I really don’t get it. they see something they don’t understand and immediately start writhing on their keyboards in rage. “what the FUCK is THIS”

it’s definitely linked to rationalism (and various far right bullshits), which right away means people who get into it are likely to be at least cult adjacent. not the most stable spot to be in, psychologically

tangent, as a callow youth I listened to rationally speaking, which used to be a cohosted show with julia galef and massimo pigluicci. mostly after leaving the show (I think?), pigluicci ended up getting really into stoicism and would post shit about how unhappiness is purely one’s own choice etc. when I asked him if jewish people in WWII concentration camps were just choosing to be unhappy he was like yes. so, yeah, that’s stoicism for you

they don’t think it’s a messy and inevitable fact of the world that certain people have outsize wealth. they think it fucking rules

hate this feeling and yet that’s also a big part of why I keep tabs on them. they’re there whether we choose to look at them or not

why is there a coherent community of people I hate? wtf >:(

between this and the submersible guy I’m starting to think we need more billionaires on the ocean. maybe peter thiel is onto something

The finished novella is “set in Edwardian England and loosely based on [Ellison’s] sister Kate’s imagined amorous exploits, to Kate’s great delight,” her mother wrote.

this can’t be what it sounds like. it just can’t be

god I hope this is true

to the extent that it’s been created

I’ll say it again urbit is the most unintentionally funny software ever created

my friend in Canada was trying to send me money and we ended up using a check. also my landlord from two apartments ago refused to take rent any other way. she was very old

misanthropic means person hating; possessed of contempt and malevolence toward humans as both individuals and a class. connotations of bitterness or cruelty

What if our simulated universe is actually way, way less terrible than the real world? What if the simulation was created specifically to have lower suffering/higher utils than in reality?

certain sentences you’ve extracted suggest the author considers severe suffering incomparably worse than any pleasure (for example why would ‘removing suffering’ necessarily improve the universe? in a framework where suffering and pleasure are comparably significant factors, it is possible that removing suffering would remove enough pleasure to tip the balance negative).

that’s a point of view I’m very sympathetic to, but it means external reality would almost certainly be worse than the simulation, because the external reality contains the simulation, and therefore contains at least as much severe suffering as the simulation. put another way, is it worse for a torture chamber to exist, or for torture chamber makers to exist?

I think what this is highlighting is a disconnect in their thinking between what I presume to be a greatest good based utilitarian framework, and what they actually think is cool and are talking about, which is heroic individual action. they want to present as hari seldon but they’re really wanking about pulp adventure shit

we’re all looking for the guy who dredged up a historical feud

I think they’re actually being pretty clear, it’s just hard to accept they’re being this baldfaced about it: they hate that he’s gay, they hate that he’s a furry, but above all they hate hate hate hate that he’s not quite as fashy as they are

that’s depressing. escaping an oppressive, reactionary social sphere and landing in the TERFosphere

I don’t see any reason being trained on writing informed by correct knowledge would cause it to be correct frequently. unless you’re expecting it to just verbatim lift sentences from training data

the site you are imagining, the supposed free speech site? it converges to gab. this dynamic is basic and I can’t take you seriously if you don’t get this.

• nazis are encouraged to be equal voices on a platform
• they use the platform’s reach to radicalize fence sitters
• other users, realizing their digital roommates are Nazis, are alarmed and leave
• now it’s a nazi site

what exactly do you think substack will consist of in two years if they don’t do a 180? the entire reason we’re having this conversation right now is that a bunch of substack writers said they would rather leave than hang out with nazis

I cited obvious examples where extremist ideology got supercharged and organized through the wide reach mainstream platforms provide and you’re like ‘uh what difference does it make. disagree.’ you are not a serious person