twobits

I also have the theory that being tired, helps you in that you can't distract yourself. The brain is too tired to jump around.

My q is: Is this ADHD?

"If you recorded every moment of the universe on a physical representation, a hard drive for instance with perfect fidelity. Would there be any difference between the representation and the universe itself? I don't think there would."

There would be, because even if you could record with perfect fidelity the rest of the universe, at the very least, you can't record that hard drive on itself.

Your chains are more golden now.

Btw, is there any FOSS software for predictive text input on desktop linux? (Being on a desktop level, available to all apps.)

The author's solution seems to be "Let’s crowdsource this".

I think this is a bandage. Trying to address one problem, while ignoring the root cause. How about, "thank you very much, please put me in jail, I don't care anymore"? (While you bailout TBTF banks once again?)

"Governments" are the thugs that protect the big economic interests. The big economic interests, pay the protection money, "bribes", "donations". It's symbiotic. You, me, we, are the slaves.

The bribes, are a lot for the few politicians, they are happy and rich, and nothing, compared to be able to go on having slaves, happy and big profits, for the big economic interests.

You, you try to "crowdsource" "solutions" about the fact that your chains got heavier.

'it's hard to have a good response to the "computers are taking all our jobs" argument'

I don't think people really care about having a job. They care about being able to put bread on the table. (For various degrees of "bread", as "wants" can be psychologically infinite.) So, long term, the answer will be "yes, sure. And that's a good thing. You'll have what you have now, with no need to work."

Going from here to there, is very likely to be bumpy, though.

And finally, "not working" doesn't mean "not doing anything", as many people assume.

Then it's the same thing as just saying "no". Which isn't discrimination, but it's just logical. If the market price for renting is 1000, and I ask you for 10000, that's basically a "no". And to give some glimpses towards answering your question, the basic answer is the laws, and information asymmetry. I am only aware of the local situation, but the law is strongly, to the point of unfairness, in the side of the tenant. And in sum, the owner has less than 1 hour to judge psychologically if the person in front of him is trustworthy. Something that is easily faked.

This won't be popular, but "discrimination" can be for good reasons and for bad reasons.

"if there is a subtle, multilayered process by which information can give rise to meaning"

Because I lack meaning, and I am finding myself on this endless clicking hole without end, any ideas/experiences/advice, by people here about how one gets meaning? What's the process? How? Where? What? ..Thanks.

There are other things besides youtube, and there are other things besides cat videos.

"One can't live ones live today driven by an assumption that they'll be ruled by a totalitarian government in the future."

You may have heard it, but humans have this shit called "intelligence". It's some times used to predict future outcomes. (Yeah, I didn't believe this shit neither, the first time I heard about it. But please, do look it up online.)

"if Google started abusing your information, people would stream away from them in droves and Google is more than aware of that"

I, like you, also get a daily email notice of what google is actually doing and planning, every morning. Larry also, sometimes, attaches sexy pics of himself. /sarc

"I mean, think about it - is a public forum the sort of place that you would want to be posting private content you don't want linked to you?"

So, "subversive", against the status quo ideas, should only be limited to my neighbor? So that there is not enough exposure and they just die out? How cute.

"so instead of having an email address like sexy_asian_chick88@hotmail.com, I just used my name. It's a little less embarrassing"

Nice, loaded example. Strange you didn't use "I'm a naive idiot" as an email example, to "explain" why using your real name would be better. ..And, btw: Sexy asian chick? Pics or it didn't happen.

"And really, what am I writing online that is so private and secretive that I need to firewall it from my actual identity?"

You may be boring, unimaginative, and a herd follower, but that doesn't mean everybody else is.

"The REAL issue is accountability."

You are very naive. Nature hates a power vacuum. Accountability, requires being able to enforce, if the other party is not accountable. Otherwise, it's just a matter of time before you are being used in some, or many, ways. The asymmetry of power between Joe Doe, you, and a huge multi national, assures that you can't enforce, and so you can't keep the other party accountable.

Could you please expand on the "walk back" thing? Also, any links, books? Thanks.

"We are moving to post-scarcity, and the future is bright."

If you are the king, why do you need to keep those billions of loud, dirty, polluting, dangerous, depleting the natural resources, and now UNNEEDED serfs around? When you could gain by exploiting them, great. Someone had to do the hard work. But now / soon, they have nothing to offer, besides problems. Problems, are to be ..exterminated.

Imo, the (near) future, is either paradise, or total hell. Nothing in between. And history isn't offering reasons to be optimistic.

(PS: Yes, I totally understand that the above stands on the pov that there are some "kings", and we are the "serfs". It's a pov that's easy to dismiss. Personally, I don't.)

Because there are also other people that are more desperate, and are willing to work more for less.

"You make more than your sister doing "less" work because knowledge and high level skills are a value multiplier. You may come up with a world changing idea that generates billions of dollars. No kindergarden teacher could achieve that. Pay matches accordingly."

And then the kids grow up, and you are fucked. Do you think the first ever important thing those kids learn, for society, is when they become 20+ and one day they start learning compsci-simulated-quantum-biomolecular-teleportation-of-artificial-intelligence-nanoparticle-drug-dynamofeedback 101? (Yes, if it's not obvious, I just pulled that out of my...)

She gets less, cause the system doesn't care about if the world in totally destroyed 30 years down the road. (Actually that would be great. Opportunity for "growth" and profit.) It only cares about billions yesterday.

> The stability of incumbents is an inevitable result of government corruption.

It's a two way street. Are the incumbents so sad to kill off smaller, dangerous competitors, by being bffe with the politicians?

In general, the problem is not big gov. The problem is not big biz. Its "BIG".

You don't want to, but if someone strong enough gets interested in you, they can. You want privacy. I want privacy. But we don't and won't have any. Only very few and strong can afford that. "Protect privacy" has come to actually mean, protect the strong. We should abolish privacy for all. Not just the de facto, for us.

We lost that battle, a long time ago. The answer, imo, is to be able to instantly and freely discover everything for the sociopathic ceo TOO.

Sorry, but it's ridiculous and extremely sad, people even talk and give dignity to the idea of deleting everything every n years.

(Yes, free talk about everything, of course, but it's very sad state of affairs.)

Maybe we should instead not have ancient (and modern) prejudices.

To put it simply: I bought an electric bike 4 months ago. ..My wife is divorcing me. :-)

I have no doubt that corruption is universal. Dismiss me as a pessimist or a conspiracy theorist, but, for example, my working definition of (high level) "politician", is: "professional thief and lier".

(For example, defamation and libel laws are not "strange". They work as intended.)

Oh yes, the US, the exporter of freedom and democracy.

I don't think there is one instance in the history of mankind, that great power hasn't been misused. ..I believe in unicorns too. ..But not that much.

To put it differently, since we are rationalists, try the scientific way. Do an experiment.

First day, let a speck of dust enter your eye, at noon. Before sleeping, write down how you feel about that event.

Next day, rip your balls off at noon. Before sleeping, write down how you feel about that.

I'd say if each of those two people had the "bad experience" of having their only child killed in a car accident, that's worse than someone else having his uncle and grandmother killed in a car accident. "Bad experience" is hugely oversimplified. And just not start about a trillion specs of dust in a trillion people.