Yeah, you should run a train on her.

Yes I am a Luddite, a proud tech-loving Luddite. And if you think there’s a contradiction in that, then you need to read up on what the Luddites stood for.

The problem is not that AI tech exists. Machine learning has been around for quite a while, and the modern neural processor chips are a great evolution of it. The problem is that corporations are using the tech for exploitation, plagiarism on an industrial scale, and creating misinformation ant terrifying speed.

Though you reference to the Luddites is quite appropriate in that they opposed the replacement of skilled labourers with child workers, just as modern day opponents of AI slop seek to stem the tide of skilled programmers being replaced with vibe coders, artists and illustrators with prompt writers, and the myriad of workers being replaced with inferior imitations of intelligence.

“Once men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free. But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them.” Frank Herbert, Dune

People were happy about the killing of Brian Thompson the moment that news of his death spread. A health insurance CEO. A man who systematically denied healthcare to thousands of people, almost certainly leading to some of them dying.

You can say that murder is wrong, and be correct in that. But then surely being instrumental in running a system of denying and delaying people’s access to medical treatment leading to their death is so much worse that directly killing one person.

The conversation is about human death. The question is at what point is a human being considered dead. If cellular function is brought into it, then a rotting corpse is teeming with bacterial life.

You are right that biological functions of the human body can continue well past the point that someone would be broadly considered dead. I just think that a lack of brain function is a good classification of when to consider that someone has died.

Seems to me that you’re not missing any fun. It’s just that the gameplay that fans of the factory building genre find entertaining, you don’t. For me it’s the fun of an ever growing interconnected mesh of production lines. It’s like a series of complex puzzles that are based on how I solved the ones before. And trains… I love trains.

Personally I just can’t get into Souls-likes. I’ve tried several times and none of them have ever clicked for me.

Really? Because I’ve been seeing a pretty steady stream of complaints and general badmouthing of Democrats for many years now.

If this is true, then it’s a serious warcrime that warrants condemnation and prosecution of the Hezbollah personnel who did it.

But that is a very big if.

At this point, Israel has been caught lying so many times that any claim they make should be assumed to be a lie unless verified by an independent third party.

Well if you’re going to fire me, I’m gonna fire the warehouse.

Well actually. In the Lovecraft story The Whisperer in Darkness, the Eldrich beings are from the newly discovered ninth planet. So yes, it is canon to Lovecraft’s work that Pluto harbours Lovecraftian horrors.

Enemy at the gates is not a documentary, and that scene is very much not historically accurate. The actual history is significantly more complicated.

I don’t think the comparison to the soviets is needed at all. I think the incompetence of the Russian army stands by itself. And unless this new offensive somehow turns things around, I think that Russia’s forces will continue to get fucked for the foreseeable future.

They were listing some of the atrocities and crimes commited by the US military. It’s an odd response to what you said I’ll give you. But I believe the point they were trying to make is that you don’t need to understand the finer points of the military to see the horrors it inflicts.

Western intervention in regime change will kill far more Iranians than doing nothing. I could be wrong about that, but the West does not have a good track record.

I think it’s also important to note that the current Iranian regime took power from the brutal dictator that was installed by western powers who overthrew a democratic government.

I sympathise with the Iranian people who are suffering. I just don’t see a way to intervene that won’t make things worse.

Dear god! Who sent him .

It’s a reference to the “Always has been” meme.

When I said the law is selective in enforcement I meant the system of law. The courts, law enforcement, and political “tough on crime” attitudes. That is very much on me for the lack of clarity and I apologise for it.

The perpetuation and propagation of a fundamentally corrupt and unfair system does not require everyone that upholds it to be corrupt, it needs only for them to be willing to participate in it. Perhaps they don’t see the fundamental inequality, or maybe they believe they can reform it from the inside. I don’t think the system can be reformed enough to be truly just and fair. I think it needs to fundamentally rebuilt.

In the UK the system of law is the same one that oversaw the enforcement of serfdom and of slavery. It is a system where judges can enforce arbitrary rules of conduct and dress in ‘their’ courtroom. A system where judges are too often treated with deference instead of scrutiny, despite blatant bias towards upholding the status quo.

It’s distinctly possible that I’m being a naive idealist, and that this is as good and fair as the system can be. It’s entirely possible that my ideal system is entirely impossible. It’s just that I want to hope for a better world, and I have too much doubt in the capability of reforming things.

“The purpose of a system is what it does.”

You are right. Laws are universal and apply equally to everyone. The problem is the systems that exist to create and apply those laws. There are far too many cases of the law being selective in who it protects and who it punishes for me to believe that it upholds fairness. I also don’t believe it’s a fundamental human failing, I think it’s functioning exactly as its corrupt creators intended.

Yes but the payments are made to the child’s guardian. Meaning that a victim of rape will be forced to make payments to their abuser directly because of the rape, which I think is morally indefensible.

I wonder if that library is working on getting new branches.

I want to violently disagree because I love onions… But I’ve never tried Shallots, so I can’t say you’re wrong.