I think the more important thing, is for people to push to make AI a public good, rather than a corporate hegemony. If corporations are the sole creators and holders of AI, they will do all sorts of terrible things with their mastery. Publicly developed and open-sourced AI that is free for anyone to use, is important.

The refusal for the public to truly make AI their own, would be akin to letting corporations to control every single printing press.

I wonder if Kraft Macaroni would become the currency of the Greater Depression?

I am figuring K-Cups might be a currency as well, for those who have a caffeine addiction like myself.

What is the point of living without art and culture? That sounds like being a worker bee, without any honey.

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Another bit of Sartre, it very much describes the nature of ICE:

JEAN PAUL SARTE

They know that their remarks are frivolous, open to challenge. But they are amusing themselves, for it is their adversary who is obliged to use words responsibly, since he believes in words. The antisemites have the right to play. They even like to play with discourse for, by giving ridiculous reasons, they discredit the seriousness of their interlocutors. They delight in acting in bad faith, since they seek not to persuade by sound argument but to intimidate and disconcert.

If the Jew did not exist, the anti-Semite would invent him.

[The anti-Semite attributes] all or part of his own misfortunes and those of his country to the presence of Jewish elements in the community, … proposes to remedy this state of affairs by depriving the Jews of certain of their rights, by keeping them out of certain economic and social activities, by expelling them from the country, by exterminating all of them …

It is not unusual for people to elect to live a life of passion rather than of reason. But ordinarily they love the objects of passion: women, glory, power, money. Since the anti-Semite has chosen hate, we are forced to conclude that it is the state of passion that he loves.

[The anti-Semite] fears every kind of solitariness… however small his stature, he takes every precaution to make it smaller, lest he stand out from the herd and find himself face to face with himself. He has made himself an anti-Semite because that is something one cannot be alone.

[The anti-Semite is afraid] of himself, of his own consciousness, of his own liberty, of his instincts, of his responsibilities, of solitariness, of change, of society, and the world – of everything except the Jews. [He is] a coward who does not want to admit his cowardice to himself.

Anti-Semitism, in short, is fear of the human condition. The anti-Semite is a man who wishes to be a pitiless stone, a furious torrent, a devastating thunderbolt – anything except a man.

A treatment that will be refused by MAHA, I assume. 😒

I don’t disagree that the America we knew is done. However, protests allows people to network together - to see others are concerned and want change. This will be important for fostering the new civilizations that arise from the ashes of American society. I want Thiel’s Praxis to fail, and many democracies to emerge.

I like Windows. I like AI. But this like is based on me having ownership over them. Microsoft is what has convinced me to move to Linux when an official SteamOS Desktop is released.

Yeah, I kinda expect to bite the dust during a civil war. Still better odds than letting RFK send me to a concentration camp, since I am autistic and less than human in the Regime’s eyes.

“Universal healthcare is a temptation of the Devil!”

…I hope that this program is the first major brick towards getting the profit out of medical care in the US.

If MAGA is any indication, being connected to Yahweh’s wi-fi is a horrific thing that destroys body and soul. Give me the fluoride.

I probably will get it when Turkey Day rolls around. Anyhow, counter-suggestion: Check out La-Mulana if you like puzzles with your Metroidvania. They are extremely long and difficult games, but is worth your time if you got the lateral thinking to puzzle out the riddles and enjoy things like King’s Quest.

The Touhou franchise strikes me as the modern Lovecraft. People are creating fangames, and go on to make them into commercial products. Around the 22nd or thereabout, “Shrine Maiden Wars” will be released, which is a take on the Super Robot Wars formula, but with the Touhou cast. It is an incredibly vibrant ecosystem of fanworks, where most people get to have fun AND profit.

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IMO, the way it should be is that concepts and art should be free to be used by anyone. However, specific incarnations made someone can’t be copied. For example, Nintendo can make a Pokemon game, as can Sega with the same characters. Naturally, Nintendo can make a Shin Megami Mario game.

The important thing is that the company or people behind an incarnation is distinctly labelled, so that people can’t confuse who made what. In this way, variants of a media can fulfill niches that otherwise wouldn’t be possible. Say, for example, a WoodRocket “Jessie Does James” hentai anime.

Honestly, it might be worth it. I don’t want to live my life in a MAGAT America. Of course, the price is that I have to be willing to give up my life to secure an America worth living in.

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As I mentioned on Bluesky: This is not just evil, but also dumb. Medics will not treat ICE personnel if they are endangered by just doing their job. The point of the social contract is that everyone works together to ensure that all people get to live a decent life. Abusing the doctors is a good way to be removed from the census, because they have better people to spend their efforts on.