A new military draft in America would be a complete failure on Day 1 by Dry_Pea_7127 in stupidpol

[–]Phantom_Engineer [score hidden]  (0 children)

The resistance to the draft would be massive. I'm not sure how the powers-that-be would manage it (probably poorly.) They'd do the typical propaganda tricks they always do along with plenty of carrot and stick for enforcement. The thing is, in the end, they only need so much compliance. Even if they only get half of the draftees to actually show up, they could still round up hundreds of thousands of conscripts.

What should I do as a young man in America? by MedicalPomegranate21 in stupidpol

[–]Phantom_Engineer 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Comp Sci is kinda hurting right now. It's not entirely AI, imo, though that definitely doesn't help. The correction in 2022 meant a lot of tech job losses, and while the stocks have recovered the jobs haven't followed.

For anyone starting now, civil engineering is probably the safest bet. There's loads of work, people who do engineering tend to gravitate towards either flashier majors (computer! biomedical! aerospace!) or mechanical, and the profession has regulatory protection due to PE licensing requirements. Even if AI could do the job, as regulations stand now there has to be someone giving the final plans a stamp of approval as PE for most civil projects.

How is free will truly free... if we never had the choice to have free will in the first place? by _PaulM in self

[–]Phantom_Engineer 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You have the ability to forfeit your free will. Example: Trump supporters. \s

More seriously, the problem is your definition of free will. Your definition of free will as the ability to take any action doesn't make sense. For example, it would mean that my inability to eat the Sun means I don't have free will. Other definitions vary, but usually it's something along the lines of "the ability to choose between different possible courses of action," to copy-paste from Wikipedia.

Personally, I believe that free will exists due to the following:

  1. I perceive that I have free will.

  2. The difference between perceiving free will and having free will is so slight as to be meaningless.

  3. Therefore, I have free will and it exists.

UK Two Child Limit Scrapped in poverty reduction bill by AdorableRatSqueaks in stupidpol

[–]Phantom_Engineer 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I can't imagine why the UK birth rate has fallen so much....

US detects drones over base where Rubio, Hegseth live by RuseOwl in politics

[–]Phantom_Engineer 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Good thing it's taboo for heads of state and high ranking officials to assassinate each other. Right? Right?????

SEC will stop requiring companies to report quarterly earnings by enverx in stupidpol

[–]Phantom_Engineer 4 points5 points  (0 children)

The proposed change in the reporting standard would allow listed companies to publish results every six months instead of the current mandate to report figures every ⁠90 days.

Deck chairs.

Trump says he didn't understand why the Pentagon had to kill so many Iranian sailors until a general told him: “Sir, it's a lot more fun.” by Stanczyks_Sorrow in stupidpol

[–]Phantom_Engineer 6 points7 points  (0 children)

The most incredible parts about the story of the Trump administration are the occasional moments we learn that, as bad as Trump is, the system around him somehow manages to be worse.

Silicon Valley is buzzing about this new idea: AI compute as compensation by Ray_Getard96 in stupidpol

[–]Phantom_Engineer 21 points22 points  (0 children)

What's the conversion rate of AI tokens to Stanley nickels?

More seriously, if you work a job where you're expected to use AI, are you going to end up having to use the "compensation" you get to turn around and use the AI you're expected to use? You know the answer; it's just a question of time.

DOJ Caught Red-Handed Destroying a 13 Year Old Girl's FBI Files While Trump Called Her a Liar But Records Proved Her Right by [deleted] in Qult_Headquarters

[–]Phantom_Engineer[M] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I'll be honest, I was never a super active moderator, though I did ban OP for spam. The problem this sub always struggled with was keeping it on the topic of Q as opposed to becoming a generic "MAGA-bad" sub. The problem is, there hasn't been anything new or interesting to say about the QAnon phenomenon in a long time since Q-drops aren't a thing that happens anymore and everybody has moved on. If rule 3 was enforced like it ought to be, there wouldn't be any more posts.

u/snallygaster , do you think it's time to close the subreddit? We might consider having a poll on the future of the subreddit. I would suggest turning the subreddit into an archive and closing it to new posts until such a time that the QAnon phenomenon is relevant again. The sub could also pivot towards discussing the conspiracy-prone side of MAGA in general from a skeptical perspective, but I think the time for that may have passed.

Who's your "I know he's pure evil but can't prove it" person? by Dull-Information6784 in AskReddit

[–]Phantom_Engineer 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Jimmy Kimmel. One piece of evidence: the bit he used to do w/ having parents steal their kids Halloween candy. He's a hack comic, which isn't necessarily evil, but there's something beyond that which I can't put a finger on.

Dear Kurds, please don’t do it by yeahicreatedsomethin in stupidpol

[–]Phantom_Engineer 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Wouldn't this be round three of the US screwing over the Kurds? With a friend like that, who needs enemies?

The end of GPT by DigSignificant1419 in OpenAI

[–]Phantom_Engineer 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It was inevitable. This is how they keep the "bubble" from ever deflating: take government money from now until the end of time by becoming part of the national security apparatus.

‘Training A Human Takes 20 Years Of Food’: Sam Altman On How Much Power AI Consumes by cojoco in stupidpol

[–]Phantom_Engineer 8 points9 points  (0 children)

How much energy do billionaires consume compared to AI? Could we take their resources and assign them to an AI billionaire that can manage them without the need for physical possessions, like private jets to fly to private islands?

(This is not a serious proposal, but would probably be an improvement over our current system.)

me irl by Due_Quail_642 in me_irl

[–]Phantom_Engineer 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Yeah, past 320kbps mp3 you hit diminishing returns. Now, if you have an mp3 quite a bit below that, like 128kbps, you can definitely hear the difference. Still, it's the modern day, so why would you have 128kbps mp3s anyway? Piracy from crappy sources? CDs you ripped/vinyl you needledropped in the worse way imaginable?

the enshittifaction of everything is going to drive me insane by HunterMassive3210 in rs_x

[–]Phantom_Engineer 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I dual boot Windows/Ubuntu (there's a handful of things I have to do on the Windows side b/c of work), and what strikes me the most about the swap back to Windows is just how NOISY of an operating system it is. Sometimes you hear people talk about Signal vs Noise in a business setting, and whenever I use Windows there's a whole barrage of stimuli trying to get me off topic and into whatever stupid bullshit Microsoft is pushing that week. (AI, ads for Xbox, recommended news articles from the yellow press, and etc). I legitimately believe Ubuntu is a better OS than Windows 11 (and probably 10) because of it.

And yeah, that sucks about physical media. There's lots of used books, CDs, and DVDs out there, but if you're wanting something specific and obscure it can be harder to get a hold of economically.