. The fact that Somalis in Minnesota were milking billions of dollars out of the government was knowable by reading and research. Some people did know it. Some people tried to spread the word (with some success). Knowing the truth of the proposition, "Somalis in Minnesota are milking billions of dollars out of the government," is much less powerful than seeing what these milking factories actually look like in person. No amount of text-based reporting on spreadsheets can elicit the same sense of deep cultural offense as seeing what presents outwardly as a normal American buisiness degenerate into hooded figures barking in Star Wars language in response to the slightest inquiry. The New York Times would never report that.
Quantumfreakonomics
5d ago
AI:
- Yudkowski declares AGI/ASI Achieved 10%
- We have federal regulation passed through congress to regulate AI 30%
- Anthropic announces IPO 35%
- A Chinese model is released that is widely considered to be the best coding model(not just on price per token) 15%
- AI System wins an award for a significant contribution in mathematics 30%
- A lab releases a fully autonomous drop-in worker agent that at least five fortune 200 companies implement 20%
- OpenAI revenue exceeds $30 billion 25%
- A frontier lab experiences a security incident that requires public disclosure 50%
US Domestic politics:
- Democrats have a majority in the House 80%
- Democrats have a majority in the Senate 30%
- Trump Approval rating exceeds 50% at any point 15%
- A government shutdown exceeds 14 days 15%
- total deportation in 2026 exceed 500k 50%
- Mamadani implements fare free busses city wide 60%
- Mamdani implements at least three state run grocery stores 30%
- Trump is impeached 10%
- A Major political figure is assassinated(Congress/SCOTUS Judge/Executive cabinet member) 20%
Wars:
- Israel-palestine conflict reignites 30%
- Ukraine war ceasefire lasts greater than 30 days at any point 40%
- China invades Taiwan 15%
- US officially at war with Venezuela at any point 15%
China:
- Official GDP growth below 4% 35%
- Youth unemployment (16-24) reported above 15% at any point in 2026 Lol idk
- Major Chinese property developer (top 20) enters formal bankruptcy Lol idk
- SMIC achieves volume production at 5nm or below Lol idk
Economics:
- US enters recession (2 consecutive quarters negative GDP growth) 20%
- S&P 500 higher on 12/31/26 than 12/31/25 55%
- US unemployment rate exceeds 5% at any point 40%
- Bitcoin above $150k at any point 25%
- YoY inflation exceeds 4% 35%
Technology:
- Starship upper stage (Ship) successfully lands (caught or propulsive landing) Lol idk
- Blue Origin New Glenn completes 5+ successful launches Lol idk
- Tesla releases vehicle with SAE Level 4 autonomy to consumers 40%
- US approves new nuclear reactor construction (not SMR) 20%
Quantumfreakonomics
6d ago
It was a major policy priority in Minnesota to help families financially by increasing access to childcare. If it turns out that certain demographics prefer to recieve that help in the form of kickbacks for locking their kids in a shitty warehouse every day, well, who are we to say that the policy is not working as intended?
Quantumfreakonomics
6d ago
Lets talk about the amateur expose of the Somali day-care industry in Minnesota.
This video and associated clips have been taking the right-wing internet by storm. The format is new and interesting; a charismatic zoomer social media influencer teamed up with an angry obsessive boomer autist. Their idea was to show up in person to various government-subsidized "child care centers" to see if there was any meaningful economic activity going on. The results are certainly interesting if nothing else.
The most notable finding is the complete absense of evidence of child activity at all but one of the facilities. I'm not sure how definitive this is that fraud is occuring (especially since we don't know what time of day or week these visits were made), but it is certainly suggestive. I wouldn't be eager to display my entrusted children to a group of strange men who seem oddly interested in seeing them either.
One might get the impression that these facilities are completely unregulated and uninspected. This appears to be wrong. You can look up the licenses of Hennepin County child care centers and find annual inspection results, usually with violations! The laundry list of violations found with each annual inspection did not seem to prevent these facilities from recieving 7 figures annually in taxpayer funds.
Quantumfreakonomics
8d ago
A lot of people (especially among the Reddit demographic) see this technology as fundamentally anti-human. I'm not sure if I've seen a comprehensive treatment of the issue in any one place, but this is a common opinion especially around leftist spaces. It is worth taking a moment to contemplate the assumption we all grew up with that all generated content corresponds to some sort of human experience. What happens when this assumption dissapears? Is there any meaning at all from digital content anymore?
Quantumfreakonomics
9d ago
Which American elite circles like it?
Capital holders. They benefit a lot from having a workforce that is more skilled and less lazy.
Quantumfreakonomics
10d ago
Revisiting Vivek Ramaswamy's Christmas Rant: One Year Later
The tome in question, in case you need to refresh your memory. One hundred and twenty five million views. This single tweet tore open a gash in the Republican coalition that has yet to heal (though I don't want to overstate the counterfactual impact here, this particular fault-line was inevitable).
Looking back, it is clear now that the controversy was never just racist shit-flinging. There is a real philosophical conflict underlying the backlash. It is perhaps most elegantly stated as a variant of the Euthyphro dilemma; is our culture good because it is American, or is it American because it is good? Vivek is a functionalist. If an aspect of American culture is non-functional, then it should be replaced. His opponents in the comments are overwhelmingly essentialists. Americanness is an ontological property that is good because of it's essential nature as American. In this context, the idea that someone might choose to discard prom queens or jock sports fandom is a threat to America itself. Of course, this begs the question, who counts as American? And we end up with the "Heritage American" discourse that has been popping up lately.
Quantumfreakonomics
13d ago
What's the verdict on prophylactic wisdom tooth excraction?
Quantumfreakonomics
14d ago
It is a tax on bullshit. The problem is that taxing bullshit impovershes 90% of the population.
Quantumfreakonomics
14d ago
Polymarket is in flagrant violation of the ammended Onion Futures Act by offering prediction markets on the box office revenue of Hollywood movies.
I mean just look at this shit. The CFTC is asleep at the wheel.
Quantumfreakonomics
14d ago
I'm pretty sure that the white, disabled, overweight gas station attendant who tried and failed to stop me from pumping my own gas the first time I had to fill up in New Jersey was not an immigrant.
Yes, I realized later that I broke the law. That was the joke.
Quantumfreakonomics
14d ago
These are notoriously unfriendly regions of the United States. You can't even pump gas in New Jersey without being acosted by locals.
Quantumfreakonomics
15d ago
It's a bad idea to shoot your shot when a (lets be honest, very likely) rejection leaves you worse off than saying nothing.
This is why dating apps are so big. The cost of rejection is zero.
Its also why asking out women from work is usually a bad idea. Massive downside risk.
Quantumfreakonomics
15d ago
I legitimately can't even imagine what a killshot on Trump would be. Even if they had 4k video of Trump violently raping a 14-year-old girl Republicans would just become pro-sexual privacy in this specific instance.
Quantumfreakonomics
15d ago
60 minutes with a jade-like beauty: 160 dollars
WTF I love immigration now
Quantumfreakonomics
15d ago
Admirable, but mistaken.
He is Earth's greatest living philosopher.
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