domain:firsttoilthenthegrave.substack.com
faceh
4hr ago
This is the take I pretty much endorse.
Thinking "AI is going nowhere and will be prove to be a waste" a la the Tulip or NFT craze is wrong.
Thinking "A lot of people/companies are going to get wiped out before the final winners are clear" seems inevitable. Lot of blood on the streets before we're done.
Especially with this:
here’s extreme cross-ownership / circular dealing in the market where Nvidia is pouring hundreds of billions of dollars into AI companies and data centers who buy its chips
blatantly occurring. NVidia seems to think they're so dominant as to be unassailable, we'll see if that works out.
But every single company is in it to win it, despite this point:
Big AI companies have no moats.
Hard to predict who is going to make it out.
hydroacetylene
4hr ago
It’s pretty normal for big dog owners around here. But I also live in a bubble where everyone spanks their kids, so acceptability of corporal punishment is just higher.
NewCharlesInCharge
4hr ago
I think John Brown would have found another cause for his righteous violence had slavery been abolished before he started killing people.
pigeonburger
4hr ago
I don't know personally what he did, but I know that I've never seen a dog yelp in response to anything except pain or the expectation of incoming pain if it has been conditioned into them, neither is a good look for Hasan.
Capital_Room
rather dementor-like
4hr ago
The Bible is special too. But Christians don't think we should ban the Bible in order to protect it. They think we should disseminate it as widely as possible precisely because it's sacred and it brings people into contact with the sacred.
Maybe Protestant Christians, perhaps, but I know plenty of Catholics, at least, who think the Bible should have been kept in Latin and read in whole only by priests.
EverythingIsFine
Well, is eventually fine
4hr ago
You can tell civil war is not the trajectory because of a few things. A non exhaustive list includes the simple fact that the George Floyd protests eventually stopped. That kind of street protest is not the new normal. Even slavery which was a far more potent issue than all of those today took decades and decades and decades to result in war.
Grant_us_eyes
4hr ago
If you are a Republican voter in Alabama, I don't see how Chicago is "your house" in any morally relevant way.
CDL holders issued in California killing people in Florida says otherwise.
Look, I'd love for there to be a larger argument for States Rights(for my own safety's sake, if nothing else), but it's clear by this point that it's been well done and buried, and we have to live with the consequences.
Jiro
4hr ago
If you are a Republican voter in Alabama, I don't see how Chicago is "your house" in any morally relevant way. If you are a Reform UK voter in Lower Snoring, I insist that my house in London is not "your house" in any morally relevant way,
Okay, whose house is it then?
Open borders proponents always say "well, it isn't yours, so you have no right to exclude anyone". It's someone's. Who does have the right to exclude? It may be an individual, it may be a government, but that right didn't just go away because you don't personally own the country. Where did it go and who has it right now?
hydroacetylene
4hr ago
Cities in the sunbelt are hiring.
This isn’t arresting granny here, this is getting in a firefight while outgunned. They’re not suicidal.
faceh
4hr ago
Yeah I see your point there.
I'm just pointing out that you've got the messaging from the boosters and all the money being spent to sell people on it, and then there's the other side where there's messages from the doomsayers AND messaging on the political side and then there's the market's response to tall this, with evidence that spending related to AI development is propping up growth right now.
It is questionable what the real goal of all that is, if we take everything being said at sheer face value.
Capital_Room
rather dementor-like
4hr ago
They're gonna instead form a human wall against it because the dem apparatchik who 6 months ago was calling for their total defunding and disbandment tells em to?
Yes, because that apparatchik and his associates control their paychecks; and even more, their pensions. Just ask the cops. It doesn't matter how Red Tribe they are, or their own personal feelings, they'll do whatever they're told to if they have to in order to protect their oh-so-precious pensions.
Capital_Room
rather dementor-like
4hr ago
What actually happens is the police decide they’d rather live to cash their paychecks than shoot at federal troops.
And if they're told that any officer who doesn't follow orders to shoot at federal troops will no longer have paychecks to cash, nor their precious, precious pension?
Stellula
4hr ago
E-collars are extremely common for people with dogs and land, especially people with hunting dogs.
https://www.garmin.com/en-US/c/outdoor-recreation/sporting-dog-tracking-training-devices/
The_Nybbler
If you win the rat race you're still a rat. But you're also still a winner.
4hr ago
What I expect is more like
- Speed limit is too low -> everyone obeys the speed limit -> it becomes a non-issue, with would-be violators just sucking it up.
WhiningCoil
Ghost of Quokka's Future
4hr ago
When we got a dog, and had it professionally trained, they used a shock collar. They also gave use the shock collar, and instructed us on it's use. It was really helpful training the dog to stop jumping on people, because it scared our daughter so badly she was hesitant to come out of her room if the dog was around. Later on, when we got a geofenced collar, it's also a shock collar. Basically an invisible fence collar, except it uses a GPS instead of a buried wire.
Now that I think about, everyone I knew with well trained dogs has them on shock collars. But maybe that's regional or social bubble related.
EverythingIsFine
Well, is eventually fine
4hr ago
Isn’t that just MLK-ism? The whole “unjust laws” bit, how it doesn’t challenge the legal legitimacy but rather the moral legitimacy, and despite the time worn temptation is to conflate the two they are not the same. I’d want to see more elaboration of this point than jump to that assumption. Unless you have an actual issue with MLK-ism?
Stellula
4hr ago
It's completely mainstream to use e-collars for pets, but not like this.
The typical use for an e-collar is for recall, and there are multiple levels to it.
- Noise (it beeps)
- Vibe (it vibrates)
- Shock
You use these when you issue the recall command (usually: "come!") but the dog is too fixated on something to respond. You start by doing the beeps, then the vibe, and then only if the dog is totally locked into something would you use the shock. The shock isn't a punishment, it's just there to get the dogs attention.
There are people who use the shock as punishment, but they're the minority.
Totalitarianit
4hr ago
I care less about the shock collar than I do what it is used for, which is apparently to ensure that his dog remain in a 2' x 4' space for hours on end. That doesn't seem good. I also don't need anything else to convince me of Hasan's character or what he represents. This could be a deep fake AI video, and my dislike of Hasan will remain same.
Hoffmeister25
American Bukelismo Enthusiast
4hr ago
Every person in the church with whom I’ve discussed it has been very clear that caffeinated drinks, other than coffee and tea, are unambiguously permitted. They believe that eliminating addiction from your life is pretty much always an unalloyed good, since it allows a fuller use of your agency and self-control, but that to a certain extent the church is willing to meet people where they’re at and to allow some leeway, particularly for things like caffeine which have clear benefits alongside their drawbacks.
100ProofTollBooth
Dumber than a man, but faster than a dog.
4hr ago
The Bible is special too. But Christians don't think we should ban the Bible in order to protect it. They think we should disseminate it as widely as possible precisely because it's sacred and it brings people into contact with the sacred. (In fact they arrange regular mass public gatherings where they come together to worship that which is considered sacred. Apply the same logic to sexuality and...)
I'll take this in good faith because I think you meant it that way. Obviously, there are different "special rules" for different things. Yes, the mass and general catchesis should be spread as far as possible. No, the same shouldn't be said for explicit sexual relations. Ha.
But I don't actually want to just drop a "This is what the Catholic Church says" style response here. THat wouldn't be helpful. I mean, as far as porn goes, the Catholic response is "100% pure evil, don't engage with it at all." Which I agree with. But I also live in America and do believe in free speech so, while on a personal level I am 100% anti porn, politically I can't just shout "perma ban!" and then walk away.
How do we demarcate the sacred things that need to be disseminated from the sacred things that need to be protected? Do we have a schema outlining the different modalities in which something may be sacred?
At the risk of channeling the spirit of Helen Lovejoy, I think we should think of the children. Meaning, as a rubric, is whatever the "thing" we're talking about something we would more or less be comfortable with in giving to children? So, right off the bat, this means that porn, booze, gambling, drugs, and guns have to have my ill-defined "special rules" consideration.
When I say "children" here I do literally mean minors. More conceptually, however, we can think of "children" to mean people who don't necessarily have the fully developed character or faculties to make generative decisions for themselves. To be clear, I'm not talking about the mentally incompetent or retarded here. I mean "normal" distribution IQ folks who have glaring inabilities to manage their own life.
Another possible rubric could be on "length of time it takes to fuck your life with x." You don't get addicted to porn after a single use. Smoking one pack of cigarettes won't give you lung cancer. On the other hand, you can go down to the liquor store right now and for $50 or less buy a quantity of alcohol that will 100% lead to death. Guns ... I mean, I don't even have to spell that out. I should probably point out here that "special rules" does not mean banning. In fact, "special rules" need not even be particular onerous. For example, I am as pro-gun as they get, but I do think purchasing a gun (from a business, not privately) should require 1) valid and current identification and 2) proof of no convictions for violent felonies (perhaps with some sort of age out provision - haven't thought it all the way through).
I am always suspicious of the State and think it should be as small as possible. I wish a lot more work of social management would be done by local culture. Bring back slut shaming, but don't make laws against being a slut. Bring back social condemnation for being a drunk, but don't make purchasing limits on the amount of booze I can get. Real freedom is preserving the ability to make choices, even bad ones, so long as there isn't an oversized risk of collateral damage to others. I'm not advocating for the freedom to drink and drive, for instance.
So I don't support a State level ban on porn or impossible-to-enforce-and-also-1984-style digital age verification attempts. But I do support the return to the common idea that porn is for weirdo perverts. Trevor Wallace, a comedian I sometimes have pop up on my nonsense YouTube account, often has porn "actors" on his podcast and in his comedic clips. This does make me sad and its made me shy away from his content more because it normalizes the "everyone uses porn" meme. That isn't true. It was never true. Furthermore, on the topic of cultural memes, I think it's pretty easy to draw a line from the sexual revolution of the late 1960s to the ridiculous sexualization of society today along with all of the mental gymnastic that accompany it.
Capital_Room
rather dementor-like
4hr ago
If popular opinion is in line with Trump, then the votes should bestow enough power onto the Republicans to formally change the regulations.
"Should," according to a civics textbook model of how our "democracy" works, but, as we can see, it clearly doesn't. Yes that's "the whole point of a democracy," which is why its absence demonstrates that our "democracy" is a sham.
RoyGBivensAction
Zensunni Scientologist
4hr ago
I have successfully given up coffee (not caffeine entirely, although I’m actively working to reduce my daily caffeine consumption and dependence)
I know a number of devout LDS members, and they're all over the place on the caffeine issue. Coffee is a clear no, but opinions diverge widely on caffeinated sodas and energy drinks. I'd say that's a lower priority than the big steps you've made in other areas.
My father got a shock collar for one of our dogs when I was a kid in the 90s-00s, to let her out in our yard without having to worry about her running away. It didn't work for keeping her "fenced in," as she would respond to the shock by just running even faster until she left the area. I didn't think much of it at the time, both as a kid and as a Korean immigrant who grew up with dogs being little more than props to put in your yard to keep thieves out.
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