Rez's recent activity
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Comment on Why would anyone date Taylor Swift? Perspective of a sports writer in ~life
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Comment on Under new policy, Italy starts removing lesbian mothers' names from children's birth certificates in ~lgbt
Rez Link ParentThat seems like an extreme example of surrogates. The surrogates I’ve glancingly known were far from being in such circumstances (the type of people able to pay for surrogacy also want to make...That seems like an extreme example of surrogates. The surrogates I’ve glancingly known were far from being in such circumstances (the type of people able to pay for surrogacy also want to make sure the woman is living in a healthy, stress-free way that is maximally ideal for the pregnancy, which precludes many impoverished women). I certainly don’t doubt though that some have been in those circumstances, but where do we draw the line on respecting peoples’ agency? It’s not only that society is coercive, but life is inherently coercive too. Nearly all of us got bills to pay. Would outlawing surrogacy actually help those women in a meaningful way?
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Comment on Starfield and the problem of scale in ~games
Rez Link ParentYeah I don't see any reason to believe that just because humanity has FTL, it somehow means we should be incredibly populous.It could be cultural trauma from having to evacuate so many people from Earth. And/or just a continuation of current trends where more developed countries tend to have a lower total fertility rate.
Yeah I don't see any reason to believe that just because humanity has FTL, it somehow means we should be incredibly populous.
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Comment on Grand Theft Auto V turns ten years old in ~games
Rez LinkI never got into GTA V online. That's because what I most loved about GTA IV online was the free play mode. Just roaming around, enjoying - or causing - chaos - with two dozen others doing the...I never got into GTA V online. That's because what I most loved about GTA IV online was the free play mode. Just roaming around, enjoying - or causing - chaos - with two dozen others doing the same. It was perfect in its simplicity, with the host able to set some options for the lobby to influence guns/locations/etc. The free play mode in GTA 5 was simply not the same to me and tore out what was perfect to make way for something that could be better monetized.
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Comment on Former US President Donald Trump denounces Ron DeSantis abortion ban as “a terrible mistake” in ~misc
Rez Link ParentI think Trump's posturing is honest to the small extent that a bill is not going to hit his desk without his input. A Republican Congress is only going to send him a 15-week ban if that's what he...this is just Trump's standard narcissistic "I alone can fix it" bullshit.
I think Trump's posturing is honest to the small extent that a bill is not going to hit his desk without his input. A Republican Congress is only going to send him a 15-week ban if that's what he has agreed to have sent to him.
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Comment on California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a lawsuit Saturday against five major oil companies and their subsidiaries over climate change in ~enviro
Rez (edited )Link ParentI agree it’s an issue in some cases, but I think the pushback to your comment is just about the fact it seems to sort of justify a race to the bottom. California births many industries and big...I agree it’s an issue in some cases, but I think the pushback to your comment is just about the fact it seems to sort of justify a race to the bottom. California births many industries and big companies for a reason. A few will grow up and leave the nest but most will stay. There is absolutely an equilibrium to achieve though in that you don’t want to be pushing all those companies out the door, but at the same time, you don’t want to coddle businesses that aren’t upholding their end of the social contract.
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Comment on California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a lawsuit Saturday against five major oil companies and their subsidiaries over climate change in ~enviro
Rez Link ParentMoving the headquarters of a massive corporation is not some casual thing and has to be very carefully planned and managed to minimize huge losses of personnel and institutional knowledge. There’s...Moving the headquarters of a massive corporation is not some casual thing and has to be very carefully planned and managed to minimize huge losses of personnel and institutional knowledge. There’s a reason Musk moved his engineering HQ from Texas back to California. Headquarters are filled with white collar workers who care a lot about the politics of a state and have options to find work in another state. That’s less an issue for the petroleum industry, but still a very pertinent one across most sectors.
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Comment on Mitt Romney says he will not seek a second term in the US Senate in ~news
Rez Link ParentWhat form does your activism take if I might ask? Reading about politics is essentially a hobby and interest for me since I do not actually try to influence the political process beyond voting (I...What form does your activism take if I might ask?
Reading about politics is essentially a hobby and interest for me since I do not actually try to influence the political process beyond voting (I don't count online discussions as activism and I prefer to improve and give back to society in other ways). I have always voted in every primary and election since I came of age, and simply vote for whatever I think is the least worst option. I think this method does a lot to help keep a person sane but engaged. I feel like ultimately this accomplishes a lot more than most people by never letting myself be dissuaded from voting. The people who actually knock on doors, organize rallies or regularly write to their politicians accomplish more than me, absolutely, but this is an incredibly small percentage of people.
I feel like if most people adopted the practice of "vote for the least worst option" in every primary and election, this country would change a lot for the better. A candidate doesn't need to be perfect for me to vote for them as politics isn't marriage and I don't need to be in love with a candidate - it is unfortunate but expected if they don't live up to my wildest dreams. I already take it for granted that they might be dishonest or fail to live up to their ideals, and then decide how to vote from there. Then after I vote I go about and live my daily life without letting things I have no control over weigh me down.
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Comment on Hunter Biden indicted on US federal gun charges in ~news
Rez Link ParentUpdate: His lawyer is now pretty much making that argument as for why the case should be dismissed (source). Hunter Biden may go free because of how Trump judges changed the interpretation of the...Update: His lawyer is now pretty much making that argument as for why the case should be dismissed (source). Hunter Biden may go free because of how Trump judges changed the interpretation of the 2nd Amendment.
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Comment on Hunter Biden indicted on US federal gun charges in ~news
Rez Link ParentHe actually might be getting punished for this simply because of his father's profile. It is very common for gun owners to be "an unlawful user of, and addicted to, any stimulant, narcotic drug,...If he did it, and if he gets the same punishment as anyone else would get, then okay by me.
He actually might be getting punished for this simply because of his father's profile. It is very common for gun owners to be "an unlawful user of, and addicted to, any stimulant, narcotic drug, and any other controlled substance". That includes marijuana. It's a very unenforced law. If it was stridently enforced, there are many people I know who would be in federal prison for it. However, Hunter may have wiggle room to defend himself by citing the second amendment given the Supreme Court's new tests for what gun laws are constitutional, as this article details for a man who was jailed for being a marijuana user who had a gun.
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Comment on Birth rates are falling even in Nordic countries: stability is no longer enough in ~life
Rez Link ParentA lot of that is solid, creative thinking. I don't actually think humanity will become extinct short of a chaotic collapse of civilization and the environment, but my more refined point will be...A lot of that is solid, creative thinking. I don't actually think humanity will become extinct short of a chaotic collapse of civilization and the environment, but my more refined point will be that our culture will go extinct, and I want that culture to evolve, not devolve (the issue of moral relativism aside). For example, the Amish in the U.S. or the Haredi Jews in Israel are one of the few groups with high fertility in Western countries, and they do not have any particular love for women's rights or empowerment, but they will nevertheless be the people to inherit our world. We are sleepwalking towards a future where women's rights regress, as the people who value such things die off and are replaced by those who do not.
If we can't thread the needle on how to have a society that both enables women's rights while enabling them to freely have enough children to sustain that culture, then the type of culture and values that most people on this website cherish is headed for extinction. As you say, we could regress to something like the 18th century in terms of population and technology, and my worry is that culturally we will regress as well.
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Comment on Birth rates are falling even in Nordic countries: stability is no longer enough in ~life
Rez Link ParentThey had phrased my point disingenuously, so I just responded to their main point to keep it short, but you appear to have carried forward their perspective so I will address that issue now. I do...They had phrased my point disingenuously, so I just responded to their main point to keep it short, but you appear to have carried forward their perspective so I will address that issue now.
I do not think women should be “pushed” to have children or some other kind of coercive connotation, but instead we should aim to create the environment where women naturally and freely choose to have children at a rate that sustains the existence of humanity. We do not have that currently, and no developed country has figured out how to achieve that.
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Comment on Who's running for US president in 2024? Meet the candidates — and likely candidates — vying for your vote in ~misc
Rez Link ParentMostly in the general election. Not the primary. And Republican primary rules have "winner take all" rules for most states, meaning if you win the biggest bloc of votes, even if that's only 40%,...They quietly vote
Mostly in the general election. Not the primary. And Republican primary rules have "winner take all" rules for most states, meaning if you win the biggest bloc of votes, even if that's only 40%, you still get 100% of the delegates that go towards winning the party nomination. This favors a candidate like Trump enormously and makes it harder for another candidate to come from behind to win later on.
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Comment on Birth rates are falling even in Nordic countries: stability is no longer enough in ~life
Rez Link ParentSo that the human race doesn't become extinct. If you disagree with that value then that's fine, but otherwise without ~2.1, extinction is where we're headed.Why should women be pushed to have 2.1 children?
So that the human race doesn't become extinct. If you disagree with that value then that's fine, but otherwise without ~2.1, extinction is where we're headed.
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Comment on Steam's oldest user accounts turn 20, Valve celebrates with special digital badges in ~games
Rez Link ParentPlenty of people made accounts when they were children too, as I did myself with my 18 year old account. And I was playing on my brother's account for a year or two before I made my own. So the...Plenty of people made accounts when they were children too, as I did myself with my 18 year old account. And I was playing on my brother's account for a year or two before I made my own. So the youngest account holders with this milestone could still be in their late 20s or early 30s which makes it a lot less surprising that the accounts are still active. I won't be an active user again though until Cities Skylines 2 comes out.
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Comment on Birth rates are falling even in Nordic countries: stability is no longer enough in ~life
Rez LinkThis is why I don't see immigration as a realistic solution to these woes. It's addressing the symptom but not the cause. The immigrants within a generation or two end up having the same fertility...Another factor which is taken into account when studying birth rates is the influence of migration flows. Faced with the scenario of a declining birth rate in Spain, the immigrant population has often been seen as a lifeline for fertility. But “immigrants adapt quickly to the fertility rates of the host country”, warns Ramiro.
This is why I don't see immigration as a realistic solution to these woes. It's addressing the symptom but not the cause. The immigrants within a generation or two end up having the same fertility issues as well. (And as a tangent, I think it also exacerbates the issue of climate change if we're transferring people from countries with low carbon lifestyles to high carbon ones, such as what Canada and the U.S. does.)
Fertility seems to universally be a systemic problem in developed countries; something about the culture of developed countries seems to lead to us not having children at replacement rates. And short of ensuring undeveloped countries remain as such forever, the same problem will inevitably reach them but the problem would be global with no refuge. Why some countries do better or worse than others is not clear to me, such as why Spain in particular fares so poorly, but as a whole no one is doing well.
We need to design society to be much more child friendly, the same way a society must be made to be bike friendly if you want people to ride bikes. Like in the U.S., painting a bike lane on a stroad or adding a "sharrow" does not magically make it easy, safe or convenient to ride a bicycle. Much more radical changes are necessary to make it appealing for the average person to regularly use a bike to get around. This is what most fertility policies amount to in the grand scheme of things - little nudges and tokens that do not really address the fundamental problem of why people don't have enough kids. What the solution is, I don't know, but I suspect it may take quite a substantial overhaul given how universal the problem appears to be among developed countries. Our economies are not only failing to be sustainable with resources like energy, but the resource of people. What is the economy for in the end? Is it to make our lives better? If so, how does it accomplish that if we all get used up by the economy, like a species overfished or hunted to extinction or with all its natural habitat destroyed?
There's a paradox and tension in that it's economically "better" for people to fewer or no kids, but everyone doing that means that society will implode into nothingness. Our current economy (and society) is essentially designed to commit suicide in the long run by failing to facilitate people having children at replacement rates. This is what I think is driving many people politically mad (see the far-right Great Replacement conspiracy theory), as they sense that on some level (energy concerns and climate change aside), developed civilization is simply not sustainable. We're told by society that our quality of life is basically the best it's ever been historically, yet that same high quality of life precludes us having children. If we saw this dynamic playing out for another species, we would agree that clearly something was fundamentally wrong in their environmental conditions if they weren't having offspring despite ostensibly having all their needs met. Even if we had cheap, renewable energy and a stable climate, we are still set to walk into reproductive extinction in the coming centuries. Now of course that societal model will blow up long before we all walk into an extinction caused by childlessness, but it does mean that the sooner we try to fix this flaw before it blows up in our face through war and other conflicts, the better. What the fix is, I don't know, and it would be a massive, existential tragedy for the human race and women if we fell back on the strategies that ensure high fertility in undeveloped countries. We need to do everything possible to make sure that educated women in control of their own bodies and lives are able to have at least an average of 2.1 children.
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Comment on How to pick up reading again? in ~books
Rez LinkAside from others have said, I'll try to approach from this angle. I've had a similar problem in the past. I found that these worlds stopped being escapism that was comforting or entertaining, and...Besides "having no strength" during my phase of depression, I kind of started to hate the worlds the books offered. I wished to be part of these worlds, where my depression would not mess with me, where I could be happy or at least experience cool adventures. But after every reading session came the hard realization that I was still in this world with my depression and all my problems. That was when I decided to stop reading.
Aside from others have said, I'll try to approach from this angle. I've had a similar problem in the past. I found that these worlds stopped being escapism that was comforting or entertaining, and that there was instead now an anxiety due to an avoidance of confronting hollow or empty parts of my life, or parts I otherwise wasn't putting enough effort into. As a teen with excess emotional energy and with most needs taken care of by your adult family, it feels easy and safe to get lost in these worlds. But as an adult, you have that comparison to make to the real world, alongside a more limited battery with more responsibilities. So these worlds became less interesting to me, as it seemed like such escapes were compounding my problems in life rather than being a respite from them. It was like a chore, except the chore wouldn't be doing anything to better my life, so why not go and do an actual chore that would do that?
I'm never going to be the type of voracious reader I was once when I was younger - perhaps I could again in retirement - but books do have their place in my life now that I have most things under control, now that I'm living life more and on top of my responsibilities. So I have less free time, but in the free time I do have, it makes it easier to pick up a book knowing that the rest of my life is taken care of. It also means I'm fine with tossing a book a quarter of the way through if it's just not interesting enough since I know I only have so much time to read, so I don't need to burn myself out on something that hasn't caught my interest sufficiently.
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Comment on Where have all the girlbosses gone? in ~life.women
Rez Link ParentI don't think that's quite true, e.g. "me and the boys", "going out with the boys", "that's my boy" etc. is common phrasing for men to refer to themselves or others as a boy in a positive way. I...have manospherists refer to themselves as “boys”.
I don't think that's quite true, e.g. "me and the boys", "going out with the boys", "that's my boy" etc. is common phrasing for men to refer to themselves or others as a boy in a positive way. I would agree that I don't see it used for any corporate context though.
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Comment on Could a language learning model talk to whales? Or a human who speaks a language besides English? in ~humanities.languages
Rez Link ParentThe difference is you wouldn't be training the whale and you'd be trying to speak its language. If an alien comes up to me and asks me to jump in English, and I jump, it's not because they trained...The difference is you wouldn't be training the whale and you'd be trying to speak its language. If an alien comes up to me and asks me to jump in English, and I jump, it's not because they trained me, it's because they spoke my language (and I chose to cooperate). They wouldn't be saying an alien sound and teaching me to associate meaning with that particular sound, like what a dog experiences. Then once you've established "jump", you can establish what it means to jump over things. Jump over table. Jump over rock. Jump over ball. Then with "over", you can establish what "under" means. And you can start building a lot from there. But for that scenario, I am the whale, so your question might be how can the alien be sure that they're really relaying the specific concept of "Jump" and the prepositions and nouns?
You would verify it the way any theory is verified, by collecting a lot of data and evidence and seeing if your explanation fits the data and if it's reproducible (within context, e.g. a different pod will have a different language), and if it isn't, you come up with a more refined explanation or approach, like is the human interpreting it as "go over" or "hop" instead of "jump"? Cooperation of course would be essential.
The task would be very difficult and require a lot of imagination and as it concerns whales it may be well beyond us for a very long time, but I'm just coming from the viewpoint that two highly intelligent beings are theoretically able to communicate with enough persistence, cooperation and ingenuity.
But if you think communication would be theoretically impossible to verify, I'd like to hear more of that viewpoint. Because otherwise if you view it as impossible for us to learn how to communicate with whales, then that sounds to me like it'd be impossible for aliens to learn how to communicate with us (assuming all beings involved are sufficiently intelligent and cooperative), even with technology as a gap to reproduce any sounds or method of communication not possible to produce with our physiology.
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Comment on Could a language learning model talk to whales? Or a human who speaks a language besides English? in ~humanities.languages
Rez Link ParentWell you'd be able to double check it the same way we do in real life, by seeing if there is apparent cooperation with what you're communicating. If you ask the whale to do some basic motion or...Well you'd be able to double check it the same way we do in real life, by seeing if there is apparent cooperation with what you're communicating. If you ask the whale to do some basic motion or thing and it does it reliably, you know it's working, just like with a dog, except with whales there's the prospect of much more complex communication, such as discussing subjective concepts.
Just like in real life though, it'd be very easy to misunderstand any higher level or more abstract communication. But there would be some minimal level of verification that you'd be able to engage in, it wouldn't be a complete black box, and hopefully the smart linguists would be able to start building from there.
This would be the major issue if somehow magically Taylor Swift was entertaining the prospect of a long-term relationship with me. She has a history of unstable relationships and most of them seem to end with her publicly airing out baggage. This would definitely make me cautious with a regular person who had a similar dating history, as it would seem like something was wrong with their romantic radar and they weren't going through self-reflection to dissect what went wrong with past relationships (at least for what's under their control) and how they can improve their radar going forward to lay the foundation for more stable, better relationships with better chosen partners. We are the common denominator in all the relationships in our lives so if there are recurring issues in our relationships, we need to take a look at ourselves to see what part we are playing in manifesting those issues.
Her lifestyle unfortunately also makes for a double-whammy in terms of making it difficult to sustain a relationship. Long-distance relationships are very hard, especially if it turns into one relatively early on in the relationship. I in all sincerity would not want to date Taylor Swift. Too many things are already publicly known, and combined with her lifestyle, it's just clear to me that the relationship would end in tragedy, wasted time and unnecessary baggage.