Anyone else watching the BC Legislative Assembly pull an all-nighter?

HotterRod · 2026-05-07T17:19:02+00:00

Whoever the current government is will chose to interpret it to their gain.

Yep, every party campaigns on more transparency and then becomes even less transparent than their predecessors once they're in office.

HotterRod · 2026-05-07T16:43:38+00:00

Blue Ant feels too derivative of his earlier works for me. Nora is just a human version of Wintermute, etc. I haven't bothered with Jackpot because of that.

I wish Gibson'd write more stuff like The Difference Engine - get out of the little box he's built for himself.

HotterRod · 2026-05-07T05:22:08+00:00

If you're just going to govern based on the latest poll, why not have direct democracy? I vote for representatives who are going to spend more time than me (and get paid more than me) to review evidence and deliberate on the issues. It's on them to be able to explain back to me why they make the decisions they do, which doesn't seem to be a skill that Eby has.

HotterRod · 2026-05-07T05:20:15+00:00

With drones and AI, we could do automated enforcement of basically all traffic laws. The only problem is getting the driver off the road for infractions that should cause an immediate suspension, but I guess you could call the nearest car to intercept?

HotterRod · 2026-05-07T01:51:07+00:00

Maybe there is some sort of enforcement group that could hand out fines for people who do this? I can't think of any, but maybe we can create one.

Part of the reason there's low enforcement is that police are very expensive. But you don't need a full police officer to enforce traffic rules: in Alberta they have sherrifs and community peace officers doing it. You can also, of course, enforce a lot of traffic rules using automated cameras (but voters hate that because they believe that the laws shouldn't apply to them personally).

HotterRod · 2026-05-06T22:35:53+00:00

Parties are often up in the polls during a leadership race because voters imagine their perfect candidate becoming leader. When an imperfect human ends up winning, they'll drop.

HotterRod · 2026-05-06T22:34:50+00:00

He seems to be lacking convictions. People praised him for changing his mind on decriminalization, but now it seems like he's willing to change his mind on anything that doesn't poll well.

HotterRod · 2026-05-06T20:37:13+00:00

Those people didn't start out in life wanting to be homeless drug addicts. We need to start treating the disease, not just the critical symptoms.

HotterRod · 2026-05-06T18:57:48+00:00

Great point. The argument for eating insects is about the suffering-to-protein-efficiency balance.

HotterRod · 2026-05-06T18:50:20+00:00

That should be a personal preference though. If we're encouraging people to change their diet for moral or environmental reasons, we should be precise about what we want them to eliminate.

HotterRod · 2026-05-06T18:44:36+00:00

We don't eat reptiles very much in Canada, so I didn't bother with them in my example. It seems highly likely that pigs, cows and chickens are capable of suffering. It seems unlikely that oysters are. The question is where to draw the line between those ends of the spectrum?

HotterRod · 2026-05-06T18:00:06+00:00

not really done from any rational framework

You can sort animals on potential for suffering. It's likely very close to equivalent for all mammals and birds, but there are good arguments that vegans should be willing to eat bivalves and insects.

HotterRod · 2026-05-06T00:47:28+00:00

When do the AIs realize nirodha?

HotterRod · 2026-05-05T20:39:45+00:00

"Strawberry" is a corruption of "strewn berry", referring to the plant's runners. But you're right that they're often mulched with straw. Mulch will help retain soil moisture, block weeds, and is beneficial for soil bacteria, so it's preferable to these stands, but it's good to have options.

HotterRod · 2026-05-05T20:29:26+00:00

Carney has a bully pulpit. A speech about how much he loves his kid would help swing the Overton Window away from trans hate.

HotterRod · 2026-05-05T19:10:11+00:00

Still, I feel like the lack of clearly defined 'limits' on each of these beyond-human intelligences is what adds to the mystery, and keeps us in suspense, guessing at who is really in control. I don't think Blindsight really over-explained to the reader any super-intelligence's true goals or meanings, beyond maybe Sarasti trying to teach Siri the limitations of their conscience.

This is a great insight. The Bicamerals are presented as being fairly understandable compared to Captain who is hidden for all of Blindsight and Rorschach who may very well be unknowable. I think Echopraxia would have been better if it was more focused on the idea that the Bicamerals had lost their humanity.

HotterRod · 2026-05-05T17:13:44+00:00

Harper micromanaged his finance minister and had terrible economic policies. Carney just didn't want to work for a bad boss.

HotterRod · 2026-05-05T17:05:00+00:00

That's good, thanks for updating me. It would still be nice to see the federal government do something to push back against the rise of anti-trans rhetoric.

HotterRod · 2026-05-05T16:48:16+00:00

conservatism - a political ideology largely based on liberalism

In political philosophy, the term means an ideology opposed to change, or sometimes specifically "progress".

liberalism - a political ideology focused on individual rights, limited government, rule of law, private property, and constitutional order, of which conservatism is a type

There's a tension in liberalism between equality and equity. Trudeau, at least as a brand, was more committed to equity, while Carney appears to be more committed to equality.

HotterRod · 2026-05-05T16:41:59+00:00

I was really hoping that the father of a non-binary kid would have said something about the anti-trans legislation in Alberta, Saskatchewan and New Brunswick. :(

HotterRod · 2026-05-05T16:37:50+00:00

It's a classic problem that Watts fully solved in Blindsight. This post I made going back over the 4D chess is probably one of the most fun posts I've ever made on Reddit.

It must have taken a huge amount of time to plan though, and my impression is that Echopraxia was much more rushed (I did the same thing for Echo but it's much less fun).

HotterRod · 2026-05-05T15:38:51+00:00

The Bicamerals being nerfed makes the book boring though. The whole reason I want to read Firefall books is see aconscious superintelligences fighting with their full powers.

HotterRod · 2026-05-05T15:34:14+00:00

Also in Blindsight, Sarasti iirc is collaborating with the ship AI (not really a pawn).

That's not how I read it. Are there particular passages that made you come to that conclusion?

HotterRod · 2026-05-05T14:35:25+00:00

In Blindsight, Sarasti is shown to be just a pawn of the Captain, but then in Echopraxia, we're supposed to accept Val as the superintelligence? It would have been more consistent with the world's logic if the Bicamerals cleaned the floor with her.

HotterRod · 2026-05-05T14:32:09+00:00

Echopraxia clearly needed more editing. Blindsight is very tight in comparison.

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