The problem with this line of thinking is that you are ignorant of the fact that we CAN say what is not thinking, and we've narrowed down the problem quite a bit.

It is generally agreed that chocolate bars do not think. Rocks do not think. Pocket calculators do not think. We know what thinking is not, even if we can't define it fully.

AI can think. The article is wrong.

AI hasn't been invented yet. LLMs are weak AI.

in America. You can chart a direct line from when smartphones and the internet got cheap and widely available and the decline of religious extremist churches in America. Specifically the hyper-political mega churches that were created and built up by billionaires in order to trick people out of their property and jobs.

That's a good example of something like a one laptop per child having a direct tangible effect in a positive direction. Albeit not as a charity case but just as a consequence of cheap electronics. You went from people having a single source of Truth in the form of a corrupt preacher to being able to Google everything the corrupt preacher tells them.

It also means that all the rape and pedophilia the churches have been actively hiding gets around really fast. I suspect social media has a impact there too.

SSDs do automatic scrubbing, i.e. a sort-of self-refresh when powered. They do it only for cells that have gotten weak. No idea how long that takes though.

You should be able for force a full test cycle by either reading the full SSD or by running a long SMART self-test.

Depending on the data, that is a perfectly valid approach. Example: Root CA secret key. Make sure to use pigmented, non-acidic ink or laser.

Probably low-stability dye. CD-R can be made very cheaply.

It depends on the quality of the dye layer, the quality of the coating and other factors. For DVD recordables, same thing. The exception is DVD-RAM which use phase-change and can theoretically be archive-grade. But everything has to work for that. I tried with some and apparently disk and drive need to be matched for it to work well. At the time I tried, there were no current drives and disks with that information available.

It is a matter of luck. Better not depend on them. Some DVD-RAM were archive grade, but only when written with the right drives.

No. These tests confirm that SSDs need to do data scrubbing to be reliable and hence need to have power for longer-term storage. The wear is a secondary effect.

I most certainly never said such a stupid thing. SSDs are NOT long-term storage and neither are USB-sticks.

Anybody that did minimal research has known that for ages. SSDs do and need to do scrubbing, i.e. data refresh and for that they need to have power. If you want longer-term unpowered storage, use HDDs (but better stay away from the SMR trash). For long term storage use archive-grade tape or paper. Or stone tablets if it is low volume.

Looks like click bait or incompetence. Could be the latter.

I had two family members with major health problems hit right around 2008 one of which survived the other of which died.

I wasn't fully recovered financially until around 2016 which is when my kid hit College and suddenly I had the pay for them to go through college. Not being a psychopath or a piece of shit I stepped up and actually paid for them to get through college. Because if you're going to have a fucking kid you should make damn sure they can actually support themselves in this fucked up world and have a decent life.

I have only just now recovered from that Financial blow only to have the fucktards that are the American voters put Donald Trump back in charge so that he can promptly collapse the economy.

Trump is likely going to get a third term unless he dies of old age or senality gets him. And the economic fallout from that is probably going to be the end of me.

Basically I've gotten one gut punch after another with just enough to keep me going until the next kicking the balls. Which is the quintessential American experience if you're not a piece of shit baby boomer who pulled the ladder up behind them because they hate queer people and are scared of brown skin.

There is nothing more American than I got mine fuck you. What's funny is is the age 50 to 64 Boomer types who got the tail end of the New deal and Lyndon Johnson's Great society are about to get a huge punch in the balls from their god king Donald Trump.

They are all over the Internet freaking out right now because he's bankrupting them and making them homeless. Every single one of them says the same thing, I voted for Trump three times and I will vote for him again but I don't understand why this great man has destroyed my business or my job or taking my health care away or murdered my kids or whatever horrible thing Trump did this week.

Out of maybe a hundred of them that show up over on the Reddit leopards eating faces for him one or two of them have the presence of mind to say they probably shouldn't have voted for trump. Probably. But fuck it feels good to vote for Trump doesn't it? Stick it to those fucking God damn liberals right? So fucking sick of them telling me what to do right?

This website is full of those fuckers. They keep their mouths shut and try to soak up mod points because they know what they're doing is wrong but they can't stop it because it feels so fucking good and that 12-year-old boy who doesn't like being told what to do kind of way.

We have too many people disconnected from the economy.

Brexit absolutely destroyed the UK economy but you wouldn't know that if you're an elderly pensioner who voted for it because as the saying goes I got mine, fuck you. At worst you had to sell your Spanish summer home.

The same goes for the billionaires who used to just be lowly millionaires.

Both groups basically have all the political power, the billionaire is because of their money and the old people because of their numbers.

So you get a lot of public policy that is basically guaranteed to destroy everything because why the hell not?

The billionaires want absolute power and to build monuments and Dick ship rockets. The old people want to revel in their Petty bigotries and look back at the good old days without acknowledging the help from the government that made those days good.

Both sides have basically screwed anyone under 50.

Eventually although the billionaires will get away with it the old people might not. Especially the ones in the 50 to 65 age group.