So if Musk really goes ahead with user charges for X, there will be tens of millions of users looking to move elsewhere. Bluesky is still invite-only, and Threads seems pretty lame (plus, both are for-profits that could go the same way as X). So admins of Mastodon instances should get ready for a lot of applications.
It would be good for someone to write an all-purpose book with the title “It’s More Complicated Than That”. Everyone should buy it and put it on to the desk next to the skull saying Memento Mori.
Then, with that ever-present reminder, we could all go back to talking in terms of the oversimplified concepts we all use to make sense of history, economics and life in general: the Middle Ages, the nuclear family and so on.
Andreessen’s enthusiastic support for nuclear fission is a revealing error. On any objective basis, nuclear power is a dead duck, a C20 technology with a string of failed revivals in C21. New additions have barely kept pace with closures of old plants.
By contrast, solar PV is the biggest single example in support of techno-optimism. From essentially zero, it’s reached the point where annual additions are around 400 GW a year, almost as much as the total installed capacity of nuclear. Costs have plummeted and, after some generous initial support from government, most of the process is being driven by markets. There is no better case of creative destruction than the rise of solar PV
Andreessen’s failure to recognise this illustrates two points
He’s ignorant and doesn’t choose to inform himself, instead gullibly following sources that pander to his confirmation bias
He’s driven not by rational belief in the progress of technology but by rightwing culture war politics
Went to my first big meeting in 6 months yesterday. I was the only person masked. When I arrived for Day 2, half the attendees were masked. I thought I had set a good example, but of course it turned out someone there on Day 1 had #Covid. Not happy.
The current Israeli government is on a par with those of Milosevich and Putin. Its members should be in the dock at the Hague, not receiving US aid, and Australian support. (We have already declared Hamas a terrorist organisation, so no need for whataboutism here).
Why you should never fill in the backstory from @pluralistic The best case for me was when the Doctor Who writers finally succumbed to the temptation to show the Time Lords on Gallifrey, who turned out to be about as exciting as the UK House of Lords
The vast majority of bosses have issue Return To Office mandates, but large groups of workers have ignored them, without incurring any consequences. This will have similar effects on employer authority to the attempt by the Catholic Church to prohibit contraception. https://fortune.com/2024/01/13/managers-scapegoating-workers-return-to-office/
An important study showing that political polarisation is a US-specific phenomenon. Elsewhere in OECD, small increases in some countries, declines in others, including Australia. The result for Oz is certainly consistent with casual observation
Despite the best efforts of Murdoch press, culture wars never really took off here, and are now pretty much over. Immigration a big issue, as elsewhere, but doesn't break on simple party lines.
@pluralistic When I was a schoolkid, Honeywell had a stand at the local show/fair with a female appearing robot (actually a woman in a shiny bodysuit). The imposture was revealed after the show was over. Plus ca change
