andrewrgross
@andrewrgross@slrpnk.net
- Comment on What is the evolutionary benefit of loving a pet so much you melt into a puddle when they are around? 2 days ago:
I think animal affection – particularly for cute, non useful animals – is an extension of our infant protection drive.
- Comment on It’s game over for people if AI gains legal personhood 1 week ago:
The same ones listed in the article. Property ownership, speech, privacy, etc.
- Comment on It’s game over for people if AI gains legal personhood 1 week ago:
I feel like the rise of corporate personhood is the elephant in the room this article seems to avoid acknowledging.
- Comment on bewCloud is a modern and simpler alternative to Nextcloud and ownCloud written in TypeScript 1 week ago:
I just set up a Nextcloud server this weekend, and this is the second time since I’ve heard people complaining about it.
I guess I should try some of the alternatives.
- Comment on Elon Musk, Jack Dorsey Call For Abolition Of All Intellectual Property Laws, Arguing There Are 'Much Greater Models To Pay Creators' 2 weeks ago:
I specifically said I wasn’t.
- Comment on Elon Musk, Jack Dorsey Call For Abolition Of All Intellectual Property Laws, Arguing There Are 'Much Greater Models To Pay Creators' 2 weeks ago:
I find this surprising, because frankly I agree.
I don’t know much about Dorsey, but in Musk’s case, I think this is another case of him espousing a good idea he’d never actually honor.
I think that anyone should be able to make movies with Mickey Mouse and no one should need to license code. But I suspect that like with free expression, these are values most proponents only like when it’s benefiting them.
Also, as for the alternatives to support creatives, I would say start with universal services. Universal housing, universal healthcare, universal education, universal food. We would have so much more art if we recognized that no one should have to “earn” their survival. Once that’s guaranteed – and abolish billionaires and extreme wealth inequality too – I think discussions over how to support creatives would take place from a much more favorable starting point.
- Comment on China Halts Critical Rare Earth Exports as Trade War Intensifies. 2 weeks ago:
Wow!
That’s good world building.
- Comment on Governments are just groups of strangers who happen to be in positions of power. 2 weeks ago:
Yeah. I went to a friend’s birthday hangout at a local pizzeria, and there were five of us around a table, and one guy was a city council member. The good ones are not that inaccessible.
- Comment on [deleted] 3 weeks ago:
This isn’t a question most of us have had in the shower. I think that transferring guardianship of children for profit is largely considered unethical. I believe it is legal in some circumstances. I’ve been told that orphanages can sell orphans to other orphanages. I’m not really sure what context you’re asking about, though.
- Comment on Sergey Brin says AGI is within reach if Googlers work 60-hour weeks 1 month ago:
I’m a materialist, so I think digital consciousness is totally possible. But then I’m also a bit of an animist too, so maybe you’re right.
I agree overall, though. It’s so much more epistimology than actual technology, and the field seems to be half grifters and half cultists. Which doesn’t really inspire confidence that this is in any way a genuinely useful commercial venture.
- Comment on Sergey Brin says AGI is within reach if Googlers work 60-hour weeks 1 month ago:
What is the point, though?
If you made AGI, you’d have a computer that thinks like a person. Okay? We already have minds that think like a person: they’re called people!
I get that there is some belief that if you can make a digital consciousness, you can make a digital super-conciousness, but genuinely stop and ask what the utility is, and it’s equal parts useless and evil.
First, this premise is totally unexamined. Maybe it can think faster or hold more information in mind at one moment, but what basis is there for such a creation actually exceeding the ingenuity of a group of humans working together? What problem is this going to solve? A “cure for cancer”? The bottleneck to cutting cancer isn’t ideas, it’s that cell research takes actual time and money. You need it synthesize molecules and watch cells grow, and pay for lab infrastructure. “Intelligence” isn’t the limiting element!
The primary purpose is just to crater the value of human labor, by replacing human workers with workers with godlike powers of reasoning. Good luck with that. I’m sure they won’t come to the exact reasoning as any exploited worker in 120 nano-seconds.
It’s like Jason’s problem-solving advice in “The Good Place”:
“Any time I had a problem, and I threw a Molotov cocktail… Boom, right away, I had a different problem.”
Sure. Let’s work ourselves to death forTHIS.
- Comment on Are conservatives mad about trans people or they just mad they get walk around out of the closet while they have to leave the white sheets at home? 2 months ago:
I sincerely mean this with no disrespect: while that sounds quite reasonable, it is thoroughly sophomoric and misinformed.
I think your impressions sound like very rational assessments that happen to be unfortunately based on bad underlying information.
Before I elaborate, would you mind telling me: what has been your personal first-hand experience meeting transgender people who are out to you? And what state do you live in?
Also, if you’re comfortable, what would you cite as a source of news and information that has guided your thinking on this issue?
- Comment on Amazon’s killing a feature that let you download and backup Kindle books 2 months ago:
Yep. Not to gloat, but I never touched Amazon’s ebook marketplace.
My current e-reader is a second-hand Kindle that has a permanent message asking if I would just please connect to a WiFi network just one time just for a moment PLEEEEEASE.
I get my books from libgen, Gutenberg, or Kobo, and keep them on my computer. They’re organized in Calibre, and I transfer them over on a USB cable.
- Comment on Poll: What's the cross-over between fans of Trek and solarpunk? 2 months ago:
Oh, you’re right. On my desktop it shows up, but I originally replied on mobile. That explains it.
- Comment on Poll: What's the cross-over between fans of Trek and solarpunk? 2 months ago:
I generally agree, although the use of replicators is a point of departure.
Solarpunk typically emphasizes degrowth and an end to scarcity that comes from a move away from endless consumption.
It’s not a criticism. Just an artistic difference responding to the 60s vs the new century.
- Comment on Poll: What's the cross-over between fans of Trek and solarpunk? 2 months ago:
I would also say that in general, Star Trek seems to steer slightly around discussing the actions needed to proactively achieve their society. It’s an end point, and you can find some info here and there about how they got there, but it’s really treated as the result of a magical tech breakthrough that resolved class conflict with the wave of a hand.
Anyway, solarpunk and Trek are definitely fellow travelers. But their tones aren’t identical.
- Comment on Poll: What's the cross-over between fans of Trek and solarpunk? 2 months ago:
Oh. They’re different servers! That’s actually a very clever joke. I’m sorry I didn’t pay close enough attention to appreciate it.
That got a chuckle out of me. Heh.
- Comment on Poll: What's the cross-over between fans of Trek and solarpunk? 2 months ago:
I think you replied to yourself…
It’s not quite: a key feature of solarpunk is nature, and our relationship to it. Trek is definitely aligned in concept, but aside from specific episodes, our relationship with nature is not a central theme.
- Submitted 2 months ago to startrek@startrek.website | 17 comments
- Comment on ‘Lower Decks’ Series Finale “The New Next Generation” Review, Plus Mike McMahan Interview 4 months ago:
I largely reject the notion of “canon”.
Others can enjoy canon if they like, but stories don’t need it, and plenty of great ones have well known, obvious paradoxes.
I’ll just add the famous Dwayne McDuffie piece on this, “Six degrees of St. Elsewhere”. RIP McDuffie.
- Comment on If we're living in a simulation, why would the simulation creators allow the sims to ponder and speculate whether or not they live in a simulation? 4 months ago:
I like this observation a lot. Because I was going to say that if we couldn’t conceive of a simulation, we’d probably just speculate about the closest thing we could imagine.
- Comment on Technology Connections' thoughts on Mastodon 4 months ago:
I’m sorry he hasn’t liked it, but critique is how we get better. Hope Mastodon keeps growing.
- Comment on Linus Torvalds affirms expulsion of Russian maintainers 6 months ago:
Honestly, that’s the main thing I was thinking.
- Comment on 3D Printable Subaru Impreza 22B 6 months ago:
Damn, that’s rad as fuck
- Comment on NYCC exclusive new Lower Decks clip 6 months ago:
I’m sure whatever it is it’ll be very fun and funny. I’m looking forward to this.
- Comment on New "Lower Decks" poster 6 months ago:
This is very stupid in the best possible way
- Comment on New "Lower Decks" poster 6 months ago:
Hell yeah baby
- Comment on Why didn't the Discovery show-runners believe in the Federation? 6 months ago:
I think that as someone else pointed out, this is just a reflection of their tastes.
In a long running series like this, it’s not surprising that when every show is trying to find new conceptual territory, someone would go this way.
- Comment on Phonebooks 6 months ago:
Oh! Apologies, I just saw that someone else said something relevant and decided to post my comment as a reply to them instead of a top level comment. Sorry for the confusion!
- Comment on Phonebooks 6 months ago:
I’m from Pittsburgh. I think we ran a cross country meet in Hershey once.
The amusement park and factory tour are all quite charming. It’s hard to recommend one make a dedicated trip, but if anyone is ever on a road trip nearby, it’s worth the detour to stop by for a day.
Then again, my recommendation is 20 years old. It could be either better or worse now.