Logically, slavery as punishment for crime is actually pretty reasonable and theoretically good. The criminal isn’t just taken care of by the state, thus costing the people even more, instead, they actually have to pay for their crime by working it off.
But reality intrudes upon this theoretical situation. Since someone benefits from the criminal’s work, there’s now incentive to imprison as many people as possible. It creates perverse incentives that cannot possibly be avoided.
But almost as bad a perverse incentive is the for profit prison system, even if they aren’t allowed to force prisoner labor. Because for profit prisons again have the incentive to imprison as many people as possible since that makes them more money; anything that reduces incarceration rate means less money for them.
Of course, we have both of these going for us. For profit prisons that make more money off the state the more prisoners they have, and the permission to force labor from them since the Constitution specifically allows it, thus letting the prisons make money twice off each prisoner. Yay!
If it is solved it will definitely be through technology of some sort. While I agree it will not be one brilliant scientist, technology will be the solution.
That technology may come in the form of a way to produce more energy without fucking up the climate, and the engineering and logistical capacity to roll out the change at a breakneck pace.
It may come in the form of simply developing a way to control the global climate directly.
It might come in the form of some technology to control the behavior of humans so that we can actually respond appropriately.
Or it might come in the form of the singularity, when self improving machines grow so far beyond us so fast that they can just do what is needed whether we like it or not.
But one way or another I guarantee that if it’s solved, it’ll largely be a technological solution, because getting humanity to just…stop using energy at our current rate…is just not going to happen.
You probably had the same damn book I did, with an illustration of him eating an orange and seeing the wings of a butterfly coming up over it and supposedly realizing they look just like the sails of a ship and so, gasp, the world must be round like this orange!
Yeah, these projects done by one or two people could be better with a larger team, but it’s definitely not a matter of hiring a big pile of people suddenly.
The ideal size is probably a couple dozen people, but scaling up to even that will take months since the one person currently in charge has to do a lot. And it’ll almost fully pause work on the project for a while.
Cause if there’s one person, they’ve got to find all the candidates, do all the hiring, then bring people up to speed.
The real problem is if the person who made it doesn’t have the skills to manage even a small group of people.
How about if we conduct an experiment: replace all men with bears so the amount of time spent in close proximity to bears is equal, and see how the numbers shake out then, eh?
But guess what? Not voting also makes you complicit. So does voting in a way that has no chance of having an effect based on the current rules.
Basically, existing as an eligible voter, at least in a country where voting isn’t rigged (so like, Russians are off the hook here, for example) makes you complicit in your government’s actions.
That’s kind of a big point of being in a democratic society - we are all, every one of us, responsible for the actions of our government.
And if you don’t like that responsibility, I get it, I totally sympathize, because I agree. I hate that responsibility, especially cause I know damn well I’m not qualified to make those decisions. But I still am responsible, and pretending I’m not doesn’t change that.
Some of them, sure, but there are a lot of stories of how many lies recruiters will tell you to get you to sign on, so a pretty significant number are genuinely bad people.
We humans cannot eliminate all life on this planet. Even if we set that as an actual goal, we would fail. We can wipe out a lot, cause vast harm to existing ecosystems, but life will go on long after we make ourselves extinct.
I don’t understand the complaints about the expansions for these games. Ok, there’s a lot of them? But they’re generally good. And if you don’t want them, just…stop updating and stay on whatever version you liked?
And unlike most, they make it easy to play an older version. Did I like a particular patch better and hate all that’s come since then? Easy to roll back to it. What do people want…for them to not put out expansions?
So one thing I don’t fully understand is this: the secret service is required by law to protect the former president, but…is there anything that actually requires the state of New York to accommodate the secret service in doing so?
In theory, couldn’t the state of New York just actually throw Trump in prison, no special privileges, and also no special accommodations for the secret service?
Yeah, since we’ve designed our world for humans, the best general purpose robots will have a human shape in order to function effectively in the same areas.
I’m reasonably sure that that route neither begins nor ends in Holland. I think Holland is the western area of the Netherlands, not the northernmost bit.
I don’t usually recommend movies in situations where the solution space isn’t already limited significantly by the context, but 2001 is the one I thought of first upon reading the title, so I suppose there’s at least two of us!
TranscriptionTumblr post by arctic-hands: > When I was a teenager and still on Neopets I was part of a pretty big Star Trek guild and eventually became part of its council, with the solemn duty of creating weekly polls. Well one day I created the poll “Which would win in a fight? Borg Cube or Death Star?”. Naturally, since...
People use wrong terminology a lot, no reason to think people in the Star Wars galaxy are any different there.
For example, we have these powerful handheld computers we call ‘phones’ simply because they are the current generation of a technological line that began with actual phones.
So a beam weapon of any kind could very reasonably be called a laser even if it has been decades (or even longer) since the technology moved past that.
…in addition to being self-stropping. According to the advertisement, that is. Just how instantly adjustable it truly was is a different matter. I do suspect less so than the copywriter claimed....
If I’m not mistaken, adjusting lug refers to twisting a part of the handle; a similar design of razor my grandfather had, not as old as that one but still old, had such an adjustment. It wasn’t the same part that held the blade down, the blade was still fully secured and supported after doing this.
I am genuinely interested how such a thing would be done. I understand that it wouldn’t be as hard as with communism, but I can’t think of any way to encourage companies to make better (genuinely better) products. I remember how my mother told me how in her days (she lived in the DDR) there wasn’t really any reason to be...
Look at video game modding as an example. People want to make better things. It’s part of our nature. Even today, where they have to devote their free time to it and still work under our exploitative system for money, we have people devoting time equivalent or in some cases even greater than a full time job in order to make amazing high quality mods with no monetary reward for doing so.
If the system supported it, we would see that kind of behavior in all sorts of fields.
Nice to hear. I just don’t play games that don’t have female character options, unless the character actually matters and has a personality that is a major part of the game, like say, Geralt. I leave old games some leeway, but nice to hear they’re fixing that in this old one, means I’ll probably give it a try just based on that alone.
That’s awesome. I have played Deus Ex, since I give old games that leeway, whereas there’s absolutely no excuse for new ones, but it might be enjoyable to give it another run with that mod, so thanks!
When the protagonist’s character, personality, and story is significant, then that’s fine. If I’m playing a game like that I’m not playing a generic character that could be either and therefore should absolutely be a choice.
I’m fine playing a game like the Witcher, Red Dead 2, etc, cause those are the stories of that guy.
Where I won’t play is games that give you a generic protagonist with little to no personality but restrict you to male only, or even I suppose female only, although this is incredibly rare and I haven’t run across it myself.
Metroid is an interesting example. In some of the games she definitely counts as having no personality or character, but overall in the series she’s been given a story and characterization with personality. Zelda games are in a similar boat; Link shows little personality in most of them but does have an established overall story and personality.
In cases like those two I’ll consider them, but the lack of personality in game is a point against them regardless of the gender involved and honestly that’s discouraged me from playing many games like that (including both those series) for a long while.
Way I see it, modern games have no excuse not to either let me create my own character or give the predefined character a strong personality that shows throughout the entire game.
Aw, that’s a shame, I didn’t know about that, but I haven’t played in a long while.
I enjoyed the game from time to time, though not everything about the moba gameplay is my style. Probably won’t play again considering this, I really don’t like anti cheat shit digging into my computer.
Speed limits usually have been set by data, it’s just bad data or badly used data. Like one of the actual ways they determined speed limits was to see how fast people actually drive through an area and then set it so 15%of them are above it.
Of course, much of this was done a half century ago or more. Now most roads have speed limits set by simply choosing one of the ‘standard’ numbers.
But the real main issue that some studies have shown is poor road design. A road needs to be designed to make the driver adjust to the appropriate speed. A wide road with wide clearance on either side encourages higher speed. A road with trees very close to the road and narrow shoulders encourages you to slow down.
Design roads to encourage the speed you want, a d you’ll mostly get it.
You can do makeup that looks like eyebrows and it’s less of a hassle than shaving constantly.
Besides, with the center pill, you could look like an unkempt troll and the people you find attractive would still like it; the lack of facial hair is thus for your convenience, like not needing to shave.
Yeah…‘the Voyager’ sounds awkward to me in a way that ‘the Enterprise’ doesn’t. You also hear this in the real life Voyager probes.
With many other ships, both real and fictional, the same phenomenon is noticeable - if the ship name sounds awkward with a ‘the’ in front, it will usually not be part of the name.
top ten loopholes (lemmy.cafe)
‘I am starting to panic about my child’s future’: climate scientists wary of starting families (www.theguardian.com)
A fifth of female climate scientists who responded to Guardian survey said they had opted to have no or fewer children...
What did you get told as a child that you realised was a lie as you got older?
The idea that the Manor Lords dev should 'just hire 50 people' to update it faster is 'fundamentally not the way things work,' says publisher (www.pcgamer.com)
Son, we need to have a serious talk! (lemmy.world)
this post commits the cardinal internet sin of having nuance sorry :( (lemmy.cafe)
Not happening, dude (slrpnk.net)
‘They Are Just Pissed Off’: Scott Galloway Warns Young People Are ‘Opting Out of America’ As Older Generations Failed Them (www.mediaite.com)
Paradox Interactive says “we have areas where we need to do better” after reporting $44 million in Q1 revenue (gameworldobserver.com)
Could Trump Go to Prison? If He Does, the Secret Service Goes, Too (www.nytimes.com)
The U.S. Secret Service is in the business of protecting the president, whether he’s inside the Oval Office or visiting a foreign war zone....
Boston Dynamics introduces a fully electric humanoid robot that “exceeds human performance” (spectrum.ieee.org)
…replacing the previously hydraulic version....
Holland has so much space (lemmy.world)
What's your fave movie of all time that you love to recommend to people?
For me it’s Interstellar, it never fails to make me ugly cry at least twice during each viewing
Who would win: Borg Cube or Death Star? (aussie.zone)
TranscriptionTumblr post by arctic-hands: > When I was a teenager and still on Neopets I was part of a pretty big Star Trek guild and eventually became part of its council, with the solemn duty of creating weekly polls. Well one day I created the poll “Which would win in a fight? Borg Cube or Death Star?”. Naturally, since...
History time: Instantly adjustable…
…in addition to being self-stropping. According to the advertisement, that is. Just how instantly adjustable it truly was is a different matter. I do suspect less so than the copywriter claimed....
The Glasses! They do NOTHING rule. (slrpnk.net)
How would one support innovation in socialism?
I am genuinely interested how such a thing would be done. I understand that it wouldn’t be as hard as with communism, but I can’t think of any way to encourage companies to make better (genuinely better) products. I remember how my mother told me how in her days (she lived in the DDR) there wasn’t really any reason to be...
The System Shock remake is getting a massive patch with a revised ending, choice of female player character '8 years in the making', and a significant quality of life improvement (www.pcgamer.com)
WARNING!! IMPORTANT PSA (lemmy.world)
cross-posted from: lemmy.world/post/13907122
Class traitor rule (lemmy.one)
Alt text:...
Pick 3 Rules (files.catbox.moe)
I’ll choose 3, 5, and 7.
I just realized a change in phrasing
So it just occurred to me that during the TNG production era there is a shift in ship nomenclature:...