CuriousRefugee
@CuriousRefugee@discuss.tchncs.de
- Comment on "Transfer failed because it did" 🤦🏻 5 days ago:
I really like The Tombs of Atuan, but I do think it’s a tone shift from the first book. The religious themes reminded me a lot of Dune in some ways, where even those at the top of religion question it, plus it’s also kind of coming-of-age for Tenar (the priestess girl) and for Paul. Bringing Tenar back in Tehanu (4th book in the series) was brilliant, though, and really gives her character more development. That one might be my favorite of the series.
- Comment on "Transfer failed because it did" 🤦🏻 5 days ago:
I’ll admit that I actually do really like Card’s writing, and I don’t deny that Ender’s Game (and Ender’s Shadow and Speaker for the Dead!) are great books. I read them a lot when I was younger and don’t specifically recall any hidden conservatism, especially because he seemed to have multiple viewpoints in the books. But the man himself is a piece of bigoted trash, so I would only buy used books from him now.
- Comment on "Transfer failed because it did" 🤦🏻 5 days ago:
Sometimes an author doesn’t click even when she should otherwise, no worries! Good on you for at least trying!
- Comment on "Transfer failed because it did" 🤦🏻 6 days ago:
Okay, but also Ursula K. Le Guin fucking rocks. I didn’t even read Earthsea (that’s the 3rd one in the image) until I was older, and it’s amazing. But so many of her other books were influential on me when I was younger. The Dispossessed is brilliant, and Left Hand of Darkness is well-deserving of its reputation as one of her best. Both won the double-whammy of Nebula and Hugo “Best Novel” awards, making her the only author who’s not an asshole to win that twice, fuck Orson Scott Card. Also she was woke as fuck basically her entire life and was not afraid to say it.
- Comment on Watcha gonna do? 2 months ago:
- Comment on Well if it's low cost and easy to use.. 3 months ago:
No, you willingly got shocked weekly to win a tiny TV for your room! It was aspirational! Except the max payout for most games was like 50 tickets and the TV cost 80,000 tickets, so all you could buy at the end of the 2 hours with your 243 tickets was some bouncy balls and gum.
- Comment on Which are you? 3 months ago:
I scrape all of the kernels off, then have a friend fling them into my mouth with a slingshot while screaming “Ayayayaya, Zordon!”
- Comment on You need to think long term 4 months ago:
Mr. and Mrs. McGill,
Thank you for your time. While the vicious poisoning of your son was a horrific tragedy, I am sure that with the evidence we discussed, justice will be served and the perpetrators will be made to financially compensate your shattered family. If you need to contact me or any of the other lawyers at our firm regarding this important matter, you can reach me at s3XXXyS8ergurl69@aol.com.
- Comment on My shopping list: Coal 6 months ago:
I did this for a while when I had an injury and couldn’t walk easily, but the produce selection was always trash. Plus shopping (and maybe delivery) fees were very expensive. How do you get not-crappy produce if you do this?
- Comment on Theories on Theories 6 months ago:
Engineering: We only care if it works, even if it breaks math/physics/chemistry/biology.
- Comment on 6 months ago:
“Sharing is caring!”
Fox News: That’s communism!
- Comment on Cats: I Don't Know Nuffin' 6 months ago:
The last panel looked off, so I think it is edited from the original comic: https://jakelikesonions.com/post/184087753999/drug-sniffing-cats
- Comment on The forest guy 7 months ago:
“I would prefer not to.”
~Bartleby the Orangutan
- Comment on [deleted] 7 months ago:
My thoughts, ended up being longer than I meant, but here:
Paying attention to the loudest voices, you will think we’ve split into two societal groups: those who use AI and think it’s absolutely perfect and will save humanity (“sheep”), and those who deny it has any uses whatsoever, is morally abhorrent, and is going to end mankind, either through war or through decay (“luddites”).
Most people will be in the middle. We will slowly learn what LLMs are good at doing, and what’s it bad at doing, and it’ll be messy. People will lose their jobs, but then some companies will realize that AI can’t actually replace those people, and some services/products will get dramatically worse/enshittified. Others will begin making a living through the use of AI, some adding great value to society and others just creating slop that a small but big enough fraction of the masses will consume to keep it around. People who are smarter at separating the good from the bad will laugh at both the luddites and the sheep.
One or two AI companies will fail and there will be massive turmoil and fallout for them. But most will either slowly reduce expectations or succeed moderately over time. Generalized AI will turn out to be way harder than some thought, and consciousness a way bigger leap from LLMs than predicted. There will be a loud push to implement safeguards, and it will be mostly ignored by politicians. However, there will be some progress on energy and water concerns, leading to large differences between countries/US states in terms of regulation. AI will turn out to be mostly bad for kids.
There will be several huge successes - a huge medical cure/vaccine, or an amazing technological invention/improvement, probably some kind of multi-disciplinary discovery. The people who drive it to completion will acknowledge it wouldn’t have occurred without AI, but humans were mostly responsible, but the media will claim that AI invented it out of whole cloth. There will also probably be some high-profile failures, like car crashes or critical server outages, maybe even leading to deaths. Luddites will seize upon them as if they’re apocalypses, and sheep will dismiss them as anomalies. The truth will be in-between. Most people’s lives will not change drastically.
- Comment on bit rude, innit? 8 months ago:
They’re minerals, Marie!
- Comment on Restaurant the not good :( 8 months ago:
Rocket is another name for arugula, the leafy green veggie. I only know this from watching British food Youtubers, so I think it’s a regional name
- Comment on Anon has a tip 9 months ago:
I use DDG, which works for about 90% of my searches, but when it doesn’t work, I go back to Google, often in a private window. I do agree that Google is still just, I dunno, better?
- Comment on New life 9 months ago:
A møøse ate all of my pøtatoes
- Comment on yoooo 10 months ago:
What is this scene? Vaggie looks like she’s on a pirate ship! Maybe from when she’s singing the duet with Camilla in season 1? Whatever it Takes I think? I’m just trying to remember why she would be on a pirate ship, but sometimes the animation goes by so fast I miss things
- Comment on Definitely how it went for me 11 months ago:
I built my first computer in college with a friend helping me. It didn’t turn on, and we spent 3 days troubleshooting, switching out components (including the power supply) until we realized that the outlet we were plugging into was on a switch. We felt like morons
- Comment on sad but trueueh, yeahh 11 months ago:
My dad and I quote this all the time, and no one ever knows what we’re talking about! Peter Sellers is phenomenal!
- Comment on A heartwarming classic! 1 year ago:
And their Instagram, before the motorcycle pics so you have to login or cheat, is www.instagram.com/cobabeda99/
- Comment on Check yourself before you rex yourself 1 year ago:
Oh, that’s the famous Sherlock Holmes fanfic author, right? And occasionally Batman fanfic!
- Comment on Longest comment chain! 1 year ago:
Better than jumping the shark
- Comment on It's just science. 1 year ago:
No! I’m sure we’ve aged like a fine milk. Strongbad is timeless!
- Comment on It's just science. 1 year ago:
I recognized this immediately. I hope Kyle “The Yellow Dart” Smith is doing okay
- Comment on Florida ounces 1 year ago:
Ridiculous. The metric system is all the same. How many millimommies in a decamommy? I dunno, but it’s 10 or 100 or 1000 or something like that. Everything is a factor of ten, and the unit conversions are even a factor of 10! You can look that up in a table, and a 6-year-old can properly measure things. Booooring!
Now look at the Imperial/English/Standard/US/Florida system: how many hogshead in a cubic furlong? Nobody knows offhand, so you have to get creative. Is it a US standard colonial, also called a tobacco hogshead? Or is it the British hogshead? It may depend on the contents, like whether it’s brandy or sugar or fish (the species matters!). You can convert to firkins if you wish, but that’s optional. As for furlongs, it used to depend on the horse, but sadly they standardized it to 40 rods, because German feet were longer than English feet, probably due to the toes. Fortunately, some states in the US still disagree on definitions, so the length may depend on the state. Once you figure that out, you can easily calculate that using a English wine hogshead and an international furlong leads to about 34,136,818.7 hogshead in a cubic furlong. Explain to me how that’s not better than your silly metric system!
- Comment on Day 365 of posting a Daily Screenshot from the games I've been playing (One Year Anniversary!) 1 year ago:
Congratulations on 1 year! I don’t read every day, but I’m glad when I do. Quite a commitment! Thanks so much for your contribution!
- Comment on Get yourself a real man. 1 year ago:
The true Golden Path was the lizards we met along the way
- Comment on Cursed 1 year ago:
If there was a god, I’d imagine them designing the universe and giggling like an idiot when they made math.
