industries tend to be more centralized in China. It’s not that that’s indicative of every city, more that Shenzhen already has easy access to the kind of manufacturing and products that a robotics company would find ideal.

Dozens of squat delivery robots have now begun riding subway trains across the network during off-peak hours, exiting at each station where a 7-Eleven is located to make deliveries, according to a report by local news outlet SZNews.

“In the past, delivery workers had to park above ground, unload goods, and manually push them into subway stations,” Li Yanyan, a manager at one of the 7-Eleven stores involved in the project, told SZNews. “Now, with robots, it’s much easier and more convenient.”

I think this is only for 7/11s that are part of the underground subway architecture? I don’t think the robots would be cost effective compared to a truck if this was for restocking any old corner store.

Sure, modern tech allows for a lot of things that wouldn’t otherwise be possible. But we’ve also hit a plateau when it comes to major developments in physics. Building a truly long term habitat (like, can last many multiple generations) is just flat out gonna take several lifetimes before any actual results come to bare. Maaaybe you can shave logistical stress off the margins with a space elevator, but we don’t actually know how to build on of those.

Short of some jarring, borderline miraculous breakthrough, we’re not gonna see it in our lifetime. Hell, safe bet is our grandchildren won’t either.

Sure, in like four or five centuries maybe.

All that science fiction with colonies across the solar system by 20XX (or even the 2100s), its more fiction than science. Any sort of colony on Mars or the Moon or the skies of Venus or whatever is gonna have to recreate a biosphere from scratch. That alone would take decades upon decades of work – and that’s only really possible after we stabilize the biosphere we already live in.

First building an equilibrium with nature would give us the kind of expertise needed to actually make space colonies anything other than a pipe dream.

I wish it had a d-pad rather than the left trackpad, but otherwise yeah

If only mine weren’t broken 🥲

It’s when you start including structures within cells that the complexity moves beyond anything we’re currently capable of computing.

Self Driving is only safer than people in absolutely pristine road conditions with no inclement weather and no construction. As soon as anything disrupts “normal” road conditions, self driving becomes significantly more dangerous than a human driving.

Terrorism is internationally recognized as when a group or organization unaffiliated with a recognized government uses violence to achieve a political goal. “Terrorist state” is a contradiction in terms.

Netanyahu is leading a genocide and starting wars, all to avoid the regular democratic and legal process of Israel. Why are you carrying water for him?

Damn Christians, they ruined Christianity!

Cheerful Baptist, really. I think its on accounta all the soda.

the sports gambling is getting out of hand, yeah

What they mean is that before Turing, “computer” was literally a person’s job description. You hand a professional a stack of calculations with some typos, part of the job is correcting those out. Newfangled machine comes along with the same name as the job, among the first thing people are gonna ask about is where it fall short.

Like, if I made a machine called “assistant”, it’d be natural for people to point out and ask about all the things a person can do that a machine just never could.

imagine how many more rockets we could reuse if the NASA subdivision formerly known as SpaceX did literally any of the standard, rigorous fault-checks.

When the Maori invade england and start forcing their customs on the people there, then maybe you might come somewhere close to pointing out a double standard. (also, berserker brits, lol what a concept)

We don’t have Trump because people started behaving poorly, we have Trump because there’s been half a century of constricting living standards and a wealthy political duopoly that just doesn’t care. Obama bailing out the banks rather than the people that lost their homes did more to kill civility than anything Trump has done.

These lawmakers were elected to be the voice of the people they represent.

https://www.dw.com/en/new-zealand-42000-demonstrate-support-for-maori-rights/a-70816454

New Zealand: 42,000 demonstrate support for Maori rights

Thousands turned out despite the bill having little chance of becoming law, saying it was important to show the extent of dissent

but feel free to keep jerkin it to ‘norms and civility’, i suppose

part of being an adult is doing the work in front of you that needs doing, regardless of "ought"s "supposed to"s

we all benefit from the next generation learning to treat others properly, regardless of our own parental status

We cut them out of the SWIFT payment system. All our economists were saying they wouldn’t last more than a few months. That was four years ago.

have you really not seen all those thinkpeices that go, “Lets dump our resources into develping AI rather than conservation and renewables, because the AI will magic up a solution for us better than anything actual researchers suggest”?

Billionaires are only free so long as they do nothing that compromises greater returns year after year. Their money is tied up in financial institutions, beholden to the demands of their fellow investors, their overall class. What you call “freedom” is just ultimate privilege. And, like any privilege, it is conditional.

Musk is the perfect example that very concept, yet you choose to dismiss it as some bizarre outlier rather than a demonstration of the rule.

I agree there are conscious people exercising power, but I’m arguing that the system they’re enmeshed within constrains the actions they’re able to make. Rather than choosing maximal extraction as a means to the goal of survivalist bunkers, they’re locked into maximal extraction. The more thoughtful may not like it, may try to break out of it, but the logic of capital will only select for someone else who has no qualms keeping the machine at full tilt.

Survival bunkers are just one way of resolving that internal contradiction; “I’m supposed to have all this power, all this agency; yet I can’t overcome the momentum of this system without jeopardizing my place at the top of it”. So they invent a goal to fit the means they’re pre-committed to. A way of rationalizing it.

The “general super-intelligent AI” investor hype is just another way of rationalizing the same contradiction. “Yes, we’re destroying the ecosystem, but it’s alright, 'cus digital God is gonna end our dependence on human labor and provide us magic solutions to all the problems before we’re completely fucked.”

when was the last time a bug hit your windsheild? we’re destroying the ecological foundation we’re living in, and we know we’re doing it, yet it still continues at pace. the sum decides what the parts do, what other conclusion can I draw?