“…this particular bad thing shouldn’t happen to someone like me! it must be that no one else tried hard enough to fix it till now…”

Ugh, but also, good point. It’s like Engineer’s Disease fucked The Secret and made something even worse.

Jesus Christ.

This guy is a classic example of kook magnetism with a side of Dunning-Kreuger.

Job history is sus as hell too: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Barsky

Some dweeb with a journalism degree gets a job at a hedge fund right out of grad school, bombs out, “goes back to” journalism. Newspapers can’t get enough of this kind of guy; not surprised TERF Island’s paper of record picked him up nor am I surprised that they think RFK Jr might be good actually.

prediction 1: he dies halfway through. funniest way would be another pandemic gets him

I’m anticipating an Elvis re-enactment.

I hear you. I should clarify, because I didn’t do a good job of saying why those things bothered me and nerd-vented instead. I understand that an author doesn’t necessarily believe the things used as plot devices in their books. Blindsight a horror/speculative fiction book that asks “what if these horrible things were true” and works out the consequences in an entertaining way. And, no doubt there’s absolutely a place for horror in spec fic, but Blindsight just feels off. I think @Soyweiser explained the vibes better than I did. Watts isn’t a bad guy. Maybe it’s just me. To me, it feels less Hellraiser and more Human Centipede i.e. here’s a lurid idea that would be tremendously awful in reality, now buckle up and let’s see how it goes to an uncomfortable extent. That’s probably just a matter of taste, though.

Unfortunately, the kind of people who read these books don’t get that, because media literacy is dead. Everyone I’ve heard from (online) seems to think that it is saying big deep things that should be taken seriously. It surfaces in discussions about whether or not ChatGPT is “alive” and how it might be alive in a way different from us. Eric Schmidt’s recent insane ramblings about LLMs being an “alien intelligence,” which don’t call Blindsight out directly, certainly resonate the same way.

Maybe I’m being unfair, but it all just goes right up my back.

Oh man where to begin. For starters:

• Sentience is overrated
• All communication is manipulative
• Assumes intelligence has a “value” and that it stacks like a Borderlands damage buff
• Superintelligence operates in the world like the chaos god Tzeench from WH40K. Humans can’t win, because all events are “just as planned”
• Humanity is therefore gormless and helpless in the face of superintelligence

It just feeds right into all of the TESCREAL nonsense, particularly those parts that devalue the human part of humanity.

Peter Watts’s Blindsight is a potent vector for brain worms.

oh no, nothing is protecting us, you’re 100% right there. Eating food is about to become a much more dicey proposition.

It is still safe to assume that the ghouls who run Pfizer and ConAgra will bend their resources to protecting the bag from a disposable nutjob.

It’s like an old-timey quilt. You have to build in an imperfection to show humility.

I did not expect Ed to have such a great stage presence. a++ would get mad again

Hot Take: the damage from RFK Jr will be limited by the fact that he’s messing with the money for several large industries, particularly agriculture and pharmaceuticals. They have bottomless pockets and aren’t afraid to bribe the bribable. There will be damage, but he’ll be crushed like a bug in the end.

Also, he clearly annoys the orange guy, can offer him nothing in return now that the election is over, and has already been the victim of a ritual humiliation (e.g. being forced to partake in a McDonald’s meal for the camera), which is the first sign of a Trump guy being de-emphasized.

gentlemen, this means war

-me imagining myself paying to sit through that

Effective Altruism Declares War on the Entire State of Louisiana

If you’re in the mood for a novel that dunks on these nerds, I highly recommend Jason Pargin’s If This Book Exists, You’re in the Wrong Universe.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/If_This_Book_Exists,_You're_in_the_Wrong_Universe

guantanamo rizz

yikes on bikes

youtube poop, apparently

Whuffie, but worse

also, I thought these guys loved The Culture…

You know shit’s about to get real when the walmart greeter turns off her body cam.

wikipedia picture of austin allegro steering wheel. It is square with deeply rounded corners.

absolutely delightful

ofc it comes with a square wheel.