No, for the same reason I seldom argue with a person that is bullshitting me.

Exactly. For all of the hoopla, It is a stark fact that AI can and will train itself on lies as well as truth. And manually searching the web shows that lies are as common as truth. And even if not lies, so much is opinion.

A human in the loop can do better, even then we are not infallible, especially when dealing with opinion based "facts". But we have a better bullshit filter. AI has none. Which loops us right back to your statement on reliable information supply.

Reminds me of the meme "In 1950, auto manuals had instructions on how to adjust the valves, modern manuals warn you not to drink the battery acid" . I'm sure that is specious, but we've devolved a bit as people who now mindlessly consume, and expect everyone else to have knowledge while they watch "The Bachelorette" as their intellectual education.

Guess who gets to be Soylent Green first if the apocalypse happens! ;^)

My old man gave me my first car, with the proviso that I do all the maintenance myself. Wise dude, and it served me well. I don't do my own car maintenance now, although I do the repairs and maintenance on my motorcycle to keep my hand in. I've seen too many people stuck on teh side of the road, not having a clue what to do for simple fixes. Guess they don't mind sitting on teh side of an interstate for an hour or more, waiting for AAA to show up.

Well played sir! I love it.

I've taught my son to do repairs as needed. It's been a help for him. So yeah.

Oh yes - I'm not a curmudgeon, I'm just a knowledge sponge. The only reason for an old school watch is as a status symbol, but indeed, a whole lot of technology is exceptionally superior.

A comparison is my new Jeep. Traction control that allows me to move on glare ice -better remember it still takes 10X distance to stop - an illustration that shows technology allows a lot, but better know some basic physics. It automatically senses snow, or mud, or rocks for 4 wheel drive - although I can still manually invoke them. So getting stuck is not an option in most cases. Big disc brakes with ceramic pads - I now consider that a must for rock driving, especially going downhill.

Yes I appreciate the new tech - so much better in so many cases.

But then again, I was the kid who read the encyclopedia as a kid, and financially support Wikipedia now. I just find knowledge useful.

The idea is weird for me. And what I do think is weird is to blindly accept what is thrown at us, blissfully ignorant of what we are doing. But in this world, reality TV is more important than knowing things - at least for some. I can read digital clocks. I can read analog clocks, I can read sundials, I can read gnomons. I can design and build a reasonably accurate water clock, and read the time from that. I can locate by sextant. Others believe all knowledge from the past is irrelevant.

Ignorance is not a flex, ignorance leads to acceptance of banality, and makes for manipulable people. My peers find very little knowledge is of no use. Perhaps yours do not. But yes, You can do you, and it is right for you.

And somehow keep the location from the sun the same! 8^)

Yes, and the inertia of measurement systems is very important. If we changed measurement systems every time we advanced science, we'd be in a constant state of change. Even the bedrock of the metric system, the metre, has had to be made more accurate over time. As we found that the standard platinum/iridium meter bar has a changing length, the standard platinum iridium IPK has changed.

So now, in an ironic twist, the Metre is now measured as a fraction, that being, Since 2019, the metre has been defined as the length of the path travelled by light in vacuum during a time interval of 1/299792458 of a second, defined by a hyperfine transition frequency of cesium.

The Kilogram, is now defined: "The kilogram is the mass of a body at rest whose equivalent energy equals the energy of a collection of photons whose frequencies sum to [1.356392489652×1050] hertz."

There is no chance that if we designed a SI system today it would be the same. Decimals would almost certainly be used, but lengths, mass, and other SI units would almost certainly based on more universal constants, and not in the cockamamie tap-dance we have to use to make them the equivalent of the arbitrary and inaccurate method we used to originate the Metric system.

I would love to see the metric uber alles crowd's reaction if they suddenly had to change all their equipment, their tool sizes, and revamp their entire production systems after their systems changed and old school metric tools became superannuated, as relevant as Whitworth or barleycorns. So what does the pragmatic person do? The pragmatic person uses whatever they need to use, understanding that the whole debate is goofy.

And some like me, just love to knock people off their high horse, when they act like their system is the hallmark of an advanced society.

Exactly. While we are at it, there is a certain logic to the metric system, once we accept that whatever system we use is going to be pretty arbitrary at base. I have no trouble using it. Even now, while the units of ten standard makes sense, but what it is based on is an old and inaccurate measurement of the earth, and more modern understanding of how the meter bar is not unchanging in size, how the boiling and freezing point of water is not constant, and based on teh composition of water, the atmospheric pressure at the time of measurement, and the fact that supercooled water can remain liquid well below 0 degrees C. Which is why I do recommend The Kelvin scale based on Absolute zero, a pretty inviolable bottom end.

So I'm okay with using metric if I'm under no constraints.

But I'm also okay with using whatever system I need to use. It is no more difficult than picking out the correct wrench to use on a particular nut or bolt. At least for me.

I suggest expatriating to one of those countries that you compared the US action in Venezuela as teh equivalent - You did say in the past you would accept being a communist. I'm certain they would welcome you as a kindred spirit. You would be a citizen in no time.

No, dear whataboutist. The problem with the standard Soviet whataboutism response, that an intelligent observer might note, is that if I say X, and you say Whatabout Your X - you inadvertently exonerate my X action by comparing it as the same thing that your X does, so that means My x is okay, your X is likewise acceptable.

It's the old two wrongs make a right. Which is a logical fallacy. Wikipedia has it in similar fashion:

"Whataboutism" or "whataboutery" (as in, "but what about X?") refers to the propaganda strategy of responding to an accusation with a counter-accusation instead of offering an explanation or defense against the original accusation. It is an informal fallacy that the accused party uses to avoid accountability—whether attempting to distract by shifting the conversation's focus away from their behaviour or attempting to justify themselves by pointing to the similar behaviour (which may be true or false, but irrelevant) of their opponent or another party who is not the current subject of discussion."

So most alarming to see what you support. And making the further lie that I support "bombing of Venezuela. Fascinating that. But not unexpected from you.

It has been now for many years that if you are Chinese, there is a really good chance that the Chinese government is compelling you to share information. I mean, it would be a shame if your relatives were to suffer adversity.

You might find it a plus in your book if secrets were relayed, but I suppose you might feel differently if your country had workers in classified work sending your countries state secrets to China - or perhaps you would like even less of your countries secrets went to the USA - eh?

Collect your yuan, Mr Wang, you did your job.

Do you think? Is there some sort of stupidity in knowing how to get the time in multiple ways? That only being able to read numbers is superior to reading numbers, or dials, or sundials, or water clocks?

There is a weird sort of encouragement to restrict knowledge today, it's like reality show approach to life. And we act like a person of restricted knowledge is somehow superior to people who aren't restricted.

I've often wondered why we haven't switched to metric time. 8^) To the subject here, and in great irony, the inability of students to read analog clocks is so very similar to the inability to use more than one measurement system. Metric system only people, are weirdly bragging that they can only read one system.

Meanwhile, people like me ( self admittedly stupid and widely agreed by the slashdot smart people as subnormal) can produce very accurate parts in barleycorn if needed. 1 barleycorn is 0.0084666667 m

I've produced parts in metric on one side and US customary units on the other.

The difference to me and others who are not restricted, is no different than the difference between a 9mm, and 10 mm screw. My shop is metric, but the abilities need to work between standards is low level grade school math.

Well, there is a non-zero p0ossibility that a young person can be taught to read an analog clock, or a sundial, or a water clock.

I taught my son all three.

To answer the question from one Anonymous Coward, and your insightful responses. The USA despite protestations to the contrary, doers not hide behind the insecurity based bleating that all other countries are superior, smarter, and all around better than us.

This has been a dilemma and can be very difficult to impossible to many citizens of other countries to wrap their heads around. But Americans, boisterous assholes that we be, own our problems We admit the horrors wi visited on some groups. We are not perfect. Yet it seems the say, many or most Europeans don't believe what they did to Jews, the Roma, handicapped children, homosexuals, and other groups they deemed not suitable to live, to the Chinese don't admit how their beloved chairman Mao engineered on of the biggest mass starvations (as many as 55 million) in modern times to send foodstuffs to the Soviet Union, who in turn caused the holodomor in the Ukraine in 1932-33 with some unknown millions likewise intentionally starved.

All are guilty. It is just easier shit all over us, who admit our wrongs than it is to admit that there are people in the world who are much much worse. And that refusal makes it more likely that those countries wearing blinders will repeat.

Good idea posting as a coward. Did you parse your sentence before you posted? For assuming that I am the only person out of 8 billion that does not need 8 hours of sleep each night is your own tendency to draw a contrary conclusion.

Thomas Edison only slept 3-4 hours a night, Nikola Tesla said he only slept an astounding 2 hours. Barack Obama's normal sleep schedule was 6 hours.

There are more - https://methodshop.com/famous-...

Trying to shoehorn everyone into one inviolable number of hours of sleep is silly. My wife is a steady 8 hours. Her sister needs 10 hours a night. I need 5. If need be, I can shoehorn 5 minute catnaps and get by on less for a while if needed.

Is there a correlation between needing less sleep and success? I suspect there is. That genetic difference, the so called hDEC2 sleepless elite gene, probably has other effects in brain wiring. I'm not successful in the manner of the people in that article who appear to seek recognition and "status". To me, that particular need is wasting time. But I am quite successful. I prefer pulling the strings behind the scenes, and figure if I make headlines, it will be after I'm gone. Or if I really fuck up.

I think that is a good possibility. Because this is just my natural cycle. If I only get say 3 hours, I'm definitely not in top form. And in the deep past, I've tried forcing more than 5. Never worked. So I just did what came natural, because it seemed pointless to lie in bed, fully awake/