I understand why you feel that way, and I’m certainly not trying to persuade you that you should feel optimistic about the world. It sounds like giving up hoping might be a thing that helps you to cope with the awfulness of the world — it’s reasonable to want to shield oneself from inevitable disappointment.

I think that at the core of my own resolve to keep resisting terrible things is my sadness at how it’s not helpful to try to persuade people like you that things are worth fighting for. I think that, at my core, I agree with you. We’re both so jaded by what we’ve seen that it’s hard to imagine anything better. To some extent though, I don’t need to — my own coping mechanism is to hold onto the abstract hope of future people being able to effect change (and to think in terms of how I can best set the groundwork for them). Effectively, I am setting aside the question of whether people are worth the effect now, and imagining a future where people are worth the effort.

I recognise that it’s irrational, but it helps me to get by — in terms of my own life, I’ve found it’s a mindset that helps me to grow in a way that I like, so it’s a useful guiding principle if nothing else. I emphasise again though, I’m not trying to persuade you of anything. There is so much awfulness in the world that I’m just glad that you’ve been able to continue existing, even if you feel hopeless about things.

This is an area where failure is not a binary. As bad as things are now, it can always get worse. The more people give up, the worse things will become.

That makes sense. Although for what it’s worth, I don’t recall having any problems with Deep Rock Galactic, so whatever issues you had with that may be specific to your particular set up

Out of curiosity, what games? I’m not going to throw unsolicited advice at you — I’m just wondering because all of my games have been astoundingly easy to get working on Linux.

Despite not owning one, I really like the Steam Deck because I suspect it has made my transition to Linux far smoother (for a while, I dual booted because I was fearful that gaming on Linux would be difficult.)

Thanks for sharing this. I’d heard of this before, but being reminded of it bolstered my spirits a little.

Damn, that’s pretty dangerous, right?

I don’t think we’re awful as a whole. To some extent, I need to believe this, in order to avoid breaking down and killing myself. However, I do think it counts for something that there are so many people who want humans to be better, and are doing what they can. I think that resigning oneself to humans being awful will lead to a world with more awfulness.

That was wonderful, thank you for sharing. When it’s done well, I really enjoy this style of prose.

“if you can accurately call it “scraping” then it’s always fair use.”

I think you make some compelling points overall, but fair use has always been more complex than this. The intent is taken into account when evaluating whether something is fair use, but so is the actual impact — “fair use” is a designation applied to the overall situation, not to any singular factors (so a stated purpose can’t be fair use)

I saw a paper a while back that argued that AI is being used as “moral crumple zones”. For example, an AI used for health insurance acts allows for the company to reject medically necessary procedures without employees incurring as much moral injury as part of that (even low level customer service reps are likely to find comfort in being able to defer to the system.). It’s an interesting concept that I’ve thought about a lot since I found it.

There’s a curfew? Fucking hell.

Ugh, Andreeson is such a creep.

Many people are being forced to use it though — this is where much of the ire is coming from. These people are likely in the minority though. Something that’s much more concerning though is the use of AI that affects us, but we don’t get a say: doctors being made to use generative AI transcription tools (which perform worse than established audio transcription software that doesn’t use AI). The people pushing doctors to use AI are doing it to wring more productivity out of them — more patients in less time. This means that even if a patient doesn’t end up with AI hallucinations in their medical records, their experience seeing their doctor will likely be worse.

Cases like this are becoming less niche as time progresses, despite mounting research showing the harms of these technologies when they’re applied in this way. Increasingly we are being put into situations where AI tools aren’t something to be used by us (which is something you can often opt out of), but things to be used on us. We don’t find out until something goes wrong, and when it does, regular people can struggle to challenge the situation (the example coming to mind here is false positives in facial recognition systems being used by the police. It is leading to more innocent people being wrongfully arrested)

I have a favourite rock

I wish I had the energy to more meaningfully reply to your excellent comment. However, I am a cripple suffering burn out, so I lack the wherewithal to articulate what I want to say.

In lieu of a better comment, please accept my sympathy and solidarity. Being angry like this can feel unpleasant given how powerless we feel against systemic discrimination, but nevertheless, I am glad to see this impassioned rant — better to impotently rage against the system than to internalise it and blame ourselves for our own marginalisation.

Knives Knives Knives Knives Knives Knives Knives Knives Knives Knives Knives Knives Knives Knives Knives Knives Knives Knives Knives Knives Knives Knives Knives Knives Knives Knives Knives Knives Knives Knives Knives Knives More Knives Knives Knives Knives Knives Knives Knives Knives Knives Even More Knives Knives Knives Knives Knives Knives Knives Knives Knives Knives Knives Knives Knives Knives Knives Knives Knives Knives Knives Knives Knives Knives Knives Knives Knives All the Knives Knives Knives Knives Knives Knives Knives Knives Knives

I am glad that he tried to assassinate 418, because the massive outcry that led to 418 being saved is something wholesome that I love.

Link with context for anyone unfamiliar with the context: https://save418.com/

Something that I have enjoyed recently are blogs by academics, which often have a list of other blogs that they follow. Additionally, in their individual posts, there is often a sense of them being a part of a wider conversation, due to linking to other blogs that have recently discussed an idea.

I agree that the small/slow web stuff is more useful for serendipitous discovery rather than searching for answers for particular queries (though I don’t consider that a problem with the small/slow web per se, rather with the poor ability to search for non-slop content on the modern web)

With respect to the presentation of your site, I like it! It’s quite stylish and displays well on my phone.