thearctic's recent activity

  1. Is it possible to not want to be happy?

    ~talk Ask
    This is sort of a philosophical, logical, and psychological paradox. If you are content when being unhappy, then your preferences are satisfied. So, you wouldn't want to change anything and, in...

    This is sort of a philosophical, logical, and psychological paradox. If you are content when being unhappy, then your preferences are satisfied. So, you wouldn't want to change anything and, in that sense, you are happy. But if you're happy, then your preference is unsatisfied and so you're unhappy. But, it seems plausible in real-life that someone, for some complicated reason, actually doesn't want to be happy. If we accept that such a thing exists, then what exactly are we talking about?

    11 votes

  2. Comment on China is dealing with its own manosphere in ~life.men

    thearctic
    Link Parent
    A fairly simple solution is that they could immigrate to countries with a shortage of men. Older parents are also more likely to have daughters, so in a strange way we might have the inverse...

    A fairly simple solution is that they could immigrate to countries with a shortage of men. Older parents are also more likely to have daughters, so in a strange way we might have the inverse problem globally within a couple generations.

    1 vote

  3. Comment on Readers rate poems worse when they believe they're written by AI, despite their ability to detect AI being no better than chance in ~humanities.languages

    thearctic
    Link

    In this article, we examine the perception of AI- and human-written Czech poetry. We ask if Czech native speakers are able to identify it and how they aesthetically judge it. Participants performed at chance level when guessing authorship (45.8 per cent correct on average), indicating that Czech AI-generated poems were largely indistinguishable from human-written ones. Aesthetic evaluations revealed a strong authorship bias: when participants believed a poem was AI-generated, they rated it as less favorably, even though AI poems were in fact rated equally or more favorably than human ones on average. The logistic regression model uncovered that the more the people liked a poem, the less probable was that they accurately assign the authorship. Familiarity with poetry or literary background had no effect on recognition accuracy.

    1 vote

  5. Comment on Sen. Lindsey Graham dies at 71 after ‘brief and sudden illness’ in ~society

    thearctic
    Link Parent
    Black Mirror needs to make an episode on this

    Black Mirror needs to make an episode on this

    8 votes

  6. Comment on Sen. Lindsey Graham dies at 71 after ‘brief and sudden illness’ in ~society

    thearctic
    Link Parent
    I don't know why NYT feels the need to do those sorts of things. I feel like they think they are some sort of "unifying" institution for the country. They're not and shouldn't try to be. They...

    I don't know why NYT feels the need to do those sorts of things. I feel like they think they are some sort of "unifying" institution for the country. They're not and shouldn't try to be. They should also appreciate the extent to which many of these people stay in power not as a function of democratic will but from moneyed interest.

    14 votes

  7. Comment on Sen. Lindsey Graham dies at 71 after ‘brief and sudden illness’ in ~society

    thearctic
    Link
    In general, I think it's bad taste to gloat over someone's death, even someone you deeply disagree with. But Lindsay Graham was known to celebrate killing and murder, so I won't feel bad about it.

    In general, I think it's bad taste to gloat over someone's death, even someone you deeply disagree with. But Lindsay Graham was known to celebrate killing and murder, so I won't feel bad about it.

    12 votes

  8. Comment on How private equity ruined American youth sports in ~sports

    thearctic
    Link Parent
    LBOs weren't legal until Reagan. Just ban them.

    LBOs weren't legal until Reagan. Just ban them.

    1 vote

  9. Comment on 2026 Fifa World Cup - Finals discussion and news megathread (quarters/semis/finals) in ~sports.football

    thearctic
    Link Parent
    On the whole controversy over Norway's goal being taken away: Haaland definitely pushed the dude in a way that gave them an unfair advantage. Anderson might have been able to hold his ground if he...

    On the whole controversy over Norway's goal being taken away: Haaland definitely pushed the dude in a way that gave them an unfair advantage. Anderson might have been able to hold his ground if he really wanted to, but he would've stumbled backwards pretty hard. The call to redo the corner I think was fair. In any case, FIFA needs to get its act together on contact in general. If the rules aren't airtight, then even teams that don't want to play dirty will have to play a little dirty eventually, lest they be at a disadvantage.

    3 votes

  10. Comment on Woman who dated US Senate candidate Graham Platner says he sexually assaulted her in ~society

    thearctic
    Link Parent
    Scolding people into voting will literally never work. If the left wing voting population of this country consists of a sizable portion of highly-engaged but picky progressive voters, then that's...

    Scolding people into voting will literally never work. If the left wing voting population of this country consists of a sizable portion of highly-engaged but picky progressive voters, then that's just the nature of the game and the Democratic party has to learn to play it if they want to win.

    6 votes

  11. Comment on Pew Research polling on NATO, 2026 in ~society

    thearctic
    Link
    The headline says "NATO gets high marks", but I'd make the opposite characterization from the data they present. Nato having a net negative favorability rating among one of its most strategically...

    The headline says "NATO gets high marks", but I'd make the opposite characterization from the data they present. Nato having a net negative favorability rating among one of its most strategically important members (Turkey), being underwater for two other members (Spain and Greece), and being not far from 50/50 in two vital members (France and Italy) is certainly a major concern for the future of the alliance, especially given the downward trend. Though, the high popularity in Hungary is interesting and surprising.

    Other points of interest to me: Russia being fairly unpopular in Pakistan. Fairly strong support for Russia in Indonesia. The general growing favorability of Russia. The greater favorability of Russia among young people. The general lack of confidence around the world for Zelenskyy, even in countries with an unfavorable view of Russia.

    3 votes

  13. Comment on US Federal Communications Commission approves test of space mirror to light night sky despite outcry in ~space

    thearctic
    Link Parent
    Nature is a tricky thing in that it doesn't really exist. But it's still important and should be protected. Perhaps what we mean is that there should be limits in how we impose our will on our...

    Nature is a tricky thing in that it doesn't really exist. But it's still important and should be protected. Perhaps what we mean is that there should be limits in how we impose our will on our surroundings.

    6 votes

  14. Comment on The end of reading is here in ~books

    thearctic
    Link Parent
    I guess, but this also applies to elementary and middle school, where grades literally make no difference on college admissions. As far as I see, it's a cultural phenomenon more than anything else.

    I guess, but this also applies to elementary and middle school, where grades literally make no difference on college admissions. As far as I see, it's a cultural phenomenon more than anything else.

    3 votes

  15. Comment on The end of reading is here in ~books

    thearctic
    Link Parent
    The sway that (a loud minority of) parents have over the school system is in large part responsible for the degradation of public (and even private to some extent) education. This is in some ways...

    The sway that (a loud minority of) parents have over the school system is in large part responsible for the degradation of public (and even private to some extent) education. This is in some ways a side effect of living in a democratic republic, as opposed to a social democracy, in the sense that families have the room to vote with their feet and the public education system accommodates this "marketplace" of preference. Deciding the exact right way to educate is an extremely difficult practical and philosophical problem, and so there is a sensibility in having it decentralized. But, at least culturally, we need to converge on the value of literacy and basic numeracy and probably be pretty strict in making it happen, if a well-informed citizenry is essential to a well-functioning republic. As the article mentions, America was once fairly impressive in its education system relative to the rest of the world. Now, we're quite behind.

    2 votes

  16. Comment on The end of reading is here in ~books

    thearctic
    Link
    In education, the solutions are relatively simple. Assign reading to kids, follow them up with reading quizzes that can't be reliably spoofed from SparkNotes (ex: who said this? this excerpt...

    In education, the solutions are relatively simple. Assign reading to kids, follow them up with reading quizzes that can't be reliably spoofed from SparkNotes (ex: who said this? this excerpt happened after which of the following plot points? etc). Then fail the kids who can't pass. For some reason we can't converge on the notion that education should educate, and we see the inevitable fruit.

    7 votes

  17. Comment on Thoughts on graphene OS? in ~tech

    thearctic
    Link Parent
    From a functionality standpoint, can you still use the Google Messages app for SMS group chats?

    From a functionality standpoint, can you still use the Google Messages app for SMS group chats?

    2 votes

  18. Thoughts on graphene OS?

    ~tech Ask (survey)
    I got a pixel 9a recently and am debating whether to install graphene OS on it. My main motivations are wanting to avoid AI bloat, potentially improve battery, and reduce tracking. Though, I'd...

    I got a pixel 9a recently and am debating whether to install graphene OS on it. My main motivations are wanting to avoid AI bloat, potentially improve battery, and reduce tracking. Though, I'd rather not have to spend time continuously troubleshoot my phone for stuff that doesn't work properly. Also, graphene OS is considered quite secure, but is there a plausible risk I need to worry about of the project losing support and eventually becoming less secure than stock Android? If any of you run graphene OS, what are your long-term experiences with it?

    47 votes

  19. Comment on Physical disc production ending in January 2028 for new games releasing on PlayStation consoles in ~games

    thearctic
    Link
    The more the experience starts to feel like regular PC gaming and the more accessible PC gaming becomes, the harder it'll be for consoles to conceptually differentiate themselves. I see this...

    The more the experience starts to feel like regular PC gaming and the more accessible PC gaming becomes, the harder it'll be for consoles to conceptually differentiate themselves. I see this hurting their sales in the long term.

    15 votes

  20. Comment on Just be normal about things - On sleepmaxxing, beef-only diets, political hysteria, and the lost art of being reasonable in ~health.mental

    thearctic
    Link
    reasonablemaxxing

    reasonablemaxxing

    1 vote