self_made_human
Kai su, teknon?
I'm a transhumanist doctor. In a better world, I wouldn't need to add that as a qualifier to plain old "doctor". It would be taken as granted for someone in the profession of saving lives.
At any rate, I intend to live forever or die trying. See you at Heat Death!
Friends:
I tried stuffing my friends into this textbox and it really didn't work out.
User ID: 454
self_made_human
Kai su, teknon?
19hr ago
Congratulations! I hope the salary at that new place is superior to your previous one, and my understanding is that logistics is a field with plenty of demand, so it'll probably open up career options down the line to boot.
self_made_human
Kai su, teknon?
6d ago
However, the Supreme Court will not confront this head-on; they will do almost anything to allow B) to remain the case while pretending that it isn't and 4) does not attain.
Is that simply because they don't want to rock the boat? Even the current conservative-leaning SC? What if Sotomayor is replaced?
self_made_human
Kai su, teknon?
7d ago
I was thinking about a post extolling the wonders of artificial sweeteners, courtesy of popping into the local Taco Bell and making good use of their unlimited drink refills.
All the Pepsi Max and Diet Coke a man could dream of, without the normal consequences on the waistline? Whoever made the nectar of the gods zero calorie deserves a Nobel, maybe two. And they're safe, last time I reviewed the claims about potential downsides I was thoroughly unconvinced.
self_made_human
Kai su, teknon?
8d ago
I haven't been out of India for even a year now, and I can promise you I've never heard anyone call anyone else a Pajeet in real life, nor online. OP has a rather unusual online circle.
self_made_human
Kai su, teknon?
8d ago
My parents are on vacation in Kashmir, and were about 3 hours away from going to the same spot when the shooting happened and roads locked down.
Yeah. That was a fun thing to wake up to in Scotland.
self_made_human
Kai su, teknon?
10d ago
It's been a while, but I recall enjoying the exploration of the ship itself, the tense standoffs with the aliens, and the drama around the potential of being the last humans alive on the ship. That last bit prompted some funky incest babies before Rama picked up more humans and made that approach obsolete. I don't remember if it was R2 or the sequel that had colony hijinks as the humans tried to settle/conquer the ship, but it was great nonetheless.
self_made_human
Kai su, teknon?
10d ago
I never read the original RWR, but I did read the sequels and greatly enjoyed them, even if I don't think Clarke was particularly involved in the writing therein.
self_made_human
Kai su, teknon?
10d ago
It's a shame that Papal candidates are renamed when entering office. I'd pay money for a Pope Pizzaballa just for the meme value alone.
self_made_human
Kai su, teknon?
14d ago
I haven't used any spatial elements, just text, with abstractions of the game board. Think Choose Your Own Adventure, but with more structure according to the specific RPG framework.
You could probably cobble up some kind of program to create and update a game board, and then input it back as an image. A bit more advanced than I've seen the need for. You could also have (Gemini 2.0 Flash Experimental) output images in response, but you'd be sacrificing the intelligence of 2.5.
There is function calling as a specific toggle, but I'm not sure how it plays into MCP.
self_made_human
Kai su, teknon?
14d ago
New pastime:
I've always been a fan of simulating TTRPG sessions using AI. I thought Claude was great at it, but I was always hamstrung by low message/chat length counts on the free tier. Alternatives like ChatGPT 4o just weren't as good, and ran into rate limit issues just as they got interesting.
With Gemini 2.5 Pro Thinking, not an issue any more. It's a great writer, especially with some guidance, and for the purposes of fairness, I enabled code execution for the simple purpose of rolling random die. Works great, I'm enjoying my current Delta Green campaign set in 2027 where it turns out that advanced AGI research has rather interesting consequences when it comes to getting the attention of Lovecraftian entities. Mask on a Shoggoth, anyone?
self_made_human
Kai su, teknon?
14d ago
Music recommend thread:
I find new songs in a rather haphazard way. Maybe a video on Reddit or YT has a bopper, which I then use some kind of audio recognition to identify and add to my playlist. Spotify manages to get me to add a song to my favorites at a rate of about 1 every 2 weeks. This time, it did share a banger, one I've got on repeat.
YouTube link: So Cold by Balu Brigada
The bassline has probably gotten people pregnant, I can't help but nod my head along.
(My taste in music borders on schizophrenic, not that I don't listen to mainstream music)
self_made_human
Kai su, teknon?
15d ago
Wouldn't the "objective effects" of an Anki deck just be the benefits of spaced repetition? That's well established empirically AFAIK.
self_made_human
Kai su, teknon?
17d ago
Unfortunately not. And I've already checked.
self_made_human
Kai su, teknon?
17d ago
I'll take it over being plain old dead, and we'll have to see what future technologies can do in regards to full-fat uploading. Like living on through your genes, it beats utter non-existence.
self_made_human
Kai su, teknon?
17d ago
If that's how you see things, then you have the option of not creating such a simulacrum, and asking your family not to make one of you. If you're an EU citizen, you probably have stronger legal recourse, such as the people who successfully got ChatGPT to ignore their names.
I would be entirely fine with such a clone of me being around when I wasn't. I don't see it being any worse than people fondly looking back at pictures or videos of the deceased today, they're gone either way, and they're instantiating a replica in their brain to represent them.
self_made_human
Kai su, teknon?
17d ago
Wouldn't it be great if your kids could see a healthier, better version of grandma?
Certainly, that's why I'm a transhumanist and a doctor.
No reason to wait until she's dead, just turn on AI grandma and avoid an awkward trip to the nursing home.
I presume you don't see yourself doing this, and neither do I (assuming my grandmas were anything but ash now). So most decent people who visit because of obligation or simply because they care will continue doing so. The people who had little inclination to do so won't, and I don't see this making much of a change on the margin.
So far, improvements in telepresence and telecommunications means it's easier for lonely old folk to speak to their families, leaving aside their issues operating a phone or a video app. The alternative wouldn't be a drastic increase in visits, it would be them being left even more in the cold than is already the case.
self_made_human
Kai su, teknon?
17d ago
He was commenting again a month or so back, so he's alive and well, and probably not in Alaska.
self_made_human
Kai su, teknon?
17d ago
A lifetime? More like 2 years. The only thing we can't do today (with good results) is the interactive AI avatar or real time video.
self_made_human
Kai su, teknon?
17d ago
I fail to see what's so horrible about it. It's a pale shadow of true immortality, but it's better than nothing, and I don't see how ten copies is any worse than one. You could always get them to sync up, and if you can't, then a granny who has a different set of memories and doesn't remember what you said to her last week is not much different from a living one with dementia.
self_made_human
Kai su, teknon?
20d ago
I've run into people here, quite recently, who have used that phrase. My usual response is something along the lines that the purpose of anything is entropy maximization.
The meaning of life, as measured by what it does? Increase entropy.
The meaning of coffee? Just the same.
self_made_human
Kai su, teknon?
23d ago
Fair enough. I can see what you meant.
self_made_human
Kai su, teknon?
23d ago
There is an inherent contradiction between:
This is the backlash to automation. This is the "wrecker class" implementing destructive policies in response to being automated away. This is just what it looks like. It doesn't say it on the tin. The talk is always about jobs, but the blame is misplaced for why they're going away. It's automation. It can cause people to reach for whatever tool can possibly cause shortages and contract the economy, just hoping that doing so somehow reverses the impacts of automation. Nevermind that the intermediate steps are "cause shortages" and "contract the economy".
If you're worried about how the PMC will eventually sabotage the progress of automation or just want to find a way to model how humans might be a bottleneck on the way to a glorious automated future, one might need look no further than current events.
The most charitable interpretation is a proof-reading error, otherwise it clearly claims that the PMC are both currently "wrecking" things and this is the way they might wreck things in the future. Given that the PMC, as we understand that class, are not in charge of the stupid economic policies instituted by the Trump admin, and likely the ones most against it, it seems ridiculous to blame them for the latter's actions.
Unless, of course, someone has a convincing argument for why the PMC is somehow responsible that I'm missing.
self_made_human
Kai su, teknon?
23d ago
I find it rather interesting to claim that the PMC, the class most opposed to Trump, is somehow wrecking things. That's some 5D Chess with multiversal time travel right there, not checkers.
self_made_human
Kai su, teknon?
23d ago
This has a substantial rebuttal. The core claims are hilariously overblown for anyone with even a passing familiarity with medicine or lab work.
I have nothing but good things to say about my dad and grandpa. Well, not literally so, but any failings are rather minor in the grand scheme of things.
I was a somewhat sheltered child, so it took me until med school to realize that many people can't take the kind of functional, happy family life I had for granted.
I've done relatively well for myself, choosing between reference classes: Indian/Doctor. That being said, I don't think I could have done what my dad did, which was to hustle from being a refugee without a penny (or Indian paisa) to his name, to being modestly famous, and having set his kids up for success. Seriously, all I managed was to more or less not stagnate or back slide when it comes to socio-economic condition, whereas he took us from nothing to a very comfortable existence. He's hard working, to the point where it's taking its toll on his health, and tightened belts when not strictly needed so there'd be enough to go around on a rainy day.
My grandpa? The kindest man I know, and the best doctor to boot. He's at the age where he's finally becoming less than outright famous, but only because even his junior peers are dying of old age or going senile. There was a time when just mentioning that I was his grandson would open doors, he's 95 and there are still patients calling the smartphone he can barely use for medical advice or requesting surgery. Thankfully he's able to sign post them to his SIL, my dad. It breaks my heart to see senility, long averted, finally take him. He lived a ridiculously healthy, outright ascetic lifestyle, and as a consequence, lived well past 90 in good health and only recently took a turn for the worse.
It could be worse. He gets to live with my family, both because it's multi-generational, and because they couldn't bear to part with him. No care home for him, just the comfort of a house he built himself, with his daughters, son-in-laws and most of his grandkids doting on him.
My dad might be a better surgeon, but he'll never be as universally adored. Too stingy, by far. Back when I was in med school and sat in with my grandpa during his clinics, he'd waive fees more often than not when anything about his patient gave him the impression that they were anything but well off.
In contrast to them? I'm not nearly as hard working. On the flip side, I never had to be, having been spared, through the dint of their hard work, from every worrying where my next meal would come from. I've still done okay, but in a way, I side stepped direct comparisons of clinical competence by not taking up a gynecological or surgical field. Didn't like them, but I certainly felt easier knowing we won't be measured by the same benchmark.
Yet humans are (still) all too mortal and frail. The giants I looked up to now look up at me, and at times, I wonder if their pride in me is overly tinged by ties of blood. I tell myself I've done enough to be proud of, and sometimes, I believe it. I'd certainly be prouder than my heart could bear if my future kids looked at me the same way I look to them.
Since you pivoted into a comparative study of different cultures and places, I guess I can share my impressions of the UK/Scotland:
Slow decay.
Britain is a stagnant, often involuting place. Half the times I visit any but the largest cities in Scotland, I'm struck by the urban decay. I've never seen places with so many boarded up shops, hopeful cafes and hipster restaurants with only decaying shop decals to evidence that they ever existed. India might be dirtier, smellier and louder, but it always gives the impression of growth. There's just too much demand for entire buildings or prime real estate to sit empty and unlet. At the bare minimum, some entrepreneurial type would set up a food outlet or stall there.
Most of what appeals about the UK is old. Ancestral manors, cities and cobbled streets older than street cars. Even the NHS, considered a national treasure, is in slow motion collapse. Quick, free and high quality. Pick any two. By Indian standards, they picked the latter, but any good Indian private hospital will get you far more timely and attentive care than what the NHS can offer.
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