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Cake day: June 30th, 2024

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  • It’s the before times, analog days, and the Internet was in it’s infancy. Stephan Hawking, a theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and author, said the following:

    For millions of years, mankind lived just like the animals. Then something happened which unleashed the power of our imagination. We learned to talk and we learned to listen. Speech has allowed the communication of ideas, enabling human beings to work together to build the impossible. Mankind’s greatest achievements have come about by talking, and its greatest failures by not talking. It doesn’t have to be like this. Our greatest hopes could become reality in the future. With the technology at our disposal, the possibilities are unbounded. All we need to do is make sure we keep talking.

    Computers have been very effective applied to vehicles. In my life I’ve seen the advent of the aluminum block, anti-lock brakes and stability control, variable ignition and valve timing, more aerodynamic body, paddle shift and continuously variable transmissions, drive by wire, now even hybrid and electric drives. This has allowed leaps forward in safety, efficiency, and performance.

    Then, we enshitified. Today there’s barely choice in the vehicle market. Toyota/Honda; Hyundai/Kia; Ford/Chevy/Chrysler and a trim package defines everything but trucks. 1/2 ton trucks as symbols of identity break repeatedly if regularly used for payload and towing. “Choice” is a 1/4 Ranger, 1/2 Chevy diesel, or 3/4 Ford/Chevy/Ram. They didn’t make the first two for decades, still scarce and expensive for what they are. And, for all vehicles one now often needs to remove inaccessible bolts in tight spaces, for several parts, to get to the part that’s broken.

    Profit optimization through technology is why there’s little choice in vehicles; Why you can envision a Walmart and Lowes strip mall and every American knows exactly what it looks like and where the closest couple copies are; Why we can’t replace phone batteries and screens. An out-of-the-box idea from AI that’s also conveniently practical for humans will probably cure cancer. AI is also what’s analyzing all the data being collected, just as inhumanely. The vehicle manufacturers want their cut.

    Did Herbert envision that the spice of prescience was computational cycles?







  • Somehow reaching that conclusion is one of the stupidest thing I’ve read in awhile.

    When the majority were aware of injustice we sang in the streets, “Fuck Donald Trump and fuck Biden, too! Neither of them give a fuck about you!”

    That’s was an incredibly good thing. The trade unions were paying attention. Now is our time. A few years later the US has more strikes than we’ve seen since between the world wars.

    Seems you’re not paying attention to We the People. That’s a critical mistake.





  • I want to note that you’d need about $143 in gross sales to meet the threshold of $100 in net profit.

    On the surface that sounds like a lot. But, they’re providing a service without any guarantee of any income. Epic can only compete because they’ve few users and are willing to operate at a near loss in attempt to garner market share.

    This will be a difficult one for others to understand as a “good deal”. Gamers are usually correct when they pull out their pitchforks. This should not be one of those times.






  • Effective means of societal change always have collateral damage. It’s especially true in the current paradigm. But, the more that choose meaningful change and proactively sacrifice for it, the less the collateral damage.

    That’s why there’s a homeless man living in my shed. Without need to seek out shelter, water, food, and clothing he learned to use a computer/internet in a week and has now secured several job interviews. If he fucked up or someone fucked him over he can come back. He’ll probably be one that makes it to the “other side”.

    I don’t think I’m special. These are basic human responses to the situation that exists. Government won’t help. We must help each other. Seems simple enough to me.