chaosCruiser @ chaosCruiser @futurology.today

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1 yr. ago

For many years, YT have been taking steps towards beginning more like TV. Shows made by corporations, made to be enjoyed by “all audiences”, filled with ads and so on.

Any pillow will do as long as it’s manufactured by a company with a nazi CEO.

Put a picture of Trump under the pillow before you go to sleep. During the night, the supreme wisdom of Trump will be focused by the pillow and absorbed by your subconscious mind. In the morning, you’ll just know the correct answer.

Also works with university exams. No need to read any books as long as you have the photo of the relevant professor under your pillow.

Less money spent on services means more money can be spent on the king’s new palace. At least that’s the way it worked in France long ago.

If the numbers are public, have a look at what your local dictator is spending it on.

Can't help you with the relationships, but I can help you with long posts and online stuff. Yes, I know, the irony is getting real thick here... LOL

Wall of text

When a complex idea manifests as a wall of text, dump the early draft to an LLM, and tell it to squeeze it into a tighter package. Tell it to delete the unnecessary ramblings and repetitions while keeping the core message intact. Before LLMs, I had to manually tidy up my posts and long comments, but nowadays LLMs can handle that sort of stuff for you.

BTW I totally agree that screens tend to be too interesting to humans, so here are a few ideas to help with that.

Be intentional

Make a habit of making your interactions with digital technology more intentional.

This philosophy applies to mobile apps too. Instead of starting an app by tapping an icon on the home screen, use the search feature on your phone to type the name of the app and launch it that way. Muscle memory tends to lead to starting apps even when you don't really intend to, but using the search as a means to starting apps adds a layer of friction between you and wasting your time on brainrot. This method works best when your home screen doesn’t have any interesting apps to distract you. Put only boring apps in there or make it entirely empty if you want to go full detox. Having a really nice wallpaper helps with that.

Watch videos on your computer, not your phone or tablet. Uninstall the YT app from everything, and use it on a browser instead. This adds a little more friction, making it harder to mindlessly watch videos. When you do watch them, it's deliberate instead of accidental.

Limit exposure

Limit your online exposure by using whitelists instead of blacklists. On YouTube, you can do this by ignoring main feed and sticking to your subscriptions. BTW, the PocketTube browser extension makes this even nicer, but is it useful to make the experience that nice though? If not, disable uBlock Origin, SponsorBlock and PocketTube to speed up the detox process. You'll end up hating YT so much that watching paint dry will become surprisingly appealing. Maybe that's a bit hard-core... Better start with smaller steps and try full detox later.

Anyway, the same approach works for Lemmy too. Subscribe to the stuff you really care about, and ignore the rest. This way, you'll be exposed to less Internet overall, and the part you do see is more likely to be worth your time. As a result, you'll run out of top-tier material rather quickly, and the internet becomes boring to you. As soon as you get bored, take your eyes off the screen. Look out the window. Take a deep breath. Let your mind wander, and you might suddenly remember you still need to take out the trash (or whatever task you’ve been putting off).

Edit: I wasn't happy with the initial version, so I let an LLM suggest minor tweaks. Only some of them were included.

Can’t they just lump all the fees together?

Main product itself: 10

Unspecified fees (don’t ask): 160

LOL, how about we just call it meat bread instead.

Imagine if the term hamburger was under the protected designation of origin, just like feta cheese and champagne. You couldn’t produce hamburgers anywhere besides Hamburg. The rest of the world would have to call them something else, like beef sandwiches.

They are currently laying the foundation for the future where they can shift the balance from fossil fuels to renewable energy. Take a look at the amount of renewable energy they're producing. Not only is that growing fast, it's already a large quantity.

Some industries, like steel, will take longer to switch, so getting rid of fossil fuels entirely will probably take a very long time. Total energy consumption is also likely to increase in the future, so the existing emitters will likely continue to be in operation for decades. However, as the energy demand increases, more and more of that energy will be produced by renewable means. This means that, due to renewable energy production, the total emissions won't grow as fast as they otherwise would.

Well some of them would, because that’s how international politics works. However, a surprising number of countries have recognized Palestine, so I think the number of friends Israel has might be in a decline.

I can imagine the body paint story ended badly... No need to look up the facts with an introduction like that.

Wasn't there also a Russian RTG core that was so hot it would melt the snow around it? Some scavengers found it, and got immediately blasted with a lethal does of radiation—as you would expect.

With this post, OP was clearly aiming for a minor annoyance or a frustrating little prank, but that story just gave me an idea that goes a fair bit beyond that... More like diabolical malice, but here goes anyway.

Sending one of those plutonium cores back in time to the neanderthals would be a pretty good candidate too. It doesn't really glow, which is a bummer, but it has other "magical" properties to compensate. The heat might still attract them to it, and the intense radiation would kill them within a day or two. If they somehow manage to touch the plutonium itself—a feat worthy of recognition—they could also experience its toxicity.

Exactly! They picked one of the foolish routes instead.

Too late for that. They screwed up.

Israel has no way to win in this situation. Torturing her will result in media backlash. Executing her would only make a martyr, which is even worse. Somehow, Israel didn’t choose to kick her out immediately.

You’re absolutely right. Economic motivations decide the trajectory a company may take. Ethics, green washing, queer rights and other factors take a back seat. If they come with financial benefits, the company will follow that path, but that’s always because of money—no matter what the marketing material actually says.

Remember when companies were supporting sexual and gender minorities? That was because financial incentives aligned with that at the time. Remember when those turncoats suddenly scrapped the DEI programs and removed all rainbow themes? Same motivation again. Facade changed, but the foundation is still the same.

That’s the key difference between mobile devices and actual computers. You are merely a user, not the administrator who can do anything with the hardware.

How about web apps or even regular sites with a mobile friendly UI?

A bottle with a highly concentrated solution of polonium, radium, plutonium or anything spicy and ionizing.

Preferably coupled with something that glows nicely, like ZnS. Just pick a suitable fluorescent dye and make it blue or green for bonus points.

Just use whatever LLM you consider acceptable. However, don't trust the initial summary or simplified version. Always ask follow-up questions and you may find that the first version had some flaws. You could ask the LLM something like: "Is Facebook saying that they may sell my data to anyone? Answer based on the provided EULA." Tell it to quote the relevant part of the document to back up the claim. See if the original EULA actually has that part. If so, read it a few times and let it sink in. Using this method, you can jump quickly to the part you find most relevant to any concerns you may have about the contract.

Sure, the UI can be nicer on small displays, but the app tends to have fewer features than the site. Just don't see much real benefit in that.