In the room? I actually got a little angry reading that blurb. I was alive when Bell Labs collapsed and I remember the sequence of events very clearly. The number one ingredient that made bell labs a massive success was tax law.

For most of the 1900s, research was tax deductible for companies. Companies could run research labs for the benefit of both themselves and larger society, and Uncle Sam would give them a tax break. The result was a huge ecosystem of top tier corporate labs that bridged the gap between ivory tower research and application. Bell labs was just one of many. There was also GE labs, PARC, IBM labs, Xerox, Kodak. Im probably forgetting a few of the big ones as well. Then, the voters decided that they didnâ(TM)t like giving companies a tax break for that. I dont remember if it was liberals or conservatives who changed their minds. Maybe both. As soon as that tax break was gone, the managers at each company started requiring each of their lab divisions to actually turn a profit. Every single one of them was closed within a few years, or hung on as a tiny ghost of what it used to be.

Heh. Heheh. Hahah. HAHAHHA. As if the company will allow users to dismiss the ads any more than any other ad driven revenue model company.

I guess I donâ(TM)t really have a problem with this. I get it. Every single Internet company has a self stated evaluation that only makes consistent sense if its future revenue amounts to 10-times-global-GDP and their profits are all-teh-$$$$. Its a part of salesmanship thats rife in the industry. There are at least a hundred tech bro CEOs that are just as shameless about it as Altman

Anyone? Anyone?

crickets.

To âoeXâ.

Seems like a fairly trivial decision tree for a modern LLM to navigate. 99% of taxes amount to half a dozen forms to fill out. Add, subtract, multiply. Annoying and time consuming for a human but there arent any nuanced decisions unless you’re a fairly large business or have a really complex investment portfolio. Those people were always gonna use pros, anyways.

Meanwhile, red blooded, conservative, Trump-loving, Fox-watching, Carlson-and-loomer-watching businessmen in Texas are quietly installing as much solar and wind energy as they can get their hands on. Because theyve seen the actual numbers and know that solar and wind are the best business proposition and the quickest ROI of all the energy sources.

The executive branch is currently being run by a reality-show star. The messaging is designed to distract, confuse, and either entertain or trigger you. The messaging is NOT meant to inform. Same goes for many so-called news sources that are actually entertainement designed to keep you scrolling. If you want to know whatâ(TM)s actually going on, you gotta actually pay attention to whatâ(TM)s actually happening, get your news from real sources, and ignore the circus.

I really don’t give two tiny sh&ts about sports betting. Hey, congress, how about you pass a law making it illegal to bet on stuff like wars and political happenings, so people in Trump’s family can’t make money off their foreknowledge of the Don’s decisions, and military people can’t spill secrets trying to make a buck. While you’re at it, outlaw politicians from doing insider trading, which is basically legal at the moment.

Oh, you won’t do that, eh?

China has been trying to build a top line fab for years. Pouring money into the effort. For chip builders in China, its basically raining money. IIUC, so far, the best theyve managed is chips that are three or four generations behind TSMC. Intel has managed to stay one gen behind.

What a semantic angel-dancing-on-a pin type of question. The source code will always be there. Maybe its in a readable text file. Maybe its buried across 25 gigabytes of uselessly nested code containers, twisted together like spaghetti so no human could possibly ever parse it. But no code means no program.

so he attacks the... wait for it.... the humans.

(removes eyeglasses and rubs eyes)

Are we sure that the robots are the problem here?

When it comes to building physical engineering companies, there are very few people on the planet that are better than Musk. He is, arguably, the best industrial businessman. Ever. In the history of our species.

It’s different for bits vs. atoms. Musk is an atoms guy. He just plain sucks at computer and internet stuff. Regarding his politics, well, you either love him or hate him.

But, a fab is pure hardware. If he still has the mojo, the energy and the drive to make it happen (my jury is out), he could pull it off better than anyone.

Just typing that caused me to vomit. Just a little.

There are legit "pros" to this war, but almost nobody in the media ecosystem are discussing them properly, because very few people can think beyond their next paycheck. Trump is a reality show star. The messaging from his administration is meant to be distracting and entertaining, not to inform. The "pros" have nothing to do with democracy, or oil, or Israel.

The bottom line is this: our 3 main big committed adversaries are China, Russia and Iran. Sometime in the next century, we're definitely going to be in a war with China or Russia. When that happens, Iran will definitely throw down with our enemy. You think that Iran is causing us bad pain right now? Imagine how much worse it would be if we had to deal with the current problems while SIMULTANEOUSLY engaging in a war with Russia or China.

This is what the current war means. When Russia or China finally decide that it's time to confront us directly, they won't have a 100-million person, industrialized semi-developed country in their corner (that's what Iran is). This war represents an opportunity to take a very troublesome chess piece off the board, semi-permanently or permanently. Iran is especially weak and vulnerable at the moment. There's no better time for us to a) kill our way through their leadership roster, b) zero out their nuclear program and c) wreck their ability to wage industrial war and support proxies in the region. I'm not claiming that the US has any sort of moral or ethical high ground here. This is cold, hard, heartless self-interested elimination of a sworn enemy.

This is the best time to rip the bandaid off. It's as simple as that.

I'm not even sure I should post this.

I'm actually a bit confused as to why this is blowing up the way it is. 20 percent of oil and LNG are frozen because of Hormuz. That's not good, but coal, nuclear and renewables are basically unaffected. Seems like a problem of this magnitude shouldn't be causing the entire world to have a collective aneurism.

Gas prices go up a tad. People drive slightly less. Industrial chemicals get slightly pricier. People telecommute a bit more. None of this is good (except the telecommuting) but it shouldn't be grinding the world to a halt. Seems like adaptation should kick in fairly quickly.

I'm not saying anything pro or con about the war, or this administration, or anything else. Just that the oil issue seems overblown and I'm not sure why.

he merely allowed Death to take him out for a drink.