Remember Deepmind was poaching elite talent left and right for a decade. It can't very well just plod along without these people. They're probably the least commodified of any of us.

I'm sure Google has been careful about that for just as long, doing their best to make them identify with management/owners rather than each other as workers. Not least with stock options.

I also suspect the union is a poor fit for these workers - "communication workers" are often call center employees IME, and all honor to them, but their concerns are almost certainly not the concerns of superstar googlers who just don't want to build the torment nexus.

Democracy is for retards.

Government did this. All of this. Government regulated so much that only a rare few can afford to compete.

This is late stage statism. Retard voters are to blame.

Like you.

If you think of taxes as "confiscation", then it seems to me it's taxes you object to.

You'll always have the choice to pay tax on the market valuation of your shares.

It's only if you think that valuation is inflated, you can choose to turn over the shares instead.

Hell, why not throw in a third option? Sell tax% of them on the open market yourself, and your tax is what you made from that.

Maybe come up with a fourth option too? Feel free. Maybe something to do with options? I'll be flexible, and allay your concerns about "unrealized gains" in whatever way you think is needed - except not taxing them. Wealth needs to be taxed, otherwise no social institution (including constitutions) can be trusted to endure.

So you admit it's really just taxes you object to, that they're unrealized is just a convenient excuse.

Nutrition and pleasurable sense data. Share and enjoy!

> unrealized gains

If the uncertain value of unrealized gains bother you, I'm more than happy to let people pay in natura. Instead of 1% of the value of your Tesla stock, I'd give you the option to just hand over 1% of your Tesla stock. Instead of 1% of the value of your mansion, you may at your discretion give a lien of 1% of the price if and when it's sold. All the "concerns" about gains being unrealized are addressed, and we get some good pricing information as a bonus.

I always was fond of the joke about the solar probe that only flew at night to protect it against the sun.

I looked it up and there is only about 20% overhead from the error correction in the signal. For a signal that weak I would have expected a lot more.

Or only let it fly during the day.

During the cold war there was MAD and it was taken seriously.
Now the Russians still take it seriously but our side has become extremely smug. "we survived that long, we clearly know what we are doing" , "the russians are bluffing, we can keep pushing and they'll never dare go nuclear" "those russian nukes are in such a bad state they won't even launch", I've heard every stupid argument.
Meanwhile we have bombed Valdai while Putin was there, we bombed early warning radars and nuclear bombers, and we keep going longer distance with our drones.
There was always the fear that MAD wouldn't work against real crazies. Well, the real crazies are us.
Certainly not the Iranians, they're completely at the other end of the spectrum. Capability ok but actually building nukes, woah, won't go there.

Yes. But not as precise as the numbers suggest. It's more like Drake's equation: you don't really know but you fill in different numbers that look reasonable and each time you end up with the same conclusion. In this case, it becomes hard to see how human civilization makes it into the 22nd century.

I can see that even if a nuclear war and winter reduces humanity by 99% you still have 80 million people left. But if you get cascade effects then this can keep declining. Too many birth defects for instance.

Yes. The thing that kills people is diseases. Even in the modern era with colonialism and industrialized genocide, those are a drop in the ocean compared to diseases. Our ancestors didn't survive because they were smart and strong, they survived because they got less sick. That getting less sick allowed them to be smarter and stronger than people who got more sick, was just a bonus.

Russia? China? I don't understand why you'd think this would be such a gotcha.

What exactly is the proper modern approach to warfare?

Same as it always was: don't do it you idiot.