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Dig1t

4,205 karma · joined August 16, 2016

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Dig1t··on Police are using AI to pull over drivers for 'suspicious' behavior
"Citizens will be on their best behavior, because we’re constantly recording and reporting everything that is going on"

-Larry Ellison

Dig1t··on New iMac with M6
But why not just buy a Macbook at that point?
Dig1t··on Alleged Israeli spy company targeted Starlink users
This is always the classic defense whenever Israel is discovered to be doing something nefarious. Used to deflect criticism. Do we have any evidence that other nations are doing this? If we did we did, then that other country would get criticized in the exact same way. They are not being held to a different standard.

An example would be Cambridge Analytica, they got more bad press for doing similarly evil things and they are not Israeli.

Yes other countries do things that are similar, like China. But China doesn't have a "special relationship" with the US like Israel does, they aren't our "greatest ally" like Israel is purported to be, and they don't have staff and representatives at the highest levels of the US government like Israel does.

Dig1t··on Microsoft offers mass buyouts for roughly a quarter of its workforce
The difference being that telling someone they are not allowed to use "guys" is not a valid criticism. It's just someone being a bully and trying to language-police others.
Dig1t··on US designates helium as a critical material
There's a great episode about US helium by Planet Money from 2019 that tells the fascinating story of the US helium stockpile and how the shortage was created by government decisions.

https://www.npr.org/2019/08/16/751845378/episode-933-find-th...

Dig1t··on Elon Musk Just Gave Europe a Reason to Replace American Technology
A. Look at incentives, Musk gets massive blowback from this, gains literally nothing from it. Trump does gain from this, and does have control over Starshield and specifically how Starlink is used in Ukraine.

B. There's plenty of reporting that the White House gave the order:

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/order-limit-starshield-...

>Order to limit Starshield for Ukraine came from inside White House, sources say

Dig1t··on Elon Musk Just Gave Europe a Reason to Replace American Technology
It obviously came from Trump via Musk.

Ukraine has been striking Russian refineries, reducing global diesel supply which is already being squeezed by the stupid war in Iran.

Musk gains nothing from disabling Starlink for strike missions inside of Russia. Trump absolutely does benefit from them since his admin is bearing the blame of invading Iran and it’s killing him in the midterms.

Dig1t··on Jared Kushner Hacked Phone Reveals Secret Negotiations, Millions in Transactions
Kushner and company are directly tied to Israeli politics. The Israel lobby gives money to 80+% of US Congress and helps staff dem and republican White House’s. These people are completely immune no matter which party is in power.
Dig1t··on UN says breaching 1.5C warming limit is 'imminent and unavoidable'
That’s crazy, what was the context? Like they said you were giving them too many baths? Did they not bathe their own kids??
Dig1t··on Tesla profits drop 43% in Q3
>small area in Austian

It’s like the entire city of Austin. It’s also the entire Bay Area.

I’m only making the point that it’s a real product and you can buy it. Sort of implied by the parent comment of it being a “scam” meaning that it was never delivered.

HW3 gets a supervised version which is the best they can do with the hardware that they shipped, it’s unfortunate I agree but it’s not totally out of line with what happens with other devices like the iPhone. Apple has a version of Apple Intelligence which is neutered on older devices, presumably because of hardware limitations.

Dig1t··on Tesla profits drop 43% in Q3
I can go book an FSD robotaxi right now in downtown Austin TX, I know because I’ve done it many times. It’s real and works great. Not sure what you mean about FSD.
Dig1t··on The No Kings Takedown Is Why You Shouldn't Rent Your Megaphone from Zuck
It’s honestly a very dangerous mentality. It’s what makes people do things like murder Charlie Kirk in cold blood for doing nothing other than speaking words, or attempt to shoot Trump at a campaign event.

It leads them to become the very bigots they think they are fighting against.

Dig1t··on Albertans have rejected referendum on independence
https://www.reddit.com/r/charts/comments/1qmpurh/canada_annu...

Canada 6x’d its yearly immigration numbers starting in 2020. The country has changed dramatically since then.

To quote the Canadian redditor from my linked thread:

>The Trudeau government had a policy of letting in as many immigrants and temporary workers as possible. Almost all of them came from India. There was an entire industry, full of fraud, that existed to bring Indians to Canada.

>In many cases they allegedly came a students. But from what I can tell a lot of this was to import the cheapest possible labor from foreign countries and get them to work in low skill jobs for large National employers like Subway and Tim Hortons.

>It had some short-term benefits like a small GDP bump. But it has had significant negative impacts on the country's housing availability and affordability, infrastructure, and social cohesion.

>It's the main reason Trudeau was forced to resign.

Dig1t··on I no longer care to work on any Ruby gems so I've archived all my repositories
The Luddites literally turned to violence when their profession was replaced by better technology. This has been happening for generations to every profession. There is joy in learning new things and developing new skills though.
Dig1t··on "I'm on a war footing": Terry Tao and the crisis in math
I call the IRS and wait 4 hours on hold waiting to talk to a person. I get disconnected randomly and have to call back the next day only to have to wait another 4 hours. Finally I get in touch with someone and they are extremely rude, unhelpful, and treat me like garbage.

How is this somehow the fault of “capitalism”? Regardless of how the system is structured, the government has a near-infinite budget, they could theoretically staff the agency with enough people to answer my call in a timely manner. They could also train their staff to treat me with human dignity. They don’t do this, and the reason is that they have no incentive to do so. If I am upset by being treated poorly what recourse do I have? Nothing. In fact if I ignore their system long enough, armed goons will show up with guns and arrest me.

There are many examples of government agencies that have this reputation, not only in the USA but the entire world.

“Show me the incentive and I’ll show you the outcome” -Charlie Munger

Dig1t··on "I'm on a war footing": Terry Tao and the crisis in math
All of those companies are perfect examples of what I’m talking about.

Chevron: Exxon, ConocoPhillips, BP. From a customer perspective there are tons of competitors which make your life better ranging from QT, AMPM, to Buc-ees (a favorite which people literally LOVE to visit).

Verizon: Starlink, TMobile, ATT, Comcast, etc

Microsoft: Apple, Google, Cloudflare, Amazon (differentiates itself literally on quality of customer service)

The IRS or DMV? No competitor. Unhappy with their service? Go fuck yourself.

Dig1t··on "I'm on a war footing": Terry Tao and the crisis in math
Does the DMV have a reputation for being fast, efficient, or an enjoyable experience?

Personally I remember waiting for hours in a line wrapped around the building for the chance to take my drivers license test.

Another example: have you ever tried to interact with the IRS? The most nightmarish bureaucratic system I’ve ever had the displeasure of interacting with. And guess what my recourse is for them treating me like garbage? Nothing. A company, if they treat me poorly, I can take my business elsewhere. The IRS? The DMV? Not so much.

Dig1t··on "I'm on a war footing": Terry Tao and the crisis in math
>nationalize everything

The government does not have an incentive to run anything efficiently as they cannot go bankrupt. Imagine if AI was run like the DMV.

Putting monopoly control of it in the hands of government also makes it extremely likely that whoever is in power will use it to manipulate public opinion + elections as well as encoding their political values into it.

What do you think a Trump-controlled AI would say if I asked about the war in Iran? We’ve already seen examples of companies encoding their beliefs into the system (see Gemini saying nuclear war is preferable to misgendering Caitlyn Jenner), imagine how much worse it would be if politicians were given control instead.

Dig1t··on There's never been a better time to go into math (by: 3blue1brown) [video]
Well sure, but people do still want to watch videos like 3blue1brown in-depth explanations, and they do still want to learn math for its own sake. People can still do math and derive enjoyment from it.
Dig1t··on There's never been a better time to go into math (by: 3blue1brown) [video]
How is your argument any different from the classic Luddite argument? Why is doing math different than making textiles? Why does math deserve special protections when other types of workers do not?

There will be human achievement no matter how much automation and robotics we have. There’s an entire universe to explore and colonize. Plus people still want to see other people do things like perform music or play sports.

Dig1t··on TikTok "Permanently Suspends" the 'Musk' Film Account, Raising Suppression Fears
Actually yes, those of us who are free speech absolutists are extremely concerned about control of the Tik Tok algorithm being given to Larry Ellison. It was obvious from the very beginning that it was being sold exactly for the purpose of suppressing certain types of information (mostly about Israel, but that’s another conversation).

It does feel bad though seeing these people being upset that THEIR side is being suppressed, while also seeing they were completely fine when the other side was being suppressed just a few years ago.

Knowing that the left will happily return to censorship when they regain power makes me more inclined to support groups like FIRE instead of trying to engage with the partisan nature of this debate.

Dig1t··on Tesla Roadster
Here’s a 30 minute interview with Tesla VP of engineering looking up close at the battery pack, motor, cooling system. Definitely seems like a real EV to me. They also look up close at the thruster pressure vessel and exhaust system.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=22rvpUecLts

Dig1t··on Paramount Skydance has completed its $111B merger with Warner Bros. Discovery
Before the Tik Tok purchase went through, the prime minister of Israel gave a talk in which he said:

>But we have to fight with the weapons that apply to the battlefields with which we engage, and the most important ones are on social media. And the most important purchase that's going on right now is? Tik Tok. Number One.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/3tdrO8bA7rs

Later, control of the Tik Tok algorithm was given to Larry Ellison and they immediately used it to clamp down on discussion of the genocide in Gaza (as well as any other types of discussion they deem "antisemitism").

Now Larry Ellison's son has been given control of all these other media companies and has appointed an Israeli to run things.

This is DIRECT evidence of Larry and David Ellison working directly with the highest levels of a foreign government to manipulate public opinion on behalf of that foreign government.

Obviously Larry Ellison had met with Netanyahu, or with someone in the Israeli government, and discussed the details of this deal. If the government of Israel can ask a citizen in a different country to do something on their behalf, that is a form of control.

Dig1t··on Paramount Skydance has completed its $111B merger with Warner Bros. Discovery
"controlled by Israel" is kind of impossible to prove and that was never anyone's argument. But it's very obvious that these people are placing ethnic affinity and the interests of a foreign nation above the United States. They are going out of their way to buy media to shape the discourse of this country in favor of a foreign nation and a specific ethnic group.

>other countries rarely get talked about in this same way

They actually do, but the Israeli lobby has grown so powerful that it is now dominating most of the political action in the USA in a way that has become impossible to ignore.

There are actually plenty of conversations to be had about Indian ethnic affinity and lobbying. USINPAC is the Indian lobbying organization which is actually modeled after AIPAC (the notorious Israeli lobbying group which has political control over most of the US congress).

https://www.trackaipac.com/

There is a looming argument which hasn't yet entered the public mainstream discourse about Indian foreign influence and Indian ethnic nepotism in the United States, but that is an entirely separate conversation.

Most Indian CEOs are the same caste (Brahmin) and there is a good argument that many of them have been nominated by the boards of their companies and institutional investors with large stakes so that they can navigate India's notorious bureaucracy and deepen ties to the country, which supplies much of the cheap labor for the tech industry. Many of them have direct ties to the Bharatiya Janata Party in India and can use the access to people like Modi to access more Indian labor as well as build more in India. Modi talks openly about exporting human capital and using its diaspora to wield influence in the United States. One can argue that they are taking a cue from Israel here.

>Narendra Modi urges the Indian diaspora to become an extension of foreign policy

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/mar/02/narendra-modi-...

Dig1t··on Paramount Skydance has completed its $111B merger with Warner Bros. Discovery
The owners openly talk about Israel often and loudly.

Larry Ellison:

https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/larry-ellison-vetted-marco-ru...

>Larry Ellison Vetted Marco Rubio for Fealty to Israel

Indeed Israeli media covers this also:

https://forward.com/fast-forward/853703/david-ellison-appoin...

>David Ellison appoints Israeli to lead merged Paramount-Warner studios

The same thing happened with the Tik Tok purchase, the entire point of handing control of the Tik Tok algorithm to Larry Ellison was so that they could clamp down on the discussion about the genocide in Gaza. You can see the results of it in the reports that the world Jewish congress put out directly:

>https://wjc-org-website.s3.amazonaws.com/horizon/assets/YNN3...

>TikTok is the exception, removing 64% of content overall (and 71% of content formally reported to it), compared to 12–15% on every other major platform.

Dig1t··on Anthropic reported diary entry to police, woman faces felony charge
The future is incredibly dark if they manage to ban open source models.
Dig1t··on Federal judge calls Flock 'indiscriminate mass surveillance'
>We're going to have supervision. Every police officer is going to be supervised at all times, and if there's a problem, AI will report that problem and report it to the appropriate person. Citizens will be on their best behavior because we are constantly recording and reporting everything that's going on.

-Larry Ellison

This has been the plan of the oligarchs for a while.

Property crime skyrocketed during COVID largely because of intentional decisions around policing. We can easily police property crime without ubiquitous surveillance.

Most Americans know that a small reduction in property crime is not worth trading for constant surveillance by private corporations and the entire government.

Dig1t··on ICE Has Been Dumping Protester Photos into a Palantir Database
This feels very similar to the “abolish the police” rhetoric we heard during the George Floyd stuff.

I’m genuinely curious about what your opinion actually means here. If we abolish ICE are you saying that we should never deport anyone? If someone manages to sneak across the border they have a right to live here forever?

Dig1t··on StreetComplete on iOS is now in public beta
More like: thank you German taxpayers. You are very generous for funding stuff like this for the benefit of the entire world.
Dig1t··on Lady Gaga, Lena Dunham and surrogacy: Why isn't it causing a scandal in the US?
I have met many people in the US who have this opinion, absolutely. Even on this site you can find them easily. Heck some of my own family hold this opinion!

I don’t really care about abortion as an issue, I am simply making the point that the people who wrote this article would probably make two contradictory arguments: “My body my choice” and also “my body but NOT my choice because this choice is icky and it looks too much like a free market”.

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