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Joined 3 years ago
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Cake day: July 9th, 2023

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  • Yeah I don’t know what the algorithm pushes on others but I definitely see more conservative propaganda than I like…… I’ve even started seeing shite like parasites causing diabetes and other insane health conspiracy theories

    I suppose all the dating and gender role nonsense is most likely of the stuff pushed on me to affect someone, because it’s widespread, not too extreme, and starts with a grain of truth before heading off the rails







  • The problem is this is the way it’s being pushed. This is how it’s being sold. There are no guardrails.

    …… and that’s the biggest problem. I’m frustrated as hell on the commits I’ve had to unwind because someone doesn’t know how to check the changes before committing, then has it try to fix itself, again without checking on the changes , then again. It’s horrible.

    …… and I’ve seen it too. Trying to have it do only code reviews - the ai points out useful things but then wants to commit a crapload of changes without going over it with me first.

    …… and people are playing with mcp agents, which are really great for letting the ai get data from systems and integrate with those systems . But with few to no guardrails. There’s no no review, the user doesn’t necessarily follow what’s changing, it just gets done. Sometime badly very badly

    We’re all focused on whether the ai works, and it does do a pretty good job with coding but the tools don’t keep the human in the loop, or humans don’t know how to stay on the loop




  • For sure, any longer term presence outside orbit will hinge on finding resources. And i don’t think it even matters if we’re able to harvest helium-3 or something that might be worth bringing back, but to be able to use enough resources to make it affordable. Every pound lifted from earth to outside orbit will always be too expensive and local resources much much more affordable. While it starts with shelter and radiation shielding (ie live underground), we’ll need to generate bulk consumables like water, oxygen, fuel, and we’ll need to grow at least some of our own food

    But we don’t even know if we can live on the moon. Microgravity has bad long term health effects such that we really don’t want to spend more than a year there. Does the moon have enough gravity to be substantially better?

    If we do establish a larger off earth presence, we’ll have to compromise on enough gravity for long term health and livability vs as little gravity as necessary to keep space accessible


  • I agree that large colonies are an enticing science fiction image that doesn’t look likely.

    But we’ve proven that we can support an “international space station” to maintain a continuous scientific presence in space. A great next step is the same but on the moon. It seems quite possible with relatively little technical development. This is desirable to advance our technology, our science, our society, to use our imagination to look forward , to have hope, to see a positive future for humanity.

    Here’s the problem with fixing local problems first: you can’t. You either stagnate, looking within, looking behind, looking down, and still have the same local problems or you take a portion of your civilizations product and also move everyone forward.

    Here’s the problem with using those resources: it’s not enough to matter. The space program is a tiny percentage of the government budget, almost invisible next to what is needed to fix our problems. If you want to fix our local problems, it starts with social justice, environmental justice, safety nets, quality of life and most importantly equity in taxes, and greatly reduced income inequity. Elon musk’s wealth will soon be 40x NASA’s entire annual budget yet is barely taxed. If we were able to tax one persons wealth at a mere 2.5%, we could fully fund NASA at no cost to anyone else. Most of us pay a lot more than 2.5% of our income so why is he excepted?




  • Fast chargers aren’t the only option

    • Tesla already has fast chargers with megapack, and with solar. There are fast chargers that don’t impact the grid much
    • we definitely need to build out destination chargers. Charging at work is no different from at home, except for when. And build out of solar can make peak energy available just when needed
    • there are proposed answers such as streetlight chargers

    Obviously we don’t have an answer yet, haven’t built out the infrastructure, but we do have options

    Imagine places like Kansas city or Chicago or LA.

    I’m imagining park and ride stations with fairly slow charging. People in the suburbs can leave their car on a slow charger all day and take a train into the city.

    • My home charger is 50a which is too fast for this.
    • My work has 30a chargers and most people take turns for half a day
    • so we’re talking 15-20a, or again, something smart enough to spread the load


  • That can be a dangerous line of thought ……

    Started thinking of my legacy and

    • I’m divorced
    • I’ve been bad at keeping up with friends
    • I’m unlikely to have grandkids and am estranged from my only niece
    • I live far from my family
    • my kids can’t afford to live in my town
    • I won’t be able to leave a house or other inheritance
    • even if one of my kids has kids I’m not sure I can run around with them anymore

    Everything I’ve done has no lasting value. I’ve always loved tech and can fix the problem of the day but a year or two later that’s no longer relevant