nyokodo

> do direct deposits to many millions of people, every time there's new settlements paid

I wish I could easily donate my tiny settlements to a good cause. It might make it worth the time to register for the class.

> make large percentages of a student's grade come from in person tests

One possible solution is to remove technology but then you’ll need to detect smart glasses and other hidden devices. Another possible solution is to expect the use of AI and design assessments that are so hard that you have to work in tandem with AI otherwise you can’t get a good grade.

You’re always welcome to come back.

> Or for some industries back channel checks in network

Even in small-world industries, assuming they occasionally accept outsiders, they will still encounter some form of this problem.

Or, we can just start doing interviews in person again.

> In other words, to the religious, the use of the building for non-religious purposes is "shrug".

This isn’t accurate except for perhaps certain parts of Protestantism. To Catholics, Orthodox, probably portions of the Church of England etc, ie a majority of Christianity church buildings are holy and specially blessed. They hold the Eucharist in the Tabernacle which these Churches believe is the body and blood of Jesus under the guise of bread which is the most holy thing for them. In order for these buildings to be used for any other purpose all the holy things would need to be removed and the building specifically deconsecrated.

> It's spooky to know that it will outlive Earth and likely be the last remaining physical evidence that humans were ever here.

Although eventually a rather obscure form of evidence as it'll gradually become a melted blob of constituent materials from cosmic rays.

> I think it’s Eurocentric to imply that China is morally inferior to the US.

Apart from the genocide of the Uighur, the brutal oppression of Tibet, the complete lack of even the pretense of democratic rights, the total lack of freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and on and on. Last I checked not wanting your ethnicity eliminated or brutally repressed isn’t just a European thing.

> Have to be more productive, more efficient

Most people on their deathbed would counsel you to focus on relationships rather than productivity.

> the mines are going to be in China anyway, right

If you had read the article you’d know they have their own mine: “Hardly any firms, even in China, do what MP is attempting: produce finished magnets starting with ore that the company mines itself” Mostly China doesn’t mine materials but has concentrated the refining capacity in China for many commodities. Thankfully, we do have backup capacity so we won’t be totally screwed if China cuts us off, and the refining technology is well understood and in a conflict we or our allies can cut them off from many raw materials so their refining advantage isn’t a checkmate.

> to crash the economy

The quote is “markets will tumble” by which he clarifies that it will be a temporary market overreaction not “crash the economy” like it’s 1929. Those are qualitatively different things.

> It seems to me DOGE is about crashing the US economy and/or world economy to attempt wild and radical Silicon Valley theories about alternate societies

I see absolutely no evidence that the DOGE crowd wants to crash the economy and while they do have a utopian ideology so does the left.

Additionally, the DOGE crowd would say they’re trying to dismantle an unaccountable deep state conspiracy that threatens the American economy through an accelerating accumulation of government debt and regulations and has been trying to transform society globally for decades through political, social, economic, and military intervention all to serve the progressive elites.

I think both of your views are lacking in charity and perspective, although the DOGE view in so far as I’ve accurately described it has vastly more evidence backing it up.

> massive cuts of workers

That is what Trump is doing via DOGE so the burn-it-down camp seems pretty well served, more than anytime since the post-war demobilization anyway. The impasse, if it occurs, is more likely to be with those in Congress that don’t want to reduce the size of government.