InvisibleCities

>Some models suggest we might be fairly early, probably somewhere in the first 10-25% of space faring species.

I’d like to see some sources for this, because this sounds like unscientific, unprovable drivel.

This has nothing do with people’s civic engagement levels, and everything to do with money. The semiconductor industry gets a massive subsidy because they spend tens of millions of dollars on lobbying - impoverished schoolchildren get left to starve because they don’t.

Your average Roman circa 250 AD lived farther from their place of birth than your average American today.

Ever think those might not be the same people?

Your CEO brain calipers don’t need to be worth a shit in order for you to make money with them. If the market moves predictably every time you publicly announce your findings, that’s all you need.

Your advice is to be selfish and not care what anyone thinks of you?

Why are we so surprised that animals understand the concept of zero? Being hungry, searching for food, and finding nothing seems like as universal and visceral experience of zero as anything I can imagine. I don’t think it’s possible to evaluate food sources without some idea of what zero means.

Because programming languages are a public good, and public goods are fundamentally incompatible with a profit motive. A “programming language startup” would be like an “anti-poverty startup” or “social justice startup” - either an edifice doomed to fail because of its inherent contradictions, or a front for lies and grifting.

[Sober, well-researched article about the dangers of pervasive social media that calls for strong government regulation]

“This link has been associated with harmful extremist content. Are you sure you wish to proceed?”

Well that’s good. How’s the F-35 coming along?

America has a loneliness and overwork problem - the alcohol is just a coping mechanism.

> Also reveals Tolstoy's own perspective on writing as a moral endeavor which he feels Shakespeare failed at, as if Shakespeare had a morality it was "people should be good, but not too good"

I couldn't agree more, which is why I like Shakespeare so much better than Tolstoy.

The point of Hyperloop is to provide a shiny new technology that municipalities can use as an excuse for not investing in public transportation, ensuring that America switches to electric cars instead trains/buses/trams/bikes/etc as ICE automobiles are phased out over the next 20 years.

>I actually believe in the benevolence of AWS; I spent nearly a decade there. Do you?

I have no reason to doubt the benevolence of AWS at present, but how much faith do you have in the perpetuity of that benevolence? There is a tremendous power imbalance between Amazon/Google/Microsoft and the companies that depend on them for infrastructure, and the nature of capitalism and the declining rate of profitability means that eventually, the markets will demand for that power imbalance to be exploited economically.

When the Manorial system emerged in Europe, it was a largely benevolent force offering stability, security, and community in the wake of the collapsing Western Roman Empire - within a few generations it morphed into 1000 years of serfdom.

The functionality may be similar, but the scale is completely different and shouldn’t be ignored. Building a machine that cooks 1 pancake every 5 minutes is a fun project for precocious college students; designing a system capable of cooking 10,000 uniform pancakes per minute is a feat of incredible industrial engineering.