papasquat's recent activity
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Comment on Do you feel like you’ve had many lives so far? Why, why not? Which? in ~life
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Comment on 99-year-old Dick Van Dyke reacts to his life in photos: 'Mary Poppins,’ 'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang' in ~movies
papasquat Link ParentI think a lot of people have the opinion that besides phones and information technology, technological development has stagnated over the past 40 years. If you look at people like Dick van Dyke...I think a lot of people have the opinion that besides phones and information technology, technological development has stagnated over the past 40 years.
If you look at people like Dick van Dyke and the absolutely huge amount of other people in their 90s that still live fully functional lives and reflect a bit, it's pretty incredible that we live in an era of medical science and overall health science where people that age are living the kinds of lives that would have been astonishing for people even in the 60s or 70s. The average lifespan has been slowly creeping up, but the quality of life in the later stages has improved so dramatically thanks to a staggering amount of progress in that area that it's really incredible to think about.
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Comment on The DoorDash problem: How AI browsers are a huge threat to Amazon in ~tech
papasquat Link ParentI mean, they do beat out free music with zero ads. People can pirate music pretty easily, but Spotify still exists and compensates artists for their songs, because ultimately artists need to agree...I mean, they do beat out free music with zero ads. People can pirate music pretty easily, but Spotify still exists and compensates artists for their songs, because ultimately artists need to agree to have their songs on Spotify. (The music industry is incredibly exploitative towards artists and has been forever, but that's due to much larger systemic issues)
If copyright law didn't exist though, there'd be no legal reason for that compensation. Spotify could put whatever they wanted on their service and artists would have no say in the matter. It wouldn't technically be piracy, because the concept of piracy only exists in the framework of copyright law. It would be deeply unethical though.
I agree that there are problems with the current implementation of copyright in the US, but there's absolutely a good reason for the concept to exist, and even in its current state it does more good than harm.
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Comment on Interview with Pierre-Loup Griffais on SteamOS, ARM, FEX and more in ~tech
papasquat Link ParentI wouldn't mind steamOS becoming truly open source so that manufacturers could preinstall it on devices like that. I can appreciate the careful balance valve has to walk between opening up their...I wouldn't mind steamOS becoming truly open source so that manufacturers could preinstall it on devices like that.
I can appreciate the careful balance valve has to walk between opening up their very robust utility and OS ecosystem, and ensuring that steamOS's reputation and brand doesn't get trashed and tainted by Cheap Chinese devices with horrible implementations. Valve can't do it all though, and more steam-deck like devices of various power levels and form factors would be great.
I love my steam deck, but it's absolutely massive for a portable, and I sometimes don't even bring it with me on flights or long vacations because of how bulky it is, let alone to work or while out for the day.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
papasquat Link ParentMy friends are all into battlefield 6 and I've played some redsec with them. I also really hate it, probably for different reasons though. I like pvp games, and have played shooters my whole life....My friends are all into battlefield 6 and I've played some redsec with them. I also really hate it, probably for different reasons though.
I like pvp games, and have played shooters my whole life. I've played all of the earlier battlefields, I've dabbled in a bit of call of duty here and there, I was massively into counter strike and so on.
Firstly, it just feels like battlefield. There's nothing particularly compelling about it that makes it interesting or different from battlefield 3 or bad company 2. It looks basically the same, it plays basically the same, but now they're wanting me to pay 70 dollars to play the same game I've played for 20+ years.
Secondly, there's just so much bullshit going on. There are unlocks popping up constantly, there are different categories of gadgets and tools and crap in your loadouts, there are weird missions that pop up in redsec and different rules about reviving and when you get a "second chance" in the game and it's just overwhelming and annoying. The guns all have a million attachments you need to unlock and learn, the classes have weird passive special abilities.
I want a shooter to feel pure and distilled. I want the shooting to be tight, I want enemies to be visible, and I want the game to do a single thing really well.
I honestly think that a lot of people just like battlefield, and instead of just playing the battlefield they like, they pay Activision 70 bucks every few years for the privilege of playing the latest one because that's what everyone else is playing. I get the feeling that it everyone was still playing battlefield 3, most of the people playing BF6 would have been perfectly happy just playing that, maybe with a few new maps.
Battlefield 6 is just all over the place, it's trying to be call of duty plus apex legends plus fortnite by tacking on mechanics from those games, and it's identity just doesn't feel tight at all. There's too much crap to learn, and it's just really difficult to just hop into a game to shoot a few people. It feels like a basic shooter that they just really burdened with a bunch of flashy annoying add-ons instead of an innovative concept or game loop. I'm just tired of doing the same thing except with flashy crap tacked on. I honestly don't understand why my friends enjoy it so much.
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Comment on Shopify's Black Friday/Cyber Monday site showcase in ~tech
papasquat Link ParentMost of Shopify's clients are small businesses. I'd much prefer to see their numbers going up over Amazon's.Most of Shopify's clients are small businesses. I'd much prefer to see their numbers going up over Amazon's.
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Comment on Living wage calculator in ~finance
papasquat Link ParentI think that other side of the coin is that often, elderly parents don't want to live with their kids. I don't really blame them, I probably wouldn't want to either. I know if I floated the idea...Most of the time this means they are mildly annoyed by their mother or reminded of their childhood in mildly annoying ways - so it's not even considered an option, and everyone's poor parents needs to spend a LOT of money living BY THEMSELVES in their own house (expensive/inefficient) or share a room with strangers and scrounge instead of being taken in by relatives
I think that other side of the coin is that often, elderly parents don't want to live with their kids. I don't really blame them, I probably wouldn't want to either. I know if I floated the idea to my parents in their 80s that they move in with me, it would be instantly shot down. They value their privacy and independence just like anyone else. If it comes to the point where they physically can't take care of themselves it might be a different conversation, but once they got to that point, they wouldn't be much use in childcare, and they'd probably need a facility with medical staff rather than just a place to live.
It's a cultural thing in the US, but it's not just because kids don't want their parents to live with them. Parents don't want to live with their kids either. I think a lot of that culture is shaped by the fact that economically, the US is one of the few places in the world over the past 100 years where every nuclear family having their own housing was even viable. Most of the world hasn't historically been in a financial position where that was even a possibility.
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Comment on The DoorDash problem: How AI browsers are a huge threat to Amazon in ~tech
papasquat Link ParentI think most neo liberal capitalists aren't really dedicated to that ideology. The support it because it favors them most of the time. When it stops favoring them they go back to rent-seeking....I think most neo liberal capitalists aren't really dedicated to that ideology. The support it because it favors them most of the time. When it stops favoring them they go back to rent-seeking. It's never been an ideology that's had particularly passionate advocates besides libertarians, but libertarians are usually just poor people who got tricked into advocating against themselves instead of the wealthy capitalists who actually benefit from neoliberalism.
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Comment on The DoorDash problem: How AI browsers are a huge threat to Amazon in ~tech
papasquat Link ParentHow does it exist exclusively to protect profit if it's the only thing that prevents capital from exploiting intellectual labor without compensation? If I spend time creating a song that people...How does it exist exclusively to protect profit if it's the only thing that prevents capital from exploiting intellectual labor without compensation?
If I spend time creating a song that people like, the only thing preventing Spotify from just uploading it and profiting from letting everyone stream it without compensating me is copyright law.
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Comment on The realities of being a pop star in ~music
papasquat Link ParentI don't know whether it's schadenfraude, but I think most people are kind of disgusted by the excesses of fame, yet still desire some of it. I think desiring that lifestyle, for most people, is...I don't know whether it's schadenfraude, but I think most people are kind of disgusted by the excesses of fame, yet still desire some of it.
I think desiring that lifestyle, for most people, is due to ignorance of what that kind of lifestyle entails though. There are some people for whom being a famous entertainer would absolutely be the thing that would make them happiness, but I doubt that's the case for most people.
For me the money is the only really attractive thing. I like being anonymous, being able to go to the store to get milk without 5 people yelling at me or asking for a picture. I like being able to make my own decisions instead of being told by a publicist or a record label handler that I should act a certain way. I don't think that crazy parties with celebrities sounds fun, and personally there aren't any celebrities I'd ever want to meet anyway.
I think when you take full stock of that life, the pros don't outweigh the cons for most people's personalities.
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Comment on Japan unveils human washing machine, now you can get washed like laundry in ~tech
papasquat LinkThe most important part of taking a shower is washing your ass. This machine doesn't seem capable of, and nor would I trust any machine to wash my ass. Therefore, I judge the entire concept as not...The most important part of taking a shower is washing your ass. This machine doesn't seem capable of, and nor would I trust any machine to wash my ass. Therefore, I judge the entire concept as not viable.
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Comment on United Kingdom electric vehicle owners to face pay-per-mile tax in ~transport
papasquat LinkEVs are better for the environment than ICE vehicles, but they're still bad for the environment. I'm all for charging as much of the negative externalities of driving back to the people doing the...EVs are better for the environment than ICE vehicles, but they're still bad for the environment. I'm all for charging as much of the negative externalities of driving back to the people doing the driving.
I know it's not quite as bad in the UK, but in the US, there's this perception that having a car is freedom, and paying for and maintaining a car is rugged individualism and being responsible for paying your own transportation, versus public transit which is seen as government handouts and mooching. That of course is ignoring the hundreds of billions we spend on subsidies for cars in the form of highways, cheap fuel, direct subsidies to auto manufacturers and so on.
Making people directly feel more of those costs on a mile per mile basis is the only way I can think of to make people realize how much more efficient and sustainable public transit is, but it's incredibly unpopular in the US.
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Comment on Why humanity needs a Lunar seed vault in ~space
papasquat Link ParentIf the rocket that went to retrieve the seeds explodes you're also out of seeds, except you have two opportunities for it to explode, and the rocket needs to be far, far bigger and more complex to...If the rocket that went to retrieve the seeds explodes you're also out of seeds, except you have two opportunities for it to explode, and the rocket needs to be far, far bigger and more complex to break earth orbit versus just essentially falling back from the moon.
Seems like it would be way easier to just have batteries of dozens of reliable long term rockets ready to go on the moon.
The hardest part of getting to the moon and back is by far the getting there part, you need a massive amount of energy to break earth orbit. Seems more ideal to front load that cost.
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Comment on Have you ever designed/created a spaceship for fiction, RPGs, etc? How did you do it? in ~creative
papasquat LinkI think the single biggest factor here is the hardness of your setting. The softer the Sci Fi setting, the less constrained you are, and you can worry more about things like asthetics,...I think the single biggest factor here is the hardness of your setting.
The softer the Sci Fi setting, the less constrained you are, and you can worry more about things like asthetics, defensibility, ease of gameplay, and so on. In the hardest sci fi settings, your ships will necessarily look like existing space ships, like an Apollo capsule or the ISS. Large, fragile, spindly structures with tons of surface area for solar collection and heat radiation that do everything they can to reduce weight, since every pound of material is a pound that had to be launched from the surface of a planet, and which requires energy and reaction mass to move.
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Comment on Why humanity needs a Lunar seed vault in ~space
papasquat Link ParentI think a better solution would just be building more secure seed vaults on earth. You could build 1000 svalbards for what it would cost to build a lunar seed vault. A few dozen secure vaults on...I think a better solution would just be building more secure seed vaults on earth. You could build 1000 svalbards for what it would cost to build a lunar seed vault. A few dozen secure vaults on earth would have a much better chance of surviving than one on the moon also.
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Comment on Why humanity needs a Lunar seed vault in ~space
papasquat Link ParentWhy would you design the vault so that you need to retrieve seeds from it? Seems like having rockets filled with seeds on the moon ready to launch when they receive the signal would be way easier....Why would you design the vault so that you need to retrieve seeds from it? Seems like having rockets filled with seeds on the moon ready to launch when they receive the signal would be way easier. Granted, I still think it's a ridiculous idea either way.
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Comment on A new era of intelligence with Gemini 3 in ~tech
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Comment on AGI and Fermi's Paradox in ~science
papasquat Link ParentI kinda tend to disagree with that popular idea. Human knowledge isn't limited by how smart humans are. It's limited by practical things like physics, resource constraints, prioritization, and...I kinda tend to disagree with that popular idea.
Human knowledge isn't limited by how smart humans are. It's limited by practical things like physics, resource constraints, prioritization, and experimental errors, which are all things that an AGI would have to deal with too.AGI would have to conduct experiments to figure out how the universe works just like we do. It could theorize and model some of it, but at a certain point you need to verify those models with experiments, which take time and resources to create. We couldn't verify the existence of the higgs boson without the large hadron collider, and building that took 10 years and billions of dollars worth of resources. An AGI couldn't have verified the higgs boson quicker unless it also had an absolutely massive army of robot workers, and even then it would still take a while.
The limiting factor was never just that human beings weren't smart enough to figure it out though. Maybe if the average human was ten times as smart, we might have more scientific breakthroughs and make fewer errors, but it's not as if that's the main factor in why there are still so many unanswered questions about the universe. There are probably hundreds of years and hundreds of trillions of dollars of experiments already proposed, only some of which will ever see the light of day, because they're all competing for the same resources. An AGI would have the same problem.
I don't think it would be something like one day we flip the switch and five minutes later, it's figured out warp drives, cured cancer, and is running on fusion energy.
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Comment on Looking for a non-smart watch recommendation in ~tech
papasquat LinkWhen I did step counting I personally just used my phone and it works great. I do have a couple of cheap wristwatches I wear because taking my phone out to just check the time is annoying. I...When I did step counting I personally just used my phone and it works great. I do have a couple of cheap wristwatches I wear because taking my phone out to just check the time is annoying. I detest notifications and will never get a smart watch for that reason though.
Maybe just a cheapo regular watch plus your phone for steps is the way to go?
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
papasquat Link ParentI've been having a blast with the game as well. I started falling into the trap of thinking that players trying to kill me are assholes, but then I got betrayed, it started my villain arc which I...I've been having a blast with the game as well. I started falling into the trap of thinking that players trying to kill me are assholes, but then I got betrayed, it started my villain arc which I had a blast with, and I realized that the guy who betrayed me really helped me enjoy the game more.
If it wasn't for him, I'd just be farming relatively easy PvE and the games legs probably wouldn't have held for much longer.
Now, if I see people extracting and I'm not in any major danger, I'll pop a Ferro shot into them, not to try to kill them, but to put the fear in them, and give them the gift that I received.
I think most people divide their lives into eras, and for the majority of people those eras are marked by shifts in their material living situation. I know for me, the three big categories are geography, relationships, and school/career. I can divide my life into my early childhood in the northeast, my late childhood, early adulthood in the south, my military career and first marriage, my divorce and career change and first taste of actually being single as an adult, and finally, meeting my wife and getting married again.
Some people probably divide their lives according to a slightly different set of categories, but I imagine for most, those are the big three markers.
I went on a deployment with the military which was very long, very stressful, and coincided with my divorce and the end of a very long marriage and relationship, so that's a huge marker in my life, sort of like the BCE/AD period in history. I tend to count years since then when I'm judging the passage of time.