XauriEL

XauriEL, 11 days ago to random

If capitalism is the best our species can do, we might as well let ourselves die off

XauriEL, 13 days ago to random

Men: I don't understand why repeatedly subjecting women to my vivid fantasies about them being eaten alive by bears is not making them feel safer around me

XauriEL, 1 month ago to random

I just saw a facebook ad offering to sell me un-vaccinated non-woke skincare products

I don't want to live on this planet anymore

XauriEL, 1 month ago to random

The cybertruck is the logical endpoint of the confluence of nerd consumerism and the trend of making trucks into fashion accessories for insecure conservatives instead of utility vehicles

XauriEL, 1 month ago to random

The big difference between the original rise of fascism and the current one is that in the original, there were active anti-fascist organizations in both the streets and in representative government bodies

XauriEL, 2 months ago to random

OK, I took the plunge. I submitted Hashing Function to Penguin Random House Canada. Let's hope this time the stars are right; it would be nice to have something go my way on the first try for a change. But there's no sense in continuing to wait. The text is about as good as I can get it without editorial assistance. Let's hope that's good enough.

virtualbri, 2 months ago (edited 2 months ago) to StarTrek

#StarTrek

XauriEL, 2 months ago to random

When you think about it, the "late 1900s" thing makes perfect sense as a logical semantic backformation. We already commonly refer to everything from 1800 to 1899 as "the 1800s" and similar. Nobody who was born before 2000 refers to the 20th century that way, but it's perfectly reasonable for younger people to assume that the same construction is colloquially correct. It just happens to make us feel like we're shriveling into a desiccated husk when we hear it, but that's not the kids' fault

XauriEL, 2 months ago to random

Got another short past the halfway point today. I've been finding that I like repetitive structure a lot lately, and it's a habit I'm trying to challenge, but there's something really reassuring about a cadence in narrative that helps me stay grounded in what I'm creating.

XauriEL, 3 months ago to politics

Trump doesn't care about the fines. He's just not going to pay them, the same way he's not paying his creditors, his lawyers, or his previous legal judgements. He's banking on winning a second term so he can pillage the country some more while shielding himself from prosecution. Literally the only way he gets out of this not being at the very least bankrupt is to become a fascist dictator, which is certainly an audacious plan for getting out of your debts #politics

XauriEL, 3 months ago to random

Recommendation algorithms are not inherently bad, but the things missing from big tech's implementation of these algorithms are 1) CONTROL and 2) LEGIBILITY. Platforms want to show users the content that drives the most profitability rather than empowering them to make the algorithm work in ways that would empower them. If people were able to customize how their algorithms functioned, like 78% of the bad and harmful things about social media would immediately evaporate

rayckeith, 3 months ago to random

deleted_by_author

XauriEL, 3 months ago to random

February is the month of my birth, and this month I'm fighting back against anti-trans legislation in Canada by auctioning off a signed author copy of Transform the World and donating the proceeds to Egale Canada, a charity that fights for LGBTQ legal rights. If you'd like to obtain a one-of-a-kind item with a personal dedication while supporting the rights of marginalized people, please consider bidding! https://www.biddingowl.com/Auction/home.cfm?auctionID=32993

XauriEL, 3 months ago to random

THICK BACON NIGHT

XauriEL, 3 months ago to random

Within the next 5 years, it's going to become impossible to access any kind of service or technical or sales help except through an AI chatbot. They may preserve a vestigial option to talk to a human, but it will be hidden behind layers of rigmarole and the call centres will be so understaffed you'll have to wait a billion years. Think phone trees but somehow even more illegible and unnavigable. If they can get away with it, they won't even tell you you're not talking to a real person

XauriEL, 3 months ago to random

So it turns out that the guy who built his reputation as a once-in-a-generation engineering genius on the design of his futuristic electric cars actually doesn't know the first thing about vehicle design, the amazing truck he was personally responsible for creating is a laughable failure in every possible respect, and that a decade of fantastic successes happened only because he was actively kept away from the management of his own company by his executive staff

KitMuse, 3 months ago to sciencefiction

I need your help #bookstodon. One of the classes I'm taking at the graduate level this semester is Religion & Science Fiction. I read more fantasy, and would like to do my research paper on something that's not obvious (like ST/BS5/Matrix/etc.) & I'd love to use more modern sf rather than the golden age classics.

Anyone have any interesting ideas for my research paper on regarding the intersection of religion and science fiction?

@bookstodon #sciencefiction #scifi #ReligiousStudies #academia

XauriEL, 3 months ago to random

I liked the gamification of the OG duolingo, and the bones are still there, but it's starting to enshittify and veer into dark patterns in a way that I'm not sure I can continue supportung

XauriEL, 3 months ago to politics

I am so fucking sick of the leftist anti-electoralism discourse. Why are you expending so much bandwidth trying to convince people not to do something that even according to yourselves is a meaningless and insignificant gesture, or defending your own decision not to do so? Who cares? Just stop harassing people about it. Spend your time and energy encouraging them to take positive actions. Getting them to not vote will do literally nothing to stop fascism. Get your heads on straight. #politics

XauriEL, 3 months ago to random

I genuinely don't understand how gold is supposedly the solid asset that will save us from the curse of fiat money. It's not useful for much outside of jewelry and high-end electronics. If the shit hits the fan, you can't eat it, and you probably don't want to be lugging a bunch of gold around as a post-apocalyptic refugee. The allure of gold seems to be based on the almost mystical presumption that it will just obviously always be accepted as the default medium of exchange, which seems... weird

XauriEL, 3 months ago to random

I am super tired of the endless parade of identical buzz-cut right-wing talk radio meatheads continually repeating the same worn-out talking points and refusing to acknowledge that counterarguments even exist