dpig_

I only read it once, in 2016. So the details are fuzzy. Hal's dad cooks his own head in the microwave, right? And Hal comments on how it smelled good or something?

Not sure, but his dad's got a microwave for a head.

At about page 300 it starts to pay off hard and you fly through the rest. I definitely recommend giving it another go.

I don't know how a materialist could answer anything other than no - you are obliterated. And if, despite sharing every single one of your characteristics, that individual on the other side of the teleporter is not 'you' (since you died), then some aspect of what 'you' are must be the discrete episode of consciousness that you were experiencing up until that point.

Which also leads me to think that there's no real reason to believe that this discrete episode of consciousness would have been continuous since birth. For all we know, we may die little deaths every time we go to sleep, hit our heads or go under anesthesia.

I don't doubt that their claims are fantastic rubbish, but you're verifying this by.. feeling the difference with gloves on/off?

I really don't understand what mechanisms could exist in an ideal free market to stop monopolies. What is a monopoly other than a hyper-successful agent on the free market? What kind of a free market is one that would restrict such a monopoly? It's incoherent.

In Warhammer we call it Fall Back in Good Order.

Because art is the futile attempt by a conscious subjectivity at expressing their subjective experience. It's fraught and impossible and really beautiful. Meanwhile GenAI is not a subjectivity, cannot express anything.

Like laptops, you can sometimes interface directly with them via touch, but it's usually not worth the trouble.

In the sense that my cat communicates by meowing at me when it's dinner time, sure. But so far I don't think apes are signing about remembered events, future plans, or descriptions of non-immediate reality.

In my experience the Y is often the even more profound disagreement between two people, and explicit discussion of Y could be enough to obliterate a relationship completely.

I use Virtual Desktop over home WiFi. I don't even really tweak it beyond that, but I'll sit at an empty desk with a wireless kb+m and a few virtual monitors. Works well!

In a restaurant with no menu, name a soda you'd ask for.

What software were you using, Virtual Desktop? I find it super clear in a Quest 3 and I often work for hours in it.

In the cancellation process, take the offer to switch to an alternative Adobe product, then you will be able to cancel that cleanly within a roughly 30-day window as it is considered a new transaction.