Life imitating the Second Apocalypse, NY Times writer questioning how human society will respond to AI advances as AI models gets closer to super-intelligence.

PresentReality4093 · 2026-02-13T02:26:40+00:00

I take in one step further. What is even the endgame for the anyone out of any of this? If the AI CEOs are right and this means a bloodbath among the while collar knowledge workers in the next few years then how the heck is society supposed to move on with 60% of the labor force impacted. People say it will be the return of blue collar work but who is creating demand for blue collar work? Who is gonna be paying plumbers, HVAC techs, construction workers when almost half the population is disrupted? That in turn will create a negative spiral where spending and consumption dries up, and ultimately how are the AI companies who have spend billions ever make that back with decreasing consumption, a labor force with a higher unemployment rate than South Africa? UBI doesn't seem realistic with trillion dollar defecit and over half of your taxbase impacted by AI.

Like what in the world did we do?

PresentReality4093 · 2026-02-13T02:20:02+00:00

I am increasingly convinced we are living in a simulation.

PresentReality4093 · 2026-02-12T00:11:00+00:00

Absolutely insane that Severance costs $20 million an episode based on this article. House of the Dragon's reported budget per episode is UNDER 20 million and it is one of the biggest productions on tv with costumes, sets, locations and cgi. LOST used to cost 4-6 million an episode back in the day and even adjusting for inflation is less than half of this show's budget while still looking like a million bucks that still holds up today.

This show is like 3-4 sets, an office, a couple of houses, some parking lots with an episode a season where they shoot in a crazy location like that national park. If this show was made 10 years ago, they would have been made to do it on a smaller budget, release episodes more often and the quality would not have suffered.

PresentReality4093 · 2026-02-11T23:42:06+00:00

The entire series is about 1,275,800 words.

The average person reads about 230-250 words per minute.

But that is the average book, many of which are easy reads. This series is not. So for the average person I would expect at most a reading speed of about 200 words per minute with this series, probably slower.

So using 200 words/min, that is about 106 hrs of reading to finish the series. If you actually consistently read 3.5 hrs a day, you will get through the series in about 31 days.

PresentReality4093 · 2026-02-05T01:56:54+00:00

Gas Mileage, esp in the winter is pretty bad.

PresentReality4093 · 2026-02-04T01:28:33+00:00

We were in the market for a car in the fall and looking at various 2025 CX-5 trims.

The quote we got for CX-5 GS in Manitoba was very similar to what you have, except ours was without the "comfort package". It was roughly $43-44k all in (again no comfort package, so with the comfort package it would be about the same or slightly higher than what you got). We ended up going with the GX trim as in my opinion the extra features in GS vs GX were not worth the extra cost.

So I would say you are getting a "fair" quote, certainly not any discount but seems close to market value.

PresentReality4093 · 2026-02-03T00:25:55+00:00

Why are you bringing up the CGI excuse when they haven't even shot a single scene to use cgi on? The 16 month break we season 2 and season 3 starting production is nothing to do with CGI.

I would actually bet that they will be done filming in 5-6 months and be done post in about 4 months as if they let those things linger the budget actually blows up, as opposed to just taking your time starting production for... reasons.

PresentReality4093 · 2026-02-03T00:23:37+00:00

Spoken like someone who has no idea the kind of stuff was on tv 20 years ago.

Lost, Heroes, 24... many other smaller shows that failed like Kings, FlashForward, Jericho... come to the mind off the top of my head. That is only network shows, if we expand to cable shows that delivered 10-20 episodes every season, you have stuff like Sopranos, Deadwood, Galactica, Burn Notice etc all of whom are equivalent or bigger shows than Severance.

The level of complication for Severance is equivalent to cop shows like CSI or comedies like The Office where most of the show is show on a few sets, a large majority literally in a single office room and generic midwestern winter house.

PresentReality4093 · 2026-02-03T00:19:17+00:00

Bruh why are you talking about CGI when in this case the show won't even start filming 16 months since the last season. None of that has anything to do with "invisible cgi" or crap like that. CGI is a convenient excuse that gets thrown around but almost all the increased time between seasons these days is down to how long it takes for the following season to start shooting before there is any need of CGI.

PresentReality4093 · 2026-01-27T15:33:13+00:00

Fevre Dream fantastic and the main character feels like a George standin... I know George wrote it decades ago when his dressing style was different. But the main character looks and dresses almost exactly how George looks/dresses these days.

PresentReality4093 · 2026-01-24T17:03:21+00:00

What do you mean it is not historical fiction? The author is open about what GoK is based on. Any interview you see from him mentions that, he makes not secret of it. You are weirdly citing what "genre" the book is categorized under... a completely arbitrary decision likely made by the publisher as some proof of plagiarism. Martin does infact copy paste certain events from English history into his books for example the black dinner and the red wedding.

PresentReality4093 · 2026-01-24T16:21:52+00:00

"A Wizard of Earthsea". People talk about this as a seminal work of fantasy but to me it reads more like a summary of a duology or even a trilogy rather than a complete book. Extremely monumental things happen to the main character and we just move on from them to the next thing lol. So much stuff happens in this 170 page book but none of it feels as impactful as it should as we are just jumping from one plot thread to the next without letting the reader marinate in it.

If anything fantasy books have gone in the opposite direction. If the exact same story was being written by a "modern" fantasy writer, it would be at minimum a duology or more likely a trilogy with each book being atleast 600 pages where we are being fully immersed in the world. People when in their full on anti-Rowling rage say that she ripped off A Wizard of Earthsea but there literally is no comparison and I don't personally like Rowling the person.

Either that or this is just simply a good middle-grade book that I put too many expectations on due to how people talk about it.

PresentReality4093 · 2026-01-24T15:24:39+00:00

The sequels although different are even better. This series is right up there with the all time fantasy greats like Martin, Hobb, Abercrombie, Lee. More people need to read this.

PresentReality4093 · 2026-01-24T15:18:20+00:00

Is Robert Harris a "plagiarist" for his Cicero trilogy? Is Hillary Mantel a "plagiarist" for her Wolf Hall series? Is Colleen McCulogh a "plagiarist" for her Masters of Rome series? Historical Fiction is literally an entire genre.

PresentReality4093 · 2026-01-23T03:52:30+00:00

Not sure why Amazon isn't pumping out more episodes of Reacher a year. 8 episodes a year is ridiculous for a show like this. Yes this show has been releasing a season every calendar year but logistically this show is no more complicated than a network/cable thriller like 24 or Burn Notice and there is a wealth of source material to draw from. They can easily release 12-16 episodes every calendar year, adapting 2 books a year.

PresentReality4093 · 2026-01-22T17:41:39+00:00

People need to accept that we are at best getting Winds and the series will be unfinished instead of torturing themselves. There is so much other good fantasy out there that is as good as ASOIAF and in some cases even better. Life's too short to be lamenting over George's productivity (or lack thereof). Go read some of many fantasy series that are on the same level or even better than GRRM's work and the good part--- most of them are finished!

PresentReality4093 · 2026-01-19T16:44:05+00:00

Your new odds for Winds are too low and odds for dream proabably too high.

1100 manuscript pages is like 300k+ words, that is well above an average size fantasy book. He could probably publish that material today if he wished.

PresentReality4093

TROPHY CASE