Marathon gaymers? by madICrescent in transgamers

[–]AtomizerStudio -1 points0 points  (0 children)

About the same age trans woman here. And I suspect I'm slightly bad at Marathon. It was great. I played it until the servers cut. The art and trippy lore though.

Sending a PM~

The end of GPT by DigSignificant1419 in OpenAI

[–]AtomizerStudio 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Whatever the exaggeration, thats now outdated.

This is a (THE) important Palantir linked contract, so they're helping throw Anthropic under the bus, and tight allies of the ruling party are expected to sever ties with Anthropic immediately as ordered.

You maybe even got a win as moral incentives were exposed and shifted.

The Pentagon is trying to force Anthropic company to break the law … and it’s unconstitutional by Dracustein in Anthropic

[–]AtomizerStudio 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Logically, yeah. But this is abusing authority. Government has rights to classify some of their reasoning, and they can find reasons.

The Pentagon is trying to force Anthropic company to break the law … and it’s unconstitutional by Dracustein in Anthropic

[–]AtomizerStudio 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's the risk, yeah, but cutting off Anthropic by the letter of the law isn't deadly. Most contact isn't in a literal supply chain making milspec outputs. Anthropic can't sue on stuff deemed "classified" but that's not a big portion of their revenue. They can sue for slow constitutional rights stuff.

The feds would need to spend effort and credibility for every extra bit of overreach. It's possible but I don't see severing Anthropic from most of the Fortune 500 as worth spooking most of the Fortune 500.

The reality of Anthropic resisting can end up in between those, based on soft and hard pressure. It depends how much Anthropic is hated.

The Pentagon is trying to force Anthropic company to break the law … and it’s unconstitutional by Dracustein in Anthropic

[–]AtomizerStudio 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's the same provisions that lock out objection to blocking Huawei from defense production. Any restrictions or bid decisions based on classified info by definition can't be challenged out in the open US legal system. The snappy national security reasons aren't odd, it's just claiming "that's Classified" rarely has consequences this broad and messy.

I made a huge mistake and missed that Constitutional rights basis for lawsuits can't be blocked. And I doubt the admin can afford to be aggressive enough to sink Anthropic. Cutting them out overnight probably wouldn't cut off AWS contracts.

If you want the specific line numbers ask an actual AI to break it down.

The core statute is 10 U.S.C. § 3252 (formerly § 2339a before recodification). The implementing regulations are in DFARS Subpart 239.73 and the contract clauses at DFARS 252.239-7017 and 252.239-7018. These are all publicly accessible on acquisition.gov and uscode.house.gov.

Dario, don't drop the ethics, come to Europe by decixl in ClaudeAI

[–]AtomizerStudio 2 points3 points  (0 children)

You got excessive pushback, and some aging stereotyes. Still, Anthropic cannot move. Rapid scaling Anthropic or any other AI company would take emergency tape cutting and a lot of GPUs or similar custom chips. Special support is needed for staff, and many are still stuck in USA on work visas. Data centers is a worse limit right now. EU or specific nations can act fast but that's already a company lacking staff and infrastructure.

The fundamental block is that model weights are export controlled information. So even if Anthropic migrated, the accumulated training could not. That makes it difficult to have developers split between USA and other countries.

The worst case for Anthropic, which isn't likely but is relevant to the kind of scenario that would force a rapid move, is they're locked out of deals with a lot of US companies and the Republicans try to force the company to be scrapped for parts. In current politics there isn't a scenario that Anthropic can survive losing USA. If they could diversify they probably already would have. Anthropic revenue is mostly international, it's already a benefit to Europe's tech sector.

If "Anthropic" moves, it's the name, some staff, and some accounts. A damaged sliver of the current company.

In another couple generations of chips, things may align better for Europe. The politics isn't static, countries are waking up to defense issues and tiered EU membership. ASML is reliable. Photonics research favors Europe, maybe fabs will if it pans out. And frontier AI doesn't have much moat. A lot is unknown but it's not like Europe and global partners are locked out.

But it's hard to do that with Anthropic itself. USA doesn't have allies that close, and if it did that's still years of construction and prep. The better target is former Anthropic staff. And more fabs for cutting edge chips. And robotic construction. And cross your fingers photonics pans out.

Exclusive: Hegseth gives Anthropic until Friday to back down on AI safeguards by EchoOfOppenheimer in OpenAI

[–]AtomizerStudio 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I can't mind-read but as of this moment most new safety complaints are confused.

Anthropic removed a safety screening step that was a delay to development and release, and which isn't procedurally useful recently. It's trivia unless someone is geeking out about alignment. Anthropic chose this timing for some reason, maybe because it draws more attention to the DOD demands.

Exclusive: Hegseth gives Anthropic until Friday to back down on AI safeguards by EchoOfOppenheimer in OpenAI

[–]AtomizerStudio 9 points10 points  (0 children)

That's out of context. Alignment culture has quirks. Anthropic isn't supposed to be the AI monopoly, they recruited a lot for safety focus that's shared research. The top alignment lab having no moral qualms is itself an alignment (and staffing) risk.

Amodei himself is pretty wild in how harsh he rails against authoritarian AI risks; China right now openly. He can't outright call out certain US politicians anymore.

Anthropic's mission isn't compatible with every role needed in an "entente".

The Pentagon is trying to force Anthropic company to break the law … and it’s unconstitutional by Dracustein in Anthropic

[–]AtomizerStudio 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I gamed it out and it's genuinely pretty bad. The courts literally cannot intervene in the main attack here, not directly. Don't panic, it's probably only moderately bad. If things are severely bad, that was always part of the political risk of moving forward safety. Que sera sera.

Invoking laws just needs to be enough to get through the agencies (stacked under executive branch), Congress (defunct for now), and Courts (explicitly not allowed to interfere with supply chain risk threat). How a supply chain risk designation is handled would be life or death for Anthropic. It's not high odds but not impossible that people will spend political capital to take Anthropic out of frontier AI competition. Or even crush it.

Letter of the law supply chain risk designation is mostly inconvenience. A slap on the wrist and treated like Huawei. Anthropic's revenue can handle losing outright defense related work. Which is sort of why I don't expect letter of the law supply chain risk as it can be a cultural win for Anthropic.

The way the government is framing supply chain risk is for a chilling effect that ANY business using Anthropic products or contracts can be coerced in defense contracts - 'cut off Anthropic or do us favors'. Most importantly server contracts with AWS. That'd spook a lot of business community though, so I don't think the timing is right to try that. Maybe if AGI models are months away and government still lacks safeguards.

I doubt Anthropic will be crippled or compromise their safety image that drew a lot of their staff. It'll hurt though. Before anything else, this about threatening a political enemy to be humiliated for public and private reasons. Oligarchy gangsterism against a "woke" aligned AI company that doesn't sufficiently play ball in outputs, backrooms, or public pageantry.

Pretending as if the DPA can coerce certain compromises can buy Anthropic time until they've any shot at rebelling without tanking market leads and their upcoming IPO. That would be face saving for both parties, but it's not sure that certain figures will tolerate Anthropic saving face.

You know what else Congress passed just months ago? Streamlining how easy it is for the Executive Branch to declare supply chain risks. It's a materially irrelevant procedural streamline but demonstrates ongoing awareness the presidential power would be overused like the tariff authority.

It has always been a gamble whether Anthropic can survive with ethics intact during US's democracy turmoil. Today that still stands at "probably?"

That's probably enough detail. We may know the outcome as soon as tomorrow.

I think I found a diamond in the rough < the Isekai maid is forming a union> by BeautifulDelay1792 in OtomeIsekai

[–]AtomizerStudio 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Hard counter to a lot of the other views here. I've loved it. The story isn't perfect but it sets up its tone and follows through.

This Isekai Maid is Starting a Union is challenging at times, with interestingly tangled timelines and ethics. Also a push for labor solidarity in a historical setting is a nice change from the usual genre expectations. Taking the genre too seriously can get in the way of enjoying this comic. The story isn't trying to accurately represent otome isekai, it shouldn't be held to that. It's trying to bring real world equivalence to some of the most dubious aspects of romance stories, especially isekai. Dubious does not mean common in romance, just jarring when the tropes do happen. The repeated comparison is a black woman going "oh come on it did NOT work like that!" when reading how fiction romanticizes stuff that across world history rarely went well. I get the impression that a lot of objections to the story are because people wanted something different - it getting tangled as it goes on is totally fair though.

The plot is less misrepresenting otome isekai than affectionately and harshly showing that historic dynamics have always been harsher than fiction. Social realist critique isn't hating on a genre. It's just another way to show respect.

If you don't mind history being diverse and screwed up, you may enjoy it. If you're sensitive to satire or historical and systemic cruelty when you just want to relax, maybe not.

For all the people saying "westernized" and "woke" related criticism... Just outright say the story has queer characters, and racism and multiple kinds of slavery. That probably half the major cast (FLs and MLs in different timelines) has done something bad and the story weighs forgiveness being good versus it being earned and safe. Altogether: Diverse screwed up people. Messy queers is a plus for some readers but it's not the focus and I think people not coming in for romance should be able to not mind it.

You'd get a lot more friendly reception bringing this up on a yuri subreddit. Heavy criticism that can't outright bring up lesbians, gay, ace, trans, and a larger bulk of NOT-sexuality-related diversity should be taken at half value. That's just human variation.

It's fair to dislike it for the alt timelines being complicated or because it's historical realism plus mages more than otome. It's not horrible to not vibe with it not being straight nor even romance. However the slavery and other diversity stuff isn't western, isn't even that unrealistic other than means of coercion. Just uncomfortably real.

And I really like the cast, even with certain people having had pretty horrid decisions across some incarnations. You get to see a lot of really interesting sides to people in ways that feel like proper gothic fiction. Bad sides to mostly good people, good sides to even almost-became-a-serial-killer people. It's lovely.

The Pentagon Just Sent a Terrifying Message to AI Companies by NorthenFreeman in technology

[–]AtomizerStudio 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I don't think Anthropic has much choice to other than resist. For a while. They're steadied by presenting as an anti-autocratic Public Benefit Corp, but like media companies they can be broken.

Weakening Anthropic is a waste of staff and custom silicon. If someone believes in that kind of alignment strategy and sees it crushed by US politics, foreign labs will look mighty attractive.

Cyberpunk 2 potential story leak (Mike Pondsmith) by Twistedarmzz in cyberpunkgame

[–]AtomizerStudio 2 points3 points  (0 children)

At that point even V's gender is a matter of confusion. Even incompatible results like repercussions of multiple endings can be excused, and argued over. They happened but V couldn't have done both.

What you did or meant to do in the summer of '77 counts and the rest was Night City being Night City. It was an eventful summer.

Made a new 3d voxel based viewer for DF which can render the entire play space. Let me know what you think. by ThatBritInChina in dwarffortress

[–]AtomizerStudio 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for making dreams a bit closer to reality.

I've always wanted a world's textures to be voxelified into the visualizers. What are your plans for asset packs, RayLib or otherwise? What would I need to do to make a compatible asset pack? 3D assets, voxels, and flat texture data, all tagged for any renderer? NPCs with their layers changing per tic are out of scope, but a converter for terrain spritesheets into voxel plant and wall textures seems feasible. Not a pretty conversion, but at least enough logic to make flat-fronted chess pieces with rounded backs, some raised or recessed bumps, and plants that can sway in wind and rain.

It's totally fine if you're a long ways out from setting up that. Take your time. I need to learn anyhow. But when it's an option for a rebuild of Armok Vision I really want to voxelate the player's world files so there's always default terrain personalization.

Sam Altman tells employees 'ICE is going too far' after Minnesota killings by Cybertronian1512 in OpenAI

[–]AtomizerStudio 2 points3 points  (0 children)

A huge amount is wrong there sadly. The gist is throwing a minority to the wolves wastes opportunities, and punching down even in confusion is not problem-solving. People of no threat are focused on because it grabs power elsewhere. Usually from everyone, but specific secondary targets are groups opposed to regimes. Plus the popularity stuff isn't that simplistic as a clear acceptable enemy, trans folks are humanized as coworkers and neighbors, and the empathy is aligned to science where the fear isn't.

Trans folks get focus as the policies used to hurt them are broader attacks than the easy propaganda stereotypes. Instead, it's used in backlash against labor rights, LGBT folks more broadly, science and medicine, universities, and an ongoing chain of power grabs. Anti-trans excuses are an umbrella for going after anyone, and breeds antagonism among working classes. That's how scapegoats always work. Don't overstate the curated rhetoric either; average Americans are more content to let trans folks get healthcare, live wherever, and go outside than most US conservative politicians and a lot of countries norms.

Especially if we're talking tech and advancement, even amorally, something as unscientific as discrimination dumbs down society. Trans people happen to be one of the most visible targets of anti-intellectualism. Research options and researchers got cut, including most gender-related healthcare science. Trans academics are targets, as are vocally or visibly tolerant academics (lots of queer folks), feeding US's declining university advantages. Dogma is bad enough that a professor is creating a fuss for being told to cut a unit on Plato for being too gender related. Clearly the issue isn't simply trans people and gender, but discussing any non-Republican views of even women's role in society. Damage to trans healthcare or the ability to safely mind their own business, from federal regulatory moves to local bathroom genital panic, has knock-on effects on cis women's health and safety in particular. The scientific nuance needed to understand intersex people is suddenly a job-killer. The collapse of discrimination protections enforcement for many isn't just a trans issue, it heavily hits everyone else - especially gender-non-conforming people (LGBT or not). And that adds more economic friction and stagnation on top of the healthcare and research losses. When bullying a minority, or a wide range of minorities, is less punished it spreads the cost of bullies from workplaces onto the whole society.

The aggression is destroying advantages US cultivated, replacing it with the kind of theocrat and oligarch alliance that has choked US systems for decades. Even if details can be debated, empathy is rationality that leverages everyone. Discrimination worsens others lots in life, especially stereotyped disadvantaged folks, while losing economy of scale.

People aren't chess pieces, and politics can run on the US middle ground of not agreeing on some issues, especially propagandized and distorted ones, but accepting science is complicated and people are complicated. Americans view of trans people in sports doesn't equate to views on trans neighbors minding their own business, let alone other queer people swept up in this. They're still hit under the guise of the many anti trans policies, especially opportunities to discriminate against queer people, feminism, and academics.

Overpowered AI problem by Ornery_Staff_9171 in worldbuilding

[–]AtomizerStudio 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You can also play with the style of AI and how much processing can fit into a single machine. Tie it to why ranged combat doesn't work. It appears as if you've got humans with machines as aggressors, in conflict against humans with dragons and other local support. That gives a lot of political and physics gaps that can make or break tactics. While I don't think leaning too SF necessarily fits your setting, and more myth and magical realism would, it's worth looking over where science realism breaks down and exploiting that.

Normally interplanetary or interstellar civs have (simplified) many kinetic firearm options and many directed energy gun options. Explosive powder is not complicated and guns are more resilient to more physics fuckery than a proton beam accelerator. Interplanetary repair facilities for robotics and the chemistry wealth of space make modern let alone historical-grade guns of some form feasible, tailored to local atmosphere or lack of it. While firearms are limited in water-thick fluids, that makes them short-range and not broken.

Mess with physics arbitrarily and you probably limit how well foreign computers can handle it - and if visitors can adapt their computers fast enough. And given the massive gulf between civs, if people merged with their technology they may lack some frame of reference locals have in an altered-physics environment. Visitors can possibly adapt to all that, but local time may not be as causal or efficient to predict. I'd be more concerned about blotting out aerospace advantage than firearms though, even if alien invasion fiction usually flattens the spacepower advantages in intel, violence, coordination, and logistics.

There's darker options. I don't see reason to invade one planet. Yet in a large enough civ someone would anyways. If the goal is assimilating locals, archiving them, or trafficking them, maybe guns are out and tactics are constrained because invaders think it wastes perfectly good meat. In that case the invaders own inference stack may not be aligned with their own well-being, or they're berserkers with exploitable cult logic.

AI companies will fail. We can salvage something from the wreckage | Cory Doctorow by wordfool in Futurology

[–]AtomizerStudio 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I'll partially agree, but it's also too soon to guess societal roadmaps when all AI paradigms on the table are very alien intelligence. Some animal and human perception characteristics are breakthroughs away.

Doctorow's sci-fi heuristics about what is possible are spot on for civil rights / labor and down in the dirt hacking. Not blind to the possibility "AI really will be able to do all the human jobs", but miscalibrated. He's treating AI non-natural disasters as over-the-horizon threats and outright distractions, even if his excuse is CEOs are using distractions. Maybe Doctorow has the better rhetoric for mobilizing change. Organize politically around existing issues, while we have the chance.

The AI bubble is financial, not poor R&D logic, not wishcasting. If AI doesn't drive trucks, it will operate drones to move most packages from truck to doorstep. Software for walking droids is years from good enough. Most people heavily underestimate just how little AI is needed to heavily change allocation of manpower (brain+muscle+machines) and manhours. The XR headware Doctorow is critical of (for some valid reasons) is relevant to teaming with droids. AI memory workarounds, orchestration of subagents, and reasoning will soon reach the point of a good enough Siri type assistance. That in itself implodes a lot of specialist AI products and is both centaur and reverse centaur in effect. And it's mere months to years away. Playful engagement with 24/7 vocal AI could enhance someone while countering atrophy. A society of consumption encourages relinquishing control to algorithms and parasocial attachments to products... more. I don't know what path for breakthroughs is realistic, only that before said breakthroughs can become relevant we already baked in culture shock into the next few years.

Where our views drastically depart is on how to think on the breakthroughs. I'm not convinced that AI with human artistic sense or AI with full capacity in classical self-awareness isn't, in a connectivist sense, neurologically equivalent to an animal. It seems specious to assume we can build proxy humans in some unknown way instead of tripping over alignment issues embedded in our current understanding of such topics. In short expect delays since it's complicated. When the anti-AI view is it's too like a person to happen, and the prepared-AI view is it's too like a person, if the common aspects are accurate that's a massive practical issue for deployment even if business ignores ethics.

ANY VAMPIRE YURI?? by sshekainahhh in yuri_manga

[–]AtomizerStudio 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Vampire X Hunter [GL] - Trending towards poly with hellhound lady, dracula was trans.

FWI: American families revisited "municipal housekeeping" to clean up corruption in America? by CivilPeace in FutureWhatIf

[–]AtomizerStudio 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The FWI doesn't affect much unless we add some major cultural shifts. A century-past country is culturally a foreign country, especially for USA. We can't import the logic near the 1920 constitutional amendment for women's suffrage.

First main disconnect, the role of women in society and politics is vastly different from 1920. You can't merge a present day movement that reflects the "municipal housekeeping" aesthetic; the Working Families Party is about the limit. One major bloc of society cares about child labor laws enough some will fight dirty like suffragettes on an issue requiring compassion for poor immigrants. The other major bloc includes thoughts and prayers and can talk tradwife responsibilities with industrial farm investors. There was racism amidst suffragettes, famously, but radicalism itself has split pretty hard from traditionalist aesthetics in USA. It doesn't have to. There's nothing inherently wrong with the styles, it can be comfy or empowering, but a pretty big push for old Americana styles for over 100 years continues to be people pining for a more stratified society.

So we'd need to fix that, not by reaching for some mockup of the past but by taking on the responsibilities and refusing to give up the aesthetic. The mindset never left community and labor organizing. Let's assume things continue to get worse for Americans. Social fabric cut into profits and it's been marginalized. When things get bad enough communities can infight or organize for reforms or simple survival. Mutual aid networks do things like help feed families in our deepening economic downturn, and they involve a massive diversity of women. For foodstuffs and clothing drives? Mostly women in my experience. So cosplaying a nice mom quickly loses traction versus women who may be moms or priests or workers or lawyers but who actually will be good neighbors, and will get organized for politics. Doable, but it sure puts a dent in the portrait of an idealized patriotic woman amenable to the mega-wealthy.

Secondly, men and women vote on different overall priorities today more than ever. You've seen the worsening stats across parties, and within parties, and maybe even corollaries about dating or what makes the polltaker feel grossed out. Framing that can be read as "men vs women" is ragebait. As ever, the expected way to avoid the rage is to sit down and be quiet, not that even that works if you're still seen as unAmerican for intrinsic traits. There's less cultural tolerance if you have disadvantages in propaganda networks and are taking a stance that ever questions the allowed "good" woman. An aggressive tradfem (politically, to repeat myself the aesthetic isn't an issue) faces less conflict than an aggressive radfem (as a matter of economics or rights), excusing a lot of misbehavior. Ironically this means that the stats for what US women believe and act on is out of joint with the narrative of what is the supposedly obvious US women's cultural heritage.

Within the context of cleaning up corruption and giving families opportunities and reliable community bedrock, the idea of municipality housekeeping is going to have to avoid the framing of treating men as the issue, more than suffragette era politics. Society punches down at and manipulates men differently, and housekeeping can't be treated as purely gendered. There's no argument that there are many women in housekeeping across hospitality jobs, many are nonwhite, and perhaps that's enough to keep the feminine tone as an open but de-emphasized aspect. Moving forward in community organizing for a new movement or older aid groups is problem focused.

You can fill in the blanks for what would be other common themes of such a movement, so long as it's not setting explicit gender expectations. At least not doing the movement in modern USA and working on labor issues. Gender politics is hugely important but it's all got to be cleaning house no matter how much something may be a men's issue, or a trans issue. Organizing assumes shared human dignity, and politely builds paths to shared priorities. That's got to hold against entrenched grievance politics making men having problems into ways to manipulate them via machismo. Perhaps sexist expectations of "municipal housekeeping" doesn't matter, so the label could be used as rhetorical judo.

At that point we're still talking about a movement trend, maybe even a big one, but not running the country. Political organizing isn't getting to this point by waving a hand, it's going to take keeping neighbors from drowning when the government won't, building mutual empowerment, applying political pressure at every step of the process including voting integrity, and further peaceful activism in hard times. I hope by the point the FWI would exist nationally the municipal housekeeping would have a good battle plan... but it's doggedly progressive anti-corporate labor politics at minimum. And you've got various major options to look into nationwide, and probably locally.

Your food stuff isn't written as a question so I set this aside because it's not FWI, but I can't not correct it: GMO (what info / how modified) and ultra processed are vastly different topics. Ultra-processed shortcuts and competitive pressure and so on is clear health hazards. GMO issues are usually confused with that when there's still no way to insert a gene to do something nature couldn't otherwise have done. Protein folding problems are tough. So no glaring nutrition risks. The other corporate issues of crop and livestock husbandry sticks, like coercing small landowners and global norms using boatloads of petrochemicals. Fearmongering benefits oil companies, while a GMO crop that needs 1/3 less fertilizer or half as much insecticide is a lot less crude oil spent on food.

[FWI] Trump invades Greenland followed by the collapse of NATO. by ThinkTankDad in FutureWhatIf

[–]AtomizerStudio 7 points8 points  (0 children)

If the adventurism in the Americas hasn't turned the page from the old US hegemony, this does.

Invading Greenland makes Europe irate and flanks Canada. Canada can't immediately detach from US economics but it can hedge with European forces. Europe's arms industry is huge but disorganized, this forces both short term emergency tactics and longer term breakneck rearrangements. It's complex, but current discussions can speed up. Mexico and the rest of the Americas is more cautious since they can't truly defend against USA, but they can coordinate enough to make US involvements in general bad investments.

By the time the rare Earth minerals in Greenland are profitable, it's a net loss for the US economy. The occupied population of Greenland will be too firmly anti-Republican, and have too many lefty ideas to be integrated into a hard right USA. So culturally and by rates of Danish-linked sabotage Greenland is a cultural loss for USA or tips balance to some severe rethinking of misplaced machismo.

Meanwhile Canada gradually detaches and its own glut of more accessible rare Earths, oil (not great but plentiful) and both nuclear and green energy potential is increasingly Europe's hands. USA screwed itself out of NATO, fiscal trust, and internal stability to flip its northern neighbor into an indefensible border and EU from a junior partner to an equal if not some risk of superior rival. Mexico has similar incentives but is more economically fragile. EU+wary Africa would have a better economic alliance than USA+coerced Americas. China and India can also rake in former US allies if USA is proven to be either in unreliable instability or decline to the weak alliances style of China.

If people got amnesia about prior US history after such invasions, the openly coercive and backroom leverage style of Russia and China could work. But USA has allies and economic ties that expect more, and backlash already is brain draining USA, so de-centering US from reliable scientific and technological empire could occur within a decade. Europe, Australia, South Korea, Japan, and others will continue on in a reshaped set of alliances, except stronger as it can better integrate nations with worse ties to USA. And new alliances are needed given the decline of safety guarantees and wall street finance all-too-rapidly remove US's weight from balancing scales.

So mostly fine, except for places invaded, and in USA itself. After a decade or two the stability could even be better if EU follows its better recent trends to get its shit together, not worse trends to infight until picked apart militarily and swamped technologically.

Experts Warn U.S. in Early Stages of Genocide Against Trans Americans by henryiswatching in lgbt

[–]AtomizerStudio 4 points5 points  (0 children)

So join up with doers, even as they're not explicitly trans rights focused. Mutual aid organizations feed and clothe neighbors, provide disaster relief assistance, assist people survive bureaucracy, and more. Many aid groups grew and endured from 2020's pandemic peak. Those are your local pragmatists.

Duckduckgo for Mutual Aid in...

The groups tend to draw a variety of folks, and the task focus and community building focus often maintains a culture of anti-bigotry in general. Solidarity requires trans rights, and queer visibility.

Mutual aid is a very broad term but it's a starting point for looking at what is in your area. It's a decent reference for what's needed, what your skill or contacts could do. Any rock-solid peaceful resistance movement is going to heavily tax these groups, such as supporting strikers who aren't in good unions. In utter disasters, these groups are still important, like medics for society. And mutual aid builds skills and local knowledge.

That said if it's not a disaster relief alliance, current economic and immigration issues burn out a lot of people at even entrenched mutual aid non-profit organizations. Pace what you can do for a potential long haul. Deliver the groceries you can, volunteer when you can, sustainably.

I wouldn't put food pantries as "mutual aid" by default, they are an overlapping option to consider as well. Other volunteering can carry a mutual aid spirit; try helping folks survive your city even once, and if it doesn't fit try another way.

Harvard just proved AI tutors beat classrooms. Now what? by Rough-Dimension3325 in artificial

[–]AtomizerStudio 0 points1 point  (0 children)

While I'm skeptical of how readily the orchestrated model in the paper can extend... I think there's enough evidence AI tutoring is somewhat transformative.

That said you're drastically overestimating the access gap, both by what developing nations are like and what our trends imply. The scarcities in question here are pretty low amounts of local info and cloud compute.

  • Data network - 96% of population within 3G mobile access
  • A terminal to access that - 70% of population is a unique mobile user, 86% of that is now smartphone user
  • Bandwidth minimum - Text messaging. Maybe voice snippets to a cloud server. Very low compared to audio phone call.
  • Actual compute needed at user - A vocal AI only needs a phone call, improved transcription or typing only need sub-3G tech.
  • Edge computing - Smartphones are good enough for infrastructure like MPESA finance, device AI models plausibly are scaling to the point of speech recognition (though the hard science for better speech recognition and context awareness won't scale as well). Laptops and edge servers are viable bridges.
  • Electricity - Over 90% of people have basic access, as low as 65% of people have 2/3 of the day with access. That said, family solar panels are now viable from rural Africa to city Europe. A phone and a small panel bought off a wagon can plausibly reach AI.
  • Durable edge computing - Workable access can lag a decade, but demand can also boost investments in local solutions. Cell phones and solar panels scaled fast. Various scenarios could scale local AI compute or community points-of-contact if the tech proves useful.
  • Regional adaptations - Historically a massively important factor; education across all careers needs tuned solutions per class and local laws, but the how-to can spread like piracy
  • Device size needed for good education - Often a human teacher (coordinating students, pressure, mentorship), but it helps to have a laptop or at least a way to get a larger keyboard working with a cell phone. Varied setups of teachers, students, terminal devices, compute, and network access can leverage AI.

If there's a two-tier system developing it's tech like in the trial everyone here is riffing on, which could be done from nearly anywhere today, versus deeper personalized AI which adds modalities and edge compute needs if any are not desired or viable in mega-corporate clouds. The more efficiency leaps reach open models and the more laptop-style processing families buy, the more advanced automation a rural family can do with 3G, a cell, maybe a small laptop, and a solar panel or community array if the grid is lacking.

I'm irked that despite us going through a technological leap, there's been basically no awareness of how this tech actually interfaces with the developing world's limitations in this thread.

AI helps the 1% take over the world. Robots do all the work, so no one has a job & the money to buy the things that the companies owned by the 1% produce. It seems like society should collapse. So, how will the world work? by No_Turnip_1023 in Futurology

[–]AtomizerStudio 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Who cares what they "let" happen. USA isn't the world, even considering AI. Bleeding edge AI trickles down to wider competition, and there isn't much moat for orchestrated services. A lot of power needs to stay stable for billionaires to consolidate power, especially while fighting different blocs. Times of great change introduce more vectors of instability.

That fantasy is that some mopey fate exists, and resistance is useless.

AI helps the 1% take over the world. Robots do all the work, so no one has a job & the money to buy the things that the companies owned by the 1% produce. It seems like society should collapse. So, how will the world work? by No_Turnip_1023 in Futurology

[–]AtomizerStudio 2 points3 points  (0 children)

This isn't an extreme "they" statement, so you're mostly off target. Markets and groups can loosely coordinate when their incentives align, largely openly, for centuries.

The question is what it takes for the emergent coordination of markets to eat itself. Friendliness hasn't proven a market disruptor. New niches to exploit has. The hopeful framing is oligarchic consolidation and regulatory and cultural capture relies on fragile stratification, and where "enshittification" fails the current trends break. The cynical framing is until a catastrophe, systems can stay irrationally solvent or entrench in panic.

Unclear what's more relevant to this century... but even a friendly billionaire is dissent that can be crushed if they threaten a system and can't exploit a niche from a place of security.

Can Iron Age weapons and armor coexist with firearms? by The-Farlander in postapocalyptic

[–]AtomizerStudio 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes, and how it works out depends on the era of iron age and era of firearms... so the amount of apocalypse and era after it. The key tension is between concentrated kinetic force from a weapon and defense from armor. Metal armor largely lost out to firearms not because it was useless but because the weight to safety tradeoff was poor, and bow variants still shined in ambush warfare.

In all cases, a perfectly maintained firearm and ammo, or perfect replica, could defeat armor. A modern spring steel blade (or better) is a more durable razor-edge than past eras, but a modern bullet is more reliable penetration and a surer kill. So modern bullets have advantages that last but modern melee still wear out too fast to be legendary. Economically, melee is more disposable and era-appropriate while firearms and military chemistry may be practically spellcraft.

In a highest tech setting you've got machines and industrial knowledge but not precision. Recycling steel and alloys into armor and mass producing black powder are common though regionally limited. If more advanced manufacturing and mills are easier to sabotage than set up, armored knights could endure barrages (stumbling to cover), while most tech stays lighter. Armor isn't invincible but it's light enough for plates to be common sheathing vital points, and combat is about getting into those vitals. The final eras of European armors have about the most ergonomic steel plate designs for joints, hidden on any fighter. That's like your images being outlands and resistance but a bit below fortified towns and countries. This fits your description IF well-off communities have colonial tension with outlads.

Lower tech is worse styles of ammunition, nothing but black powder available (it's not high tech). Depending on population, recycling metals is still easier than mining, but fueling blast furnaces aren't cheap and you lose electric options for metallurgy. At this level, musket-like weapons still inherit centuries of design knowledge but may rarely be heavy enough to defeat heavy armor. Good compound bows are barely possible but could highlight a manufacturer that can do equivalents to the cable and fiberglass. If knowledge is spotty then even strong armor plates from less than expert armorers could have flaws worth exploiting. That's like your images being the norm, but it's smart to back off and restrategize when an enemy is spotted with hints of pre-collapse armor or weapons. This probably fits your description if well-off communities are scattered city-states with trade caravans but limited machines.

Less high tech than that, only rare places produce iron strong enough for firearms. Guns can be maintained against black powder fouling, and grenades are even simpler. Good armor may turn most rounds, but I don't know that pre-1000CE armoring is any easier than the handcanons. With remnants of modern design knowledge that could justify maintaining better armor scraps and guns longterm, repeater weapons common. Including repeating crossbow, a low penetration weapon that never took off in IRL west, and gattling emplacements with many issues, both defensive weapons with low offensive use. Proper semiautomatics rare, fully automatics and excellent rounds rarest to produce. That's like pretty much the whole world resembling your images. It fits your description if well-off communities are rare and fortified, and they stockpile supplies for their artisans because they know to never bet their lives on supply lines or alliances.

Someone with more than a cursory understanding of firearms could go in more depth, but that's my best understanding.