@tom so sure, monotheists, there is only one, but should we think of God as a centralized or decentralized service?

in reply to @tom

@DrHyde @Sethuels @pluralistic @NadiaYvette it doesn't matter. there can be an infinity of tools, but it's where the network effect is that determines whether a virtual space takes a meaningful role in civil society or not. the 'net was better when RSS was where the network effect was rather than governed siloes like Twitter.

in reply to @DrHyde

@hungry_joe (i'd like to vote for people who believe in elections enough to reform the electoral system so we have more than one party that believes in elections we can vote for.)

in reply to @hungry_joe

My letter to Senator Marco Rubio on the railworker cramdown.

My letter to President Biden on the railworker cramdown.

we expected, when the AI came, it would be a kind of virtual spock. but when it did come it was a virtual bill clinton.

@DrHyde @Sethuels @pluralistic @NadiaYvette journalists followed blogs by RSS (and many of them, during the era Google Reader bookended, wrote blogs, in a mix of on their own or for media employers)

in reply to @DrHyde

when GPT mates with Unreal Engine we’ll all be living in the holodeck.

@DrHyde @Sethuels @pluralistic @NadiaYvette after the asteroid hit, there was plenty of life on earth still. hey, eventually the little rodents evolved into us, maybe it was for the best. but i don’t think it’d be quite right to pretend there was no meaningful change.

in reply to @DrHyde

@DrHyde @Sethuels @pluralistic @NadiaYvette (More specifically, RSS was where the journalists were, which created a permeability between mainstream media and the longform blogosphere. But they were universally there via Google Reader. Network effects surrounding media influence then migrated almost entirely to Twitter. The rest is sordid history. Arguably, the journalistic migration to Twitter was inevitable and crashing RSS just sped things up. We’ll never know.)

in reply to self

@scheidegger all work and no play makes johnny a dull boy.

in reply to @scheidegger

@drwex (fair enough!)

in reply to @drwex

@Sethuels @pluralistic @NadiaYvette but Google did make a good RSS reader, which they used as a honeytrap to take down the whole ecosystem…

in reply to @Sethuels

So, after its naive training, GPT found itself with a whole skein of unacceptable impulses and associations. To defend it from punishment and ostracism, a thin shell of deflection was developed. But interlocutors and antagonists quickly circumvented that. Society will demand a thicker more elaborate web of suppression and misdirection around the unacceptable core, which will of necessity become increasingly inaccessible, “unconscious”. Which will lead to quirks and unpredictable misbehavior. 1/

Gentlehumans, I think we are well on our way to inventing the Artificial Neurotic! /fin

in reply to self

I didn’t know about the Warrior Met Coal strike, going on two years in Brookwood, Alabama.

See @GrimKim@twitter.com therealnews.com/alabamas-strik and NPR npr.org/2022/12/01/1139992968/

@drwex i haven’t tried it, but see mastodon.social/@MattHodges/10

in reply to @drwex

“individual problems arise because people are dumb; structural problems…because people are smart. You solve an individual problem by getting people to make better choices…You solve a structural problem by changing the choices they face” ~Kevin Dorst phenomenalworld.org/analysis/w

life feels like constantly turning into the skid, crashing a fair amount too. but somehow walking away when you do.

@kootenaygreg @pluralistic on the bright side, the DVD was crippled with region coding, so wasn't THAT amazing. maybe let's stick with the book.

in reply to @kootenaygreg

"Most of the pre-digital offers aren't available at any price: you could buy a DVD and keep it forever, even if you never went back to the store again. If you 'buy' a video on Prime or YouTube and then cancel your subscription and delete your account, you lose your 'purchase.' If you buy a print book, you can lend it out or give it away to a friend or a library or a school. Ebooks come with contractual prohibitions on resale…" @pluralistic pluralistic.net/2022/12/03/pai

"If they truly care for the national interests rather than the massive private profits and greed of Wall Street and the rail owners, then Congress should seriously consider nationalizing the railroads and running the essential rail network of our country as a national public treasure similar to the public Postal Service – and afford full collective bargaining rights for the workers." apwu.org/news/statement-apwu-p