NaraVara's recent activity
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Comment on Discord: Getting global age assurance right: what we got wrong and what's changing in ~tech
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Comment on Discord: Getting global age assurance right: what we got wrong and what's changing in ~tech
NaraVara Link ParentThe irony is that the American reflexive aversion to government data collection or identification of any kind ends up making our PII less secure as we yield up all the information to each and...The irony is that the American reflexive aversion to government data collection or identification of any kind ends up making our PII less secure as we yield up all the information to each and every service provider who all sell it to the same handful of data brokers on the back end. But it’s not the government so it’s fine, it’s just Mark Zuckerberg. . .
. . .who sells it back to the government anyway with fewer data protections, transparency, audit, or oversight than if it was just done by a public agency.
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Comment on Discord: Getting global age assurance right: what we got wrong and what's changing in ~tech
NaraVara Link ParentThis is true of everything though. It’s fine until you push it to the point where it’s not. So you just stop using it once it’s not instead of catastrophizing about how everything could...This is true of everything though. It’s fine until you push it to the point where it’s not. So you just stop using it once it’s not instead of catastrophizing about how everything could potentially be a theoretical step towards doing something else that there isn’t much indication they’re doing.
It’s not even like they couldn’t just lock out LGBT content now if they wanted, that’s a control on the content rather than the identity of the viewers. All this would do is enable them to lock it out only for <18 users rather than globally.
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Comment on Third spaces: What do we want, and how do we get them? in ~life
NaraVara (edited )LinkThe thing is that third spaces haven’t been disappearing since the ‘90s. The 90s were the absolute nadir, but the types of spaces that were third places have exploded since then. There’s been a...- Exemplary
The thing is that third spaces haven’t been disappearing since the ‘90s. The 90s were the absolute nadir, but the types of spaces that were third places have exploded since then. There’s been a huge resurgence of cocktail culture, microbrews, and third wave coffee. There’s been an explosion of casual groups via Meetups, social sports leagues, interesting restaurants, and a bunch of other types of places and activities that were where people used to hang out.
What’s actually changed is that home also just got harder to leave, so people stopped hanging out. Being at home no longer just means having your personal library of media and the selection of periodicals you subscribe to. It means having all the streaming media, all the porn, video games, dating apps, and so on.
Third spaces are all over the place, it’s the social structures that have atrophied. People think nothing of changing plans at the last minute now, people don’t commit to social appointments. Flaking on commitments has lost much of its taboo and a lot of the occasions where people used to connect interpersonally have turned into things that require a lot more intention and deliberate effort expended instead of just being incidental.
I’ll give an example. I was chatting with another dad at school drop off the other day and somehow we got on the topic of a The Green Knight and he mentioned there’s a new translation by a German author. 15-20 years ago I’d have given him my email and asked him to send me the name when he remembers it. Today, I googled it and found it and what may have been an opportunity for us to randomly get to know each other turned into a dry and efficient information gathering exercise. It’s not even that I couldn’t have tried if I wanted to talk more about the subject with him, that’s not my point. My point is that in the past the easiest way for me to learn more about the topic of our conversation would be to find another occasion to continue the conversation. But today there is a much easier and lower friction way to do the same that provides immediate gratification. This has happened everywhere, in numerous human endeavors, and it’s sandblasted away all the points of friction where we actually connected with each other. It’s not the lack of places to hang out, it’s that not hanging out is too easy while making plans and sticking to them remains hard!
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Comment on The hunt for dark breakfast in ~food
NaraVara Link ParentYeah he mentions in the piece that he’s sort of cheating by excluding sliced breads since they don’t go in the stand mixer. If he did I think french toast or bread pudding will end up falling in...Yeah he mentions in the piece that he’s sort of cheating by excluding sliced breads since they don’t go in the stand mixer. If he did I think french toast or bread pudding will end up falling in that center quadrant.
But even with that limitation I think you start to approach pudding territory with those proportions, which we don’t really do here in the States but I think a Brit would recognize Yorkshire pudding there, or even a Southern spoon bread if we’re willing to grant cornmeal as “flour.”
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Comment on The hunt for dark breakfast in ~food
NaraVara LinkJoin the descent into madness.Join the descent into madness.
I was days into my research before I finally found a clue. In an obscure document on the website of the International House of Pancakes Corporation there was a hint that the dark breakfast had been made. IHOP omelettes include pancake batter. While I cannot place IHOP omelettes exactly on the map, by interpolating between pancakes and omelettes, we can bound where they must occur, and confirm that the manifold possibilities do indeed pass through the Dark Breakfast Abyss.
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The hunt for dark breakfast
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Comment on How a WhatsApp group for DC parents broke apart over politics in ~society
NaraVara Link ParentThis is a DC parents chat. The thing to understand is that in DC literally every person in a cohort to be a parent has either lost their job themselves or directly knows multiple people who have...This is a DC parents chat. The thing to understand is that in DC literally every person in a cohort to be a parent has either lost their job themselves or directly knows multiple people who have lost their jobs. Their home values have tanked and the city’s municipal budget is constantly being threatened by the federal government. Many of those who are employed are being actively terrorized and intentionally burned out by their management chain in an effort to push them out.
In that context trying to “stay on topic” is like trying to raise kids in Vichy France without being able to talk about the Germans roaming the streets.
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Comment on Some of my family members aren't convinced that ICE isn't overstepping and that they are just deporting people that broke the law, can you help me share unbiased links that proves they are? in ~society
NaraVara Link ParentThe problem is, if you are habitually right about everything all the time then on the rare occasion when people do catch you being wrong about something they will really rub it in and gloat about...The problem is, if you are habitually right about everything all the time then on the rare occasion when people do catch you being wrong about something they will really rub it in and gloat about it.
You can avoid this by strategically picking small, inconsequential things to be wrong about now and then to let them have some small victories that don’t undermine your general credibility. It’s like letting a kid beat you at basketball so they don’t get discouraged.
Follow me for more tips on having no friends.
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Comment on Some of my family members aren't convinced that ICE isn't overstepping and that they are just deporting people that broke the law, can you help me share unbiased links that proves they are? in ~society
NaraVara LinkThe Tangle is specifically written and designed to cover these sorts of issues for non-news junkies without getting anyone’s partisan hackles up. You could maybe start there as a source to send...The Tangle is specifically written and designed to cover these sorts of issues for non-news junkies without getting anyone’s partisan hackles up. You could maybe start there as a source to send them and hope they won’t dig in their heels.
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Comment on Kim Jong Un chooses daughter as heir, says Seoul in ~society
NaraVara LinkI’ve got played enough Crusader Kings to know how this goes. She’d better be an exemplary woman if she wants to keep her head.I’ve got played enough Crusader Kings to know how this goes. She’d better be an exemplary woman if she wants to keep her head.
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Comment on Something big is happening in ~tech
NaraVara Link ParentI just realized the author is this guy. Which, by itself, is a rebuttal if you ask me. This dude has no idea what quality work looks like.I just realized the author is this guy. Which, by itself, is a rebuttal if you ask me. This dude has no idea what quality work looks like.
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Comment on Why Jony Ive put buttons in the electric Ferrari in ~transport
NaraVara Link ParentI worry about the fail state if power goes out. So at least one door needs to be manually openable. But yeah otherwise I’m down with just swiping a token for everything.I worry about the fail state if power goes out. So at least one door needs to be manually openable. But yeah otherwise I’m down with just swiping a token for everything.
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Comment on Liberals who were formerly far-left (communist, anarchist, etc.), what led to you coming to liberalism? in ~society
NaraVara (edited )Link ParentIronically the material abundance of modern society has created a class of people who actually don’t like owning stuff and, in fact, find owning stuff to be anxiety inducing. Hence they express...Ironically the material abundance of modern society has created a class of people who actually don’t like owning stuff and, in fact, find owning stuff to be anxiety inducing.
Hence they express their affluence in the form of conspicuous non-consumption. Holdong onto half broken junk, out-of-fashion clothes, spare parts, and surplus items because they might come in handy some day is a habit borne of privation. If you’re actually post scarcity you’d end up appreciating the convenience of just using things and then dropping them instead of needing to be responsible for their care and maintenance.
If resources are abounding you can have faith you can always get another if and when you need it. Renting is freedom! And you pay for it by surrendering the chance to build equity.
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Comment on Liberals who were formerly far-left (communist, anarchist, etc.), what led to you coming to liberalism? in ~society
NaraVara (edited )Link ParentMarx and Engels aren’t the “original texts.” Socialism predates Marx and Marxism. Historically it encompassed a lot more political tendencies than it does today, including things like welfare...- Exemplary
Marx and Engels aren’t the “original texts.” Socialism predates Marx and Marxism. Historically it encompassed a lot more political tendencies than it does today, including things like welfare capitalism and Georgism, which would be pretty firmly in the mainstream of liberal politics now.
The main reason Marx became such a foundational text is because he was popular with a circle of intellectuals who all liked to hang out near one coffee shop in Vienna in the interwar period. And that specific strain would end up being pushed as part of the propaganda to advance the imperial interests of the USSR in contrast to the liberal democratic propaganda used to advance the interests of the West. This would wind up forcing a lot of political tendencies that straddled the lines to choose sides in a way didn’t have to before.
But it’s not like much of what’s in Marx when he talks about a potentially more just society is alien to the Liberal tradition. You can read half of that stuff in the works of Voltaire or Thomas Paine. The main thing that specifically differentiates Marx from the others is the evolutionary theory of social progress towards a stateless communist utopia. Liberal theories generally tended to be much more skeptical of having a final stage society where all internal contradictions are synthesized away. Enlightenment liberalism generally assumed political regimes were cyclical. Hence the term “revolution,” literally a turning of the wheel. Eventually the wheel comes back around again! Hence quotes like “the tree of liberty bust occasionally be watered with the blood of tyrants and patriots.” The cycle doesn’t end!
That’s where the political theories around separation of powers and representative democracy comes from. Because we acknowledge that the transitions are cyclical and thermostatic it becomes imperative to create political institutions that can persist through these pendulum swings. By lowering the stakes of political action you can have some of the transformative, creative-destruction of periodically revolutionary change without needing to (for example) murder every Catholic you can find only to have them come back and murder all the Protestants 20 years later.
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Comment on Why Jony Ive put buttons in the electric Ferrari in ~transport
NaraVara LinkLots of cool ideas here. Unfortunately some of it is going to be annoyingly expensive and a pain in the ass to fix if it breaks, which is fine for a Ferrari but will never trickle down to a Fiat....Lots of cool ideas here. Unfortunately some of it is going to be annoyingly expensive and a pain in the ass to fix if it breaks, which is fine for a Ferrari but will never trickle down to a Fiat. But I love the choices of buttons and dials and switches across the board. The key concept is also great, though I think it’s very silly that every car keys is the size of a fucking Duplo block nowadays. They could have achieved the same effect with a normal key-sized-key.
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Why Jony Ive put buttons in the electric Ferrari
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Comment on Discord will require a face scan or ID for full access next month in ~tech
NaraVara Link ParentNot being friended by strangers or able to receive messages from people outside approved channels would pretty much take away opportunities for private, side channel conversations between adults...Not being friended by strangers or able to receive messages from people outside approved channels would pretty much take away opportunities for private, side channel conversations between adults and kids.
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Comment on Discord will require a face scan or ID for full access next month in ~tech
NaraVara Link ParentThere’s no need to speculate, they’ve already implemented this in the UK and I think basically every grow adult from there I know has said they never had to submit anything.There’s no need to speculate, they’ve already implemented this in the UK and I think basically every grow adult from there I know has said they never had to submit anything.
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Comment on Discord will require a face scan or ID for full access next month in ~tech
NaraVara Link ParentThe primary check is behavioral analysis so I suspect if you’ve ever talked about doing taxes or having a job with normal working hours it’ll pass you by default. It also checks against linked...The primary check is behavioral analysis so I suspect if you’ve ever talked about doing taxes or having a job with normal working hours it’ll pass you by default. It also checks against linked accounts, do if you’ve linked it to Steam, PS+, Spotify, or anything like that with an account that’s more than around 14 years old you probably also just pass by default.
The “proactive step” would have been not getting onto a centralized platform hosted on someone else’s computer in the first place. As soon as you do that you’re in basically a semi-public zone where you don’t have much expectation of absolute privacy.
They don’t “always boil the frog” actually. If anything, they tend to try and move out way too aggressively, get way over their skis, and never fucking shut up about their plans to do evil for the sake of doing evil. The people wanting to do this stuff are clownish caricatures, not secret shadowy puppet-masters.
Age verification doesn’t meaningfully bring that any closer or farther away though. They literally can identify you right now if you’re a person of interest unless you’re taking pretty extreme measures to obfuscate your identity, which isn’t really something one would do on Discord in the first place.