sarker
ketman hetman
No bio...
User ID: 636
sarker
ketman hetman
21hr ago
This must be an army thing because admirals get killed all the time. Nelson and Maarten Tromp were shot by sharpshooters. De Ruyter was hit by a cannonball. Lütjens went down with the ship (many such cases). Etc.
sarker
ketman hetman
1d ago
I started picking it up when I was 5, or something. Then, when I was 7, Cartoon Network made a sudden appearance on the TV, and the people who were rebroadcasting it didn't have the resources to translate it, so my English really picked up at the time.
Watching TV isn't sufficient to learn a language to native proficiency. It's about immersion in the language from a young age.
Sometimes, it's harmless enough. Sometimes it's even adaptive, and you get evolution, but the descriptivist approach is akin to saying "cancer is, like, just another way of being, man".
You haven't actually made an argument, you just threw up your hands and said "this is, like, just like cancer bro". Try again?
sarker
ketman hetman
1d ago
That's way too loose of a definition. I learned English as a child, and while I consider myself fluent, I'm definitely not a native speaker.
When I say "as a child", I mean in the critical period. I don't mean as a twelve year old.
My point is just that the kind of deconstruction games that are used to argue against prescriptivism can be used to argue against descriptivism as well. I think each of those frameworks has a grain of truth to it, trying to make sense of the world with just one of them will lead to absurd results.
It's simply a fact that language rules are an emergent phenomenon determined by the, let's say, ummah made up of speakers of each language or dialect, and when Internet people say a particular construction is "incorrect English" they usually mean "incorrect SAE" even though it's grammatical in some other dialect. None of this should be construed to imply that there aren't tremendous benefits to being fluent in SAE or the local standard dialect. If you've got an argument against this, let's hear it.
sarker
ketman hetman
1d ago
A native speaker is one who learned a language as a child.
People have been able to tell if kids are speaking grammatically since long before there were grammar books, so the relevance is not clear to me.
They are using an object in place of a subject, which is incorrect grammar.
Hopefully ye are always careful to use "ye" when ye mean the second person singular subject, and reserve "you" for the second person singular object - as was intended by our forefathers. "You" as second person singular subject is a sixteenth century corruption of English grammar.
sarker
ketman hetman
1d ago
It's not intrinsically incorrect to say "him and I went to the store together," though it's not standard American English. It's also not intrinsically incorrect to say "I and Bob went to the store" - even though grammar textbooks will tell you that "Bob and I" is correct, even SAE speakers usually don't find anything wrong with "I and Bob" and will use it.
Not all the rules are something you pick up naturally
Language is an emergent phenomenon and there is no central authority controlling what is acceptable and what isn't, especially in English. What's grammatical is defined by what is accepted as grammatical speech by native speakers of that dialect.
sarker
ketman hetman
1d ago
It's not a real dialect because there are no native speakers.
Now, if you had, say, generations of people brought up speaking in ""beginner dialect""...
sarker
ketman hetman
1d ago
Imo, most people's grasp of grammar and structure in their native language is not great.
They might not know any grammatical terms, but native speakers speak grammatically in their dialects.
sarker
ketman hetman
1d ago
While we're on the topic of subtext, the subtext of my comments is that even in this alternative world Watts created in which humanity is powermogged by Rorschach, Watts fails to demonstrate a compelling reason that consciousness would be maladaptive.
sarker
ketman hetman
1d ago
It's the most technologically advanced entity in Sol, it's doing very well for itself, and all without being conscious. I think that constitutes a claim that consciousness isn't particularly important.
Rorschach proves that you can be very advanced without consciousness. Does it imply that consciousness carries no benefit, or even carries a harm? Plainly, no.
sarker
ketman hetman
1d ago
And even this isn't a face. I guess reality just keeps disappointing.
sarker
ketman hetman
1d ago
I realize it's an "actual" technique in that a guy published a paper about it and it's been included in a couple of scifi books. It isn't an "actual" technique in that I've never seen it used anywhere and it seems unlikely that in the future we'll realize we've been sleeping on this.
sarker
ketman hetman
1d ago
Not only does he claim it's not strictly necessary, he posits that it's suboptimal, and a drag on performance.
The characters do seem to think this but it's not clear what in the story actually supports the suboptimality claim. Sure Rorschach is more advanced than humanity, but that obviously doesn't prove that consciousness is a drag any more than someone taller and balder than you indicates that hair is keeping you short.
sarker
ketman hetman
1d ago
I regularly check in on his blog, and a running theme is his sentiment that humans have Wrecked The Planet (ecological collapse, global warming), and we're going to pay for our sins/hubris by quite possibly going extinct.
The moment in Blindsight where Sarasti the Superpredator (watch out, he looks at screaming faces to visualize data!) berates our clueless hero for not caring about climate change was absolutely kino.
sarker
ketman hetman
3d ago
It's accurate about people who use their agentic nature to farm social media likes. Naturally, as a social media consumer without visibility into the field, those are the only ones Sam Kriss notices. The people using their agentic nature to do great work and advance their goals without making social media fame a top tier priority go unnoticed.
sarker
ketman hetman
3d ago
Make them design robots that speed run the approvals process for factories.
sarker
ketman hetman
3d ago
the concept was criticized (especially by Canadian critics) for being a gimmick that distracted from the game.
Seeing the puck distracts from the game, folks.
sarker
ketman hetman
3d ago
contemptuous leftist sneer for both the masses in general and anyone who works a regular job specifically.
And people who start companies, too. The only way out is unemployment or writing a Substack.
sarker
ketman hetman
3d ago
I can tell you there aren't 13% of Californians driving old station wagons and 90s minivans
Something like 8% of Americans don't have a car period. Another 5% driving clapped out old cars seems pretty believable (source: drive down 101 bro)
Everyone who is "poor" in big states and cities drives a new car, usually a large one.
Really doesn't match my experience in Hispanic neighborhoods. Lots of old trucks, civics, etc. When I sold my last car which was in rough shape it was a Hispanic guy that bought it.
Their teenagers all have illegal dirt bikes/atvs, wear brand new Jordans and carry expensive handbags. The scam economy is observably gigantic.
You know that there's knockoffs easily available for brand name stuff, right?
sarker
ketman hetman
3d ago
It's 2026. Can't we just have a neon green simulpuck indicating where the puck is for those following along at home?
People on food stamps often have brand new 70k+ SUVs.
How often?
The system is being gamed with hidden income, usually grey market, but often black.
13% of Californians receive at least some EBT. Is it really unbelievable that 13% of people actually earned less than the EBT threshold (about $50k for a household of 3)? I could present arguments about income distributions but if you think it's not being reported I don't think you'd find them convincing.
I mean, maybe you can say it's not specific targeting, but if the admiral is on deck and you're shooting muskets and cannonballs at the guys on the deck it's a far cry from the examples where the army specifically avoided killing enemy generals.
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