tmarsden

It definitely feels like they needed something, anything, to use as a marketing tool following the Apple Intelligence false advertising debacle.

I have a sneaking suspicion that the Liquid Glass redesign was something they had to push out the door to distract from the absolute trainwreck that is Apple Intelligence.

per the FAQ: Faded text means that a comment has been downvoted. You can read the comment in normal text by clicking on its timestamp to go to its page.

I'm not an expert here so please take what I say with a grain of salt.

It's my understanding that what's included in open source Android (AOSP) is FAR from a complete product and there is quite a bit of Google closed source/proprietary software that goes into the mix before it's shipped as Android (think Google Services.)

So, while you could fork AOSP and try to use that as a basis for and alternative mobile OS, it would require quite a bit of work on top of the AOSP code. This is what's done by custom ROMs like GrapheneOS (ironically Pixel devices only) or LineageOS for example.

Well that "unhinged lunatic" has also publicly characterized himself as a "free speech absolutist" so until someone or something better comes along you take what you can get.

Sounds like your son already has strong computer science skills. I would advise he focus on something OUTSIDE of that in college like business or finance. That way he can have another tool in his toolbox. That’s what I would do in hindsight.

I’m not sure why you are getting downvoted. Niantic has ties with the CIA.

They’re not my definitions, that’s straight from the source material. The idea of “surrogate activity” as I understood it was any goal "not directly satisfying your physical needs.” The aspect of it being made up is because it’s chosen by the individual and not a direct requirement of survival. To me that’s just two ways of saying the same thing.

You're probably right, it was a made up number to make a point. The point being that if you are not growing your own food (or hunting it) you're probably engaged in "surrogate activity" for a living and not directly satisfying your physical needs. Would you say more than 1/100,000 people in today's world grow and or hunt for their food daily?

Completely agree, his ideas could stand on their own there was no need to push them with violence.

Attracting a mate and reproduction easily falls under "satisfying your physical needs" and I would argue is a deeply wired survival instinct.

In his words "the pursuit of sex and love (for example) is not a surrogate activity, because most people, even if their existence were otherwise satisfactory, would feel deprived if they passed their lives without ever having a relationship with a member of the opposite sex."

I think this all boils down to what Ted Kaczynski talked about in "Industrial Society and Its Future." Specifically "The Industrial Revolution and its consequences have been a disaster for the human race" because "in modern industrial society only minimal effort is necessary to satisfy one’s physical needs." I would say 99.999% of all modern work is "surrogate activity" (an activity that is directed toward an artificial goal that people set up for themselves merely in order to have some goal to work toward.)

It's no surprise you can end up feeling empty and unfulfilled in a career like software development, or any other modern career, you are putting energy and emotional involvement that you would otherwise have put into the search for physical necessities. I think this is particularly acute for those in software development because it is so abstract and disconnected from the physical world. Biologically speaking fulfillment should come from satisfying your physical needs (i.e. surviving) not from the pursuit of some made up goal.