Thanks for clarifying and I think I agree with most of the other stuff you wrote, though seems a bit of a waste to put so much effort into a long reply on an already effectively expired Slashdot discussion. Most of my concurrence should be apparent within my first paragraph below your quoted post. But should I congratulate you on having so many enemies that one had to stop by with a fresh brain fart? As if having the right sorts of enemies matters?

Then again, I mostly write on Slashdot to clarify my own thinking. Useful or interesting dialogs are mostly in the category of historical artifacts these years. Not just on Slashdot.

Apparently we are looking at different data. I prefer mine in books. Some degree of validation as long as they are not self-published. You didn't provide any citations and I somehow think it would be a waste to cite the most relevant books. I'm sure you are much too productively busy to read them. Also seems pretty clear that my main theoretical speculations were someone overlooked, but you didn't ask, so I won't try to clarify.

I'm not saying your reply was a waste of my time, but I could not say that it affected me in any positive way that I can detect at this time. Perhaps if I were to reflect upon it later. Alligator.

When I want to point out to the kind of morons who post on the Internet, I'll tuck this post away.

Mod parent funnier, but the angle I was looking for in this story was analysis of urine to detect hydration and salt levels as well as general kidney function. But even I think analyzing the feces is going too far into the BS and the camera part of this story must be some kind of joke.

But I am reminded of Volume 22 of the "secrets" series. "Toire no Himitsu" in Japanese, sponsored by Toto. Everything you ever wanted to know about washlets and some more besides. (I've read the entire set, even including the imploded Volume 13 on the secrets of home delivery pizza. Current volume is 221 about building container ships. 222 is about amino acids...)

I think he was going for Funny and the font was supposed to be a warning, but there is so much Poe's Law flying around now that I can't guess where he is or you are actually standing.

Which somehow reminds me of the new prime minister... Some (Japanese) people clearly hate her a lot, but I haven't seen any clear evidence of extremist tendencies. Color me ignorant, which explains my surprise to learn (in her TV biography today) that she must be fluent in English. Wikipedia says two years working for a moderate Democratic politician followed by media work in Japan as an "expert" on America.

But I remain skeptical of the entire story. Might be an AI confabulation for clicks. I'm not going to give mine to the unknown website, but I am going to keep my eyes open to see if the same story appears somewhere I have heard of before... I think this one sounds just plausible enough that it's hard to be sure, but it doesn't mesh well with any of the convenience stores I've seen. Two small and narrow for the robots and customers, so it would make more sense if the time zones were skewed so the remote workers were working at zero dark thirty in Japan time--but the time difference is only one hour to the Philippines.

So now I feel obliged to quote you against the censor trolls, though I don't even see what part of your comment ticked off the sock puppets. In particular, I don't see any basis for your magic estimate of 25-30% unemployment. Rather I think the super-rich super-greedy sociopaths calling the shots can't be satiated with all the income from 25-30% of the population. I don't even think they are concerned about relative wealth or how much of their money has become completely imaginary. But I think it's easier to map their extreme indifference to the "right to life" as it doesn't matter to them when the lives belong to poor peasants. Healthcare as some kind of human right? No, they only want it for themselves and the only reason any of the peasants should get any healthcare is as guinea pigs to develop better medical treatments for themselves. I would have included as a stock of organ donors, but I think medical care is passing beyond that stage now--and I would even speculate that some of the worst of them have secret clones of themselves...

Now about the question of authenticity of the story. First, the story apparently comes from a website I've never heard of. Second, it seems to be exactly the kind of story that would get coverage on Japanese TV and I've yet to see any mention of it. Third, based on my experience with network connectivity to and from Japan I find it difficult to believe they could keep the telebots working on a steady basis. If the telebots have enough local AI-based pseudo-intelligence, then they could cover for some of the network lapses, but that would make them expensive.

I also noticed a racist comment about not replacing workers because they weren't born--but exactly the same argument can be applied to the customers. Rather I think Japan is moving to new heights of xenophobia, though the new prime minister would never admit it (except as silent belly speak AKA haragei). They did a bit of biographical reporting on her on yesterday's news and I was quite surprised to find out she worked for a Democratic politician in Colorado. The name rang a bell, but it turns out she died in 2023...

Can't even figure out what you're mumbling about now. Maybe you weren't going for funny after all. But since I write so poorly, where does that leave you?

Yup, the sad truth is that if you really want to save children, you need to ban parents.

What megalomaniacal near-trillionaire had a whole squadron of leet hackers hoovering up federal employee records just a few short months ago? I forget. It musta been somebody with pockets 30x deeper than George Soros to tunnel into those boring databases, we should launch an investigation.

Mod parent funnier, but what was Microsoft's version called? Probably still around with new branding...

But did ChatGPT cite Betteridge?

But me thinks the answer is "Ask again later" per the magic eight ball. By which time it will be too late to worry about it.

Mod parent funny. But also sad.

Is that a legal adjectival form for fool's gold? But I bet I don't get my funny mod because I forgot to work the joke into the long comment...

That attitude is probably why you didn't get the funny mods. The rational, non-humorous reality would be to use the energy from the coal plants to eliminate the coal plants as quickly as possible, which is basically the strategy the Chinese are applying now.