api

19 ms·

541.
by api 6mo ago
Software is now media, not tooling. Media tends to come with a lot of baked in perverse incentives.
542.
by api 6mo ago
I feel like the entire discourse is a proxy for what should be direct discourse about inequality and the regressive (rob from the poor, give to the rich) nature of our system. Eliminate the AI variable entirely and the problem remains, ther
543.
by api 6mo ago
AFAIK superconductors are a major limiting tech. But we are slowly getting better ones, both by discovering more and by learning to mass produce superconducting wire. With superconductors you can make magnetic bottles. There’s also some int
544.
by api 6mo ago
It’s a logical extrapolation if you think life is a natural phenomenon. It would be exceedingly weird to see no evidence for it, but of course we have not been looking long or far. And yes, space flight is brutally hard. Look up the history
545.
by api 6mo ago
A major problem is that if we structurally limit what technologies do, we are still not in control. Now whoever we empowered to control and limit the technology is in control. Who keeps them accountable? You’ll probably get one of three out
546.
by api 6mo ago
Any time the headline is gamblers making millions the reality is 90% of gamblers losing, maybe 9% breaking even or making small wins, and a few making millions.
547.
by api 6mo ago
Yeah. I’m a little obsessed with Orion though. The fact that the math works on that lunacy. The good old devil’s pogo stick. If you could make pure fusion bombs it would be maybe politically viable, especially if you also use superconductin
548.
by api 6mo ago
I agree about tiny loud minorities, but would also add the 4chan incubated fash stuff alongside Tumblr and parts of Reddit. As far as censorship goes, it’s clear that the deeper problem is that mega social media doesn’t scale. When the afor
549.
by api 6mo ago
Yeah the more I learn the more I buy the rare Earth explanation. Life may not be that unusual but it might be mostly just goo: little extremophile type bacteria and maybe very tiny creepy crawlies living in deep seas, underground, in liquid
550.
by api 6mo ago
In that case aliens from a super Earth would be unable to get off it unless they decided to salt their biosphere with fissile waste. NERVA is at least contained if it works properly. So no space program from a super Earth until they figure
551.
by api 6mo ago
2.4% is not bad given how new this still is and how extreme the speeds and energies are. Note that all the fatalities have been launch or landing related, not in space itself. Clawing out of this gravity well is tough. Make Earth a bit lar
552.
by api 6mo ago
Part of the issue is that a huge number of people have quiet quit social media. They’ve just left, or at least they rarely visit. What’s left is brain rot and its addicts.
553.
by api 6mo ago
… and like fusion it will be a decade away, a decade away, a decade away, six months away, then we have it. The “decade away” phenomenon comes from the fact that it’s basically impossible to time estimate innovation.
554.
by api 6mo ago
The reason “ideas don’t get funding” is usually (but not always) true is that usually a good idea alone doesn’t mean much. So usually you have to have good idea plus something else the investor feels is a proof point or evidence you can exe
555.
by api 6mo ago
Reminds me of a related principle: “How do you know if a conspiracy theorist is really on to something?” “Check the missing persons list.”
556.
by api 6mo ago
Great short film version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6JFTmQCFHg I do wonder sometimes if someone out there is waiting for something actually intelligent to emerge down here.
557.
by api 6mo ago
So we spent a ton of money and a bunch of people died to negotiate a much worse situation. 5D chess!
558.
by api 6mo ago
Impossible without totalitarianism, which is its own somewhat different form of stupid. Also for parents the game is keeping kids away from it, which is time consuming, and parents are often overworked and don’t have that time.
559.
by api 6mo ago
Compared to social media, probably for the better.
560.
by api 6mo ago
You can do that yourself. Turn off mass media. I’ve done that almost entirely. The answer is to be your own survivorship bias. Go dig and find good stuff.
561.
by api 6mo ago
Where’s profitable crypto mining when you need it? Back yard plasma furnace? Artificial diamond making? Aluminum smelting?
562.
by api 6mo ago
I think you could have done this in the 1980s and 1990s and found a lot of fits: MTV, reality shows, daytime TV, junk food everywhere, pop music becoming increasingly trite and simple, newspapers and commentary declining toward grade school
563.
by api 6mo ago
This baffles me too. I don’t understand how “normal” people let alone lower income people live in places like SF/SV, NYC, etc. The math doesn’t math. Yet these cities have these people and could not function without them.
564.
by api 6mo ago
Why can't people reverse the roles and see how silly this is? Let's say the US had a massively unpopular regime that had taken power to the point that they couldn't be removed by elections. Now let's say the Chinese star
565.
by api 6mo ago
I’ve come to think that the costly quagmire is the point. It’s predictable and that’s why it’s done.
566.
by api 6mo ago
Nobody really has. Apple comes the closest but they keep rug pulling it in weird ways. Windows and Mac in the 90s had very consistent GUIs with such consistency in things like keyboard shortcuts that apps could easily be learned. The term “
567.
by api 6mo ago
That’s nuts actually for such a low power chip. Can’t wait to see the M series version of that. I’m sure very fast TPUs in desktops and phones are coming.
568.
by api 6mo ago
Does a long hot bath do the same?
569.
by api 6mo ago
I’ll do the forbidden on the Internet thing and give a nuanced answer. There are some “woke” policies that might harm groups they’re not designed to help, and some that just do nothing but make people feel good… like the social reform equiv
570.
by api 6mo ago
This is… just false. The US 2024 election saw the election of a whole regime of very male chauvinistic types, and that’s being as neutral and charitable as I can be. In the EU there’s a number of fairly far right parties with adjacent views

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