Google probably only noticed & did something due to the advertising click fraud.

Suddenly, ad revenue dries up completely as people pursue every avenue to cut their tax bill.

Probably made by a third-party company run by con men who just slapped Lenovo’s preferred exterior casing on it.

Yep, I saw that. Again, no mention of OS, which is what all the news was about. This just feels like them saying “I’m not dead yet.”

The news I saw said they were dumping the move to Linux, and resuming Windows use. This post says nothing about the underlying OS in use (neither “Windows,” nor “Linux” exist on the page).

Now that’s something I can almost fully agree with. They are far from the only religious organization don’t even come close to living up to their claimed ideals, however, so singling them out for that feels a bit unfair to me.

Religion in general seems to be slowly declining in popularity, tho. That can lead to better informed and reasonable people, which ultimately makes for a better future in the long run. AI is negating that “better informed” part, however, and that’s a huge concern to me as without it much of humanity will wind up like lambs in the slaughterhouse.

Marketing types must love you.

I’m “defending” nothing. I called out your false equivalence, while pointing out they’ve both done damage. You, on the other hand, found only what you wanted to find.

It’s obvious you’re very angry at the church, and there’s no argument that they have been far less repentant than they should have been by now. That doesn’t make them automatically the worst evil in a world full-to-bursting with “very bad things.”

Al can be no less evil even if it is the new kid on the block with far less history of abuse behind it. It can be considered worse, in fact, because it is (or soon will be) affecting many more people’s lives than the Catholic Church. People can leave the Catholic Church behind. AI? Not so much. It’s here to stay, and the current battle is just over in what form it will continue to affect the entire world.

I doubt anyone thought either was vindicated. I’m against religion in general myself. In particular, the Catholic church’s denial of human sexuality to its own officers is rationally absurd, and a prime cause of its own problems in that area, IMHO.

Thanks for reiterating the “you are the enemy” part I explicitly set aside. Those people never had “sane and sensible principles” to distance themselves from, which is why I’m being pragmatic in the fact it’s going to happen whether we like it or not. My suggested approach - considering about half the human population suffers from conservative “principles” - is to at least try to force them to be as cautious about their approach as possible.

Until bullying - which pretty much is entirely responsible for making conservatives, IMHO - is eliminated, too many people will never be disarmed.

False equivalence since AI doesn’t have physical access. But it can - and has - harmed kids just as badly, including talking them into suicide.

They will counter with “if we don’t use them, we’ll be leaving ourselves open to enemies who will.” Setting aside the inevitable “you are the enemy” argument/retort, there is some valid logic to this. IMHO, the end result should be laws - with significant teeth and provisions that make them as impervious to politics as possible - that hold the designers and users of such weapons accountable for the “choices” such weapons make. Yeah, we need to prepare for the worst, but acknowledge that “worst” can be from both external and internal forces.

They probably haven’t pursued legal action yet due to the current domination of right-wing mindsets - notoriously pro big money & power (until it hurts them personally). Particularly of concern is any precedent set by the current US Supreme Court which was shamelessly stacked forcefully by Mitch McConnell (and I’ll forever be pissed at Obama for letting him without a fight).

Which is why they want everybody dependent upon AI to do their thinking for them. They can simply rewrite history once and that’s all anybody who doesn’t know any better will ever know. This shit needs to be banned except for narrowly defined uses like programming where there’s virtually nothing political involved.

Lauding the significantly larger battery while complaining that the charging speed isn’t faster than the prior version seems… nonsensical.

I see this as a potentially GOOD thing. All those companies who dove in headfirst are gonna come out of it significantly weakened, while those wise enough to take a more measured approach will get the opportunity to take the leadership positions they probably deserve (at least more than those others). If nothing else, there might be more competition after all this.

Probably to their benefit, IMHO. Less usage & dependence.

I’m sorry for dropping this convo so abruptly. I’ve hardly been on these past few days as my mother - who has Alzheimer’s - has been put into a psych ward for a three day suicide watch by my brother. Needless to say, I’ve been a bit distracted & hardly online except for brief distractions while waiting for things. Just wanted to let you know it wasn’t you (or me being a jerk). I’ll have to get back into this stuff later. Thanks again for talking with me, tho.

pelosi + co aging out just means a new crop of corporate democrats take over. the machine does not depend on individuals and there’s plenty of young ghouls waiting in the wings.‘progressive’ is pretty much branding at this point. someone can call themselves progressive while supporting weapons shipments to a genocide and opposing medicare for all because it’s 'not politically feasible’the label does no analytical work at all.

All true & reasonably fair. I guess I just have been trying to allow some room for having to work within the system as it currently stands, but I do also fear the corruption of the well-intended is real & potentially permanent. I’ve been hoping the addition of more progressives would help counterbalance that - and am still waiting to see if that plays out, but you may well be right in that there is no return from the dark side.

i’m an anarchist

Oh, cool! I’ve actually kinda begun looking at that community a bit closer recently as what little I’ve gleaned from posts I’ve seen seems to more closely fit my perspectives than other alternatives (you can see I’m just not “getting” the .ml left). Just preliminary starting to pay them more attention at this point, but definitely interested.

when i said ‘organizing and dual power building’ i’m thinking of things like mutual aid as entrypoint. the idea that building networks where people can take care of eachother outside the market both meets immidiate needs and builds the relationships to make future organizing possible.

Yep, that’s what I’d like to see, too. I’m curious how the inevitable bad players are prevented from using/abusing/destroying such idealist constructs, tho. I admit my life has made me perhaps a bit too cynical, but I just don’t see those sorts of initiatives surviving long-term against the high proportion of ill-willed people out there.

the ELI5 version

Okay, I asked for that. That’s more than little too vague to help. I guess I’m looking for something concrete & just detailed enough to be able to picture it in action. What I was trying to avoid was a high proportion of theory. I’m someone who needs to see it working first, then get to know “how,” and finally the “why” of how it works after that.

i could recommend reading material

My patience for reading heady stuff of late seems to be tied to my level of understanding and strength of interest. I like it concrete, to-the-point, with just enough detail to get the idea without being too wordy (which I know seems at odds with the way I write ::shrug::) It’s just the way I structured my information intake over the course of my life while trying to teach myself about the world at large). That’s the best way to get through to me. If you know of anything like that, please do share!

Finally, it’s well past bedtime for me. I’d really like to thank you for this conversation. I can be very thick-headed, and appreciate you sticking with me through it. Unfortunately, I’ve GOT to get some sleep as I’ve been up over 36 hrs at this point with only a couple short naps, and I just can’t do this stuff anymore like when as i was young.

Thanks again so much! Good night.