I was in the webmaster role for a website from the early start of the internet - SEO started off as simple ways to help improve index placement by giving different methods to the web creators to aid in better categorization of content. It quickly became an arms race of how to best game the system, and the system kept changing as well because the old SEO basics like keyword and content arrangement wasn’t enough. There was one search engine I participated in (I can’t recall now which one) that did the pay for clicks, and you’d literally have to pump money in the online app to try and stay above your keyword competitors, all in real time. It got stupid. And I got frustrated with it, as I felt the original goal to find the best website for a particular search had been long lost and now it was all about mechanisms to profit from everyone trying to make that first page hit. The “best” sites that couldn’t play this game were lost.

Google became the dominant player by buying up other databases and engines, but even with this gaming they used to be able to produce results if you knew how to phrase searches beyond just a few words. It’s almost like the whole AI prompting, what you put in makes a difference. But they eventually changed things and started getting worse results, lots of duplication, and then added AI which ruined anything they still had of quality.

I miss Hotbot. That was my go-to long ago, and it was so good. It became part of Google eventually.

We don’t have a choice, give full control to Skynet.

Only it’s not Skynet, it’s not AGI, it’s just LLMs doing things far beyond what they were designed to do, with accidents happening because we imparted agency and intelligence on something that didn’t have it. It would almost be better if it was AGI, because at least then we could sort of blame it. This is our own stupidity, nothing more.

There’s different levels of computerized control though. Would fuel injection and other modern efficiency and safety systems be possible without a main computer? I wouldn’t trade my days with simple mechanical cars and carburetors from the learning experience, but I also wouldn’t go back if I had a choice.

The line crossed was being connected to work, not computers themselves. I agree that the modern car market is a minefield in whether or not there’s anything you could get that isn’t dependent in some way on being online. Buy used, there’s still stuff out there that will give long life, has been tested by the first owners, and doesn’t have the manufacturer’s grip on it.

“Not sorry this time.”

Note: Brain era may not reflect actual age. Some are far advanced, some are stuck.

I have four, all in mid-grade school (7-8).

A mobile of various paper models of satellites, along with a research paper that told about them.

A cardboard model of the USS Monitor from the Civil War (for US History obviously).

Another for history was a functioning balsa wood model of a guillotine, with a (dull) metal blade. And a deheaded G.I. Joe (I didn’t have any French aristocrat dolls handy).

A video book report made by with a few friends using the library’s video camera (back before phone cameras). We did it in the style of a satirical news program/Monty Python humor with various clips from reporters of parts of the book’s story. I don’t know why I never asked for a copy… but you don’t think about that as a kid.

Wishes are dangerous things. Whether from genies, leprechauns, monkey paws, or gods.

But you would be insulting her if you called her racist.

On a positive note: imagine how large scale and resilient the US economy is to not yet be nose first in the ground already. Don’t mistake me, it’s bad and heading that way, and lots of damage and people have been hurt, but even the bankruptcy king who can ruin businesses that run themselves couldn’t immediately tank it.

It’s like the bull ran through the china shop a few times, and while there’s debris on the floor, there’s still a lot that hasn’t been knocked down. Oh wait, here he comes through again…

Problem solved.

No. Please stop.

Politics loves our short term memory. They just need the right timing of some media story or crisis and people forget everything before.

Good question. There must be some limit, otherwise you could use refiling as a loophole to keep extending the limitations forever.

And that gentlemen, is why we don’t use test and push right out to production. The consumer is far better at finding flaws than we are.

“I didn’t say it, I declared it!”

David Kipping introduced me to the idea that the window of opportunity for intelligent life may be far smaller than we used to think. It’s a companion to the Rare Earth hypothesis of having so many variables that MIGHT need to exist to make things work, but assuming all conditions are good for what we consider hospitable, how long a planet has before the star changes and how soon basic life starts is not that long cosmically.

Simply put, new life after whatever this climate run stabilized to won’t have a billion years before the Sun begins to change. Not turn into a red giant or dwarf, those are far off still, but it will begin its path towards those long before the actual event, and conditions here will worsen for a teeming biosphere.

To quote “Hamilton”, life only gets probably one shot. Maybe two or three if it’s fast, but we can probably count a few of the mass extinctions that set things back for that.

Is it $400 or $500? Article says both. And what about a charge for theft, why is that not there?

If he had reported her visa to ICE, this probably wouldn’t have become a crime and he’d be part of the team. But he went rogue.

L
L L M M

It’s a pyramid scheme!

Isn’t China doing better than the rest of the world in steering to renewables (which have their own issues)? The real problem isn’t what we’re burning, it’s the demand. It keeps going up, so even advances in better energy sources dwindle in their growth compared to the total need. But reducing demand is antithesis to a good economy, so we aren’t even considering that. Must tech out of this! (Not working so far)

If only it was just humanity, it would be fine. A dead end species. We’re taking everything with us, which is the real crime.