So there’s this joke that starts out with two guys walking down the street and getting mugged. The mugger demands all of their money, so the first guy grabs his wallet, turns to his friend, and says “So, here’s that $20 I owe you.”
That’s what I’d like to see happen. Make Trump pay up, then immediately take it from Rudy.
This article is extremely well done, and although I was skeptical through the first part of it, I do agree that it does belong here. The same skepticism that makes us reject religion needs to be brought to bear on other cultures-like followings. The author calls out Scientology in particular. As far as I know, Scientology does not propose explicitly the idea of a god/gods, but I doubt very many in our community would be very sympathetic to Hubbard’s religion.
I think that Robert Evans (and I have to note I’m a huge fan of his) can wax dramatic when he gets on a roll, but he makes some very salient points as well. This isn’t our first foray into techno-Utopianism, and most of the time when that happens it crashes the economy for a bit and a lot of people lose a lot of money.
But even with what’s currently available, damage is being done. We don’t need an AGI for that to happen, and it needs to be regulated.
Kara Swisher is by far my favorite writer in tech. She’s been around since the beginning, she knows everybody, and she’s smart as hell and isn’t afraid to just let fly.
I thought this was an outstanding write up that covers the history of, current political situation, and the likely (but depressing) path forward. It’s worth a full read.
Or she could have a Boost supplemental nutrition drink and have it taste like chocolate instead of blood and placenta.
It’s a foregone conclusion that Trump is going to win the Republican nomination. The nightmare scenario for the republicans has to be Trump going in as the nominee and then being found guilty of a felony charge. It won’t bleed off the Trumpists, but it certainly might make the never-Bidens stay home rather than voting for the guy.
I agree with you, but it’s generally not too far off. The prefrontal cortex is the most recent part of the brain to evolve, and it’s the most “human” part of the brain. The PFC continues to develop over adolescence, only finishing in the early-mid 20s.
That’s the part of your brain responsible for pushing back on emotion driven reactions and doing more strategic planning, among other things.
First, Joyce’s work varies across all of his writing, and second, you can’t pick the one author out of a list and use that to dismiss the argument. It’s basically the same as dismissing the singular “they.” It has a historical basis, and the entire meme is about descriptivism, which is based in how language is used rather than prescribing how it should be used.
The US version that I read lacked chapter 21 for the stupid reason that the US versions lack chapter 21, but it did not have any translations of Nadsat. All of it had to be picked up from context, as was intended. It actually helped me learn Russian about a decade later when I got into intel.
Spoiler warning
Okay, so Clockwork was Anthony Burgess’ least favorite book. In the same way that Sir Alec Guinness hated his role as Obi-Wan in Star Wars, he felt it was populist schlock unworthy of himself as an artist. I think that we have to lay that aside. Although intuitively we might think the artists know their own work best, it’s not always the case.
Clockwork is about a youth becoming an adult. It’s also about mind control and the culture of violence, but the main theme is about growing up. There are 21 chapters because 21 is considered the age of maturity.
In chapter 21, Alex has been “reset” to his old violent ways in the previous chapter, but is now looking back on his violent youth and realizing he’s outgrown it. He’s thinking of getting a job and having a family. The problem was that the American publisher completely missed the point of the book and thought the last chapter was a cop out and that American readers could handle the ending on the down note of Alex becoming violent again. Burgess wanted the money, so he agreed and the US version was published with only 20 chapters.
Kubrick chose to go with the American version of the book because he’s just that kind of guy, but it’s left tens of millions of people completely misunderstanding the story. This alone makes me sympathetic to Burgess’ opinion of his own book.
Anyway, that’s the story of chapter 21.
“Literally” has been used to mean “figuratively” since at least the 18 th century. Descriptivists (and actual linguists) have no problem with this. It’s a hang up of people who don’t actually study language but just want to tell other people what to do to make themselves feel superior. It was used in the figurative sense by Charles Dickens, Charlotte Bronte, James Joyce, and F. Scott Fitzgerald, among many others.
I think it’s more likely that we will see smaller scale attacks by domestic terrorists, ranging from mass shootings to something on the scale of a Timothy McVeigh. I can also see a probability of a return to a 1960s/1970s level of political violence and assassinations.
I think those are more likely than a large scale attack from foreign terrorists.