Then we all know exactly what it looked like!

https://sideline.b-cdn.net/wp-...

Like the "slight decrease in the percentage of U.S. adults who read any book in 2022 (49%) compared to 2012 (55%)", which is a decline of more than 10% in 10 years? I wouldn't call that a "slight" decrease in any meaning of the word.

Also, as others already noted, when reading 11 books per year is supposed to constitute a "mega-reader" then this very much looks like someone purposefully belittling the problem.

'Ultra-processed food' per se says nothing at all about whether it's healthy or not. If studies come to the conclusion that ultra-processed food is more likely to be unhealthy than to be healthy, it's because, statistically, ultra-processed food tends to contain less healthy and more unhealthy ingredients, which very probably is indeed the case, but not because it was 'processed'. 'Ultra-processed' as a category to be blamed for unhealthiness is not scientific, on the contrary it supports esoteric and superstitious beliefs.

It definitely not only used to be legal in parts of Western Europe, it even still is. According to Section 15 of the German Copyright Act (UrhG), for example, in general, only the author of a work has the right to reproduce their work, but private copies are literally excepted according to Section 53 UrhG. And private use specifically includes distributing private copies to friends or family members. This is even still valid for digital copies, but has been restricted insofar as circumventing digital copy protection has made a criminal offense.

When I was young or a young adult, both the young and the old were copying music and videos (reel-to-reel or cassette tapes, VHS cassettes) for personal use among friends and the wider family all day long. Actually, in many jurisdictions, like the one where I grew up right in the middle of capitalist Europe, it was perfectly legal, too. And what do you know – movies and music records and concerts kept coming in nonetheless. Because, by tendency, many of those who were the biggest sharers were also the biggest buyers. There also were sensible flat surcharges on tapes and cassettes and recording equipment which were distributed among artists.

Anyway, I also seriously question today's movie industry. Can any movie be worth hundreds of millions of dollars? Are hundreds of millions of dollars, the least of which, by the way, find their way to the ground personnel in such productions, well spent in making a movie, of all things? I, for one, don't think so.

Exactly.

I'd rather like to see a list of genres which haven't been entered by AI slop yet. Like, look for camera handbooks. The worst examples even show AI-generated fantasy shapes for the camera they're pretending to describe...

The problem with that "infighting" is not simply that it happens and all sides would be equally part of it. It happens and continues to do so because large parts of the populations see no problem in right-leaning policies, in lack of gender and ethnicity equality and awareness, and are actively opposing all attempts of improving things there, they don't want it to happen. Trying to formulate questions about "AI education" does not change this, and neither does asking research about how it is "going to fix this inequality / problem", when large parts of the populations either don't accept that the inequality or problem exists or doesn't want to see it solved or both. Unless and until that is successfully fought, progress will not happen, and governments will continue to be elected that will try to achieve the exact opposite.

For a state, yes. Munich is a city, not a state...

... but I don't believe an effective and sustainable solution can even be possible in a world under a global operating system the kernel of which is running on the principle of the maximization of exploitation of potentially everyone and everything to create monetary profit, the principle of all against all. A world in which only the richest are getting richer who are also the only ones with the means to further shape the world to their advantage, which tends to be hardly anyone else's advantage.

That's not how things work. I don't know the exact rules and regulations under which unions act in the US, but I'm pretty sure that no job (or gig) applicant will advertise their union membership (or were obliged to truthfully give such information).

Again, maybe true, but also again, what's that got to do with either NYC or Chengdu? You don't care about the subject of this thread, you just want to bash China. As much as it may deserve at least some of it, that and your presentation of it screams nationalism and jingoism very similar to the thread starters', just not quite as cheaply packaged.

LOL! I should have expected that one of the racist-fascist self-appointed super-Americans would immediately freak out and expose himself.

And of course, someone who disagrees with you has to be paid by the evil Chinese to do that... HAHAHA!

By the way, nothing you say has anything remotely to do with what was written in this thread. Perhaps learn your own great language before you post something publicly...

Maybe true, but what has that to do with either @backslashdot's post or my reply? I'd say it's a classic example of whataboutism.

Some of you US Americans are so full of yourselves with so little knowledge about the rest of the world, i.e. by far most of the world, and the hole that lack of knowledge leaves filled up with prejudice and dumb, unwarranted national pride. Which is why a least those of you who fall under that description also really deserve your current imbecile government. Chengdu has been one of the cultural centers of western and southwestern China for over 2,000 years, and not only has Chengdu developed into the economic center of western China alongside Chongqing, but in 2006, in China Daily, the city ranked fourth among China's most livable cities. Authoritarian/totalitarian socialism destroyed much, but cannot destroy everything.