TranquilTurbulence
@TranquilTurbulence@lemmy.zip
- Comment on Do "rich" superheroes have to be rich in order for the story to work? 1 day ago:
He would still behave in a similar way, but with a lower budget. That would force him to let go of some habits, adapt in interesting ways, and learn new ways. I think it could be interesting, but it would have a radically different flavour.
- Comment on Do "rich" superheroes have to be rich in order for the story to work? 2 days ago:
Tony has amazing skills. He could name just about anything.
Bruce would probably end up being a bum or a weirdo. If you like redemption arcs, the story of Bruce could be interesting.
- Comment on Do "rich" superheroes have to be rich in order for the story to work? 2 days ago:
If you made Bruce or Tony middle or lower-class people, you could still make an adventure out of that. It’s just that all of the heavy infrastructure would need to be completely rewritten. Skills and abilities would allow them to do amazing things, but they just wouldn’t have million-dollar tech at their disposal.
- Comment on [deleted] 2 days ago:
Oh, it’s a country specific thing then. In the past few decades, I’ve used electronic money more than physical money. Applies to salaries, cars, shopping etc. Works with small merchants too.
- Comment on [deleted] 2 days ago:
Wow. Never seen one of those.
- Comment on [deleted] 2 days ago:
The 200 € note is the rarest one. When buying a car, I’ve actually used 500 € notes a few times. I’ve seen a 200 € note only once or twice. Can’t even remember when was the last time.
- Comment on Why do some people (i.e. white conservatives) think all Spanish speakers (especially native Spanish speakers) are Mexican? 5 days ago:
Not just modern life, but ancient too. The human mind is just full of these shortcuts, and on average, they have served the species well.
- Comment on How would an anarchist society work? 5 days ago:
Well, let’s just pick one style of anarchy, and go with that. I don’t know any, but maybe you do.
Pick one and explain how that would work in a larger scale.
- Comment on What is hubris as an adjective? 6 days ago:
Hubristic
- Comment on Why do some people (i.e. white conservatives) think all Spanish speakers (especially native Spanish speakers) are Mexican? 1 week ago:
It’s a mental shortcut, and people in general just love using those.
BTW, is it usually correct though? If at least 50% of the Spanish speakers actually are Mexican, it could justify the existence of this shortcut.
- Comment on Why does Finland have a lower recidivism rate than the US? 1 week ago:
For me at least. Never imagined what it would feel like if I had massive debt from being in prison. Now I’m beginning to understand why there’s no way out for so many.
- Comment on Why does Finland have a lower recidivism rate than the US? 1 week ago:
No wonder why heroin smuggling suddenly seems so appealing.
- Comment on Why does Finland have a lower recidivism rate than the US? 1 week ago:
Yikes! That’s just so messed up. Also explains a lot.
- Comment on Why does Finland have a lower recidivism rate than the US? 1 week ago:
Wait what? Prison companies? What haven’t you outsourced yet?
How about you also make vote counting, law writing, judges, police and national defence publicly traded companies too. What could go wrong.
- Comment on What's the deal with people liking old devices? 1 week ago:
Who needs a smart TV, when you can just use a 15 year old flat TV and plug it into a computer. Install Firefox and uBlock Origin to watch YouTube. It’s a real computer, which means you can watch pretty much anything with it.
If you’re into hardware tinkering, get a mini ATX (or ITX) board and a small flat case for it. Should look pretty much like a VCR box from the 90s.
If you want to make it quiet, you could use a passively cooled GPU with a HDMI output. Alternatively, get a AMD APU, and use the largest fan you can to cool it. Tweak the settings to run it as slow as possible. If that’s not an option, stick a few of those Noctua’s resistor cables between the board and the fan to force it to run slower.
- Comment on What's the weirdest argument you've gotten into with someone? 1 week ago:
Pre-internet era debates were the best!
- Comment on What's the weirdest argument you've gotten into with someone? 1 week ago:
In biology, there are always exceptions. As you pointed out, viruses frequently mess around with genomes. Also, some bacteria can grab a plasmid from a completely different species of bacteria. Larger critters can’t pull off tricks like that, and that’s the group we usually think of.
Totally agree about gene editing being neutral. It’s just a tool like any other. That doesn’t make it good or evil. People who use it get to decide how it’s being used, and that’s the step where things can go wrong. It’s a powerful tool, so when used correctly, the results are life-changing. When mistakes are made, the price can be very high.
What about the terminology then? My previous examples are usually covered under evolution, not genetic manipulation, and I think intention is the key difference. Evolution happens on its own, while editing requires an intention.
- Comment on What's the weirdest argument you've gotten into with someone? 1 week ago:
Yeah, well where do you draw the line though? When normies talk about something being GMO, it always involves fancy labs, modern biotechnology and greedy corporations.
When wolves were modified to become dogs, people were effectively practicing low-tech genetic manipulation, but people usually don’t think of it in those terms. Well, what about when the same thing happens without humans in charge of the process? Like, why do peacocks have such impressive tail feathers? Humans weren’t involved in that manipulation, so does it still count? It’s the peacocks themselves who did all the selective breeding and genetic manipulation.
What about when one species causes another to change? Just think of the relationship between orchids and hummingbirds for example. What about wasp-mimic flies or harmless snakes that look a lot like venomous ones? Surely, that’s a result of genetic manipulation too. This is getting completely ridiculous, so I guess we need to draw the line somewhere.
- Comment on What's the weirdest argument you've gotten into with someone? 1 week ago:
Gotta say, I love the semi-hostile energy of that approach. 😈
- Comment on How do slugs not get eaten? 1 week ago:
It’s a numbers game, and the slugs are winning.
Foxes eat rabbits all the time, but they literally breed like rabbits, so there’s a balance of sorts. Birds eat bugs all the time, but bugs lay millions of eggs to compensate. Same goes for bacteria too. Lots of little critters eat bacteria, but bacteria just multiply so fast that there’s always plenty to go around for everyone.
Most species are just brute forcing it with numbers instead of skill or planning. So far, it has worked well, and slugs are just repeating a billion year old exploit. Slow breeding animals like superb owls, elephants and humans are the exception.
- Comment on What's the weirdest argument you've gotten into with someone? 1 week ago:
One coworker claimed that all seedless fruit are genetically modified. I explained that it’s just good old selective breeding. No fancy tech required, though gene editing can achieve the same result. I even pulled up the relevant Wikipedia article to back it up. His response? And I quote:
Wikipedia, it’s all lies.
That hit me like a mental blue screen of death. My brain froze for a solid few seconds before rebooting. Once I recovered, I realized I’d just witnessed what might be the dumbest argument I’ve ever heard in person.
At that point, I knew he was far beyond reason, so it was time to cut my losses. I let him keep his distorted worldview and steered the conversation toward less soul-crushing topics. It’s a coping strategy I’d learned a few years earlier: when you encounter people like that, you can either bang your head against the brick wall or simply walk around it. Once you realize it’s not a problem you can solve, it’s better to just avoid it.
- Comment on Are there any story ripoffs that are actually good? 1 week ago:
The first versions were pretty brutal, even by the standards of the day. After all the revisions, those stories were probably more tolerable, but they were still pretty metal IMO. For example, here’s a quote from Cinderella.
And when it was evening Cinderella wanted to go home, and the prince was about to go with her, when she ran past him so quickly that he could not follow her. But he had laid a plan, and had caused all the steps to be spread with pitch, so that as she rushed down them the left shoe of the maiden remained sticking in it. The prince picked it up, and saw that it was of gold, and very small and slender. The next morning he went to the father and told him that none should be his bride save the one whose foot the golden shoe should fit. Then the two sisters were very glad, because they had pretty feet. The eldest went to her room to try on the shoe, and her mother stood by. But she could not get her great toe into it, for the shoe was too small; then her mother handed her a knife, and said, “Cut the toe off, for when you are queen you will never have to go on foot.” So the girl cut her toe off, squeezed her foot into the shoe, concealed the pain, and went down to the prince. Then he took her with him on his horse as his bride, and rode off. They had to pass by the grave, and there sat the two pigeons on the hazel bush, and cried,
“There they go, there they go!
There is blood on her shoe;
The shoe is too small,
Not the right bride at all!”
Then the prince looked at her shoe, and saw the blood flowing. And he turned his horse round and took the false bride home again, saying she was not the right one, and that the other sister must try on the shoe. So she went into her room to do so, and got her toes comfortably in, but her heel was too large. Then her mother handed her the knife, saying, “Cut a piece off your heel; when you are queen you will never have to go on foot.” So the girl cut a piece off her heel, and thrust her foot into the shoe, concealed the pain, and went down to the prince, who took his bride before him on his horse and rode off. When they passed by the hazel bush the two pigeons sat there and cried,
“There they go, there they go!
There is blood on her shoe;
The shoe is too small,
Not the right bride at all!”
Then the prince looked at her foot, and saw how the blood was flowing from the shoe, and staining the white stocking. And he turned his horse round and brought the false bride home again. “This is not the right one,” said he, “have you no other daughter?” - “No,” said the man, “only my dead wife left behind her a little stunted Cinderella; it is impossible that she can be the bride.” But the King’s son ordered her to be sent for, but the mother said, “Oh no! she is much too dirty, I could not let her be seen.” But he would have her fetched, and so Cinderella had to appear. First she washed her face and hands quite clean, and went in and curtseyed to the prince, who held out to her the golden shoe. Then she sat down on a stool, drew her foot out of the heavy wooden shoe, and slipped it into the golden one, which fitted it perfectly. And when she stood up, and the prince looked in her face, he knew again the beautiful maiden that had danced with him, and he cried, “This is the right bride!” The step-mother and the two sisters were thunderstruck, and grew pale with anger; but he put Cinderella before him on his horse and rode off. And as they passed the hazel bush, the two white pigeons cried,
“There they go, there they go!
No blood on her shoe;
The shoe’s not too small,
The right bride is she after all.”That wasn’t from the latest Saw movie. That was from a book that’s intended for children, as far as the author is concerned. Who knows how messed up the first version was.
- Comment on Are there any story ripoffs that are actually good? 2 weeks ago:
I think early Disney movies are pretty good. They usually just took an archaic horror story intended for adults, got rid of all the gore and murder, rewrote the rest, and somehow ended up with a children’s movie. Those ripoff versions became so famous and influential that people no longer think of the originals.
Maybe in two hundred years someone will start ripping off Saw movies to make kindergarten holo-ventures. Oh no! Gus Colyard, the ice cream merchant, got stuck in the freezer. Can you find the key to the door?
- Comment on Why don't my shit and urine stink while they're inside me? 2 weeks ago:
And the rest of your body is reasonably water proof and gas proof. Whatever is on one side of a membrane, is not allowed to cross to the other side. Actually, your body is working hard to keep it that way. If something is allowed to cross that border, it’s an exception and it’s highly regulated.
- Comment on Could my daughter, who is a lawyer, defend my son’s girlfriend, who killed my cousin’s family in a DUI accident? 2 weeks ago:
iAnal - smart plug for the bedroom
- Comment on [deleted] 2 weeks ago:
Finally someone with a balanced view on AI. That was a rare wall of text. Worth the time though.
- Comment on [deleted] 2 weeks ago:
People who hate AI already have their !fuck_AI@lelmmy.world community, and it seems to be leaking absolutely everywhere. How about all the other conversations that aren’t centered around hating AI? Surely, there’s a place for that too.
- Comment on [deleted] 2 weeks ago:
Judging by the comments, I would say that most Lemmy users are aware of the downsides of LLMs. The average GPT user probably hasn’t heard of half the points mentioned in these comments.
Judging by the downvotes, I would say that many Lemmy users are also very passionate about it. The average GPT user might think of LLMs like any other tool.Unfortunately, I get the feeling that Lemmy isn’t a suitable place for having a serious conversation about AI in general (not just LLMs). I would love to have that conversation, but this just isn’t the place for it, as you can see. The people here seem to be too focused on LLMs, how they’re developed and how they’re forcibly implemented in places where they provide zero value etc. AI in general is such a broad category, and this kind of biased conversation misses 90% of it.
When you say AI, people hear LLM, and that’s a genuine problem. When people say they hate AI, they probably aren’t thinking of things like image search, optical character recognition, automatic categorization of the events of your bank account, signal processing in audio and video, image upscaling, frame generation, design of 3D structures, route planning etc. There’s so much you can do with AI, but Lemmy users rarely mention those.
- Comment on Why are people so rude on Reddit compared to the Fediverse? 2 weeks ago:
I’m pretty sure the ratio of rude people in the entire user base isn’t the same when comparing the two platforms, so that plays a role too. However, I think it’s mostly a numbers game. Even if that ratio was the same, a bigger platform automatically means that you’re going to bump into a lot of rude people there. Think of it like this: If the ratio is just just 1%, that’s 1 in a small place and 100 in a big one.
On top of that, people tend to remember negative encounters very well. Even if you got only 1 nasty comment, it’s going to sting. If you got 100 comments like that, you’ll feel like the whole world is out there to get you. The human mind has this strange bias towards negative reactions.
- Comment on Why am I not Irish 3 weeks ago:
You could try cosplaying as one.