Yeah, that sounds about right. Put a frown instead of a smile on the Monopoly game character and you have a pretty good metaphor for Trump's America. Actually, it would also be valid for prior decades - but Trump perfected that brand of decadence.

Adversaries to whom? The corporate / government sector, or the citizens getting fucked over? A country is not a homogeneous entity whose constituent parts all have the same needs and desires - hence class and tribalism and political parties. I'm sure the people organizing against data centres feel that they now have allies in those "adversarial" countries.

Here it is - the REAL reason for the concern. It's not about safety and well-being for the average American, it's about maintaining the status quo and trying to lull the suckers back to sleep.

Listen, I'm not naive, and I understand that foreign governments which Washington considers enemies have their own agendas and would like to see the US fail and fall. But at this late, late date, it might be appropriate for American power brokers to sincerely and honestly ask why so much of the rest of the world now openly despises the US and wants it to fail. But no! They'll continue to threaten annexation, bomb Iran, support and fund a genocide in Gaza, starve Cuba, and overthrow other governments - all while trying to organize a pity party for themselves.

Yup, that cigar-smoking tycoon should be the new face on all American currency. After all, among the only people who really matter, that attitude is now the heart and soul and modus operandi of the country.

Some countries are thinner skinned than others and are more likely to engage in snowflakery. I'm sure the Founding Fathers are spinning in their graves.

When Classmates was still a thing - God I'm old - I found it to be fun and useful. So when Facebook came along, I was very interested.

Fortunately, I already had a major distrust of tech giants, and the only way I could use FB was by entering some private info which I was unwilling to provide. (I forget what it was - may have been a phone number). So I said "Fuck that" - and that was my last interaction with FB beyond what little tracking they might have been able to do with what I had already given them. I feel as though I dodged a bullet.

I could have been sucked in to that vortex of psychological angst, and now I'm glad I wasn't. I'd still like to use social media to connect with people I seldom get to see otherwise, and to dig up friends from my past with whom I've lost contact. But the "Fuck that" streak in me is REALLY strong. Turns out that has benefits as well as drawbacks. The jury's out on the question of which one outweighs the other.

I still think social media could and should be part of the commons - a kind of utility, if you will - because for-profit corporations weaponize everything they touch. If the profit motive was removed, then advertising and bots and spying could be minimized, and interactions could mostly stay civilized. Too bad that will never happen.

I kinda wonder if it's worth it though. In the configuration described in TFS, at full charge that battery is only good for about 80 horsepower. And count on less than an equivalent reduction in fuel consumption because of things like the added weight of the battery and the motor.

I'm all for doing these experiments. But one of the systems described in TFA costs between 145k and 195k Euros per trailer. Multiply that by even a few transport fleets, and I have to ask if that money could be better spent on reworking logistics so as to require more local production and manufacturing, and less long-haul distribution. Or maybe even - horror of horrors - less consumption.

I guess what I'm saying is that maybe we need to bite the bullet and spend the money to re-configure our economies and distribution systems, creating more local autonomy and less need for long-haul transport. Our current way of doing things evolved before we fully appreciated the environmental cost. Now that we DO know, maybe we should rethink the whole damned thing.

And yes, I'm aware that what I just suggested has huge negative environmental consequences of its own. I'm just putting the idea out there because I so seldom see it discussed.

That's because if you were a billionaire, you probably would have made some significant creative / intellectual contributions to the world on your path to those billions. You would have the gravitas and class associated with those accomplishments.

On the other hand, Musk got his billions by lying, grifting, stealing credit belonging to actually talented people, gaming a rigged system already set up by others of his ilk, and having sheer dumb luck.

The myth of Elmo as a genius, a creator, and a contributor needs to die. He's a somewhat less intellectually-stunted version of Trump - nothing more.

Yup. Let AI make lots of Godzilla videos and cat videos, then call it a day.

I never assumed that at all. I always figured it would be the "customer service reps, bookkeepers, payroll clerks and HR specialists" mentioned in TFS who would lose their jobs first.

Realistically, only construction workers, skilled tradespeople, doctors, scientists, and some tech workers are unlikely to be replaced by AI in the near term. And as robotics and AI improve, even those "safe" fields may start to shed human workers in favour of automation. But of course, by that time there will be little to build, or sell, or repair.

And I suspect there will be far fewer people in need of medical treatment anyway. I think that the vast majority of citizens will be either dirt poor or dirt-napping. It will be like medieval times, except that no peasants will be required to build, to farm, to make things, or to fight wars. Some commoners may be bred as gladiators for the amusement of Earth's owners; the rest will be surplus to requirements and will be killed, if indeed they're ever even allowed to be born.

The AI apocalypse may be a real threat, and the ten-to-twenty-percent likelihood mentioned above may be valid. But my bigger concern is that all the energy devoted to AI will push global warming farther and faster than we expect it to, and that our species will start to go extinct because we can't feed ourselves and can't survive the heat.

Am I wrong in assuming that ads embedded by the creators would come "through the same server" as the primary video?

My reason for asking is that on my LineageOS phone I use PipePipe. It blocks all "add-on" ads, so I only see ads embedded by the content creators themselves. But there IS a setting to block even those embedded ads.

I like creators to receive ad revenue from their direct sponsors, so I no longer enable that feature. But when I DID have it turned on, the embedded ad blocking seemed to be pretty reliable.

This might be a good idea, provided that the car can a) speak and understand a language which the human also speaks and understands, and b) knows what language to use.

In addition to that, having the car consult the passenger could extend legal liability to the passenger. I would NEVER accept that liability as a passenger in a taxi cab, so why would I risk it in an AV?

Your comment just triggered an idea which probably doesn't apply to Waymo, but might work well with Tesla cars, as well as other cars with self-driving features. How about legally mandating a flashing light on the roof when self-driving is deployed? It could even be legally mandated as a manufacturer-must-recall-and-pay-for-retrofit operation.

This would make our roads safer by giving other drivers a useful warning of a possibly hazardous condition. It would have the added benefit of making Elmo foaming-at-the-mouth angry - maybe even angry enough to pop a nut.

Yes, I understand that it's reasonable for people to attend university in order to get well-paying jobs. But regarding higher education primarily as a route to impressive wealth, an easy life, and early retirement is a real problem.

There was a time when at least a significant portion of university students - and even college students - chose courses and careers based on aptitude, interest, and even passion. Now, it seems that most young people are looking for the shortest path of least resistance to an easy life.

Forget integrity for the moment: where is the sense of purpose or mission or delight, or even fucking interest, that would lead students to actually do the work and learn the material?

Blaming AI for this is like blaming drugs for addiction. There's a societal sickness in evidence here that goes far beyond the AI bubble.

I believe that Meta both assessed those risks and - based on those assessments - altered their design to maximize the risks.

Addicted people whose wills have been compromised by psychological manipulation are better targets for ads, propaganda, etc. Therefore, they're more profitable; and profit is the god to which virtually all Capitalists kneel, whether or not they admit that fact to themselves or others. Zuck is a high priest in that tawdry religion.

Great idea! I'd love to Rickroll Zuck into an early grave!

You have an odd way of spelling "suckers". ;-)