SterlingVapor

joined 1 year ago
[–] SterlingVapor 2 points 6 months ago

I think it is obvious to a lot of people, but still worthwhile

First, the idea "humans are super special" is deeply ingrained in our science and cultures. It's dying a very slow death, and each new study like this further shifts how we see nonhuman life, and ourselves

Second, studying how to establish mutual communication with animals is how we learn to do it better. Coming up with efficient training methods to teach communication is useful in a practical way

This is a small step with unsurprising results, but it's a small step forward

[–] SterlingVapor 4 points 6 months ago

It all comes down to "well, sure we might have plenty, but if not for capitalism how could we decide how to divide it?"

But any solution has to promote self-interest as a virtue and can't take things away from people who currently own them, and also must conform to a bunch of myths we have about "how the world works"

[–] SterlingVapor 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Mushrooms have chitin, so I'm guessing there's not common trigger

[–] SterlingVapor 2 points 7 months ago

I'm not mad, I'm just disappointed

[–] SterlingVapor 1 points 1 year ago

I've found revanced to stop playing the video after a minute or two unless you frequently update it (which is a manual process)... I no longer listen to lectures while I run errands, because there's now no convenient way to do it. Ads are out of the question, and finding a video I want to watch only to have it cut out as I get on the road has killed the experience for me

I'm on Android, and open to suggestions

[–] SterlingVapor 1 points 1 year ago

That's not the problem... The problem is Linux isn't "normal". Their work laptop comes with Windows or osx. Their home computer comes with the same.

Now go tell the average person to install Linux... To them, you might as well be telling them to open up their computer and snip a jumper to make their computer faster. To them, you're telling them to take their working computer and do something they don't really understand and is beyond their ability to undo.

It's an aftermarket modification to them. If you want to make Linux approachable, it's really damn simple. Hand them a computer running Linux, with a pretty desktop manager, and a GUI for everything you expect them to do with it. Better yet, add an app store so they can try out software and run updates without feeling intimidated

My point is, if manufacturers start selling Linux machines again, a lot of people will get on board

People aren't opposed to learning, they're just scared of breaking it, and they need to at least be able to use a web browser without going up a learning curve

[–] SterlingVapor 3 points 1 year ago

Yes, most definitely. Dry and tasteless are not words I associate with falafel, it sounds like something went horribly wrong there

The base taste is pretty mild, like a baked potato, but then you add spices and eat it along with other things

[–] SterlingVapor 4 points 1 year ago

He does not have any level of technical competence.

He understands cars or rockets the way a kid who is really into models does: he can tell you dimensions, horsepower, or payload capacity. He can't apply any of that knowledge - they're just memorized stats to him. When you get him talking about what those stats mean, he makes stuff the fuck up based on the reaction of the room. He's getting sued for it right now... Again

He tries to make it sound like he's this flawed genius with a grand plan to save humanity, but he's just a billionaire who loves collecting futuristic looking toys to brag about

[–] SterlingVapor 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Wtf is free will even? We're chemical systems, or a metaphysical soul, that makes statistically predictable decisions based on available information as well as uncountable minor factors. If you rewind time and do everything the same, either everyone comes to the same conclusions the same way, or free will requires an aspect of chaos... And at that point you're at predetermination - seems to me the whole idea is outdated philosophy

But here's the thing - statistically, people respond in predictable ways. If every time you do X, the majority will respond Y... That's just math.

Turns out, humans are super complex, but very predictable. And by that I mean policy is extraordinarily effective.

Free will matters on a personal level, it disappears on a societal level

[–] SterlingVapor 5 points 1 year ago

Missiles are super inefficient. You have to overcome gravity while fighting air resistance at the same time, which requires unreasonable energy density

If only there was some way to use air resistance to fight gravity, or better yet even some sort of metal road to push against to lower required acceleration to the minimum...

Maybe if we made a super slow missile on rails? Never mind, this sounds crazy now that I say it out loud

[–] SterlingVapor 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yep, it's pretty amazing how much not destroying the environment helps it recover... although the closer we get to a collapse, the more that ability to bounce back diminishes

Literally every aspect of our world is in a balance... Everything wears down over time, so the current state is basically a homeostasis between biological, geological, and astrological forces. The problem is that humans act on a far shorter time scale - 100 humans could cut down trees faster than a forest can regrow, 8 billion can change the atmospheric composition in a decade or two

[–] SterlingVapor 2 points 1 year ago

There's always the ones where AI are always omnicidal and all digital tech is taboo, or the ones that predate the information age where you have very manual but powerful tech... Like sure, FTL is definitely sci-fi, but without automation (even human guided automation like ripperdocs) you end up with very unequal societies where magic tech exists, but only for the rich or large organizations

The first is a newer genre so I can't think of anything well known, the second includes things like the time machine where the time machine is sci-fi, but technology regresses, and the last one could be things like dune. Or 1984, where we've surpassed the "futuristic" tech (and unfortunately was mostly used like a how-to guide in recent years)

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