Viewing profile — DFHippie

A web interface to classical texts is going to be anachronistic. If its purpose is pedagogical, it should include macrons, spaces, punctuation, case -- the works. Making every word…

> Texas which are covered with turbines Is "Texas" the plural of "Texa"?

Though there is likely life throughout the galaxy, it's probably difficult for one sentient spacefaring race to find another habitable planet they'd be comfortable on, i.e., one wi…

> under miles of subduction Subduction only occurs at plate boundaries and is not nearly this fast. Continental plates float on top like foam and do not get subducted. It's the oce…

How churned is "churned"? Does this mean particular pebbles have have been found to have lain in their current arrangement for 1.8 million years, or just that not much has happened…

Right. You can vote for a government that will tax you and then fix misfortunes and injustices. It's probably a lot more effective and efficient than writing a check to a megachurc…

Qualia is an interesting topic, but "they don't have qualia so they aren't really slaves" doesn't have a great track record. This mental game is what tech overlords are engaging in…

It is my understanding that this claim about Americans' charitable giving does not disaggregate giving to food banks, Girl Scout cookie drives, political causes, the environment, c…

We used to live in a world where individual virtue was what everyone fell back on. That is the default state. It has many problems -- free riding by the selfish, for one, but also …

The US is paying developers billions of dollars to scrap renewable energy projects. This is Trump policy. We're in a league of our own for sure. It's not all Trump, of course. It's…

It isn't the fact of change but the rate of change which is anomalous.

Russia is great at stuff that can be automated cheaply like influence campaigns. They're not so great at physical hardware and logistics and so forth. Not everyone is good at every…

In the town where I live there are buildings from a 19th century pipe organ factory. My wife used to work in one of the buildings. The employees had scribbled various names and dat…

It's striking to me how people who claim to speak for men and traditional values think that men are incorrigibly bad and that this is good and just. Maybe family formation would be…

You mean "lawyers", right?

Everyone wants someone else to deal with it. It's like we have a live grenade and rather than defusing it or disposing of it we keep passing it around hoping it explodes on someone…

> Such people are the worst of the worst of humanity. I don't know. There's a plentiful supply of bad humans.

There's also a propaganda feedback loop. It's not like Trump's voters are innocent, though. They want to be told lies.

Your comment reminded me of this classic: https://youtu.be/EYMjvXdrZIw?si=rYpJm3SP2kcAWPs_

I got the impression that there were three motors altogether and they were integrated with the axles.

I think you also named Alabama's problems. It's one of the poorest states and seems bound and determined to stay that way.

> A rich person and a poor person can train LLMs on copyrighted material in 2026. Updating an old adage for the modern age: “The law, in its majestic equality, forbids rich and poo…

The problem the Turing test was meant to solve is that we had, and still have, no means of recognizing a conscious mechanism. We lack a theory of consciousness that can be used to …

Somebody, in a conversation of which there will be no record, told him it was a good idea, telling him it would be quick, he would be lauded as a hero, there would be vast mineral …

What is your threshold for rich and influential? You don't have to have Musk money to have sufficient pull to escape the consequences most people would face for action X. I don't t…