iteratethis

Incorrect, not talking about politics does not signal any political affiliation.

I think the "everything is political" statement is technically correct but practically useless. In the workplace the discussion is mostly about allowing or disallowing politics that are irrelevant to the business.

Global hegemony of the US is based not on 5% of people, rather the US sphere of influence. US, Canada, EU, Japan, Australia, South Korea, etc. The combination is immensely rich, powerful and advanced. Even more so when you keep India on board as well.

It at least stands a fighting chance if it wasn't the case that this alliance is being destroyed before our eyes.

I will admit that even an integrated alliance cannot push around China in the way it could decades ago.

Mini means the size of the model (less parameters)

"o" means "omni", which means its multimodal.

I donated my old gaming PC to my nephew (20 y/o). I told him that owning it also means maintaining it. I don't have time for that. Figure it out, "digital native".

Within 2 days he had it ruined. Kept running hot and crashing. I told him over the phone how to analyze the problem. Nothing what I said made any sense to him.

So I came over and saw that he had installed 50 or so new programs, some very dubious. Zero security awareness, just click on anything like a grandma. One program was rogue and took 100% CPU in a forever loop. He had never heard of task manager to inspect such a problem. Completely clueless on how to use a PC or operating system.

He also has a sister. I asked her to share a document. She opens the document on the laptop and proceeds to make photos of the doc with her phone and sends them to me.

These are middle-class young adults with decent education (in theory). It's shocking.

Yes, you're welcome.

I'm from the Netherlands, middle-aged and have never met a person in my circles with a genuine hate of America or Americans.

There's plenty of critique on the state of US society, but that doesn't translate to general hate for any random American, unless you're intentionally provocative.

Likewise, we do not hate US products. It's just that in the case of food and cars, we have plenty ourselves of an equal or better quality.

Should you be conservative and drop a few of those views in casual conversation, I can assure you that this doesn't shock the average European. In fact, counter intuitively you may find out that progressive Americans are far more progressive than progressive Europeans. Culturally that is, not economically.

Do avoid obnoxious patriotism or bragging about the US.

I've always considered that it would make sense for there to be a "green right".

When conservative and rural and rejecting (some) modernity, I would expect one to appreciate and want to conserve nature as well as a lifestyle close to nature. Also, from an economic point of view, the conversion to sustainability is massive employment opportunity.

But no, the exact opposite is true.

Appreciate the fresh thinking.

Until the 90s, that's the trajectory we were on. For life to constantly get better whilst human servitude is lessened over time.

We should be getting ever shorter work weeks and earlier retirement ages. It's the entire point of technology.

Can you be more specific in what you mean by that?

How about a strategy of malicious compliance?

Wallpaper is a US flag. Home screen shows Truth Social, X and 4-chan. Smartphone cover displays a roaring eagle.

I think there's ways for teachers to embrace AI in teaching.

Let AI generate a short novel. The student is tasked to read it and criticize what's wrong with it. This requires focus and advanced reading comprehension.

Show 4 AI-generated code solutions. Let the student explain which one is best and why.

Show 10 AI-generated images and let art students analyze flaws.

And so on.

To me (European), there is no strategy behind these tariffs other than Trump's thirst for a dominant display. Just to show that he can, that he has the cards.

He introduces a shocking measure and then wants to humiliate the affected by letting them beg for relief. Submission. In a speech yesterday he literally said that "countries are coming to kiss his ass" and he clearly took great joy in this validation of power.

What he forgets, and so does this article, is that due to the above tactics this isn't a USA vs China situation. It has become a USA vs everybody else situation.

And surely "everybody else" is working on alternatives.

My utopian vision to combat the threat of China (dependency, war, etc.) is as follow.

We should form a "Super West". Instead of a divorce between the US and EU and others, the exact opposite should happen: an unbreakable union with shared values, investments, legislation and protections.

Such a unified block could then intelligently "tax" China for industries we consider to be strategic. You can't do this without a unified West. Right now the US is pushing its (former) western allies towards China.

I think a unified block with intelligent protections can sustain an advanced West and create conditions where the working class and middle class is not facing an endless race to the bottom.

This block could also address a pressing issue of global capitalism, the formation of untouchable monopolies and billionaires. End tax loopholes and yes, I'll say it: cap billionaires. Increase minimum wages and offer more job protection. A unified regulation rather than individual countries undermining common interests.

I'm sure that these classic progressive values are unpopular on this forum but I genuinely believe that these values created the middle class in the first place. And the middle class is being eroded and the working class is close to dead.

We should not mimic the race to the bottom (which leads to a birth rate 25% of replacement), we should recreate the post war West. A ordinary person should be able to start a family, own a home, etc. If we can't do that, nothing matters.

The way to achieve that is cooperation, strict shared values and regulations and a whole lot of technology.

The West's trajectory where life kept getting better stopped in the 90s. We need to bring it back.

Your housing analogy is incomplete and inaccurate.

Imagine that I overhear you wanting that home but I front run you. Not because I also love that house, I just buy it because I heard you like it and so that you can't have it. I don't do anything with the house. I don't live in it. I don't consider the house to have any value other than you wanting it.

That's not the same thing as 2 home buyers appreciating hot property.

I'm no Dorsey fan but he was right when he said that Bluesky is recreating Twitter.

You can offer a million feeds but people want a "discover/hot" tab, it's the dopamine slot machine. The median user doesn't build feeds, they go with the main one and at best block the worst offenders.

And thus you are subject to centralization as the chronically-online know all the engagement tactics to dominate the algorithmic feed.

You'll either have MAGA propagandists or left-wing depression culture winning. In the case of Mastodon and Bluesky, it's the latter.

And it's not just the algorithm. Shared block lists will also be massively abused by activists to over-moderate and gate-keep.

No amount of technology can solve a culture war this intense.

Germany is the largest industrial power after the US and China. What on earth do you mean "punching below its weight"?