I was invited to talk on a panel with an audience of about 300 or so people discussing government proposals for new surveillance powers. From the back I heard someone yell at the person who invited me to speak "If you've got nothing to hide, you've got nothing to fear".

I gotta say I've always fucking hated this stupid argument. I answered for him by pointing out that fraud enabled by these legally mandated security holes is borne by citizens just like you, not the government. So the saying should be "If you've got nothing to lose, you've got nothing to fear".

It makes complete sense why it would make you feel that way. It's like the government chucking a tantrum and saying "We're going to make crime illegal", whilst exposing people to more cyber crime.

I would prefer to replace myself, yes.

I have a 37 year work history of finding ways to replace myself and folks like me. I already offer my clients free Ai consulting on the side to help them replace me. I'm already onto the "next thing" that will replace Ai in the headlines anyway.

I don't own a computer. I am not a programmer. I do everything from my iPhone.

In the past 10 years, I have spent tens of thousands of dollars on human programmers to create 3 web apps. Zero of them ever were finished. ZERO.

I used Grok AI to create 5 web apps. 3 of them were monetized almost immediately and have paying clients. All 5 have passed security checks that look for bugs or hack entry points.

One of the 3 monetized web apps took me all of 30 minutes using Grok, on an airplane, using my iPhone. I was able to download the files and upload them to a web server and the site was live. Literally 30 minutes and that website has created thousands of dollars of passive income.

I use vibe coding DAILY to make spreadsheets better for me and clients (I am not in IT). I use vibe coding DAILY to come up with cool functions for my web apps that people pay me to use.

"We're sorry, your subscription to your phaser service has expired.".

I almost wonder if that's actually a dude who was on the flight or someone taking advantage of an opportunity to get in the news.

Seems so unlikely.

I own a tiny indie studio in Chicagoland and my peers own the some of the huge studios in Chicagoland.

Cinespace is dead right now. It has ONE show active. The other studios are so dead that they're secretly hosting bar mitzvahs and pickleball tournaments for $1500 a day just to pay property taxes.

My studio is surprisingly busy but I'm cheap and cater to non-union folks with otherwise full time jobs.

Eon: Greg Bear.

Each citizen carries a marble size computer in their skull as a backup of their mind. You get 2 "reincarnations" (IIRC) and on the third you are committed to The Thistledown's public memory where you become known as a "Ghost" who can still interact with corporeal city residents. Everyone knows if someone's body dies, you simply cut open the back of their skull and retrieve the backup so their body can be restored.

Special Operatives of the city have additional devices where they can download their entire persona into a virtual world where time is accelerated and you can devote thousands of years to solving a single problem and then upload the solution to yourself.

Not a single thing here gives the story away, it's actually a rather insignificant part of the story. Well worth the read.

Not always possible. And even when it is, nothing is assured. I've checked in within 1 minute of the start period and had over 100 people ahead of me. Unassigned seating is absolutely the reason I refuse to fly southwest, I will happily pay more to assure I get my aisle seat.

From the Windows T&C:

Everyone has the same right to impose usage conditions on their works.

The same ones programmers have to protect their copy and morals right to their code. Everyone fucks over Artists first because that set's the precedent to fuck over everyone else.

Have they assigned their right. No.

Thanks

Obviously you don't realize that the enormous portions of wealth that the 0.00000000001% hold is not in the economy, it's generating passive income for people that don't want to work and whose biggest concern is who they're richer than. To give you an idea, a few years ago a certain American Royalty Rich moved their wealth from America to Europe. Their wealth was 40% of the US economy, so right now you're enjoying the economic impact of taking a whole lot of money from people who really and truly need it.

Like we always have, lots of people loose everything. It could work, it should work, I even want it to work however looking at human history it will be used as a way to control people.

Let's just face up to the fact that the world is not fair.

It could be worse, like having an AI as a boss.