Bitcoin "increased" over multiple five year horizons. That doesn't mean it solves a problem or actually has a concrete use case beyond gambling, which is precisely the point of the article - that you appear to have missed.
You're absolutely right it's volatile. But people are happy to kick some money into that asset and let it bounce up and down. Something is better than nothing for this use case. If they ever want to cash out under non-rushed circumstances, well it's volatile so just wait 6-12mo for a reasonable high.
Lots of economies and industries are volatile too, or subject to volatile politics.
Parking somme $$ in bitcoin in case you have government problems is no different than shoving money into land or gold in case you have stock market problems. The return is beside the point, it could be crap for all you care. The point is at least all your assets won't go to shit at the same time. It's damn near the opposite of gambling.
People who point out the immaturity of arguments like this and the simplicity of the worldview that espouses them aren’t “spin doctors”. The author has very clearly not thought deeply about what the real issues are: authoritarian governments w/surveillance (in 3-5 years a powerful LLM literally watching every single camera and signal feed on earth will be cheap enough that it will be done), alignment (the technical and non technical aspects of this), etc. you can choose from a huge list of real problems and do what adults do which is: see the writing on the wall, remember that the world doesn’t operate with the naïveté of an undergrad who has just stumbled upon a new topic and forms all of their opinions from poorly written newspaper headlines, roll up their sleeves, and contribute real solutions.
Anyone who thinks any force on earth can stop this train is just really out of touch. It’s coming so make the best of it and contribute to making this ship land as softly as we can.
> As Lopatto points out: “Normal people aren’t running around like chickens with their heads cut off, trying to automate every single part of their lives.“ Their biggest exposure to AI is using a tool like ChatGPT as a more verbose Google, or perhaps occasionally formatting an event itinerary. This is cool, and even useful, but at the moment it is probably less positively impactful in their lives than, say, the arrival of the iPod in the early 2000s.
If this was written in 2022 it would be half coherent. To write that paragraph with a straight face today requires an impressive amount of ignorance
Naive children unless they are simply trying to push better regulations and/or pressuring the builders to meet certain criteria that right now the law may not enforce. Data center construction is far from some evil thing it’s just that done poorly it can really screw people over. Easily should be a win win
There is a unique character to grifting and fraud in the BH industry. Look at other entitlements such as housing. With HUD/Section 8 they pay for rent, and it goes to housing or it doesn't. It may go for low-quality housing or overpriced housing, but typically it puts a roof over one's head. Or SNAP: it pays for food. Fraudsters may find a way to trade it and use it illicitly, or purchase nothing but tri-tip steak, candy and Sprite, but that's food and it goes in your belly. Any cash-based entitlements that go into a citizen's pocket, they have qualified and applied and run the gauntlet of paperwork for that; generally they spend that money on well-being, but that's personal money in the bank, and will not fund institutionalized fraud.
With BH treatment, what is paid for? What efficacy does it have? How does it work? Nobody really knows. Is more better? What are the best methods? Nobody really knows. BH success comes down to obedience and compliance.
Furthermore, we've discussed mass shootings in here a bit, and I just want to mention how the BH system encourages and increases mass shootings. There is nothing like a melange of psychoactive drugs in someone's system to give them S.I. and H.I. We saw it as early as Charles Whitman and we saw it again at Columbine. Listen to the news: anytime an active shooter "had a history of mental illness" they were probably hopped up on drugs to do the deed. There's a Broken Window Fallacy at work, only it's about broken lives, human violence, and hospitalization. So think about that when you call for more funding, more legislation, more treatment: it's an ourobouros that would make Trent Reznor suffer.
Clinics, as I said, are new religious movements. HUD and SNAP cannot fund the establishment of new religions. What could possibly be more ripe for exploitation than vulnerable religious adherents and cult members (who firmly believe that they are medical paitients!) and juicy tax dollars that pay for amorphous "services"?
> Mythos had identified thousands of previously-unknown zero-day vulnerabilities in every major operating system and every major web browser, along with a range of other critical software.
I think we can assume that the alphabet agencies already got their hands on this and are working to use it. No more backdoors necessary, they can crack open every computer on earth with this.
Did OS/software vendors get a list of their vulnerabilities? Will they ever?
I'm pretty sure most people didn't notice any kind of inconsistency. I myself have a hard time figuring out what's going on. I'm so focused on doing the work with the computer that I don't have the time to notice what's "wrong" with the OS. Which makes me wonder if the whole thing is blown out of proportion.
The spin doctor's favorite move: Make your opponents look like they're irrational.
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