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Make up a guy

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Re: Make up a guy

#161

Post by kubanczyk »

escapedmoose wrote: post #160
kubanczyk wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh the utter lack of system thinking in that. Go to the desert, tell the rocks not to sit idle anymore. Go preaching to stars the futility of converting elements into energy.

Can you elaborate on your angle here? If you’re implying that humans are incapable of choosing not to procreate, that seems pretty obviously incorrect, given the vast numbers of people who make that choice. Am I interpreting your comment incorrectly?

It's pretty ironic to what DNA reached after billions of years: writing a Wikipedia article on antinatalism.

> the vast numbers of people who make that choice

Something tells me that this is going to hmmm... auto-regulate in no time. (reaches for popcorn)

Re: Make up a guy

#162

Post by andrewflnr »

Dudeman112 wrote: post #147
andrewflnr wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They mind it about as much as we do, judging by how hard they try to avoid it. It's silly to assume we're so different from animals that we're the only ones who don't like pain and death.

Bacteria also try really hard to avoid being harmed and killed, yet most people don't consider that sufficient for those living beings

I don't see how that's relevant to the question of whether frogs "mind" being skewered by birds, which is the question I read from your post.

Re: Make up a guy

#163

Post by escapedmoose »

kubanczyk wrote: post #161
escapedmoose wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you elaborate on your angle here? If you’re implying that humans are incapable of choosing not to procreate, that seems pretty obviously incorrect, given the vast numbers of people who make that choice. Am I interpreting your comment incorrectly?

It's pretty ironic to what DNA reached after billions of years: writing a Wikipedia article on antinatalism. > the vast numbers of people who make that choice Something tells me that this is going to hmmm... auto-regulate in no time. (reaches for popcorn)

So your argument is that, while individual humans are capable of choosing not to procreate, humanity as a whole is incapable.

Sure, but that doesn’t seem to contradict anything in the original comment you were replying to. Just because every single human doesn’t abide by a code of ethics, it doesn’t mean we should abandon ethics entirely imo.

Re: Make up a guy

#164

Post by justinclift »

scrollaway wrote: post #96
Carioca wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's all fun and games until the chat-responder inadvertently buys the product. And when/if you reveal the deception, the other company sues. In AI court, obviously, where it will be decided by an AI judge

It's OK, the AI court is biased in favour of the AI, so the other company doesn't stand a chance :)

> the AI court is biased in favour of the AI

When both sides are using AI's for the call, that's not going to work. ;)

Re: Make up a guy

#165

Post by subroutine »

skrebbel wrote: post #33
subroutine wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

qntm (Sam Hughes) is a great, and if you like this style also check out Greg Egan.

Qntm appears to try rather hard to hide his real name, maybe consider editing it out of your comment?

I mean, it's literally the first thing that shows up in his wikipedia article. If he truly wants anonymity I apologize.

Re: Make up a guy

#166

Post by sa46 »

travisjungroth wrote: post #114
paleotrope wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder if this is going to change with time. Most people of a certain age remember a time when answering the phone and talking to the other person was a social more. This is the social courtesy that telemarketers and scammers have been using for years now. But there's another way. Just hang up on them. I know it's considered hostile but it's just an outdated social more at this point.

I try to find this balance between recognizing the humanity of everyone I interact with and not allowing this respect to be an attack vector. Over time, I have shifted more towards ignoring salesman in front of a store, not replying to messages and hanging up on a call as being things I'm okay with doing. I don't always give courteous attention anymore. I'm fine with giving nothing ("ghosting" as the kids say) and on…

You might like the book, Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion. I found the book helpful to reframe disengaging with sales folks from:

Before: "I'm acting uncharitably by not reciprocating attention."

After: "I recognize this person is attempting to influence me. I'm choosing not to engage."

Re: Make up a guy

#168

Post by blarg1 »

LargoLasskhyfv wrote: post #87
blarg1 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also the Bobiverse novels https://www.goodreads.com/series/192752-bobiverse

So... feeling a little bit like a Cylon Raider? ( BSG - Cavil's 'I don't want to be human' monologue https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VhqsFRTTTo 1m48sec ) Bobiverse came so often into my peripheral vision, yet I haven't found the time to dive in, so far.

It's more an engineer finds himself installed into a self replicating interstellar probe, and how he overcomes problems with an engineers mindset.

Re: Make up a guy

#169

Post by frogulis »

andyjohnson0 wrote: post #20
unwind wrote: post #16

Meta: this is a guest post by "qntm", i.e. not by Charles Stross whose site it is on.

Thanks. I got quite confused and almost believed Stross was writing books under an alternate pen name. Now I recall reading some of qntm's work on SCP at [1]. [1] https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/qntm-s-author-page

That's a new SCP to count amongst my favourites. Reminds me of Coding Machines [1] and Second Variety [2] but with the added twist that it's not even a computer. There's something elegantly horrifying about it.

[1] https://www.teamten.com/lawrence/writings/coding-machines/

[2] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Variety

Re: Make up a guy

#170

Post by Dudeman112 »

andrewflnr wrote: post #162
Dudeman112 wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bacteria also try really hard to avoid being harmed and killed, yet most people don't consider that sufficient for those living beings

I don't see how that's relevant to the question of whether frogs "mind" being skewered by birds, which is the question I read from your post.

It was a rebuttal against

>They mind it about as much as we do, judging by how hard they try to avoid it

If there's an example of something trying hard to avoid it that's clearly incapable of minding anything, then you cannot establish a certain link between the capacity of minding it and trying to avoid it

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