… as are any genuine threats to capitalism in the US Empire

Yeah, I pretty much agree. I guess you could argue that Bernie is still alive, but there’s a reason the Dems never let him run, and there’s been smear campaigns against him.

“Brainwashing” fundamentally doesn’t exist.

Not as you interpreted it, it doesn’t. But in the metaphorical sense, (like the media keeping you focused on other things, you know the whole “bread and circuses” thing) it does.

The reality is that people support socialism because it works for them.

You think the people actively support China’s flavour of authoritarian communism deliberately, and not because of fear or the media? Tell that to the Tank Man and all the others that died fighting for democracy and freedom, at the Tiananmen Square Massacre.

The state is under the control of the working class

I don’t think I’ve heard anything that’s more ridiculous than that!

Tell that to the Uyghurs and other muslims that the CCP is sending to internment camps. I don’t think the workers in those camps control the state in any way, otherwise they wouldn’t be in there in the first place.

Your hatred of the working class would make Orwell blush

And your defence of dictatorships will make Trump, Musk and Thiel squeal in joy.

Maybe? Idk if I should feel honoured, as that’s sort-of how I’d align myself.

I’d say I’m more of a social democrat personally.

Oh my goodness.

Go to the US and call Trump a fuckwit.

Then go to China and call Xi Jinping a fuckwit.

Which one had you arrested? That’s right, China.

Go to the US and say Assange and Snowden are heroes and should be remembered.

Then go to China and say the Tiananmen Square Massacre should be remembered.

Which one had you arrested? That’s right, China.

Now do the same with the political system.

Now try to access an anti-US propaganda site from the US.

Then try to access an anti-China propaganda site from China.

Which one’s access was blocked? That’s right, China.

Now ask ChatGPT about the US Government’s war crimes.

Then ask Deepseek about the Chinese Government’s war crimes.

Which one refused to answer? That’s right, Deepseek from China.

I’m not saying the US is good. In fact, I agree with basically all you said about the bad in the US. But don’t be fooled by the mask of the Chinese Dictatorship. The proles are easy to fool, and statistics are easy to fake. I should know, I come from a heavily corrupt post-communist state that would make US corruption look like Child’s Play in comparison.

The only things China is better at, are the more efficient brainwashing and exploitation of its citizens, and the more efficient use of funds, funneling them towards further wealth of the state, rather than further wealth of the billionaire class (because in China they aren’t just friends, they’re one and the same).

It seems you’re mostly right (except there are rumours that a Taiwan takeover is part of China’s long term plan for economic dominance).

I’m worried at how many China shills there are around here.

Nobody is saying the US is all good. But it likely isn’t as horrible as China. Is it certainly the lesser of two evils? I’m actually not completely sure, but I’d guess the US isn’t as horrible.

Sorry, what I meant was that I’m sceptical AI can achieve what people are saying it will achieve. I think there will be a realisation that the impact would be significant enough to mention, but nowhere near as revolutionary as tech CEOs are trying to sell it as.

Did people forget when the US went to shit, and how the US quality of life only really started declining when they won the Cold War and had no more competition? Competition is key to pushing the US to do better. It’s not going to do that without the threat of China (not that it’s doing that now, but the principle still stands).

I always saw it as TSMC potentially being a key reason for China to invade Taiwan so they get their hands on semiconductors, with this being LESS likely now, instead of more, because China no longer needs TSMC and their research.

Correction: both are bad. The only good outcome is where neither the US nor China is a lone superpower, but instead they both compete economically, driving innovation and improvement for the rest of the world to enjoy.

Hinton has been saying apocalyptic things for years, and we’ve seen no evidence for most of it. At this point, I’m sceptical of anything he says, and I especially am curious about which companies he invested in and has a vested interest in the success of.

While I don’t disagree, I think talking about the corrupt oligarchist model as if it isn’t matched (if not outclassed) by the CCP’s control and surveillance in China feels disingenuous.

Idk about 2 years, but they can definitely do it by 2030.

It took TSMC a while to get to that point if I’m not mistaken, so even with all the financial might of the CCP, I still doubt it will happen THAT quickly.

If China’s already at 5nm, they’re getting close. Smallest in use now is 3nm, I think.

This poses the question, how long until China can achieve its goals without Taiwan and TSMC?

I’m starting to think maybe I’d prefer Brave New World over the current reality. At least the people are happy and not miserable.

Until I’m reminded we still have some power in numbers, and speech isn’t completely censored yet.

Though the future is basically BNW but with no soma. The soma will be UBI. Enough to live, but not enough to afford to rebel.

Don’t mind if I do!

buys more options

The other day I was bored and asked AI to play a game. Then I ended the “conversation” because I realised this “game’s” environmental impact. If it was clean energy-powered I’d find a way to run it in perpetuity to waste OpenAI’s money, but the environmental impact is more important

I’m a Linux user, and while that would also be win for me, I’d be really happy for Windows users to finally stop having what amounts to a rootkit and spyware combined, to have to play games.

In some ways, I’d almost describe him as a role model. I’m sure many people would agree that they have also held grudges towards the modern ruling class and have wanted to offer a similar response. Perhaps he is the first of many. After all, of those who became billionaires, I would only spare a small number (there are many billionaires who simply inherited their wealth and are not guilty of sacrificing people’s wellbeing to amass greater wealth).

The [new] venue is considered safer than the medieval former religious school where the party was initially scheduled to be held. It is surrounded by water, making it impossible to reach by land when bridges are raised.

I wonder, if Jeff is a good guy, why is he so scared? If he was a good guy, surely nobody would want to Luigi him (attack and/or murder him) too?

Wait, really? I’d love to see replaceable batteries make a comeback, but something tells me that companies will prefer to up the water resistance instead.

No requirements on replaceable batteries? That’s the main thing that’s missing here. That and making the USB-C port easy to repair, and suddenly you no longer need new phones, just extended software support and repairs.

Yes, give China reason to join WW3. A brilliant idea!

This is it! This is it! If teachers can connect to students, then students will listen, will engage, and will be interested, excited, and ready to learn.

I’m not saying it’s easy, I’m not saying it’s common, but I am saying that I’ve had a total of about 40 teachers before university, and of them, there are only 2 that I can point to, where students at large felt really engaged with the class. And this is why.

Unfortunately, they are also shutting down fakespot, which was far more important but nobody used it or even knew of it

They are removing fakespot as well, which was made to help users spot scams. THAT was valuable but nobody actually used it.

Quote from the article:

Regrettably, a huge opportunity was missed to make all smartphone and tablet batteries removable and replaceable by end-users.

I prefer MAGMA personally

There is hope for the Thinkpads, as the 5th Gen T14 is apparently bringing back a lot of the reparability of the older models (namely, by returning replaceable RAM). I wouldn’t know, as I have a Gen 4 (not ideal, but just perfect considering how cheap I got it and how powerful it is).

Damn, the American Empire makes me glad my parents chose to move to the UK instead. Not saying our politicians are perfect, but they certainly aren’t as blatantly corrupt

I found Linux because I was broke so the only laptop I could afford was a Windows 10 machine with 4GB RAM, so I looked into Linux Mint to squeeze out a more decent performance.

I’d love to use Pixelfed but as a user that looks at stuff instead of posting.

But there is no good option for a server. I’d want something nearby because speed, but my only options are (UK): A Scottish instance that will delete any accounts which haven’t posted in more than 30 days, a furry instance in the UK, and an adult instance in the Netherlands.

So I’ll pass until there’s a good instance.

Thank you for helping me find a new podcast to listen to

I really think AI development should move to creating small and single-purpose models that can easily be trained with public domain data of your choice, so they can be ran locally and spend far less energy than models like Gippity.

Clearly they can’t be trusted with the quality assurance of their training data.

Archive link: https://archive.ph/FS3qX

Archive ph link

https://archive.ph/USqb3

For people like me who were faced with the paywall after reading one too many Reuters articles.

If anyone can share what caused the downvotes, I’d be very happy if you could let me know. Thanks.

CTT claims that Bluesky is great, but I’m just not into that type of social media so while I’m on Mastodon, I don’t actually use it.

Right, so that was his plan all along?

Keep on promising a full self driving experience, which even now won’t really happen,

and then promising an affordable Tesla,

which he can then backtrack on?

Overpromise and underdeliver.

That’s the Musk motto.

Can’t wait to see him fail to bring humanity to Mars, and end up trying to credit himself when NASA do it.

They’ll do it in 3-4 years, claiming it’s revolutionary, while they’re just catching up to the competition.