I don’t think the transhumanists and singularitians are wrong, exactly. Mainly their timescale is. They believe their envisioned post-human reverie will arrive in a generation or two while I think it’ll be 5,000 to possibly even a million years hence.

Assuming humans survive that long at all, which right now I’d put at about 10%.

So in a way, I don’t believe in that future at all, because I doubt we’ll survive in any form.

But if we do survive, then I think it’s nearly-inevitable that we’ll change ourselves in now nigh-unimaginable ways, gain better control of matter and space, and expand out into the galaxy. Doesn’t violate the laws of physics and is within the realm of human understanding, so it’ll probably happen just as a random walk across complexity space.

Was reading this article about alerting domestic abuse survivors if their abuser attempts to buy a gun.

The gun in the article pictured is a CO2 pellet gun, not a firearm as such. Definitionally, firearms are weapons that produce their propulsive force chemically, not mechanically, thus this would be a type of air gun. Air guns would not be covered by such a method of background checking and alerting, so that weapon is not a good illustration for the piece, really.

I had a similar CO2 pistol as a kid that an uncle gave me, but I almost never used it because I couldn’t afford the CO2 cartridges for it.

Believe it is this one used in the article illustration.

Too many arguments become religious arguments. Seems to be a major flaw in our human operating system.

Found this article about Lake City, Florida (my hometown, incidentally) that paid after a ransomware attack.

They are now going to shell out $60,000 a year for proper backup.

I also wrote this post where I estimated the cost of said proper backup for a different but similar small town. This was my estimate.

Cost of decent backup, including labor: $60,690

I don’t know what their estimate includes, but I was pretty close. Been doing this a long time. The recurring yearly costs for my solution would be a bit less, and I kind of rolled those together in a first-year estimate. Looks like Lake City is going all cloud-based so you end up trading more costs on one side or the other vs. how I would do it but they usually end up being about the same (contrary to what you’ve read, cloud is NOT cheaper).

Really fucking annoyed with how horny leftist Twitter is for this “fact” that is completely misunderstood. 71% of emissions come from energy *produced by* 100 companies. There is NO UNIVERSE where those emissions don’t happen while consumer behavior stays the same. None. https://t.co/mspYIjcze6

— Miranda Ⓥ (@bunnysnack) July 5, 2019

Wow, this is powerful stupid. A lot of the left needs to study the more valid parts of economics. I know, it’s hard to tell which portions are worth anything. Right now, I don’t feel like writing something explaining how international demand works, but study substitution effects and income effects for greater understanding of at least parts of why this tweet is doofy.

There is also no universe where more than three billion consumers worldwide are going to spontaneously change their behavior while an entire phased array of propaganda and aspiration is aligned against them 24/7. Why would someone even think this, believe this? How can you be so clueless? Is it just misplaced hope? Because it would take about that many to make any substantial difference — see the economics I mentioned above for reference.

I do wonder how many people like this Miranda person are paid corporate shills. I haven’t researched this person specifically but a bet a whole lot of them are.

I’ve worked at huge companies, merely big companies, medium-size companies and small ones (where I work now).

There is in the popular mind more prestige in working for large companies with recognizable names. It’s particularly true in the tech industry — my industry — but somewhat the case in any field. Having worked, though, at companies of all sizes there’s much to be said for how working for a small company hones your skills and your approach to problem-solving.

When I worked for Transunion (a merely big company) there were dozens of people I could turn to for assistance with problems, experts in their fields, some of whom even did the same job as I did.

Where I currently work, here’s who I can turn to when I am stumped or at an impasse: no one. Either I figure it out or no one does. There just isn’t anyone else around with the necessary skills to bounce ideas off of, to ask for assistance, to turn to when I’ve hit a wall. Sure, I can hire consultants (and sometimes do) but they are expensive and unknown and often unreliable.

So I end up exploring many areas, learning diverse sub-fields, doing tasks and taking on responsibilities I’d never get to at large companies. I simply must understand many areas from the ground up to get my job done. At medium and large companies, often there are entire teams I can just outsource parts of important jobs to, that in fact I am not even permitted to venture into because the task is under other teams’ remit to take care of. At a small one, I outsource them to myself, just at a later time.

It might not be true for everyone, but I’ve certainly learned more and more deeply working for small companies than I have for large or medium-sized ones. I wish that experience were more valued in my field.