China hasn't been fully socialist since Nixon went to China. You can actually look at their GDP over time and spot where on the graph they started to implement market results policies. They aren't a fully free market society, but if they were they'd easily be the world's largest economy today. The CCP being unwilling to give up control of the country is holding the Chinese citizens back more than anything outside of the country might be doing.

Same story with other former communist countries like Vietnam which also instituted market reforms. Meanwhile countries that remained centrally planned (such as North Korea) have remained poor. Others such as Venezuela that went further down the path of Marxism have destroyed much of the wealth they previously had.

I like this if only because it means AI generated content will enter circulation at a rapid rate (because people can now make money from it) and it will ensure that LLMs start to ingest and crap out their own works. I've been told this turns out a bit like actual inbreeding and results in LLMs that are essentially retarded if we were to draw a comparison to humans.

This isn't city hall. It's private property. Can we let a gang of people occupy your yard and call you a boot licker when you get sick of them and call the cops?

Apple wouldn't name their products that way. They'd come up with something like the MacBook Air Light or the MacBook Breeze. It wouldn't tell the customer anything and is just pointless masturbatory action on the point of bureaucrats who believe the know better than everyone else.

Are they on the list and if not will they add themselves? Extortion is a pretty serious crime after all.

Are we completely sure that this was caused by anything and wasn't entirely within the realm of possible, but unlikely weather? Highly improbable events occur all the time.

People who insist every single weather event is due to climate change aren't much different than the sort who think the weather is all government controlled or that everything is secretly somehow the fault of the Jews. Go back far enough and there was likely a rainfall just as large or even larger. Since it would have happened before anyone could accurately measure it and probably before the industrial revolution, I'm sure it was probably blamed on the gods being angry.

I wonder if there's this massive body of water nearby where some water could evaporate from. I suppose it could always be aliens as well.

This sounds like a great idea until you stop to think what would happen in reality. How many accidents are you willing to tolerate that are due to people driving on completely shot tires or ones hastily patched up because no one wants to buy a new set of $4,000 tires. Fuel taxes encourage people to buy more fuel efficient vehicles, which is good for the environment. Yearly license based on weight and other vehicle characteristics is a better bet, even though it doesn't perfectly reflect use. You could conceivably try to include mileage into the equation, but expect people to find a way to cheat on that.

Best solution is an automated toll collecting system. That's something that could be done today, and is certainly feasible in the future. The biggest issue are the potential privacy concerns as well as the potential for abuse of the data by authoritarian governments. Perhaps there are solutions to those concerns as well.

It doesn't prevent them from continuing to use it either. They can still continue to be Escobar, Inc. as long as they want to. They just can't get any kind of Trademark protection, which may not matter all that much if no one else wants to be associated with that brand. Under similar legal argument, no one could trademark Hitler Inc. either. The doubt many major companies are keen on the opportunity to associate themselves with Hitler though.

The top 1% are wealthy, but often have no or little income outside of dividends, rents, etc. Much of that wealth (e.g. the company whose stocks they own) is what's paying the incomes of everyone else. They only have substantial income if they sell to someone else, but that's merely wealth exchanging hands and not the creation of it.

The average income dropping by 20% due to climate change alone is extremely dubious. If anything it would be far more likely to be the disastrous consequences of horribly misguided policy aimed at addressing climate change. Too much of it is rebranded Marxism, which does actually have a track record of making everyone poorer.

This destruction usually happens from the bottom up as well. The rich, might become less wealthy, but not disproportionately so. The bottom 5% on the other hand will likely become completely destitute.

It's not the office per se that people don't like, but having to go in to the office. For some people that's an extra hour or more they have to spend just getting to or returning from the office and if it's largely spent in traffic it's understandable why people want to work from home.

When you can deep fake realistic porn, what market will there be for anything you, I, or any other normal person could produce? Eventually a system that can deliver on-demand content tailored to each individual's specific kinks and fetishes will emerge. Why would I want to watch whatever crap you or anyone else might put out when I can have designer pornography?

I wonder how long something like Only Fans can even survive with the way things are headed. I recall a story from the past year about some LLM that was acting as a virtual girlfriend/boyfriend for a large number of users. The next step is a realistic simulated avatar and in time that will be customized and personalized.

The next two decades are going to be a very interesting period in human history.

Perhaps the government should have nothing to do with religious ceremonies. If people want to file for some kind of government sanctioned and operated legal construct that may or may not carry with it some legal obligations and/or entitlements, let them do that. The way things are these days, prenuptial agreements ought to be mandatory just to keep the courts from having to deal with so much inane bullshit when things don't work out. It'll also shut up the fundies complaining about who can or can't get married when the government washes their hands of that as well.

Politician: "I deny having ever engaged in such scandalous activity as depicted in these images. That means that they must be fakes. Arrest this man who has dared to present them!"

The actual reality of realistic deep fakes is that people will generally stop caring about them and the people who might otherwise be embarrassed by them will probably stop caring in time as well. Any major star is going to have deep fake porn made of them. If there's one video of Tom Cruise getting fisted by a Mariachi band, I and others might be tempted to watch. When there's one hundred such videos and more being made every week, no one will care.

If I were famous If probably dump so much deep fakes crap out there that even if something real ever did get leaked onto the internet, no one would be able to tell or would even take notice of it.

Even if there were more large, nationwide sellers, only one will sell tickets for a specific show at a time. Scalpers will try scalping on any service where they can get away with it. While there are some tactics that can be used to prevent it, the best solution is for acts to put on additional shows until demand is satisfied. Stick the scalpers with tickets they can't sell a few times and they'll quit.