it is a common conceptual mistake to believe that a problem will ultimately end in a solution

Back during 2017, while on a trip with T & B to NYC, T introduced me to the Universal Paperclips game. I started playing it on my iPad while on the Amtrak train to NYC, and it kept me entranced for the entire train ride and into the night ( Read more... )

I'm leaving for my massage in 10 minutes, my work day is essentially over ( Read more... )

I expect most of those who fear that AI will become sentient and take over the universe have never successfully programmed a computer to do much of anything.  If you've worked as a computer programmer, as I have, you know how buggy they are and how often you have to reboot them LOL ( Read more... )

It's difficult for me to get excited about cultural appropriation, mainly because it usually feels like a "victimless crime". Who is getting hurt by it? Not simply offended, but either physically or economically hurt by it?

I'd say it is different if the cultural appropriation involves making fun of another culture, that's rude, that's being ( Read more... )

Sometimes the only way to beat an obsession is with another obsession. After days of obsession with the minute-by-minute "live" updates about Ukraine on all the "reputable" news sites I follow, I started playing Civ5 so my "one more turn" obsession would crowd my brain and push everything else out ( Read more... )

President Biden had publicly threatened to unleash sanctions like nobody's ever seen if Russia were to invade Ukraine ( Read more... )

I'm reminded that an unsustainable trend can last 100 million years, as in the case of the Oxygen Catastrophe (2 billion years ago ( Read more... )

I'm such a political junkie, I often enjoy fantasizing about how I'd vote in an election where I don't live ( Read more... )

[Follow the "self interrogation" tag to find my previous answers to questions #1-4.]

Here's #5, finally:

If I could do this, why am I not doing it right now? If not now, when? What's my excuse for waiting?

By "this", question #5 refers to question #4, regarding limiting my own personal consumption to my own personal sustainable share of global ( Read more... )