There are people, it is true—nay, a great many people—who smile at such things, because they are not sensitive to noise; but they are just the very people who are also not sensitive to argument, or thought, or poetry, or art, in a word, to any kind of intellectual influence. The reason of it is that the tissue of their brains is of a very rough and coarse quality.

I sort of wish I didn’t believe this but I’ve seen how they talk about the war.

Meanwhile Dem leadership has a much more sensible position on the war: that Trump is doing it wrong.

He didn’t even give people time to enjoy the fantasy.

Something surprisingly few people get about AI is if it had any intelligence at all it would surpass us blindingly fast, no matter the starting point.

It’s never going to be in the news that thinking machines got 23% smarter over the last month or three.

There’s an old comic I wish I could locate that has people standing at a train platform awaiting superintelligence. Nothing happens, then someone staring down the track says I think I see- whoosh and it’s already gone.

Putin’s Razor: Never attribute to self-own that which could easily be blamed on Russia.

I figured that was already a euphemism for shitting yourself.

I’ve had one lie to my face and the person next to me about what they said to us less than a minute prior.

It’s understandably difficult for people who haven’t experienced it to understand or believe it.

Afraid not, and even if it popped out of existence the inertia is still there.

Courtesy of COVID I feel like a frustrated spectator dealing with poorer memory, and brain fog when I reach the limits of a much reduced intellectual stamina.

We can all decide the government should take their money, and politicians can do exactly what capital wants as always.

Big if do.

I can’t wait for all this to be long forgotten when we’re being loudly told all over again how important voting (and nothing else) is.

After the ‘4’ incident my calibration for guessing if something like this is a joke is completely broken.

Start? We’ve been embracing the Great Filter like a long lost friend.

To be fair to them the default with “user friendly” phone UI makes it difficult to have any idea where things are. You often really have to go out of your way to open a file manager.

pre colour film announcer voice

The worker of the [year] 2000 will work just 20 hours per week

Oops, we forgot to account for employers existing.

and that finally – and this goes for the capitalists too –

an inhuman power rules over everything.

The comment was on the fecklessness of the ‘resistance’, not downplaying the brutality of the established order.

Americans have been taught “the right way” to resist by their class enemies. At this rate they’ll frog-costume-dance all the way into the camps holding hands and chanting “this is the way”.

Looking at it coldly going by the selection pressure of the market, they almost certainly are more fit for survival than a company that isn’t finding an excuse to spy on you (even more) and sell your data.

If I’d only put off de-googling a bit longer before I saw the news I could have skipped this hop. Oh well…

I’m eyeballing Tuta. Anyone have other recommendations?