The fact is, it can be a very useful technology when deployed sensibly. Yes, it’s going to inflict massive harm on society in multiple ways - but just dismissing it as shit is putting your head in the sand. We need to be figuring out how to ensure that the harm it does is minimised and ideally that it’s used in ways that benefit us all. Fuck knows how though.

But it’s not just going to go away, no matter how much we might want it to.

Can we give Darwin awards to companies?

I’m certainly very happy with my Huawei watch. Obviously a totally different product by a different manufacturer, but China can clearly make quality stuff that’s affordable.

Yeah that’s the sort of thing people say when they know they’ll be working somewhere else within a year.

Yeah solar power is much more affordable these days. I live in a vehicle so I have a 500w panel on the roof charging a 200ah lithium battery. I only use a laptop and steam deck, but could easily upscale. The whole system, including the victron controllers & shunt and the 2k inverter came out around £700, but I’m pretty sure stuff has only got cheaper since I bought it. I have way more power than I need in summer, though there are maybe two months in winter when I have to charge everything in daylight. I could always add a small wind generator if I needed. Renewables are totally feasible these days

I guess also they have an eye print that will identify the scammer if they’re ever caught.

I dunno, I had a kobo many years ago, put an android launcher on there and could use it as an e-ink tablet. Don’t know if you can still do this, but it was pretty handy.

Oh yeah, I agree. I’m just saying that now that I’m later on in life I have a clearer idea of my interests and an actual desire to learn, as opposed to when I was of ‘university age’. Back then I was only into sex, drugs, and techno. The opportunity was wasted.

State funded adult education seems like a really sensible investment in the future. I’m in my 50s, never did a degree - wasn’t really interested when I was younger. But I’d love to have the opportunity to study now. Can’t afford it, though.

That. . . Is actually pretty interesting.

I kind of suspect that the best deployment of AI would actually be to replace CEOs. It can hardly make worse decisions, and it’s a huge cost saving.

Yeah, I thought windows was only free if you pirate it? Can’t imagine why someone would want to do that, but people are weird sometimes.

Is there radiation between stars? I’m sure it’s cold tho.

And fweedum!

Yeah, governments all over are trying to implement the same shit, and I agree it’s coordinated. Many governments are also looking seriously at stepping back from reliance on US big tech firms though. Not that homegrown oppression and surveillance is any better.

Like everything on shodan basically? FFS

Thanks! Yeah, it’s horrible. Plus some parts of the US still use the death penalty. I’m not immovably against the death penalty - some people are just that irredeemable - but it definitely shouldn’t be an option in any legal system that can’t be 100% sure about guilt. At present, none of them can be that sure.

Your comment is geo-locked - I can’t read it because I’m in the UK and Finland has made the frankly sensible decision to block UK users because of our somewhat misnamed ‘online safety bill’! TIL. Interesting.

That’s really fucked up. It almost guarantees that there’s gonna be a percentage of people who are totally innocent but take prison time in a deal because they are threatened by too much more. In my country the system is the opposite - too lenient, which isn’t necessarily bad if accompanied by work to rehabilitate and reduce recidivism, but there’s very little of that either.

Jeremy Clarkson rims goats. Fuckin tail-lifter.