slade's recent activity

  1. Comment on How funerals keep Africa poor in ~life

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    I feel this at a visceral level.

    Kinship societies are actively hostile to economic growth, because economic growth undermines the basis of kinship

    I feel this at a visceral level.

    8 votes
  2. Comment on Fox is buying Roku in $22 billion deal in ~tv

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    Of course, months after I buy a new Roku TV. Honestly I'd just stop watching tv entirely if it weren't for my kids. Roku already inserts a lot of suspiciously conservative and religious ads into...

    Of course, months after I buy a new Roku TV. Honestly I'd just stop watching tv entirely if it weren't for my kids. Roku already inserts a lot of suspiciously conservative and religious ads into the home page so I can't wait to see how much more overt it gets, and the countless countless conversations I'll have with my kids to explain how evil this shit is.

    3 votes
  3. Comment on Jumping spiders shouldn’t be this smart in ~science

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    I can't wait to watch this. I've been obsessed with jumping spiders for a long time. I have a long list of anecdotes about smart and social interactions with jumpers.

    I can't wait to watch this. I've been obsessed with jumping spiders for a long time. I have a long list of anecdotes about smart and social interactions with jumpers.

    6 votes
  4. Comment on Casual viewing - Why Netflix looks like that ~30+ min read in ~movies

    slade
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    Sure you can.

    I can't fault the company for yielding to the addictive properties of mobile phones and social video like TikTok installed on them.

    Sure you can.

    6 votes
  5. Comment on Landmark German ruling declares Google's AI Overviews are Google's own words and makes it liable for false answers in ~tech

    slade
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    For sure. I hope it wakes us up to a whole new way of thinking about accountability. I've long ranted about the dangers and societal harms of The Algorithm.

    For sure. I hope it wakes us up to a whole new way of thinking about accountability. I've long ranted about the dangers and societal harms of The Algorithm.

    2 votes
  6. Comment on Landmark German ruling declares Google's AI Overviews are Google's own words and makes it liable for false answers in ~tech

    slade
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    This seems like extremely common sense. You're either quoting someone else's writing or writing something yourself. If they want the freedom that comes with "AI isn't stealing, it's creating...

    This seems like extremely common sense. You're either quoting someone else's writing or writing something yourself. If they want the freedom that comes with "AI isn't stealing, it's creating something new" necessarily includes "my business is creating and publishing novel content", and of course a business should be responsible for the content it publishes.

    35 votes
  7. Comment on Winners of the 2025 International Obfuscated C Code Contest in ~comp

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    That would be a fun linting rule, though. "❌ Code not shaped as a lightning bolt"

    That would be a fun linting rule, though. "❌ Code not shaped as a lightning bolt"

    4 votes
  8. Comment on What do you think is the best sandwich? in ~food

    slade
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    I find that PB and toast make for a pretty dry combo. Maybe that's why for you, too?

    I find that PB and toast make for a pretty dry combo. Maybe that's why for you, too?

  9. Comment on The user is visibly frustrated in ~tech

    slade
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    Possibly. I don't recall, to be honest. I think part of it might have just been my assumption that live people don't exist on commercial websites.

    Possibly. I don't recall, to be honest. I think part of it might have just been my assumption that live people don't exist on commercial websites.

    2 votes
  10. Comment on ‘Stargate’ TV series from Martin Gero not moving forward at Amazon in ~tv

    slade
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    I support your response to this, but the cynical take is that as long as there are more newcomers who like the new format/direction of the story than angry fans, and there usually is, they just...

    I support your response to this, but the cynical take is that as long as there are more newcomers who like the new format/direction of the story than angry fans, and there usually is, they just don't care. From what I see, these revivals, reboots, and such are often launched using the fan excitement to sell the idea, then immediately abandoning them for the greater public.

    2 votes
  11. Comment on What do you think of robots in the military? in ~tech

    slade
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    I'm curious where the robotics arms race plateaus. It's hard for me to imagine.

    I'm curious where the robotics arms race plateaus. It's hard for me to imagine.

    2 votes
  12. Comment on The user is visibly frustrated in ~tech

    slade
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    That's something I think about, too. I got caught by this once. Not saying anything rude, but the initial chat sounded very robotty so I curtly asked for a live person, and that were like "...I'm...

    That's something I think about, too. I got caught by this once. Not saying anything rude, but the initial chat sounded very robotty so I curtly asked for a live person, and that were like "...I'm a real person." I felt pretty awful about that.

    7 votes
  13. Comment on Hackers used Meta’s AI support bot to seize Instagram accounts in ~tech

    slade
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    THIS one was. What about the other 30 that they haven't noticed yet? Or the new ones they're adding next month? These AI implementations are rushed and pure hubris. Any company that can't be...

    Meta’s Andy Stone said on Twitter/X that the issue had been resolved

    THIS one was. What about the other 30 that they haven't noticed yet? Or the new ones they're adding next month? These AI implementations are rushed and pure hubris. Any company that can't be profitable on a baseline of human support, should possibly just not exist.

    7 votes
  14. Comment on The user is visibly frustrated in ~tech

    slade
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    I also catch myself being verbally abusive to LLM agents. I've said things that forego all of my learned patience and empathy and give me pure catharsis in the moment. It's almost indulgent at...

    I also catch myself being verbally abusive to LLM agents. I've said things that forego all of my learned patience and empathy and give me pure catharsis in the moment. It's almost indulgent at times.

    I don't feel good about it. I feel a bit like a character out of the first season of Westworld. I worry that the way I treat an LLM, which increasingly emulates human reactions, will impact how I treat real people.

    I wonder how many other people act this way?

    I also wonder if AI providers have me categorized as an asshole.

    19 votes
  15. Comment on What are people's experiences with using Kagi? in ~tech

    slade
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    That is downright saintly by today's standards. Proactively giving back money is about as real as it gets.

    That is downright saintly by today's standards. Proactively giving back money is about as real as it gets.

    11 votes
  16. Comment on What are your personal crackpot conspiracy theories about the world right now? in ~talk

    slade
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    Now I want to see a website or app where people vote on the aesthetic appeal of numbers. Maybe different categories for different numbers of digits. I wonder what this most statistically pleasing...

    Now I want to see a website or app where people vote on the aesthetic appeal of numbers. Maybe different categories for different numbers of digits. I wonder what this most statistically pleasing numbers would be.

    6 votes
  17. Comment on Who else is as excited as I am for the Backrooms movie tomorrow? in ~movies

    slade
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    Everyone else has given pretty good context. I will add that because there is no canon, there are diverse interpretations of it. Some go very deep into rules, lore, levels, "entities". There's all...

    Everyone else has given pretty good context. I will add that because there is no canon, there are diverse interpretations of it. Some go very deep into rules, lore, levels, "entities". There's all kinds of stuff about almond water and if you ask me, it gets pretty goofy. I'm not really interested in any of those parts of it, which is why I'm excited that this movie is being made by this particular filmmaker.

    His interpretation scratches an itch that I've had since I was a kid, long before the interwebs. I remember having a recurring dream about an infinitely sprawling mansion, and other dreams that were in a similar theme. The liminal space is craze that picked up a few years ago hit a lot of the same notes for me. Empty spaces, isolation, feeling like you might have just been left behind by time.

    To me the backrooms is taking liminal space to and existentially horrifying extreme. In the backrooms there is no sense of direction, no architectural flow towards an exit, no sense of bearings. It invokes feelings of imprisonment, isolation, solitude, claustrophobia, abandonment. Somewhere in there it reminds me of times and spaces that have been forgotten, loss, and lost youth. Existential hell where you have no real agency. Ww as adds to o I'm not sure why it resonates all of these things in me. Some of them make sense but others do not.

    I can't explain its effect on me very well, which is why I'm so fascinated by it. I haven't seen the movie yet, and honestly don't expect it to go where I want it to, but it should be a fun watch.

    3 votes
  18. Who else is as excited as I am for the Backrooms movie tomorrow?

    Warning: this post may contain spoilers

    I'm aware that it'll be really hard to thread this needle and make this movie work, but I'm excited to see the attempt. The reviews I've read have only made me more interested.

    Amy Nicholson for Los Angeles Times described the film as a feature expansion of Kane Parsons' viral internet project, praising its unsettling visual concept but thought it less a conventional horror film and more a surreal, dreamlike experience of a moving Salvador Dalí painting.

    Another mentions sparse dialogue, which I'm happy to hear.

    I've wanted this movie since long before it was announced. I have a few hopes, no expectations, but I've deeply enjoyed Parsons' other work.

    20 votes
  19. Comment on Bank boss sorry after describing workers as 'lower value human capital' in ~finance

    slade
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    "I'm sorry I said what I meant. I realize it's my entire job to not say what I mean and I messed up. For that I'm deeply sorry."

    "I'm sorry I said what I meant. I realize it's my entire job to not say what I mean and I messed up. For that I'm deeply sorry."

    51 votes
  20. Comment on The US campaign to turn healthy people into Alzheimer’s patients in ~health.mental

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    My first time encountering noïta in the wild. I love/hate that game.

    My first time encountering noïta in the wild. I love/hate that game.

    1 vote