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Comment Inevitable (Score 1) 42

AI has been running at a big loss to get the users hooked. It was inevitable that prices would start climbing. That process is nowhere near done, running AI is expensive as hell.

Once the market starts reflecting the actual costs, you can bet the cost/benefit will not be nearly as rosy as it looks now. But some customers will already have gotten themselves between a rock and a hard place and will be sucked dry, then discarded. Those "expensive" people that are getting dumped will start looking like a bargain, but they will have already been snapped up by smarter companies by the time management that can't see past their own toes figures that out.

Comment Wow, old memory (Score 1) 127

All of this makes me remember a short story reading assignment in the 5th grade. It was about kids growing up in a society where machines did all of the intellectual work. To them, writing was 'squiggles'. They managed to disable a filter on their "bard" (a story teller for children) and had it tell them a tale of machines ruling over Man.

Nobody expects prophesy from a 5th grade reading assignment.

Comment Re:UK has them, Waze still useful (Score 1) 176

Months? They have been converting some motorway here for *years*. I think we are about 4 years in now, I lost track. It's taken so long that they started out making it a "smart motorway", realized that those things are deathtraps, and now I'm not sure what it's going to end up as.

We have had average speed cameras in kilometre after kilometre of 50 MPH stretches for many years too. Some of them seem to have been forgotten about because there hasn't been any work or cones there for years, and most people speed through at 70.

Comment Re:Please sir (Score 2) 182

The way to stop nuclear proliferation in the Middle East is to disarm Israel. They have somewhere between 100 and 200 nukes, and multiple ways to deliver them (aircraft, missiles, submarines). They also have the "Samson Option", where if Zionism is on the brink of extinction they are threatening to launch them indiscriminately. Europe is within their range, by the way.

Comment Re:kewl story bro, but these drugs aren't for them (Score 1) 121

What really helped with smoking was first nicotine substitutes like patched, and second vaping.

While many people do regain weight when they come off these drugs, maybe in time we can find ways to prevent that, or find better drugs like this one that either keep the weight off or which they can just take forever and are cheap.

Comment Re:kewl story bro, but these drugs aren't for them (Score 1) 121

You make it sound like people have a free choice about their lifestyle, but that seems exceedingly unlikely given that a) three quarters of Americans are making these bad choices, despite likely knowing what the good choices are, and b) what we know about modern life and the pressures people face.

Comment Re:kewl story bro, but these drugs aren't for them (Score 1) 121

About three quarters of Americans are overweight or obese. So at most you can say some people an exceptional ability to regulate their weight effectively without assistance.

People have been arguing for years that people need to do more exercise and eat more healthy food. They have been trying to regulate food producers and advertising to make healthy eating easier and more affordable. These efforts have failed. You can argue that we should try harder, but realistically the chances of it working seem to be quite low. If medication turns out to be the way to force the issue, well I'm not going to begrudge anyone who takes that option.

Comment Not just Brazil (Score 1) 1

I was watching a video about this recently, and it's not just Brazil. China has their own, of course, but also Europe is developing one, and so is the UK. Basically everyone wants to get away from Visa and Mastercard.

I think what really pissed off the US is that the Brazilian system only charges 0.33% per transaction, compared to 1-2% for Visa and Mastercard.

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