xibalba and her exponents✴️

both are true

tons of people use + will continue to use it
AND
the effect it is having on the people who don't understand how or why it is having an effect on them will become a huge part of politics

it's not that hard people

So after listening to multiple talks by philosophers of mind who defend consciousness as the substrate of the entire universe, and physicists who invoke quantum mechanics as the source of consciousness, the conclusion is clear: they have no idea about neuroscience, nor any interest to know about it.

How life begins and where it might happen again A recent special issue of Philosophical Transactions B takes on one of the biggest mysteries in science: how life first began. Instead of trying to replay Earth’s exact history, the issue’s authors lo...

A new special issue of Philosophical Transactions B takes on one of science’s biggest questions: how life begins.

Rather than retracing Earth’s history, the authors look for the universal conditions that could make life possible anywhere, approaching the question from many fields and angles.

What can we learn about living computation from non-living machines? In this @royalsocietypublishing.org A. Adamatzky shows that a computer doesn’t need to be solid. From droplets 2 chemical waves, liquid computers blur the line between chemistry & thought. royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10....

can they please just go ahead and add the actual phone features alreadyy

remember how expensive ENS names got to purchase outright?

I appreciate your having pulled that, but it's not actually what I'm reacting to and what I'm working to emphasize - even if water use is lower than perceived, you don't win people over by telling them that they are wrong; you win them over by listening to where the problem actually lies

right, so I think it's important to address the social issues rather than dismiss the reason an argument for negative externalities is being made, though.

It doesn't strengthen compassion to tell people that their reasons for feeling wronged are invalid. That handwaves away their issues.

surprising no one with this trajectory

excited to see what you come up with there!

I've sort of recently realized that write-only is a little bit the only way to survive the current hellscape

oop, I responded to the thread itself, but feel free to answer here rather than there if you'd rather have better fidelity of discussion:

bsky.app/profile/spla...

the thing is that it is not entirely wrong; the issue is social:

does building "AI data centers" (even the few that there are) in places where the index of AI use is comparatively low meaningfully benefit those affected by their construction?

the water use is only a part of what is being expressed

couple this with local instances of what it feels like to have a giant square block take up the landscape around local households without any increase in local opportunity index, and an argument for relative impact will always be used

e.g. if I live in Memphis and I am low-income + have low opportunities due to locality, I am going to feel disproportionately wronged when at the local level a giant data center is given financial/local investment priority above my well-being

i see why you'd approach it like this, but averaging use variability and its impact across the affected aggregate is the wrong resolution imo: sentiment and affects are felt at the local household level, which is why any statistical argument has to start there (and why there's no way to win)

Would gladly love to read this work you mention!

While he does link to usage stats that compare relative impact to other industries at the local level, he then uses tax rev to justify their use, when the impact of water usage at a local level is not a purely financial nor proportional argument.

bsky.app/profile/cwar...

Timely!

Most likely, I think in photography, what we will see is more people aiming toward the unexpected and impossible to imagine, rather than the perfected image.

More punctums please!

YouTube video by Noah Kalina Context Collapse and Halloween Traditions REAL VIDEO MOSTLY NO AI (Hotline 79/81)

Context Collapse and Halloween Traditions REAL VIDEO MOSTLY NO AI (Hotline 79/81)
youtu.be/mG1U5CbiOd0

Nah

there's nothing that priceless in that one

I Tried to Toughen Up My Son. Things Didn’t Go as Planned.

I can't even read this "great read" without wanting to rescue an 8-year-old son from his father's effort toughen him up and exploit him for a Times byline.
I Tried to Toughen Up My Son. Things Didn’t Go as Planned. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/19/m...

I found this a really illuminating thread on what demonstrations do and why they matter.

At this point all but an inevitability

YouTube video by The Wall Street Journal China’s Dark Factories: So Automated, They Don't Need Lights | WSJ

good thing to think about, given its already happening in China

youtu.be/MCBdcNA_FsI?...

Poetry made by bots and outrage

give me a recipe for ham salad

88 | Hate Symbols Database | www.adl.org/resources/ha...

hmm

confident ignorance as tribal identity works great until reality selects for people who actually learned how things work

I think Faine is right

the responses to the initial comments on all the white house posts seem well-planted, as do the initial comments themselves

you win the information game by playing a different game

I also think it is due to everyone thinking that every post has an addressable market of everyone else

I still think declarative quoted posting instead of conversation is a net societal negative