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Comment Re:I've hired Gen Zers, and I am not impressed. (Score 1) 94

I beg to diff. 25 years ago when I started in the work force, you didn't call out sick without a doctors note

You do see how that was abusive 25 years ago, and how it's unrealistic now since you can't get an appointment before next month. You shouldn't have to go to the ER to get a note when you've got a migraine.

My employer recognizes that sometimes you just need a mental health day, and you can call in "just can't do it today". This helps immensely with retention. This was always a good idea, people always needed this, and only now is it being generally recognized.

Comment Re:Consider random mutations (Re:Hail Trump!) (Score 1) 42

BTW, re: the Congo in particular: the most common traditional type of fishing is basket fishing with woven funnels suspended in the rapids. You sure as hell better know how to swim if you want to do that.

Famous angler Jeremy Wade referred to the local Congo fishermen as nearly suicidal, just diving into the rapids to get nets unstuck and the like.

Comment Re:Consider random mutations (Re:Hail Trump!) (Score 2) 42

SIGH.

There were 10 people chosen and people with dark skin in the USA make up about 1 out of 8 Americans.

1 in 8 is 12,5%.

African-American without mixed race in 2024 is estimated at 46,3M, or 14,2%
With mixed race, that rises to 51,6M, or 15,8% of the population.
Some hispanics have dark skin, some light. In 2023 there were 62,5%, representing 19% of the population (though there's a small overlap with black - doesn't affect the numbers much).
In 2023, Asians were 25,8M people, or 7,7% of the population. This is again a diverse group with mixed skin tones (for example, the Indian subcontinent)
In 2023, there were 1,6M people (0,49%) of pacific island ancestry and 3,3M native Americans - again, mixed skin tones.
People of Mediterranean European ancestry often have so-called "olive" complexions.

With a strict definition of dark skin, you're probably talking like 1 in 6 or so (~16,7%). With a looser definition, you could be talking upwards of 40% or more of the population.

The chances of the 10 people to be a perfect representation of the racial demographics of the USA is quite small.

Here are the actual odds of selecting no dark-skinned people at different population percentages being "dark skinned", by one's definition of "dark":

15%: 1 in 4
20%: 1 in 8
25%: 1 in 17
30%: 1 in 34
35%: 1 in 73
40%: 1 in 165

Then consider that NASA astronauts are required to pass a swimming test

It is not a test of swimming prowess, just of an ability to not drown. You have to be able to do three lengths of a 25-meter pool without stopping, three lengths of the pool in a flight suit and tennis shoes, and tread water for 10 minutes while wearing a flight suit. This is not some massively imposing task. You don't have to be Michael Phelps to become an astronaut.

and as a general rule those with African ancestry tend to have less stamina in swimming than those with lighter skin

Yes, white athletes tend to have an advantage in swimming. A 1,5% advantage. While a 1,5% advantage may be of good relevance at the highest level of a sport, it's hardly meaningful in a "can you tread water with a flight suit on" test.

Think of the different races as just really big families

That is not how genetics work, and is instead the pseudoscience that drove fascist movements, and in particular, Nazism.

There is far more genetic diversity within a given "race" than between them. Certain genetic traits tend to have strong correlates - for example dark skin and sickle cell anemia - but that's not because races are some sort of genetic isolates, but rather for very practical reasons (dark skin is an adaptation to not die of skin cancer in the tropics, and sickle cell disease is a consequence of a genetic adaptation to not die of malaria which also happens to be found in such climates). But the vast majority of genes don't have such strong correlates.

The concept of "race" as a distinct biological category is not supported by modern genetics.

If we are to ignore skin color and just put one big family up against another big family on swimming ability then just due to random mutations, perhaps some Darwinian selection way back in the family tree, one family will swim better than the other

The main "racial difference" in swimming ability in the US is "inherited", that is, parents who don't know how to swim tend to not teach their kids how to swim. As a result, white children are 56% more likely to receive swimming lessons than black children. One can expect that to directly correspond to an advantage in adulthood. But again, the ability to tread water is not out there knocking 90% of astronaut candidates out of the race - especially given that astronaut candidates tend to be athletic and motivated to learn new skills.

People with light skin tend to have ancestors that had to go fishing for their protein

Utter tripe. Fish consumption has no correlation with skin colour. How much fish do you think your average herder or plains horseman ate? And fish is massively important in much of Africa - in coastal areas (Gabon, Ghana, Sierra Leone in particular note), along the Congo (it's literally the world's largest river, people have been fishing it since time immemorial), Lake Victoria, Lake Chad, the Niger Delta, etc etc. What sort of racist stereotype world are you living in where black people don't fish?

Comment Re: Cry me a river. (Score 1) 94

Best guess is that in five years, self-driving hardware will add about $15k to the price of the vehicle if they use LiDAR, or $6k if they don't.

Best guess is that in five years we still won't have level 5 autonomy you can trust. I don't mind being wrong, but I don't think I will be. I certainly don't think it's viable for that kind of money and also achieving the kind of safety I think we should be demanding. Not just "better than human" but essentially infallible. The car can have sensors we don't have, it should be able to be a lot better.

There's no good reason you'd replace a working tractor unit when you can just swap out the steering rack, bolt on cameras, and add some electronics

I think 20k is an optimistic price point, especially if you're hoping that it's going to deflect liability.

Comment Re: Cry me a river. (Score 2) 94

Seriously dudeæ Ãoeruling classÃ. ThatÃ(TM)s a bit much.

No need to be in denial, friend. That's literally how capitalism works. Did you think either "control" or "the means of production" was hyperbole?

CAD did didnÃ(TM)t eliminate architects and engineers

It all but eliminated draftsmen, the drawing is done by the architects and engineers in the CAD software. The draftsmen mostly didn't become architects and engineers. Now take into account that everything becomes more complicated over time and yet also changes faster, and you can see where the problems are. Humans cannot keep up.

Comment Re:I've hired Gen Zers, and I am not impressed. (Score 3, Interesting) 94

I suspect they were all correct. Most people have to experience life for a while before they learn the value of doing things in a way proven to be effective. The only thing they were wrong about is that the current youth were much more annoying than the youth of when they were a youth. They might even be right that they were different, and in denial about the value of their experience.

Comment Re: "It might be tempting to blame technology... (Score 1) 94

When your employer tells you something needs to be done

On one hand, you're right. You are absolutely describing the dominant paradigm. This is reality for most humans, and has been for most of history.

On the other hand, that's shit. If we continue to accept that, then that's what we will continue to have.

On the gripping hand, allowing the dickheads at the top of the ziggurat to eat all of our resources is unsustainable, so it won't continue indefinitely. At some point the whole thing collapses and goes full cannibal. And all we have to change to get there is nothing, so if you're tired of this, just wait!

Comment Re: For now (Score 1) 107

"Politization" means that people try to answer 3) with "someone else than me" by either claiming question 1) does not exist at all, or answer 2) depending on their political affiliation, completely ignoring 3).

A lot of that shit is just excuses. Some people really do believe that stuff, most of the people who matter don't. And they know everyone would have to pay for it, which is why they don't want to do anything about it. If they could all get rich solving AGW then they would do that. It's only about being in charge. They are stupid enough to think that they can ride the top of the flaming empire down and wind up standing on the ground.

I don't think it can be overstated just how dull the people in charge are. They cannot even conceive of them being affected significantly by anything until it is happening to them.

Comment Re: Cry me a river. (Score 1) 94

Do you expect autonomous vehicle to have robot drivers that can deliver your pizza to your door?

Yes.

If fat-asses need to walk down to the street and get their pizza out of a car, they are going to start wondering why they don't just go out a get their own pizza for a fraction of the cost.

No, they aren't. Going to a delivery vehicle is dramatically less work than going to a pizza place, in every sense of the word.

Comment Re: Cry me a river. (Score 1) 94

"Most taxi drivers and many truck drivers own their own rigs, and although they may eventually replace themselves with robot rigs, they would continue to earn the revenue after doing so. They certainly have no incentive to fire themselves."

They won't be able to afford to replace themselves and will be outcompeted by a company that can afford a fleet.

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