beedeebeedee

> Stallman's comments, if read logically like a computer, are generally strictly correct. Stallman's comments, if read inferentially like a human might, often imply abhorrent things.

That's not true. I understand the drive to categorize it as such, but if you look at the context of what he said, which is even mentioned in that article, you will realize that this is not a "definitional" issue or have anything to do with strict precision of terms.

That is a red herring that you are getting stuck on and using to defend him. I don't care about whether or not he thinks they are applying a word that he disagrees on the definition. I will cede that if you wish, because it is besides the point and not what he is actually arguing.

He (like you) is making the claim:

> Coincidentally, it's highly unlikely Minsky did anything wrong.

That is demonstrably an incorrect statemet. We may not a definitive morality that I can point to you and we both agree to the letter, but a 73 year old man should have the wisdom to recognize that sleeping with children is damaging to children even if they appear willing.

I will grant that Minsky's participation was probably not the most damaging thing in her life, but he chose to participate and he harmed her, contrary to what you and Stallman are claiming. It is unfortunate that we have many men (and women) who believe and like Stallman and Minsky. It shows that we need to address this and train ourselves better, so that everybody is on the same page when it comes to how we let children develop in our culture.

> > but his views are not precise or correct in this matter.

> The views he expressed re sexual assault were abhorrent

Hi, yes, I think we agree- I was using those terms because that was what the commenter above was claiming

From the article, Stallman said "We can imagine many scenarios, but the most plausible scenario is that she presented herself to him as entirely willing."

That expresses an extreme obtuseness about human behavior and a lack of nuance. A 17 year old is a child.

> Coincidentally, it's highly unlikely Minsky did anything wrong.

Virginia Giuffre said that she had sex with Minsky when she was 17 and he was 73. I think no matter how you look at it (even if she was technically above the age of consent in the jurisdiction of Epstein's island), it is still wrong and he absolutely should have known that.

I am a big fan of Stallman's work and his views considering computer science and its role in society, but his views are not precise or correct in this matter.

Example: Surveillance state, endless propaganda. That is already happening and is the most frightening but not included in your list. Are you not worried?

The only way to stop it is to regulate it. We’re almost there. Read the history about the war on drugs. David Musto has a great book about it, The American Disease: Origins of Narcotic Control. It was never designed to stop it. Its goal from the beginning has been to criminalize “undesirables”

If you’re feeling down, go listen to music on Sixth Street, head to New Orleans or camp out at Enchanted Rock

I think those two arguments converge into one- you can’t get the intent unless you have the process

> The war on drugs definitely didn't cause the drug trade or the murders.

Have to stop you right there. The “war on drugs” absolutely has created the conditions for the drug trade and the murders. If you criminalize a large part of the economy, then only criminals will profit from it. If we had sane drug policy, there would not be the profit that attracts these criminals. Additionally, the US intelligence services (and other nations) have a long documented role in cultivating the drug trade for diverse reasons: for profit and paying for operations, for control of regions, and to provide a reservoir of violence to disguise or facilitate their work.

If Delaware was committing a genocide, you better believe people would be posting about it

There’s a great book called Paleopoetics by Christopher Collin’s that looks at exactly that

I’m from New Haven and if you went into a place and asked for a beef patty you would get a Jamaican beef patty, not a burger. It may not be everywhere, but pretty much every city I’ve lived in that is the case

Ha ha! Wow, the level of ignorance is staggering

I’d be curious to learn about what you were experiencing, what the astronauts experience and the third man syndrome that Everest hikers experience. I don’t know if they are similar but I’d be curious to learn more about how our perception and attachment to our bodies changes while enduring these extreme conditions.

As a side note, it seems pretty naive to believe that humans would be able to handle going to Mars without serious psychosis. I have no idea, but it would not be surprising to find out it is an insurmountable obstacle to becoming an interplanetary species.

Hi, this is a well known phenomenon in politics that is much discussed in political science and sociology, and goes by many names (strategic polarization, racial capitalism, split labor market theory, etc, and depending upon how you frame it, it encompasses all politics going back to Plato’s Republic). There are many examples where elites have stoked division amongst the poor (usually along ethnic or religious differences, but any difference can be utilized).

The most famous examples in America were the divisions created between poor white and poor black Americans during Reconstruction and the Jim Crow era to prevent them from forming class solidarity, and then later, the Southern strategy that enabled Nixon and the Republican Party to regain power during and after the Civil Rights era.

If you are unfamiliar with this topic, you can look at wiki articles and blogs like these, and then go deeper by reading academic papers and books on the subject.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Split_labor_market_theory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Reconstruction_in_Americ... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_strategy https://belonging.berkeley.edu/new-southern-strategy

Stick around. The forum has some problems (like the confidently wrong commenter above), and needs curious, good faith folk to enliven the discussion.

The Times of London

Yikes! That is not good

If you’re pissed you had to pay your HVAC guy to drive to your house and do something you think is trivial, why didn’t you do it yourself?

> No it means that perhaps the US should finally start looking at itself instead of just asserting that it doesn't need to because China.

Agreed, the US definitely needs to do some introspection to sort out its own shit (and stop spraying it on everyone else).

However, that does not mean that China gets a pass. Fundamentally, the Chinese model of governance does not protect the individual. For all its faults, the US model is based upon the idea of individual liberty, which acts as a touchstone and allows it to self-correct whenever it goes to far in the wrong direction. That's something the Chinese model does not do, and means that, short of a revolution, it will continue to be an authoritarian state with all of the malignant features that entails.

The article claims that the whole project only cost $40,000, and then compares that to electric conversion offerings that cost $75,000 (and mentions that the global conversion market in 2024 was $5.9 billion). I think the implication is that there could be a large market for FSD conversions that goes beyond passion projects because it is not only possible but affordable.

I would be surprised however if this project only cost $40,000, when you factor in the cost of labor and maintaining a facility to do this work.

Neat. I would have preferred the original interior over Tesla's, but I guess it would then just be an electric conversion and not a "Tesla" conversion with "FSD".

That could be, but you should also be aware that many people will have the knee jerk reaction to reject statements like yours as being paranoid and delusional. Assuredly sometimes that is an appropriate response, but the drive to immediately reject narratives like yours is to protect ourselves from the doubt that validating your story would elicit. We do not want to believe those things are happening to those around us (even if we accept that they might be in general), and that is a fact that these organizations take advantage of. I wish you luck either way. Stay calm and suspend belief. We are human, and not only do we not know most things, the most important things we cannot know. You can build a composure that allows for many things to be true and not fully know which and still proceed. Otherwise you might be racked with doubt about who and how things appear and have trouble moving forward from this.

I've read their tweet: https://x.com/PalantirTech/status/2045574398573453312

It's hard to take them seriously given the omission of the biggest catastrophe of the 2000s-2020s that underlies everything they do, i.e., wealth inequality, the creation of a parasitic ruling class that uses propaganda to control the political narrative (and seeking AI for even greater control with less support), and the destitution of the poor by the rich, from the manufactured opium epidemic, gig economy, financial crises, etc.

Their sundry list reminds me of the smarty boys in undergrad philosophy who pretend to be great philosophers before they have taken even one step into self-criticism and self-knowledge.

The best liquor I ever had was by a state police detective who had been home distilling since he was 12. It was made from rye and corn, but tasted like peaches.

I think it is kind of magical to witness the process. I only experimented a few times, and never aged it, so every was very sharp. The best was a sharp brandy made from a bottle of wine I bought. The worst was using a leftover keg of beer, which bittered the copper pipe, so everything after tasted like gin.

I would recommend people try it. You can make one out of copper pipe from a hardware store, a few fittings and a pressure cooker. Be safe, of course, and remember that ethanol is used as a preventative for methanol poisoning :)

Thanks for sharing your comment. I was skeptical about your claim that black mold would be a consequence of living near a distillery, but in fact, it is. It is called Whiskey Fungus and is related to the aging of the spirits.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baudoinia

Neat idea, but that sounds like it would eventually become weaponized if built; not only by using the energy beams destructively, but by choosing who does and who does not get power. One thing that has become glaringly obvious over the last decades is that power should not be centralized.

I don’t have kids, but suggested something years ago to my siblings when they started confronting similar issues: we should do a version of “ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny” for personal computers.

Kids should start off with Commodore 64s, then get late 80’s or early 90’s Mac’s, then Windows 95, Debian and internet access (but only html). Finally, when they’re 18, be allowed an iPhone, Android and modern computing.

Parenting can’t prevent the use of LLMs in grad school, but a similar approach could be taken by grad departments: don’t allow LLMs for the first few years, and require pen and paper exams, as well as oral examinations for all research papers.

That may be true elsewhere, but not in the US

That A-10’s can’t suppress manpads