its

Imagine thinking political theory involves selection pressures.

Sure, sure.

It’s so lazy to describe capitalism backsliding towards feudalism as “late stage capitalism”. If capitalism actually had “stages”, you’d have to progress forward to reach later stages. Backsliding towards the feudalism that birthed capitalism isn’t some kind of “late stage”, it’s capitalism failing and feudalism reasserting itself.

There was a quote from one of them the other day talking about being unable to sleep well because he’s constantly afraid of people coming after him for what he’s got. If only there were a way to remove that target from your back…

That looks more like feudalism.

For Capitalism there should be multiple different money scoops, some better designed than others. There should also be a greased-up rope that leads from the unicycle-bar to the top, showing that it’s theoretically possible to rise to a different class, it’s just practically impossible.

I haven’t gotten into the Beta, so I haven’t played it, but I’m curious, is the game designed so you can’t do anything without walking, or is it so that you can creep along at a snail’s pace without walking but to actually make real progress you have to walk?

It seems to me like you could use the psychology of a Pay To Win / Microtransactions game to motivate people but by using walking instead of money.

Does GPS really require an internet connection? I know it uses the radio, which kills the battery, but AFAIK you can get GPS without Internet access. For example, I’ve downloaded offline areas for Google Maps and have tracked my location that way, while traveling in countries where I didn’t have a SIM allowing me to access the Internet.

Assuming nobody else is immune and has the power to restart it. If someone else did have the power to restart time, I think the thought process would go:

Bob: “Aha! I have the power to stop time with the snap of my fingers”

[starts to snap]

Bob: “Oh wait! What if I’m not immune!”

[time is frozen]

Some dude elsewhere: “Weird, time stopped again! I guess I’ll take advantage and rob this bank.” Then, later “Ok, got all the money, now I’ll just crack my knuckles to restart time.”

[time is unfrozen]

Bob: “Wait… I just snapped my fingers and time didn’t stop! I guess I don’t have that power at all!”

You could say the same about a plant identification book.

It’s not so much that AI for plant identification is bad, it’s that the higher the stakes, the more confident you need to be. Personally, I’m not going foraging for mushrooms with either an AI-based plant app or a book. Destroying Angel mushrooms look pretty similar to common edible mushrooms, and the key differences can disappear depending on the circumstances. If you accidentally eat a destroying angel mushroom, the symptoms might not appear for 5 to 24 hours, and by then it’s too late. Your liver and kidney are already destroyed.

But, I think you could design an app to be at least as good as a book. I don’t know if normal apps do this, but if I made a plant identification app, I’d have the app identify the plant, and then provide a checklist for the user to use to confirm it for themselves. If you did that, it would be just like having a friend just suggest checking out a certain page in a plant identification book.

Generative AI: bad.

Other kinds of AI: mostly bad.

Yes… as I said. But, most people use hardware provided by other people, which means other people write the drivers.

I think the real issue with driver development is that almost nobody ever has a reason to do it. It’s a much more constrained way of programming compared to normal programs, and isn’t necessary unless you need to talk to hardware or something. So, nobody has an excuse to learn it.

Yep. You wouldn’t have adventurous magicians going out and casting spells against dragons. The variety of spells known by D&D type wizards wouldn’t even be a thing. You’d have a guy who was a specialist in ritual-casting flame spells whose job consisted of continuously heating up cauldrons of metal ore so it could be smelted. If he was jumped on his commute home, he couldn’t fight the attackers off with “fireball” or something. Maybe that was covered in school decades ago, but he’s spent his entire career doing nothing but that one smelting spell Or, you’d have the “Gate” wizard whose entire job was to keep up a portal for their entire 8 hour shift, so that tourists could pass back and forth.

IMO it depends on the games. I’ve been playing co-op games with cousins, and you can get that same feeling. Like, everybody fighting together to take down a boss in Don’t Starve Together.

“Get kids”…

AVP2, nice. That’s one most people don’t mention.

I played that a few times with friends/cow-orkers late at night in an office where I used to work. I scared the hell out of one guy when I just walked over to his office when he was playing as a marine. He was so keyed up thinking about sneaky aliens and it was so dark that he didn’t see me coming. I wasn’t even trying to scare him, just walking over to talk to him.

If they do that, they get on the bad side of all the countries that depend on that gas.

But, if it’s destroyed by Russian artillery as the Russians try to re-take the territory, the blame falls on the Russians.

Here’s an interesting take I saw on it:

https://infosec.exchange/@littlealex/112925288375029203

“The way the Russian army fight is simple: Destroy everything in front with artillery and bombs, then send in infantry and tanks to handle the remaining resistance.”

But, if they do that, they’ll probably end up destroying their own gas pipeline junction. And, because of sanctions, they might not even be able to repair that junction if it is destroyed. So, they either have to shoot themselves in the foot by using their normal tactics and destroy the junction with artillery, or they send their soldiers into the meat grinder without artillery cover, or they let Ukraine keep control of the junction proving Putin is weak.

I don’t think you realize how much they missed by:

“On its second firing, the chain shot across the horizon and into a thicket of pine.”

So, you’d miss the entire army you were shooting at, and hit a nearby forest.