id34

IMO, I think that frictionless experience comes at us from a bunch of angles - finding yourself in an echo chamber (by choice or not) online means that you may find yourself less comfortable talking with people you don't agree with, things like that. I grew up in a small town pre-social media, and that meant I didn't have much of a choice about who I was surrounded by. If I was growing up today, what would stop me from retreating to a comfy social media-mediated environment without any challenge or friction? If I was growing up 5 years from now, what would stop me from retreating even further to the comfort of my LLM "friends" who can be shaped to me perfectly? That world sounds terrifying to me.

I would recommend the work of Sherry Turkle, specifically her new book "Artifical Intimacy" - she is quite opinionated on this, in the sense that the role that AI play as a conversation partner is so frictionless, so controlled, that we get none of the rough edges of human interaction that form us into a functional social being. No real quick solution outside of deep, fearful caution when using these things - and we're not going to see that from John Q Public

Correct - the version I linked is his more aggressive version, but he does give a soft out with 30 minutes remaining. He mentions that he has also uploaded the alternative version for those who want to share it with someone who wouldn't enjoy the ending of this version.

The use of tariffs as a mid-long strategy, in my view, would require a stable, long-term communication that the US government will implement careful, strategic tariffs alongside incentives to strengthen chosen domestic industries where they believe a domestic alternative is feasible. We haven't seen anything even close to that at any point in this tariff rollercoaster - tariffs for products that cannot be produced at scale domestically (coffee, bananas), tariffs for grudges, tariffs that only exist for a week, tariffs that are written post-hoc after a Truth post to fit what the president said. There's an argument to be made for domestic protectionism, but the people currently at the levers are not serious policy-minded folks.

No, of course, but the issue comes in the next step. How do they put their "support" of science into practice? For some, that means supporting increased budgets for grants, education, or basic research. For others, that means "restoring trust" by adding partisan steps. "Trusting the experts is not science", as RFK said.

I find these types of survey questions almost useless - of course people will say they support science, or democracy, or freedom, or increasing support for families. The devil is always in the details.

Man's search for a place in the universe is a tale as old as time. In this particular era, where the information environment pushes us to absolute judgements on complex issues, it can be difficult to publicly identify with tribe X. Can tribe X survive the purity test du jour? It's easier to define yourself in opposition, to be on the other side of the failed purity test. (Elon, in this article, is a great example. Does your crowd allow for any good in his work?)

For Android/iOS I've used ScreenZen, which is wonderfully configurable.

There difference is between "check" and "do" - verifying your work is a helpful use of feedback, not being able to multiply single digits without a calculator is a failed skill without a crutch to rely on.

I believe, as the parent comment alluded to, the rat patrol has established a substantial beachhead into SK. The front lines are now outside the province and pushing east.

I've wondered about BC though - outside the density of the lower mainland anyways.

Growing up in AB, I really didn't conceptually understand what rats are like in other places. I can't think of another animal with that same ubiquitousness.

Having no exposure as a kid means I find them terribly terribly gross when I see them in other places - in a park in Mexico City a couple months ago I audibly jumped when I saw them rooting around in gardens. Probably something to be said about exposure therapy

I've wondered if the rise in friends and colleagues with sudden late stage cancers has just been a fluke of my circle or a symptom of a wider problem of an unknown cause.

My father died of esophageal cancer not long ago - as a man in his early 60s he followed a path similar to the first patient in the article. Two friends are currently battling similar cancers and headed down the path of more and more agressive or experimental treatment. A large part of that choice seems intrinsic. When my dad was told he was stage 4, he smiled and reflected on the life he had lived - at peace with his mortality. When my close friend was told the same, he was distraught that he'd never had the opportunity for children. I understand how those unstated biases about a life well lived enter the medical field - an important reminder that a life is not simply measured in years.