The K-shaped economy kontinues.

Elaborate? What are the two charts in this example?

ITT a surprising lack of perspective on the fact that despite the breathless pace of the singularity, people are still necessarily figuring things out as we go and we are well off the map.

Here there be monsters, and we don't have any real way of evaluating risk; and the leverage provided by tools already available affords systemic and even existential risk in a way no one—least of all an industry committed to shareholder value—has had to navigate, let alone with a million backseat drivers each with their own substack and brand to build.

Every time Peter Watts comes up, it bears repeating:

TRIGGER WARNINGS APPLY

The Rifters series, which has some spectacular images and conceits, is also author-insert misogynist sadism gratification-porn.

Didn't have to be that way. Shame that it was as IMO it renders the series and indeed Watts un-recommendable.

Meh, seriously. Write a better book instead of flailing about the dark themes.

If someone is mature enough to read his book, they'll be able to process the less palatable parts themselves.

BTW,

> We present the results of a meta-analysis of all empirical studies on the effects of these warnings. Overall, we found that warnings had no effect on affective responses to negative material or on educational outcomes. However, warnings reliably increased anticipatory affect. Findings on avoidance were mixed, suggesting either that warnings have no effect on engagement with material or that they increased engagement with negative material under specific circumstances.

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/21677026231186625

Same

This reads like literal propaganda.

Every assertion of personal responsibility (sic) in the face of billion to trillion dollar industry spending is bad faith, zero exceptions.

British Petroleum invented the concept of personal climate footprint. That was bad faith and to put a point on it, evil.

Tech industry claims that engagement farming and addition manufacture should be opposed by "parenting" are even less credible.

Yes and no. Look around you and count how many properly failing parents there are. Parents who literally offload their parenting to a tablet, TV, phone, nanny which is often on phone herself, whatever. Then complain kids are unruly when they don't simply listen to them like soldiers. Parents, who are often as addicted to the screens (and more) as their kids. Recent studies showed above half of toddlers below 2 spend an hour or more daily on screens, thats fucked up.

I can count many such parents, way too many that I know. Kids before 5-6 should not access internet and should not watch TV. Don't trust me, trust children psychologists. Its toxic to their developing brains and personalities. Let them fuck up their lives on their own later if they must, don't give them hard addiction from the literal start of life, just because 'oh daddy has this super important work so doesn't have time to be a parent' syndrome, especially when its mostly empty pathetic soul draining white collar work with 0 added value to humanity.

And if one is truly changing the world for the better (as in 1 out of those maybe 10 humans actually currently doing it) and can't spare time for some kids, then don't have them, its not some freakin' checkbox ticked and moving to next challenge and achievement unlocked. Its by far the hardest effort one can make in one's life, spans over 2+ decades, be never 100% successful, while facing many real risks of failure completely outside of one's powers (no I don't mean peer pressure phones in school, rather ie health issues)

I think this is a “yes, and” kind of situation. Yes, a lot of parents suck, and yes, we should try to improve that situation, but also yes, we absolutely should punish megacorporations for making parents’ jobs harder by targeting children with their proven-to-be-harmful products.

Like, parents shouldn’t give cigarettes to their children, BUT ALSO it is both illegal and immoral for tobacco companies to target children.

> Parents, who are often as addicted to the screens (and more) as their kids.

This is a huge part of it. Kids are great at spotting hypocrisy, and if you tell them to put down the screens, yet you yourself are scrolling Instagram all day, the kid is going to know you are full of shit! It's like smoking a cigarette while telling your kid that smoking is bad for you.

They're passionate about style and brand, not design and sound.

I say this as someone with expertise in a domain they nominally targetted.

Very "cool" looking kit, but: missing basic features, unremarkable in those provided; serious issues rendering it fundamentally inappropriate for its nominal application.

The repetition of some phrases/statements means it's either poorly edited, machine generated, or both.

That definition is in fact the predominant one today in serious circles: consciousness proper is not itself inclusive of the things which consider to define a continuous coherent self.

I.e. the "self" is not the same as what it means to experience consciousness.

There are for example well characterized examples of memory disruption under the influence of various drugs (e.g. as used intentionally in anesthesia); and neurological conditions which produce various kinds of amnesia.

Do these conditions mean someone is not conscious? We have the luxury of asking people directly.

More unsettling edges yet include things like so-called "split brain" patients or people suffering form serious psychological conditions like so-called "multiple personalities." Psychology does get great mileage out pathology!

The conflation of concerns and synechdochal arguments are a wonder to behold.

So many people flailing around to justify their feelings rather than thinking rationally.

Goes both sides. Anyone who works in tech is immediately circumspect when they defend AI data centers.

Hell I will always side with locals WHO ACTUALLY LIVE THERE than IT workers in their Google cubicles lmao. Ofcourse America in it's dystopian wisdom is now making corporations vote...