As consumer adoption of Large Language Model (LLM) artificial intelligence has increased, the recurring issue of computational sentience or consciousness has arisen, but now as contemporary science rather than science fiction ( Read more... )

We'll give him credit, B first noticed something was wrong. I listened to him and reasoned with him, he called the emergency vet while I was away but it wasn't an emergency, I took her to the vet when I returned and they initially found nothing wrong, but we set up a timetable for the next steps ( Read more... )

Via various news media and social media I see/hear a lot of people in the US who are shocked and dismayed that some on the Left do not share their condemnations of Hamas for what Hamas militants did in Israel on 10/7: killing over 1,000 Israelis -- including hundreds of civilians -- in a surprise attack ( Read more... )

“My wife would divorce me and my kids wouldn’t talk to me if I defended Trump.”I don't know what my friends and family would do, if I were to defend Trump. At the moment, that would be impossible for me, as I can't both work for the federal government and defend somebody against federal criminal charges ( Read more... )

There is an ethical argument that I shouldn't register as a Republican to vote against Trump's nomination ( Read more... )

Most of us who have been here for as long as I have know that LiveJournal was sold to a Russian company in 2007, and that LiveJournal's servers were moved to Russia in 2016. A lot of the long-term users quit when LiveJournal adopted new terms of service conforming with Russian law in 2017 ( Read more... )

When you're over half a century old like me, you've had a lot of time to think about certain trends.  Vegetarianism and veganism are nothing new to somebody like me.  I've tried both of them, at times.  Currently I'm an omnivore, however.  It's just more convenient, easier to get along with others.

I'm cool with vegetarians and vegans.  If I'm ( Read more... )