WoodScientist @ WoodScientist @lemmy.world

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11 mo. ago

Spirituality and belief were inevitable; religion was not.

For example of a modern religion that exists outside of traditional churches, look at something like ufology. Then in Silicon Valley they have the new AI religion.

At this point, I'm full on ready to make "though shall not make a machine in the likeness of a human mind" global international law and a religious commandment. At least that way, we can burn all AI grifters as witches!

We voted for Kamala and we're well enough off to not have to worry about any reasonable grocery costs. Unless you're talking really luxury goods like expensive cuts of meat, sea food, wine, etc. We don't make crazy money, just a couple, each with a background and career in engineering. But we're fortunate enough that as long as we're talking reasonable foods, anything down out the local WinCo is within our budget. We don't have a weekly grocery budget, as long as we're reasonable about it, we can afford the ingredients for pretty much any recipe we want to make.

And yet, we also got hit by grocery prices the same as everyone else. We weren't posting videos complaining about it, but it definitely showed up at the end of the month. We decreased our meat consumption a bit, but otherwise our habits spending habits have been mostly unchanged through the inflation crisis. (At least so far.)

But the thing is, when I see the grocery prices, I'm not really worried about us. We weren't handed wealth. We each started broke right out of college and have lived pretty rather frugally in comparison to most of our peers of similar income. We started are careers at the rice and beans level and built our way up. And we went through every level of income between there and here. I know what it's like to have a tight budget and have to live on nothing, because I've been there before. And my real thoughts and concern were not for myself, but for the people who were living at the rice and beans level before the crisis hit.

That is what has me concerned about the grocery and other price inflation. Even if you yourself can afford nice things today, unless you're some trust fund kid, you probably clawed your way up the economic ladder to get where you are. You know what it is like to live at lower income levels, because you have done so. And if you can feel the impact of inflation on your budget, anyone with an iota of empathy will immediately think back to an earlier stage in their own life, and how a 50%+ inflation crisis would have affected them then.

Our cursed future:

We will figure out how to create a VR system that can continuously simulate a truly immersive reality. We create something like the Holodeck in Star Trek or the Matrix from...the Matrix.

Unfortunately it will take 10 GW of power to maintain such a simulation. 10 GW...per person.

In the end, all our grand techno dreams will come true. We'll figure out how to build deuterium-based fusion reactors, and we'll use godlike robotics to rapidly expand our infrastructure and power production. We'll even imagine a social utopia. Everyone gets access to the tech, and 10 GW of power just isn't that expensive anymore.

We create the perfect power source, able to be fueled from the deuterium, that can be easily drawn from any natural source of water. We create a virtual paradise world of ultimate bliss, a cyberpunk post-scarcity utopia built on unparalleled robotics and abundant fusion energy.

Then in a century, we drink the oceans dry. If 10 GW isn't enough to do it, our per-capita energy demand will only continue its exponential rise. The reason we don't see any other civilizations out there amongst the stars is that technological civilizations are like firecrackers in the night. Wants are infinite. And as soon as the pool of available resources grows, new uses are found for these resources. Build a Dyson sphere around the Sun to capture its entire output, and there will be some bastard arguing that we need to disassemble the damn Sun to optimize total lifetime energy output.

Civilizations like ours are explosions on the cosmic scene. Our energy needs increase exponentially until we, in relatively short order, either exhausts all reserves or burn in our own waste heat.

We are a firecracker in the night.

Ok, they have a backup plan. Their other pick will be someone even more well suited to appeal to Republicans. In fact, they have experience in politics and were even a minor Democratic Primary nomination contender several years back. They have appeal in the South, and they should have a solid lock on Georgia, and maybe even be able to finally turn Texas blue! And he'll appeal well to the younger generations, as he has even run a Republican and third party presidential candidate in the past. Younger voters will love a candidate with such multi-partisan cred.

Let me introduce you to 2028 Democratic Presidential nominee David Duke!

They're going to give the nomination to Mitt Romney.

Sure, that's fine in IRL. It fails on any kind of discussion board though, at least for anything not as comically egregious as "give me your banking details."

Trans people were among the first victims of the Holocaust. When the same groups the Nazis exterminated are being explicitly targeted again for annihilation, Nazi references are entirely appropriate.

Ok. He's not wrong in this case, but who other than a comic book villain uses the phrase, "contemptible fools?"

Democrats lost because a big chunk of their base was so disgusted at Democrats' behavior that they stayed home. Do Republican politicians start capitulating to Democrats en masse every time they lose an election? No. They look at their base and ask what they can do to get their votes back. Democrats in response to losing just try even harder to get Republican to vote for them.

"If we send the Jews to the camps before Hitler takes power, Hitler won't be able to do his Holocaust!"

Definitely the something of madness, that's for sure.

And you don't see how that makes communication completely impossible? Just read that sentence, it make no sense at all. The purpose of having a trans community is to have just that - a community. "Communication" shares the same root. If you cannot effectively communicate, you cannot have a community.

If you think you can just identify as something at will, you don't understand gender. That attitude is an insult to the entire transgender community. Gender identity is not some fun feather you just stick in your cap. It's an immutable trait. You don't choose your gender identity, you simply have one.

Seriously. I'm fine with neopronouns that relate to the actual gender binary or spectrum. Something that says you're male, female, somewhere in between, some oscillating state along the spectrum, or even a pronoun saying you don't exist along the spectrum at all. But the key distinction here is that any neopronoun must relate back to the male/female gender spectrum. Otherwise you're not describing gender, you are describing personality traits. Every personality trait and characteristic is not a gender.

In other words, the correct response to someone demanding you call them what is almost certainly a troll neopronouns is to block them. Or, the equivalent in the real world is, "I'm not going to misgender you. I'm going to tell you to fuck off and never talk to me again. If that really is your gender, I guess I don't like associating with people of that gender. Goodbye."

My post was a response to yours arguing to always respect neopronouns. My problem with it is that this rule untenable. Your f.ex example is fine, as it's used by a large number of people, it's something that can actually be learned and applied.

The problem is that you cannot simply always respect neopronouns, as whenever you establish a zero-tolerance, zero-though principle like "always respect neo-pronouns, full stop," there will be bullies that take advantage of that. There will be bad-faith actors who purposefully concoct "pronouns" that they obviously do not use. Like, what do you do if someone says their pronouns are racial slurs? You going to start respecting those pronouns?

Neo-pronouns have utility when a group of people use them and there is clear understanding around them. Those created by a single deranged or bad-faith individual need not be respected.

Also, my pronouns are "neopronouns are abused and often idiotic." If you refer to me as anything other than this, you're misgendering me.