Need to let loose a primal scream without collecting footnotes first? Have a sneer percolating in your system but not enough time/energy to make a whole post about it? Go forth and be mid: Welcome to the Stubsack, your first port of call for learning fresh Awful youā€™ll near-instantly regret.

Any awful.systems sub may be subsneered in this subthread, techtakes or no.

If your sneer seems higher quality than you thought, feel free to cutā€™nā€™paste it into its own post ā€” thereā€™s no quota for posting and the bar really isnā€™t that high.

The post Xitter web has spawned soo many ā€œesotericā€ right wing freaks, but thereā€™s no appropriate sneer-space for them. Iā€™m talking redscare-ish, reality challenged ā€œculture criticsā€ who write about everything but understand nothing. Iā€™m talking about reply-guys who make the same 6 tweets about the same 3 subjects. Theyā€™re inescapable at this point, yet I donā€™t see them mocked (as much as they should be)

Like, there was one dude a while back who insisted that women couldnā€™t be surgeons because they didnā€™t believe in the moon or in stars? I think each and every one of these guys is uniquely fucked up and if I canā€™t escape them, I would love to sneer at them.

Last weekā€™s thread

(Semi-obligatory thanks to @dgerard for starting this)

  • sc_griffith@awful.systems
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    19 days ago

    re: election results. unfortunately iā€™m not surprised or even disappointed by now. it makes me feel sad for my 2015 self and her naivete. she didnā€™t understand what a disgusting and evil culture she lived in

    • self@awful.systems
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      19 days ago

      I donā€™t have too much coherent to say right now

      fuck the fascists for what theyā€™ve done and what they intend to do

      fuck the neoliberals for doing their best to convince marginalized people that they shouldnā€™t defend themselves against a terrible fate

      fuck the accelerationists for pumping shitheaded propaganda into the fediverse, for the victory lap theyā€™re taking now, and for the general idea that their revolution is worth our deaths

      shitā€™s about to get very hard and very weird and I canā€™t stress enough how important it is to be careful who you trust with your life

      • self@awful.systems
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        19 days ago

        what a surprise, the thread all the leftist shitposters on mastodon boosted about how youā€™re a class traitor if you donā€™t vote for the Green Party (who I donā€™t buy as socialist) or ā€œany other socialist partyā€ (fucking who??? am I supposed to write ā€œsocialismā€ on my ballot in crayon???) conveniently went missing

        anyway post your favorite fuckhead accelerationist here, mastodonā€™s a shooting gallery tonight

        • Amoeba_Girl@awful.systems
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          19 days ago

          i do love how the ā€œanti-imperialistā€ protest vote against harris was a choice between like three or four putin apologists. the state of the US left is really fucked up and i donā€™t want to look at it ever again.

        • froztbyte@awful.systems
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          19 days ago

          anyway post your favorite fuckhead accelerationist here, mastodonā€™s a shooting gallery tonight

          Iā€™ve intentionally been avoiding feeds the last few days because I just do not have the headspace for it, but I quickly checked on shit now

          and

          fuck

        • Soyweiser@awful.systems
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          19 days ago

          Didnā€™t the Green Party woman also just go ā€˜Iā€™m pro Israelā€™ the day for the election or so? Which I think is one of the reason she might have picked up a few moves (the idea she might be more pro gaza I mean).

        • o7___o7@awful.systems
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          19 days ago

          The bad guys have definitely learned a new sort of trick. Havenā€™t wrapped my head around it yet, but it is bad, innit?

          • swlabr@awful.systems
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            19 days ago

            Apologies for the screed:

            Quick recap:

            2016-2020: executive orders every day, non-elected positions being captured by conservatives, dems just hand-wringing and tweeting. but Dems get lucky with a pandemic and trump loses

            2021-2024: weekend at bidenā€™s.

            Where was the election reform? The dismantling or reform of the electoral colleges? The extra seats on the SC? Bribing the public with stimulus packages to boost the economy?

            Remember when we pushed Biden left? Remember when the dems preserved abortion rights, prevented the invasion of ukraine, and stopped bankrolling Israelā€™s genocide?

            ā€œexercise your democratic rights and voice by voting for our candidate that wasnā€™t democratically chosen as our candidateā€. ā€œvote blue and do not voice any critical thoughtā€. ā€œany vote that isnā€™t for the party that didnā€™t meaningfully reverse or prevent conservative actions is a vote for trumpā€.

            In sum: the bad guys didnā€™t do anything new.

            The closest we got to a trump loss was some republican spook who went to a trump rally with a gun because it was closer than the harris rally.

            • o7___o7@awful.systems
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              19 days ago

              The thing thatā€™s most baffling to me is how the difference in ground game had zero impact. We were pounding the pavement, doors got fuckin knocked. The GOP did less than zero, firing their entire staff responsible for in-person outreach and gave 100 million to PACs run by grifters who put it directly into their own pockets.

              Unless weā€™ve missed a trick, retail politics as it has existed is dead.

              • Amoeba_Girl@awful.systems
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                19 days ago

                Dem talking heads spending so much energy courting moderate conservative votes was an excellent way to demobilise their base. They really gave their all to lose an election that should have been a free win.

                • ShakingMyHead@awful.systems
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                  19 days ago

                  This wasnā€™t a free win, however. The reason Harris took over in the first place was because Bidenā€™s performance in the debate was poor enough that the Democrats thought there was no longer any chance with him, and this was already with lowering approval ratings. Had he stayed, I bet Trumpā€™s victory would have been even wider.

                • YourNetworkIsHaunted@awful.systems
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                  19 days ago

                  I mean, I donā€™t think it was unreasonable to expect liberals to show up against someone whoā€™s sole policy proposals were mass deportations and political reprisals, and so I can understand the logic of focusing on the center (which in US politics means center-right).

                  But this being the democratic party, they also couldnā€™t commit to an actual narrative to make that play. Rather than ā€œlook at their ties to Big Tech!ā€ or even sticking with ā€œlook how weird these people are!ā€ they had to go hat-in-hand and stake themselves to divisive (to say nothing of abhorrent) policies because thatā€™s the only connection they could try to make. I think weā€™re seeing a major problem with the whole ā€œbig tentā€ concept.

              • ShakingMyHead@awful.systems
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                19 days ago

                It was twitter. Elon Musk joins Trumpā€™s team. What happens? Harrisā€™ chances begin to drop.
                Trump did lose support, but there was probably enough propaganda on Twitter to make enough people go ā€œboth sidesā€ and just sit out the election.

                • self@awful.systems
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                  19 days ago

                  and of course, Twitter and Facebook style influence campaigns work just as well or even better elsewhere, in communities that havenā€™t hardened themselves against that type of bullshit

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                  19 days ago

                  IDK, do you really think twitter still has that much cultural relevance? ugh

                  Iā€™m sure it played a part, though.

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                17 days ago

                Iā€™m seeing some takes now that the ground game did make a difference of a couple of points in the swing states, where it was concentrated, itā€™s just that that wasnā€™t enough.

      • froztbyte@awful.systems
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        19 days ago

        I canā€™t stress enough how important it is to be careful who you trust with your life

        strong agree

        minor upside: itā€™s going to be a good time to make lists of people who suddenly feel comfortable to mask off

        fucking fuck this sucks

        • self@awful.systems
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          19 days ago

          minor upside: itā€™s going to be a good time to make lists of people who suddenly feel comfortable to mask off

          correct. keep receipts.

      • Evinceo@awful.systems
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        18 days ago

        fuck the accelerationists for pumping shitheaded propaganda into the fediverse, for the victory lap theyā€™re taking now, and for the general idea that their revolution is worth our deaths

        So much this

    • Soyweiser@awful.systems
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      19 days ago

      Yeah this is fucked up. I feel so bad for everybody (esp the Americans, but this will hurt the world). Shit this prob means I should start looking into seriously helping out locally when all this explodes into more international shit. (Which imho is the best you can do anyway, do things locally, build a bit of a support network for your community).

      (Note Iā€™m not American, but I think this will end badly, just the fucker stepping out of the paris accord for example, and all the weird blowhard fascists this will make feel emboldened to do more politics locally).

      E: I really hope the people who go ā€˜this is the same as in 2020, wait till all votes are countedā€™ are correct and not on hopeium.

      • corbin@awful.systems
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        18 days ago

        Well, itā€™s more like 2000, really, in the sense that the courts are being used to restrict voting rights. Thereā€™s strong evidence of flagrant UOCAVA violations: thousands of absentee ballots which should affect the federal election have been challenged in swing states. Edit: Here is part 1 and part 2 from an attorney whose Pennsylvania UOCAVA ballot was challenged; he goes through the law and explains what heā€™s going to do.

    • blakestacey@awful.systems
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      19 days ago

      The level of fucked we are is too big for words

      I wanted to say something darkly comedic about the AI bubble popping under the new regime, but my heart is too sick to make a joke

    • YourNetworkIsHaunted@awful.systems
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      19 days ago

      I think Iā€™m more angry than anything. l hadnā€™t realized how tight my media bubble had gotten and was pretty sure this wasnā€™t realistic. I had gotten myself ready for another round of 2020 nonsense and denial, not this.

      • sc_griffith@awful.systems
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        19 days ago

        yes, i am. iā€™ve been plotting to get out for years but iā€™ve been too depressed since my partner died to make any progress tbh. iā€™ve no idea what to do

        • ShakingMyHead@awful.systems
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          19 days ago

          I would suggest Canada, but weā€™re set to get our own Trump in power in about a year or so. Too many people looking on the house on fire and thinking that pouring gasoline on it is the best solution.

    • BigMuffin69@awful.systems
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      18 days ago

      The American electorate has just covered itself with gasoline because eggs cost 2 dollars more. Come January they strike the match. gg. HATE. LET ME TELL YOU HOW MUCH Iā€™VE COME TO HATE YOU SINCE NOVEMBER 5TH. My only consolation is that Iā€™ll hopefully get to watch some of the Magas/non voters/vote-your-conscience peeps suffer before the end. But Ol musky and peter thiel will be in their gilded bunkers while the fires consume us all.

      • skillissuer@discuss.tchncs.de
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        15 days ago

        yeah, a lot of broke trumpists will get fucked over, along with all other broke americans, getting worse if they are lgbt or non-white or need healthcare, or are migrants. on top of palestinians, lebanese (done deal at this point), ukrainians (likely) and maybe taiwanese

        one thing that i can think of that could reduce damage is that while some policies are stupid, cruel and obviously harmful for everyone, that didnā€™t stop them previously, but this might make line no go up for billionaire republicans, and if they have trumpā€™s ear, that could make their implementation ineffective on purpose. i mean here specifically undocumented migrant work whose deportation would make post-covid inflation look like a joke

    • o7___o7@awful.systems
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      19 days ago

      Nashville, here. I hear ya.

      I donā€™t know what else to say, I canā€™t explain any of this, but also please know that youā€™re not alone out there.

  • self@awful.systems
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    21 days ago

    Ubisoftā€™s NFT game is going great:

    Ubisoftā€™s NFT game, which has about 6 active players, has a game breaking exploit where one player is winning every match.

    ā€œOne player pointed out that the Paulstar111 account was top of the rankings with over 56,000 matches played. Itā€™s not yet clear how the player has been able to connect to so many games and automatically win themā€

  • Soyweiser@awful.systems
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    21 days ago

    For any drive by readers who slightly want to know more background about some stuff: Why Richard Feynman wasnā€™t a great rolemodel.

    (more context for the drive by readers, Feynman is often held up as a great man in STEM circles, and even more so in the world of LessWrong Rationalism. (Which is fine if it is about scientific achievements, but it often goes beyond that as here in their page on ā€˜traditional rationalityā€™)).

    • swlabr@awful.systems
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      21 days ago

      Before my postmodern deconstruction and unlearning of the worship of Great Men, all I needed to know about feynman not being a good person to look up to was the calling women bitches thing. Miss me with that PUA shit

      • Soyweiser@awful.systems
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        20 days ago

        Considering the history of PUA stuff on lesswrong, Im going to assume this was a pro not a con for them even.

    • corbin@awful.systems
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      20 days ago

      Feynman reminds me of the brujo (one specific man, not brujerĆ­a in general) from Pirsigā€™s Lila. Feynmanā€™s safecracking and unorthodox approaches are like the brujoā€™s routine flaunting of social norms; through routinely doing things the wrong way (sacred clowning), new possible behaviors and modes of social existence are explored. Also, Feynmanā€™s attitudes towards women remind me of that brujoā€™s tendency to spy on women by looking through their windows into their homes while they were not necessarily dressed, which the brujoā€™s society did not tolerate.

  • slopjockey@awful.systems
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    19 days ago

    The worst part about Trump being president is Trump being president for a year. The second worst part is Vance being president for the next three (after Trump dies of heart failure). The third worst part is the fact that Iā€™ve been owned in a way I canā€™t even explain to my closest friends.

    • bitofhope@awful.systems
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      19 days ago

      The third worst part is the fact that Iā€™ve been owned in a way I canā€™t even explain to my closest friends.

      Oh god, this so much. Well, third worst for me personally, as a non-American white guy. I suppose Palestinians, Ukrainians, and marginalized groups in the US might have a few issues theyā€™d rank higher.

      • YourNetworkIsHaunted@awful.systems
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        19 days ago

        Most likely. Backing out of international obligations and supporting fellow authoritarians seem to be pretty consistent aspects of what passes for MAGA ideology.

        • skillissuer@discuss.tchncs.de
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          18 days ago

          i guess this depends on how much vested interest (monetary) he has in MIC

          trump seems to treat nato as americaā€™s weapons shop buyers club

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        17 days ago

        I havenā€™t done a headcount yet and the electionā€™s not fully tallied, but I think that the Senate still has around 70% support for NATO, and historically we can expect to see a ā€œblue dogā€ phenomenon in the House as a reaction to Republicans gaining seats. Effectively, both the Democrats and Republicans will function as big tents of two distinct parties, and there is usually tripartisan support (everybody but the far-right Republicans) for imperialism. We may well see votes where the legislators override presidential vetoes to force weapons sales and otherwise fulfill NATO obligations.

        And yes, you read that correctly; Democrats move right as a reaction to Republicans doing well. Go back to bed, Americaā€¦

        • skillissuer@discuss.tchncs.de
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          17 days ago

          there is usually tripartisan support (everybody but the far-right Republicans) for imperialism

          iā€™m not sure how thoroughly trumpists have purged the party of noncompliants, so maybe this non-far-right republicans block is smaller than it used to be

          And yes, you read that correctly; Democrats move right as a reaction to Republicans doing well

          iā€™m not surprised by small to medium number of spineless MPs effectively changing sides, i have seen that previously. it is surprising to me that it keeps happening and dems donā€™t boot these people without notice, or at least deny them places on ballot

    • e8d79@discuss.tchncs.de
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      21 days ago

      A significant fraction of the people commenting on HN believe themselves to be the next Jeff Bezos. They cheer for the boot that crushes them, as surely one day they themselves will own that boot.

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        21 days ago

        Said it before, Iā€™ll say it again: if Americans are all temporarily embarrassed millionaires, HN is where the temporarily embarrassed billionaires go to hang out

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          19 days ago

          We live in a world where you can watch billionaires publicly humiliate themselves on the daily and never suffer consequences for it. Whatā€™s a little temporary embarrassment compared to that?

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    20 days ago

    In Arizonaā€™s U.S. Senate race, Republican Kari Lake told Politico why she feels confident in her chances, despite recent polling showing her behind Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego: ā€œOur polling is a little different. We take polling, but we also combine it with AI, which reads all of whatā€™s happening on social media and across the Internet.ā€

    https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/mondays-campaign-11424-kari-lake-adds-ai-polls-rcna178681?icid=latestpost_bot

    Edit: Found the map sheā€™s using:

    https://xcancel.com/IwriteOK/status/1853647442740441289#m

    • Amoeba_Girl@awful.systems
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      20 days ago

      Iā€™m sure her results would be very accurate if troll farms could vote and chatgpt was doing the count.

    • YourNetworkIsHaunted@awful.systems
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      18 days ago

      Looks like she lost despite the polls legitimately being pretty left-biased this year. Even when itā€™s right the hallucination machine is still wrong.

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    21 days ago

    Just some thoughts about musk trying to be liked and doing whatever idiotic thing he can to become liked, specifically speaking at trump rallies:

    • The maga turn as framed by this working theory makes sense, but it is also just what youā€™d expect of any idiot that got lucky under capitalism.
    • I read a hypothesis somewhere that when he does the jumping jacks at the trump rallies, heā€™s trying to make the letter X with his body. Iā€™m just hoping this somehow derails the fitness industry.
    • itā€™s telling that he wears that occupy mars shirt, the thing that people liked him for before, well, pretty much everything after he became well known.

    Also: I donā€™t think weā€™ll make it to mars!!! Fuck mars. The earth is our coffin and hope is a mistake.

    NB: am not a US voter.

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        21 days ago

        Their grindcore coverband is called Earthcofffin Hopecrusher. Their 2 minute long album with 14 songs was pretty good.

        • Steve@awful.systems
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          21 days ago

          Afterwards I was thinking it could also pass as an emo album name. I wonder if there is a good guessing game in ā€œmetal album title or emo album title?ā€

          • YourNetworkIsHaunted@awful.systems
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            21 days ago

            I feel like itā€™s slightly more emo for sheer length, ā€œThe Earth is Our Coffinā€ and ā€œHope is a Mistakeā€ are both awesome metal albums in their own right, but the combination can only be from the genre that brought you ā€œA Detailed and Poetic Physical Threat to the Person who Intentionally Vandalized My 1994 Dodge Intrepid Behind Kateā€™s Apartmentā€

    • maol@awful.systems
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      21 days ago

      The Martians seem to think that Mars will be like a new colony, with all the ā€œhopeā€ that implies, but it seems to me that colonization was a wretched process for many of the colonists (to say nothing of the people being colonized). Musk is only cheerful about it because he thinks heā€™ll be whipping the slaves rather than working the arid red soil.

    • bitofhope@awful.systems
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      19 days ago

      The thing that really grinds my gears about the escape to Mars plan is that Earth is already habitable (for now) and Mars is not. If we can make an uninhabitable planet habitable, we could just make the already habitable planet stay habitable. There is no scenario where terraforming Mars is easier than, uh, ā€œterraformingā€ the Earth.

      • swlabr@awful.systems
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        18 days ago

        This is like 30-90% of why Iā€™m a mars hater. Not only should we rehabilitate earth first, the fact is we are dehabilitating it instead and are not making any meaningful effort in the other direction.

  • maol@awful.systems
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    21 days ago

    Forced to endure an episode of an Irish tv programme about the environment in which a guest sincerely listed carbon capture & storage and small nuclear reactor as potential energy solutions. As mentioned above, the earth is our coffin, hope is a mistake, etc

    • Soyweiser@awful.systems
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      21 days ago

      Carbon capture, small nuclear reactors. We stopped thinking big. To really solve climate change we need to do one easy, but big thing. Blow up the Sun.

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        21 days ago

        Malcolm McDowell successfully blew up a star in one of the Star Trek movies, even if it did immediately get reversed by a time-travel MacGuffin. Perhaps we just need new leadership?

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          21 days ago

          Donā€™t think we should put another space guy into politics, no matter their expertise at blowing up stars. They tend to go bad quickly.

    • bitofhope@awful.systems
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      19 days ago

      SMRs make me so goddamn miserable. We already know how to build nuclear plants. Build those! Weā€™re kind of on a tight deadline here, maybe donā€™t waste time trying to invent a less efficient reactor thatā€™s supposed to solve a problem we donā€™t have.

      We already have working carbon capture technology, too. Itā€™s called plants. Thanks to deforestation and ocean pollution weā€™re making negative progress creating CC machines, nice job.

    • YourNetworkIsHaunted@awful.systems
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      15 days ago

      I donā€™t blame Saltman for this one, since itā€™s just a more specific version of the general pathology that assumes the markets are basically Gods.

      "In our top story today, the rapture has drawn the souls of the faithful into heaven and we have entered what experts are calling a ā€œfinal tribulationā€. Weā€™re also receiving reports that Dread Cthulhu has awoken from his deathly slumber in his house at Rā€™lyeh, and environmental groups are claiming that increased sightings of wolves and frost giants could herald the arrival of Fimbulwinter and through it Ragnarƶk.

      The stock market, however, seems to be taking the literal end times in stride, with strong performances from Raytheon and other manufacturers countering a downturn in other sectors."

      • skillissuer@discuss.tchncs.de
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        15 days ago

        you see, air defense is very useful against supernatural horrors beyond human comprehension

        (also they recently changed name to RTX after merger. surely no fucked up managerial cancer would spread from there, like with Boeing-McDonnel Douglas merger. not like they make anything of absolutely critical importance for Ukrainians)

  • ShakingMyHead@awful.systems
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    21 days ago

    You know that thing that happened with the AI generated DOOM?

    Well, someone decided to do the same thing with Minecraft, and you can see that the results areā€¦ basically abysmal:
    https://youtu.be/7Jd-Rr9cJYo Skip to 2:00 for the actual ā€œgameplayā€.

    TL:DW nothing is saved outside of the view screen, things arenā€™t even saved within the view screen, the resolution is like 240p at 20fps, input latency and mouse latency is awful, and this was all apparently done by training on literal millions of hours of Minecraft footage. The mid-range computer I had from 2006 could run the game better than this. A 14-year-old netbook could run the game better than whatever supercomputer theyā€™re using to render this.

    Note that the person in the video isnā€™t part of the team/whoever that created it, just someone who is reviewing it.

    • ebu@awful.systems
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      21 days ago

      maybe iā€™m a weirdo but i actually really like this a lot. if there werenā€™t armies of sycophants chanting outside of all our collective windows about how AI is the future of gamingā€¦ if you look at this ā€œgameā€ as an art object unto itself i think it is actually really engaging

      it reminds me of other ā€œgamesā€ like Marian Kleinebergā€™s Wave Function Collapse and Bananaftā€™s Yedoma Globula. thereā€™s one other on the tip of my tongue where you uploaded an image and it constantly reprojected the image onto the walls of a first-person walking simulator, but i donā€™t recall the name

      • Amoeba_Girl@awful.systems
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        21 days ago

        I do like it also, but notice how they try to hide most of these strange effects in their demo video. Theyā€™re trying to pass it off as a playable minecraft. Anything interesting about the technology is a defect to these people.

        They also claim this is ā€œthe first playable AI-generated gameā€ when the exact same sort of thing already existed in 2022 (and it looked a lot more efficient and haunted): https://madebyoll.in/posts/game_emulation_via_dnn/ Maybe it doesnā€™t count if you call it ā€œNeural networkā€ instead of ā€œAIā€.

        • JFranek@awful.systems
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          20 days ago

          That article gave me a whiplash. First part: pretty cool. Second part: deeply questionable.

          For example these two paragraphs from sections ā€˜problem with codeā€™ and ā€˜magic of dataā€™:

          ā€œModular and interpretable codeā€ sounds great until you are staring at 100 modules with 100,000 lines of code each and someone is asking you to interpret it.

          Regardless of how complicated your programā€™s behavior is, if you write it as a neural network, the program remains interpretable. To know what your neural network actually does, just read the dataset

          Well, ā€œjust read the dataset broā€ sound great sounds great until you are staring at a dataset with 100 000 examples and someone is asking you to interpret it.

          • bitofhope@awful.systems
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            16 days ago

            What the hell is this even arguing for? Is one module with ten million lines somehow better than 100 modules Ć  100k lines?

        • ebu@awful.systems
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          20 days ago

          yeah, that ā€œmost of the internet will be Al-generatedā€ nonsense is tanking my ability to take them as domain experts seriously.

          still, something gets me about completely generated, transient-when-youā€™re-not-looking, constantly shifting worlds. might have to collect more examples

          • Evinceo@awful.systems
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            20 days ago

            still, something gets me about completely generated, transient-when-youā€™re-not-looking, constantly shifting worlds. might have to collect more examples

            Itā€™s dream logic.

    • YourNetworkIsHaunted@awful.systems
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      20 days ago

      Showed this to my wife.

      You know what the worst part is? Weā€™re spending all this computing power to generate this bad acid trip, but if I just took a bunch of LSD you know what Iā€™d still have? The things in my pockets. Iā€™d have a better time just having a bunch of LSD and walking down to the 7-11

    • BlueMonday1984@awful.systemsOP
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      21 days ago

      Iā€™ve seen this floating about quite a bit, and everyone I know is dunking on it - the most frequent comparison Iā€™ve seen is calling it ā€œMinecraft with dementiaā€.

      • ShakingMyHead@awful.systems
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        21 days ago

        It also shows why those DOOM demos were only 2-3 seconds long, because thatā€™s how long it can keep cohesion for.

    • YourNetworkIsHaunted@awful.systems
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      21 days ago

      Note that the person in the video isnā€™t part of the team/whoever that creates it, just someone who is reviewing it.

      See, thereā€™s the mistake. You canā€™t let outside people actually interact with the thing; you need to stick with cherry-picked 2-3s clips.

    • self@awful.systems
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      21 days ago

      oh cool, Minecraft LSD: Dream Emulator edition

      which would be a cool concept, if the generative AI model werenā€™t incredibly prohibitively expensive to run, trained on plagiarized videos, and incapable of coherently tracking state (believe it or not, LSD: Dream Emulator does have a gameplay and progression loopā€¦ game-like things without one tend to get dull very quick)

      • Soyweiser@awful.systems
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        20 days ago

        game-like things without one tend to get dull very quick

        This has been a thing with games leaning heavily on procedural generated content as well. Takes a lot of effort to make those more interesting in the longer term. The ai is the future of gaming people are sure to rediscover this fact again. Sadly compared ro pgc people they will waste a lot more energy and money.

        • Amoeba_Girl@awful.systems
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          20 days ago

          I think itā€™s fine to have little art games that are only interesting to play for a few minutes. They can still have an impact that stays with you forever. Catacombs of Solaris for instance is one I love and think about all the time.

          These AI guys though, god it must be so sad working on this stuff. They canā€™t be proud of what theyā€™re making if the goal is to trick people into thinking you can have a real Minecraft game in there. The game is not even relevant, as far as I can tell theyā€™re only using it to draw attention to their stupid and doomed ASIC business.

          • ebu@awful.systems
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            20 days ago

            goddammit! you have no idea how many variations of ā€œfirst person walking simulator projected image texture trippy visualsā€ i slapped into every search engine!

            but yes, that was the one i was thinking of

            • Amoeba_Girl@awful.systems
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              20 days ago

              Ah awesome! I didnā€™t think it was because you canā€™t upload pictures, but maybe you can in the ā€œRevisitedā€ version!

              • ebu@awful.systems
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                20 days ago

                i went and bought it, and yup, the revisited version is the one i was thinking of. time to walk around inside a picture of Sam Altman so i can absorb his raw intellect and business acumen

          • Soyweiser@awful.systems
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            20 days ago

            Pgc can be a useful tool in the toolbox however. Just look at dwarf fortress for example. But games need more than just that. And with LLMs there could also ve some use (generation of voices I think for example, or some low level of conversational chatter). The problem is the data usage, the anti worker stuff (no voice actor wants their voice stolen for example), and like in this case, the people just promoting their other crap. Like how crypto games are just a shell to promote their crypto bs.

            LLMs could have some minor use but with the backlash due to techbros going their usual vc style techbro ways, and steam requiring disclosure I doubt it will be of much use the risk is too great. Which considering the power costs is great.

            • Amoeba_Girl@awful.systems
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              20 days ago

              We also have stuff like DLSS, which is pretty cool and I imagine ends up being more efficient in energy usage. The key thing I believe is itā€™s built as a specific tool for a specific purpose, instead of general purpose slop machines eating humongous databases to excrete absolutely nothing useful for anyone.

  • corbin@awful.systems
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    18 days ago

    Orange site envrionmentalism:

    Lawns are functional though, they arenā€™t just a status symbol.

    I grew up with a mossy front yard, and I have clover and ferns in my current yards to compete with grasses; there are better options, my dude.

    • BlueMonday1984@awful.systemsOP
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      18 days ago

      They can be, but they can also be a social and recreational space.

      Your mumā€™s a social and recreational space, but I donā€™t see you going to bat for her despite being more useful

    • self@awful.systems
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      18 days ago

      I was going to call them friendless losers who never had company over to play cornhole, have a bonfire, or lounge around on a hot summer day getting doused by a sprinkler while drinking beers because they are repugnant socially awkward cave trolls who are bitter and jealous of people who use their picturesque lawns.

      But I would never do that because that is neither civil nor polite.

      dang hates this one weird trick you can use to be an asshole in spite of the orange siteā€™s civility rules

      also what is that list of activities? did ChatGPT generate this? grass is required to play beep boop normal human games like cornhole now? youā€™re ā€œhaving a bonfireā€ on grass and not in something normal like a firepit thatā€™s safer on rocks or concrete? youā€™re just laying down on the grass, where the dog shits, slowly getting drunk and incredibly itchy from the grass as a sprinkler douses you?

      picturesque lawns

      oh maybe thatā€™s it, the only people Iā€™ve ever met with picturesque lawns are wealthy and wealthy people ainā€™t fucking normal

      Or you could just not water it, not fertilize it, not pesticide it and simply run the mower over it whenever the assorted vegetation (which will be mostly grass) exceeds a certain height.

      It wonā€™t look ā€œnice neighborhoodā€ nice but itā€™ll still be fine.

      i love when my yard is a giant mud patch rimmed by yellow with an occasional glimmer of green when the crabgrass blooms

      the orange site is absolutely populated by the type of shithead whoā€™s proud to be on their HOAā€™s board

      • self@awful.systems
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        18 days ago

        having a lawn is so easy first just hire a gardener to come every week, second live in a place where tap waterā€™s inexpensive

        motherfuckers

    • swlabr@awful.systems
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      17 days ago

      Weā€™re anti-grass lawns now? Fuck yes. I knew this place had potential.

      Iā€™m no landscaper so donā€™t quiz me on the options, but grass is in the lowest tier option for things to fill outdoor space with.

      • froztbyte@awful.systems
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        17 days ago

        lawns in addition to other things are fine, but also all the stuff self said applies pretty hard

        weā€™re lucky in ZA that weā€™re pretty good with getting a lot of this stuff out, which Iā€™m often pretty happy about, but thatā€™s an incident of geography (and personal location)

  • swlabr@awful.systems
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    21 days ago

    Been seeing some stuff from this artist. This is the most recent thing to pop up for me. They seem alright, though I donā€™t have the energy to fully investigate their politics.

    • ashley@awful.systems
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      20 days ago

      Iā€™m about to pass out from the cognitive dissonance Iā€™m feeling from seeing andressen and musk talking about privilege

      • swlabr@awful.systems
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        20 days ago

        Unfortunately there arenā€™t enough mind altering, ego-killing drugs out there for either of these dicks to understand and internalise the (common usage of the) words they posted.