PolarKraken
@PolarKraken@lemmy.dbzer0.com
- Comment on We keep the entomologists in the basement. 2 weeks ago:
I’m still waiting for my pheromone-overlord 😞
- Comment on We keep the entomologists in the basement. 2 weeks ago:
Some species of termite can effectively molt backwards, meaning they can physically return their bodies to a juvenile stage, AND THEN re-mature from that juvenile stage into a different adult body plan!
So adult worker (medium sized head and mandibles, etc.) -> juvenile morphology -> adult soldier (huge head and mandibles). And other forms I don’t remember, think they can go back and then become something with wings, etc. - big bug changes!
And what’s crazier is this is done in response to pheromones secreted by the mound’s queen. Termite Queen up in the mound playing Sid Meier’s Civ lol, controlling her city through different stinks! Too few soldiers after the latest bird incursion? Got a buncha workers with nothing to do? No problem, stink-compel em to go back to goo and come back as what the mound needs!
I got all this from a fairly goofy podcast a buncha years ago - be kind, anonymous grumpy expert, if this is way wrong lol
- Comment on Sexualized video games are not causing harm to male or female players, according to new research 2 weeks ago:
Oh I was offering that as supporting evidence for your point lol. There’s roughly nothing (besides reason and compassion) these folks can shit out of their mouths that will surprise me anymore.
- Comment on Sexualized video games are not causing harm to male or female players, according to new research 2 weeks ago:
RFK Jr., noted brainworm host and multi talented repeater and innovator of quackery, said that shit within the last 24 hours lol
- Comment on 2 weeks ago:
It gets dumber…there was a school shooting today, 3 kids dead, 1 state over from this.
- Comment on Ditto 3 weeks ago:
Speciation of fungi in the first place makes a mockery of our futile, hubristic attempts at taxonomy. Fungus spits on the petty distinctions made by man.
- Comment on The recent Steam censorship debacle actually sort of opened me up to adult games. 4 weeks ago:
Great perspectives, thank you! Very informative and much more plausible than what I was saying.
- Comment on The recent Steam censorship debacle actually sort of opened me up to adult games. 4 weeks ago:
Well thanks for the interesting perspective and I’m very glad to hear it wasn’t so one-sided everywhere, and that you’ve seen a lot more positives! Everything you said about causes of strife makes perfect sense to me and I would imagine those feature heavily for folks who try it out due to simple curiosity or pressure from a partner.
I would imagine, too, that sexual trends exhibit regionality and that they diffuse across regions over time and at uneven rates, much like any other cultural trend. Though of course a lot of cultural diffusion has gotten effectively instant thanks to tech - I remember “back in the day” you could travel from a (US) coast to the Midwest and find everyone basically 10-20 years behind cultural trends, from slang to hairstyles, to dress.
I wonder if relationships and dating and such, being a much slower process in general than changing styles of dress or speech, still have some of that interesting old-school slower diffusion, or more regional pockets anyway.
Anyway, enough baseless speculation from me - cheers and have a good one!
- Comment on The recent Steam censorship debacle actually sort of opened me up to adult games. 4 weeks ago:
Since you seem knowledgeable, maybe I’ll bug you about something I’ve wondered about?
Did you notice a significant (huge by my measure) increase in attempts at polyamory for a period of time, and if so, any comments on how that fits into your timeline overview above? Some of your thoughts sound like they may point to this and other phenomena but I certainly don’t want to put words in your mouth.
Anecdotally, it seems to me like I watched a huge chunk of my (significantly) younger sister’s generation get themselves into plural relationships, then realize after a year or two of various attempts (often including some serious abuse) that actually they didn’t like that idea at all.
And don’t get me wrong, I absolutely encourage people to try what they are curious about, it’s a tragedy to spend a life never exploring what you might like. But that phenomena with polyamory / plural relationships in particular stuck out to me, largely because many of the people I saw try it had never previously indicated even remote interest in similar, some were fairly jealous toward their partners actually. It felt like a strange societal motivation, some kind of soft cultural pressure among peers, to go for it. And I personally never witnessed a positive outcome, either (which is not me saying that no one should live that way if they enjoy it, or that no one can find it genuinely fulfilling, healthy, and preferable).
I guess more than anything else I was just struck by what felt like a wave in popularity, followed by an accompanying wave of “oh, nah fuck that actually”. Any thoughts?
(Disclaimer: this can be a thorny topic, anyone should feel free to correct anything I’ve misrepresented, misunderstood, or just been unkind about, I’m not a jerk on purpose usually).
- Comment on Concealed Handguns Create a Climate of Fear, Gun Industry Research Reveals 5 weeks ago:
This is accurate, and I used to make it a key part of my own decision-making, until I thought about how bad the - statistically - average American is, at almost everything. I hope I don’t need to cite references.
Ultimately it is, and should largely remain, a personal choice, and I’ll note that there are no statistics for the number of (thoughtful) people who believe they should own a gun, and come to realize they were wrong, before disaster. I’ve known several of these, among many gun owners, known no disasters.
Gun ownership isn’t for everyone. The broad truth of this statistic is important for each individual to know, but not a great rule of thumb for each individual to base an important decision on, if that makes sense.
- Comment on Computer Science, a popular college major, has one of the highest unemployment rates 5 weeks ago:
I’ve never met anyone in the broadly tech fields (and I’ve been through quite a span of them) who regrets completing an even somewhat relevant degree. I’ve met, many, many people who lament not starting or finishing one (and many of these were very competent, capable people, good at their jobs).
It’s expensive and difficult, sure was for me, but it is very useful (and the learning is fantastic too if you do it right).
- Comment on 95% of Companies See ‘Zero Return’ on $30 Billion Generative AI Spend, MIT Report Finds 5 weeks ago:
Either spell the word properly, or use something else, what the fuck are you doing? Don’t just glibly strait-jacket language, you’re part of the ongoing decline of the internet with this bullshit.
- Comment on Debatable 1 month ago:
Haha, I wish I had that kind of commitment to a bit.
- Comment on Debatable 1 month ago:
It all worked out, but I appreciate your defensiveness! It was a mixed group, 'twas the lads cracking jokes, and not even to her - she’s a sensitive one (which I love). The funniest part is the coach wore a silly (admittedly less silly) mustache the whole season, his son was one of the goobers cracking jokes, and everyone actually really got along great over the season.
On the other hand, the kinda stuff you’re describing does happen, and my kiddo has already had to extract herself from a friend group that was heading solidly in that direction. No bueno! Bad parenting by crappy people usually, in my experience.
- Comment on Debatable 1 month ago:
Thanks for the link that is really fascinating, though I also want to acknowledge that I feel almost crazy if this is a prevalent thing and I haven’t noticed?
I’d be kinda pleased if it were largely a rejection of performative positivity, one of the theories presented. I do worry about the ways the COVID pandemic interrupted social development for an enormous number of kids, just huge (though to be clear I was in favor of pretty strict, sweeping measures to limit spread).
I bristled a bit at first, on the mention of “quiet quitting” - AKA behaving perfectly rationally, given the available opportunities and treatment today, by my measure. But the (still Wikipedia) article it links to is a solid overview of a collective action tactic, so hell yeah.
- Comment on Debatable 1 month ago:
I’m 2 weeks that kid is gonna look like he lost an argument with a weed whacker lol
- Comment on Debatable 1 month ago:
I’m the opposite, I say bring on the stupid shit and do it often! Life’s short and looking kinda silly on purpose sometimes is fun. My most recent foray into such was a mustache large enough to be mocked by my daughter’s soccer teammates, first practice, basically on sight hahaha. Causing her to cry (and me to shave it, lol, but it was fun while it lasted, and I don’t intend to further traumatize her with sartorial silliness).
- Comment on Help. 1 month ago:
Completely agree that learning about some of that made me kinder. Don’t agree about your reasoning for it not being scary, though.
It’s not “new” in the same way that using a computer wasn’t new when home PCs were introduced. However - home PCs massively increased the accessibility of computing and resulted in a huge boom in use, including by lots of people who never previously considered it. That’s what this is, that increase in accessibility, but for parasocial relationships with inanimate objects.
I’m not dooming so hard that I think society is in trouble via AI faux-mance in particular. But I do think it’s sad and troubling that many more people will now accept a (sometimes high) degree of self-imposed isolation, due to misplaced belief in a piece of technology, a false belief which the technology deliberately tries to engender.
And let’s remember, human social life is the original “network effect”. By that fact, it seems clear that taking more people out of IRL socialization (and replacing it strictly with simulation), is bad even for people who never touch the stuff.
Feels like a big increase in the ongoing general loneliness and atomization of society is headed our way.
- Comment on Blamed for Steam games ban, Mastercard encourages censorship during Riot Games VCT livestreams 1 month ago:
Interesting. Good to have a less rent-seeking option, not sure I love the idea of the Fed just (assumedly) having access to all my transactions, though.
- Comment on “You can't be expected to have a successful AI program when every single article, book or anything else that you've read or studied, you're supposed to pay for” Donald Trump said 2 months ago:
Ah, but yet…