we all know I have no life, so:

Perhaps they have judged that the US opposition as embodied by Bsky is so ineffectual that they should be silenced so something else can happen instead

I know you can't rely on that kind of unicorn shit for the rank and file or the system as a whole, but we need a few of them at least and we need them to try to lead.

Is there anyone at a high level who is not simply a responding-to-incentives machine? Who has cultivated judgment & ideas, and shared goals, aspirations, and values that they are trying to pursue through the medium of politics? And if not, why not? Are they weeded out that efficiently on the way up?

Also does not even come close to "saving" NPR, as that's less than 10% of the Federal money they lost. Even well-intentioned and thoughtful philanthropy can't come anywhere near to replacing state capacity

Pentominium - Wikipedia

Dubai already tried this, with predictable results

At a time when mass surveillance and autonomous weapons companies like Palantir are openly announcing their plans for violent world domination, it is crucial that our attempts at “big tech reform” don’t actually give them more power—ie via government mandated age verification/identity software

A lot of our big “we’re gonna hold big tech accountable” bills actually hand them + the government unprecedented power to track, censor, and deplatform internet users—and would require us to link our identities to everything we do online, meaning no more privacy. Greatly reducing opposition to them

Look, for my money the absolute game changer technologies right now are batteries and biosciences, not statistically modeling a mid conversation, but you do you.

And uh, the Revolution don't exactly look very imminent RN, but the drone swarms and the will and consent to use them sure do.

Man, it really is now a race between the Revolution and the Autonomous Kill-Drone Swarms, huh?

I'm not joking when I say mRNA technology is more important than "AI" and it's a tragedy we're throwing billions into one while our government is aggressively defunding the other.

Democrats should develop an actionable agenda of democratic reform in case they return to power. This cannot be limited to institutional refoms, but must include reigning in the power and wealth of technofascist companies and individuals.

It would help to not get absolutely shellacked in the rural / red areas so that you don't have to absolutely max out your urban coalition every single time to win elections and hold off disaster. As long as you can try to do that without compromising core value and constituencies of course.

What I'm not sure of is how much is cluelessness on the government/policy side, and how much is collusion and/or bribery. The crypto side of things would suggest the latter. But there are also lots of strange left/right bedfellows doing social/moral advocacy and being useful idiots in this space.

I feel like there has probably been some kind of tacit post-Musk deal made with governments. You get to drop any pretense of content moderation & mitigating harms, but you have to verify that everyone you harm is a nominally consenting adult. One probably suggested by the tech lobbyists themselves.

Which is also a dystopia of sorts (and one we're already well into), but a much more prosaic one based on humans using technological tools to control, exploit, and oppress other humans. A tale as old as time. Humans are making these choices, and humans can un-make them as well.

There is no master plan, but the outlines are pretty clear: extraction, surveillance, control, de-skilling & loss of worker dignity and autonomy, centralization & control of information & narrative, a move from democracy toward corporate-mediated authoritarianism, etc. etc. They aren't being coy.

This is the mirror image of the AI risk gambit. They're spinning out scifi utopias and dystopias for PR and distraction purposes. The real game is about what the people who currently own the AI infrastructure and the state actors they are cooperating with plan to do to the rest of us with it.

Harder for Putin TBH, because he bet his whole legacy on the project and has taken such huge losses. Trump has invested and lost less, and seems inclined to get bored and walk away and market it as a win, but they aren't inclined to let him, as per above.

It's the personalism problem, definitely in Putin's case, somewhat in Trump's (b/c we also have the whole American exceptionalism media/defense Blob here that doesn't want to admit losing a war either). Deterrence has happened, but losses can't be cut, because it makes the strongman look weak.

We still have one, but it's run by reactionary hacks whose politics are antithetical to the community, is paywalled into oblivion, etc. An alt-weekly would be better for the needs I'm talking about, and we do have an online one, but it's not the same. And even that doesn't get to the block level.

Some people will do it anyway no matter what, but it's asking a lot without institutional protection in a sea full of sharks and a political environment like this.

Part of me is very much like "good riddance to reactionary old media, let a thousand flowers bloom!" But this is such a predatory environment that I'm just waiting for my faves that cover sensitive beats to get destroyed by lawfare. And also in the US context, workers need health insurance to live.

Unfortunately this would require massive amounts of moderation (and the political will and consensus to enforce said moderation standards) based on the horrors I see in the current spaces for finding such info in my (nominally liberal college town) community RN

Much more hyperlocal context about what is happening both in my immediate neighborhood and broader community. Like if NextDoor wasn't horrifically racist and crime-focused + Facebook's Events section without, y'know, Facebook.

Did you know: There's HD video of Here Comes The Pizza?

Ruination Day (or, the overnight continuation of it anyway)

you shouldn’t learn about bands from shady TikTok manipulation, you should learn about bands by hanging out with a girl you like but are also extremely afraid of

TO DISAGREE PRESUPPOSES MORAL INTEGRITY