Congressperson: “Okay, so, let me get this straight. Your company has spent over 20 billion dollars in pursuit of a fully autonomous digital intelligence, and so far, your peak accuracy rate for basic addition and subtraction is... what was it, again?”
Sam Altman: leans into microphone “About 60%, sir.”
[Congress erupts in a sea of ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’, as Sam Altman is carried away on top of the cheering crowd of Congresspeople wearing a crown of roses and a sash reading, “BEST INVESTMENT”]
You still need states to ratify what was passed during the convention anyway, and even then, it has to be ratified in 3/4s of states, and 9 of the top 10 earners in the US economy are solid blue states with strong blue state governments. 🤷
Not a stupid question. Our government is confusing. It's basically still being carried out verbatim, and the entire thing was built and architected in an era when the fastest anyone could travel is by speed of wind.
In the US, government is generally federalist, meaning, each state is its own independent entity (legally speaking) with the autonomy to describe, create, and manage laws specific to their culture in their state. This boils down even further with municipal zones, which are typically related to city or township governance (covering shit like local police, trash, fire, streets).
Each state has the power to define both its voting districts, as well as the way they vote. For example, states in the West traditionally had fewer people over sparser distances, so traditional paper balloting was foregone in lieu of 'caucusing,' which is literally about measuring the amount of bodies or the scale of voices.
In the early 1800s (roughly 40 years after the founding of the country we know now), a man named Eldridge Gerry figured out that it was technically legal under federal law to flip the way districting happens on a per-state basis — instead of people choosing their district, the district chooses its voters.
So, over time, Gerrymandering proved to be one of the only successful ways to gain an edge in a population where conservatism was shrinking and leftism and socialism were building in popularity. It has continued simply because it is a foundation of power in our bicameral (two parties) system.
Just FYI, it is so named "Gerrymandering" after Eldridge Gerry, as well as the fact that his resulting districts looked on a map like a slithering salamander.
Not for nothin', but there is an entire college discipline dedicated to this called "Conflict Resolution." People trained in it are the ones who tend to get sent by the UN to an accord meeting to negotiate for peace or for mutual use of a contested resource.
It's a whole corner of Sociology with journals and everything.
It is beyond disgusting to me that this is the society we want, not just tolerate.
"Aur"? Says here in my notes something about "Pacman" but that can't be right...
I will echo the other poster and say that all anyone has gotta do is CTRL+R in their minds, and replace gendered general addresses ("bro, guy, my man, me mate, girlfriend, mama, baby, girlie, gurl, woman, miss, ma'am, mister, etc, etc, etc") with the word "friend."
Easy, simple, quick, uses pathways in your brain that already exist, and it's just something that makes people feel good and included. Sure, maybe it's a generic greeting at first, but I think eventually people will actually start softening their hearts and making more random friends that way. 🤷 Nothing wrong with a little more sunshine in a world where fucking everybody feels like a puzzle piece that doesn't fit.
Y'all are way overthinking it. Just say "thanks dawg" to everyone you meet. It even works on dogs!
I also will petition the masses to entertain my personal hill to die on: "dude" is a gender neutral term, and can be so again. As the 1900s-era philosopher Keluardo Joharæon Rice Mitchell, "I'm a dude, she's a dude, he's a dude, cus we're all dudes, hey!"
I guess, but you will lead a lonely life if you can't find common struggle with people in different scenarios than our own. We can easily lose our soul with these endless purity tests — for some reason, Leftists, progressives, and liberals seem to be constantly on the lookout for the next Jesus Christ, who will just simply energize voters by consequence of, I dunno, magic or some shit.
Neil Young is still a working musician who needs to get his face and music in front of as wide and as general of an audience as possible — why wouldn't they be where people are? That's what makes this stand so important. Homie needs Facebook and Insta and still said no.
Well, it's not like Ted Nugent is writing any new music. He probably doesn't have anything better to do anyway.
i think that these tools will probably be foundational to discovering more about the human mind and how words or images are received, stored, and assembled in the brain, but people like sam altman and elon musk are convinced that there is nothing else to a ‘person’ beyond that.
‘humanity’ is an emergent phenomenon, and that is what makes it special. a few other animals have the beginning of it, but none have all of it like we do. you don’t need a god or any kind of religion to understand this. as far as we know, we might be one of the least likely things to ever happen in the universe, ever.