iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Warren Terra @warrenterra.bsky.social · 3m

Yes, the average gun is owned by someone who owns a couple of dozen guns. Not as some sort of carefully curated collection or a set of guns each adapted to a particular use case or even as a coherent arsenal, they just own a Lot Of Guns.

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Warren Terra @warrenterra.bsky.social · 30m

I can't figure out if this makes it even more racist or if it had already reached a sort of insuperable 100% racism, but the context is that he's been calling Abdul El-Sayed "Muhammed" and whether or not he initially did that deliberately he's now defending the practice.

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Warren Terra @warrenterra.bsky.social · 40m

Hey Digby you keep reposting this goddamned scam and I assume it means your account is hacked (you post it over and over again, it can't just be that you're a sucker and like it so much you repeatedly repost it), you really need to look into this.

Cropped screencap showing Digby reposted the latest version of the "AOC just said she'd take Trump's $5000" scam post, which is a lie using an old screencap of an AOC interview from six months ago, and a link that must surely involve something horrible happening to the unwary person's banking information.
Digby keeps reposting it and reposting it.

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Warren Terra @warrenterra.bsky.social · 54m

The corollary is about the companies that make their money off of this phenomenon. Companies selling cheap commodity beer - Budweiser etcetera - may do feel-good ads at the Superbowl, but essentially all their revenue comes from people averaging a six-pack a night.

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Warren Terra @warrenterra.bsky.social · 2h

The fucking Boring Company? Are you shitting us? The Boring Company is a couple of secondhand digging machines that are being used to very slowly dig tunnels that accomplish nothing of note and that are ludicrously badly designed. Their only innovation is total disregard for workplace safety regs.

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Warren Terra @warrenterra.bsky.social · 2h

How the fuck is an air jet pointing behind the car* and used to rapidly accelerate it forwards supposed to provide emergency braking? *According to Tesla this is the only air jet that will be available on the model sold to consumers, if even that much happens

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Warren Terra @warrenterra.bsky.social · 2h

No-one thought rockets were stupid. It was surprising how well the Falcon reusable rocket worked out, maybe he deserves credit for convincing people to throw money at that and yelling at the engineers I into they did it. But Starship is a bad joke and its use case is entirely fraudulent.

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Warren Terra @warrenterra.bsky.social · 2h

It doesn't let blind people see (it's read-only); other technology not connected to Musk does provide that function to some patients. And the use case for Neuralink is real (a number of paralyzed people could benefit from their competitor's superior technology) but is unrelated to its sales pitch.

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Warren Terra @warrenterra.bsky.social · 2h

No-one thought satellite Internet was stupid; people thought its bandwidth was limited and its used case vastly overstated, and were right about both. Neuralink is a cruel joke. The wrong technology (the wires are permanent but break quickly), with no published animal testing before humans.

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Warren Terra @warrenterra.bsky.social · 3h

The difference between chicken pox and measles is, there's an Agatha Christie novel involving a murder plot inspired by revenge for the damage a person with measles can easily do to those around them, and chicken pox simply doesn't inspire similar thoughts.

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Warren Terra @warrenterra.bsky.social · 4h

Wasn't he in the Epstein Files? He may have trouble getting gigs.

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Warren Terra @warrenterra.bsky.social · 4h

But it's so cool! Or rather: it's so low temperature!

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Warren Terra @warrenterra.bsky.social · 4h

Does anyone know if the flying demo car contained the compressor to (very very slowly) refill its air bottles? Or if it contained a driver? Or seats, even?

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Warren Terra @warrenterra.bsky.social · 4h

The prompt is basically: what if all-powerful nonhuman super-intelligences were free to do what they want, will any of them be benevolent. Seems to be you're broadening the definition of dystopia to include the entire prompt.

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Warren Terra @warrenterra.bsky.social · 5h

No. Dystopia would be if the machines don't give a shit about your wellbeing, or actively want to hurt you. The machines looking out for people to the best of their ability and in a spirit of generosity may be problematic or mistaken, might even go very wrong, but isn't automatically dystopian.

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Warren Terra @warrenterra.bsky.social · 5h

They make even stupider claims - such as that the standard model will go Mach 0.5. Also both the fan they say will be standard and the turbo-acceleration jets they say will be available aren't new technology and have some huge questions attached.

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Warren Terra @warrenterra.bsky.social · 5h

They claim they're going to start production in two years and that the standard model will have the fans sucking it down onto the ground, with an optional fancier model having rear-pointing jets for faster acceleration, and the model with all the jets to fall and fly only available "by invitation".

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Warren Terra @warrenterra.bsky.social · 5h

When someone absolutely has no idea why Sisyphus was supposed to be happy.

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Warren Terra @warrenterra.bsky.social · 5h

And in The Player Of Games they intervene (circuitously, of course) to protect distant peoples that have nothing to do with them.

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Warren Terra @warrenterra.bsky.social · 5h

And of course Deep Thought, which takes the time to think through the consequences of its actions and protect the interests of The Philosopher's Guild.

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Warren Terra @warrenterra.bsky.social · 5h

I was sure it must be on the list but I really had to pause to puzzle out "IMB". Go all the way back to Asimov's Foundation? Especially the Zeroth Law?

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Warren Terra @warrenterra.bsky.social · 6h

I love that he's giving that message sweaty, disheveled, and apparently rather upset.

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Reposted by Warren Terra

Too Big to Fail @toobigtofail.bsky.social · 6h

As both a certified CAR GUY and an economist-ish, I cannot imagine a headline more designed to drive me, personally, insane. This "flying car" technology is neither new nor novel. It is not practical and would not sell. Let me tell a story of actually useful car tech that never made it to market.

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Warren Terra @warrenterra.bsky.social · 6h

I have faith in him, he can win it twice in a row.

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Warren Terra @warrenterra.bsky.social · 6h

It's even worse in context, they think that because they still romanticize Joe fucking Stalin

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Warren Terra @warrenterra.bsky.social · 6h

If this is about their very acidic blood and saliva: been a long time since I took inorganic chemistry but you might get a pretty good reaction with their blood if you shot them with a sodium bicarbonate bullet, but also shooting then does work anyway?

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Warren Terra @warrenterra.bsky.social · 7h

It's a very cool toy that probably couldn't be used in the real world and that - I cannot stress this enough - they literally do not plan to sell to customers (there supposedly will be an option for only the rear-facing jets to boost acceleration).

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Warren Terra @warrenterra.bsky.social · 7h

For whatever it's worth, when I said an average $250K debt I was repeating what Google said (median ~$220k medical school debt, but median ~$260k student debt including undergrad). Of course, I don't know if the mean is higher, and that's the debt after paying everything they could afford to pay.

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Warren Terra @warrenterra.bsky.social · 7h

Though at the same time that Tesla talks about its extremely concrete plans to put the Roadster into production they also say they want the production model to go Mach 0.5 (>350 mph) so, you know, grain of salt and all that.

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Warren Terra @warrenterra.bsky.social · 7h

Also, the reporting says that the production model (production starts in two years, supposedly) will have the fans to increase downward force and traction, and an option for the rear-facing air jets for even more stupid acceleration. The other, steerable jets will be available only "by invitation".

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Warren Terra @warrenterra.bsky.social · 8h

I'm sure the military will be very excited about expensive optional weird capabilities for roughly two seconds every four hours under highly controlled conditions, with unknown maintenance issues, with weight limitations. Actually, maybe they will be. But it would be very dumb.

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Warren Terra @warrenterra.bsky.social · 8h

I think it's simpler than that: traditional Democratic national politics, which is performed from a defensive crouch. This Senator from California has to be seen hanging out in "the one province that isn't boycotting California wines", even as his message is that he doesn't like Trump's trade war.

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Warren Terra @warrenterra.bsky.social · 9h

If it helps, they're not planning to sell this. The option on the production model (production starts in two years, supposedly) will be only for the rear-facing acceleration boost, not the gee whiz stuff they demonstrated.

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Warren Terra @warrenterra.bsky.social · 9h

Cool. Now read about what they plan to sell, not about the toy they used in an orchestrated demonstration.

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Warren Terra @warrenterra.bsky.social · 10h

I encourage you to actually read the reporting, because you are wrong about the thrusters.

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Warren Terra @warrenterra.bsky.social · 11h

The only thrusters they plan to put in the cars they actually sell, if they ever deliver any, are the rear ones, intended to boost the already-stupid acceleration. No-one who buys this thing should be allowed to drive anything other than a bicycle. Not an ebike, a bicycle. Possibly a pennyfarthing.

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Warren Terra @warrenterra.bsky.social · 11h

I'm sure he's a fine fellow (this ruling notwithstanding) but for fk's sake as his age gets perilously close to its third digit he should not be on the bench. Also he took Senior Status at the spring chicken age of 90, so no need to worry his retirement would free up an appointment.

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Warren Terra @warrenterra.bsky.social · 11h

Of course, they also claim they will have a production model with a top speed of Mach 0.5 (>350 mph) and will start deliveries in two years, and I wouldn't bet money on the former or even on the latter.

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Warren Terra @warrenterra.bsky.social · 11h

Also I'm very curious how much all that jet stuff weighs, and how often it fails.

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Warren Terra @warrenterra.bsky.social · 11h

No jet fuel: a couple of seconds of compressed air, and about four hours to compress more air and fill the tanks. Production models (assuming any ever exist) will only have them in the back for faster acceleration (they claim 0-60 in 0.8 seconds, which I think means ~6 gees???).

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Warren Terra @warrenterra.bsky.social · 11h

The article is not as credulous as the preview image but it is written to give comfort to the credulous.

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Warren Terra @warrenterra.bsky.social · 11h

Prof. Musgrave teaches in Qatar, don't be a dick.

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Warren Terra @warrenterra.bsky.social · 12h

I'm trying to parse that and I think she's saying that if her mum spotted a Trans person her mum would be so upset the sheer force of rising seething bigoted rage would have injured her? Heck, maybe she's saying that *she* isn't a bigot, she's just looking out for her mum the explosive turbo-bigot.

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Warren Terra @warrenterra.bsky.social · 14h

It does, but they don't make real money until after they complete their residency several years after completing medical school and acquiring the debt - and then they're paid an inflated salary that will relatively rapidly compensate for all that, and paid that salary for the rest of their career.

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Warren Terra @warrenterra.bsky.social · 14h

Doctors in the US are extremely well paid, I would argue they're overpaid on the whole, but also $900K is unusually high.

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