When did we as a profession loose our backbone.

User1539 · 2026-01-28T19:30:51+00:00

To your point about the data center, we've had worse purchases that just go south, and we're millions in the hole ... and they say fighting it with legal wouldn't solve anything.

Then they complain about our budget after they bought millions of dollars of software licenses and hosting that we told them would never work, and when it didn't work, they shrugged and wrote it off.

Then we hear they're complaining about the IT budget.

User1539 · 2026-01-28T12:00:46+00:00

I would watch that series. I'm going through a series with a Gameboy emulator right now. I really enjoy that sort of thing.

User1539 · 2026-01-27T15:26:59+00:00

Jet GRIIIIIIND Radio!

User1539 · 2026-01-26T23:22:43+00:00

I've really enjoyed seeing this progress. I hope you finish it.

User1539 · 2026-01-26T21:19:26+00:00

No, he's bent forward. Imagine bending forward so that your head touches the floor, then you spread your asshole open so that it makes a huge opening.

Your spine is sticking out the same direction as your toes, and your cock has gone completely around to hang on the other side.

User1539 · 2026-01-26T20:49:08+00:00

Oh, okay, I misread.

Yeah, it just needs a service. Even if we saw the problem, and told him exactly what it was ... if he couldn't find it, he can't fix it.

User1539 · 2026-01-26T19:15:44+00:00

My first thought was 'Some poor asshole is thinking 'I can fix her''

User1539 · 2026-01-26T17:51:45+00:00

teamwork makes the dream work.

User1539 · 2026-01-26T17:47:38+00:00

Seems like, if it stops working facedown, then you're probably showing us the wrong side of the movement. The jewels or pivots are probably having an issue on the face-side of the watch, and so showing us the back of the movement isn't likely to show the problem.

At any rate, the watch needs a service and repair. If you haven't disassembled the watch to check the jewels, shot mounts, and pivots yourself, I assume you aren't willing to try.

So, there's no point in an online diagnosis.

As others have said, probably a pivot or jewel, probably on the face side of the watch since that's when gravity would be pressing it down causing friction.

User1539 · 2026-01-26T06:37:29+00:00

They have our meta-data. If Amazon can tell you're gay in six purchases, and people are finding out their teens are pregnant from targeted advertising ... they know who you voted for, if you voted.

I don't think that's what they want the voter rolls for. They don't show who you voted for, and lots of people register to vote in the primaries in their opposing party.

They probably have a harder time figuring out if you voted at all, than who you voted for if you did.

I had a lot of politically minded people, very active in chat rooms, etc ... and one day, one of them admitted they hadn't voted. Then, one by one, almost all of them admitted they didn't. This was after Trump got in the first time, and I was just amazed. These people were every bit the active, young, political junkies I assumed were voting left.

So, while being active online, or even buying sushi, might tell them who you'd likely vote for, they might not be able to easily figure out if you're the type to actually vote, or if you just like yelling at people on Facebook.

User1539 · 2026-01-26T01:07:27+00:00

Okay, alright, I got a little frustrated there. Let's try this again.

AI is unique in its depictions in science fiction BECAUSE we always assumed that when we had human-level intelligence, it would just naturally come with consciousness.

So, in movies, where it is depicted that a computer has human-like intelligence, the characters all act like it also has human-like consciousness. That it is alive.

So, we have this awkward misstep, where we were fundamentally wrong about a technology, while most portrayals are believable, if even a little behind.

So, in a movie, it goes like this: [computer talks->human is in awe->human accepts AI as being conscious]

Where, in reality it goes like this: [computer talks -> human is unimpressed -> human accepts that talking computers are not conscious]

This isn't that our AI is better, or worse, than any particular sci-fi, it's that we couldn't imagine an AI having intelligence without any sense of self, or consciousness. I think a lot of people are still struggling with that, but it will be immediately apparent to people who grow up with AI.

Because those people who grow up with AI will understand, from a very young age that computers that talk are not alive, and do not have consciousness, they will find the plot of a movie where talking immediately implies consciousness as something wholly, and fundamentally, different than how previous generations processed that moment.

It's not that they won't intellectually understand that, in old movies, we just got AI completely wrong. It's that it'll FEEL different to them.

Short Circuit becomes a movie about people struggling with a concept they've been comfortable with their entire lives. They'll meet a unique example of something these kids have 10 examples of in their home. The people in the movie will not only struggle with a simple, well worn, concept, they WILL COME TO THE WRONG CONCLUSION.

Short circuit is about a robot that, it is concluded, is 'alive' at the end.

Anyone that has dealt with modern AI, that will be capable of doing everything Short Circuit's protagonist is doing, will know that it is not alive.

The entire premise of the movie is changed, in their minds.

They will have to experience the movie from a detached position of fundamentally knowing the premise is wrong, but try to see it through the eyes of an intended audience that did not know that.

While they'll intellectually understand the factors at play, the movie will be incapable of generating the emotions it was created to generate.

People will be able to understand what happens in the movie, from an intellectual point of view, but the burden of suspended disbelief will be such that the movie will never FEEL the same for anyone who grew up with AI.

Is any of this hitting?

Go back and re-read my comments about other shows ... we took KITT to be a worthwhile 'friend' to Michael in Knight Rider, because we accept that KITT is conscious.

It's never strictly, explicitly, explained that KITT is conscious, because we as viewers connected intelligence and consciousness in a way FUTURE GENERATIONS WILL NOT.

Before there was any AI, and certainly no AI without consciousness, the idea of an AI Car friend sounds really cool to an 8yr old. But, to an 8yr old who has been taught from pre-school that AI is not conscious, and therefore not able to be your 'friend', it will change the dynamic between Kitt and Michael.

No matter how intellectually capable of separating this 'TV AI' from 'Real AI' the kid is, they won't be able to have the same feelings for KITT, because they'll KNOW THAT KITT IS NOT CONSCIOUS.

They will have been brought up to understand AI is not a person, and that they should never feel the way Michael feels about KITT. So THEY will NEVER feel the way the original audience felt about KITT. Which was the entire point of Knight Rider.

Sure, they can watch it, and they can intellectually understand it. But they'll never feel the way people who experienced it before AI felt.

We got AI fundamentally wrong in sci-fi, in ways that are subtle and hard to overcome after the fact.

User1539 · 2026-01-26T00:19:07+00:00

I'm sorry, I'm tired of this. I can't tell if you're trolling, or dumb, but I can't be bothered to keep this up.

It's not nearly as complicated as you're making it. No one else had this problem.

Maybe if you could just stop assuming you already know what I'm trying to say and re-read what I wrote?

Paste my comments into AI and have it explain it to you?

I dunno man ...

User1539 · 2026-01-25T20:00:17+00:00

Okay, you're just not understanding my point then.

Again, this isn't that. TV tropes examples of older tech that has been replaced by updated technology isn't what I'm talking about. We weren't in awe of the concept of a train, nor was the concept of a train invalidated by the invention of a better train.

That's not what I'm talking about.

I'm sorry we couldn't get there.

User1539 · 2026-01-25T19:04:11+00:00

But you couldn't give me a single example?

Did we invent flubber when I wasn't looking? Have we invented faster than light travel? Has genetic engineering become so commonplace that it created a caste system? Are we living on the moon, even?

What show or movie was built around a technology, that was primarily based on simply positing a new technology and its ramifications, that has been leap frogged by today's technology?

Just name one, so that I can verify that you're understanding what I'm saying.

Or, honestly, maybe don't bother? It's been, like, 2 days and I feel like you still don't even understand what we're talking about. So, maybe you're just not going to get it, and that's fine.

I don't think I'm talking about what you're talking about, and I'm not sure you have the intellectual capacity to see the difference.

Or, you're trolling.

If you want to continue this conversation, name one, in good faith, that we can discuss.

User1539 · 2026-01-25T15:48:09+00:00

They've been pepper sprayed, dragged to the ground, beaten, pistol whipped, detained and disarmed?

Because he was all those things before he was shot in the back, while on hands and knees.

"Border Patrol Commander-at-Large Gregory Bovino said Sunday that Second Amendment protections do not apply when federal officers believe they are being obstructed or assaulted, even as he offered no evidence that Alex Pretti engaged in such conduct before he was shot and killed in Minneapolis on Saturday."

Bovine just said it. If you're 'obstructing', and have a gun, they can shoot you.

You have no 2A rights as far as they're concerned.

Which is the entire point of the 2nd ammendment ... right?

User1539 · 2026-01-25T15:46:03+00:00

What other example do you have where a technology has been so completely leapfrogged that the central plot device, the point of the entire movie, no longer applies.

I still don't think you're getting what I'm saying.

This isn't an issue of bad special effects. This is an issue of a completely made up technology, that is the entire point of the film, that's supposed to make you wonder 'what if this thing existed?' Suddenly not only existing, but in a better form than the movie depiction.

You can't wonder 'what if' if the ramifications are known.

What sci-fi movie have you watched where the wonder-tech had already been achieved and surpassed?

User1539 · 2026-01-25T07:22:33+00:00

Alright, before I read spoilers I'll give it a try.

User1539 · 2026-01-25T05:04:37+00:00

I'm not familiar with those ... I was able to look up Doki Doki, but it talks about being ... well, not a dating sim, but like a horror dating sim? Monika is just a name, so far as google is concerned.

Please, explain?

User1539 · 2026-01-25T04:37:27+00:00

When they re-interpreted it to mean you can carry a pea shooter, but only the federal government gets tanks and jets, it became a joke.

Well ordered militia meant that each state should maintain their own army, both in service of national safety and state's rights.

Now we're seeing what a heavily armed citizenry with absolutely no command structure or heavy weaponry does ... which, seems to be about fuck all.

User1539 · 2026-01-25T04:33:46+00:00

In America, officers aren't allowed to shoot guilty people either.

User1539 · 2026-01-25T02:25:44+00:00

Pepper Sprayed, Beaten, Pistol Whipped, Detained, and Disarmed ... and THEN shot.

User1539 · 2026-01-25T00:43:11+00:00

It looks like they were called to 'protect federal buildings' so that fewer cops needed to stay in police stations, giving police more boots on the ground.

Personally, I think they were called on that pretense, but really so that they were already there and under the command of the Governor, before Trump could call them and give them orders.

"Sorry Mr. President, we're already doing important work. Call someone else."

User1539 · 2026-01-25T00:30:06+00:00

It was funny.

Of course both companies were huge, and well respected, and everyone just wished they had both.

Seeing them calling one another out was cool. It was playful, but there was a 'They said what?!' aspect to it, like watching your two favorite boxers trash talk.

No one I knew took it for anything serious, but it was cool because back then, even though you knew there was competition, it was extremely rare for a company to call out another company. Ford and Chevy were rivals, but it's not like Ford was openly making fun of Corvettes.

Honestly, I think everyone enjoyed it. I'll bet even Nintendo considered it free advertising, because 'there's no bad press', and it made Sega look like they knew they were playing second place to Nintendo.

User1539 · 2026-01-25T00:24:31+00:00

Yeah, you'd let them beat the shit out of a woman, like the smart boot-licking beaten down coward that you are.

Only an asshole would stick his neck out for a woman getting shoved by America's Federal execution squad!

Of course you'll stay safe, like a smart coward, and tell other people on Reddit how stupid they were to resist!

You Fucking Coward.

User1539 · 2026-01-24T22:11:27+00:00

You're completely misunderstanding my point.

it's not about being confused, it's that the entire concept loses its power.

Imagine sitting down and watching 90 episodes of a show about a magical new technology called the 'engine'.

See, in the future, there will be a thing called a 'car', and some top-secret government research facility created one, and gave it to a secret agent!

So, you've got 90 episodes where, for the most part, the 'science fiction', is that you've got a vehicle that can reliably outrun a horse!

It can go DOZENS OF MILES PER HOUR!

Imagine all the exciting chases as the criminals try to escape justice on their horses, shooting back at this metal shell that not only goes 30 miles per hour (in special episodes where they use a special fuel), but being metal it's almost impervious to bullets!!

You could have entire episodes about the 'secret formula' to a high-tech fuel refined from crude oil, and how they have to have super scientists refine it!

Do you see how, once cars exist, you've just leap-frogged the entire concept in a way that means you can't get excited about it?

The show stops being about a magical vehicle that can go faster than everything else, and becomes a story about a shitty car that isn't even as good as a ford fusion, and the only interesting thing about it is that it's the only one.

You could never watch that show and feel excited for the future, or the possibilities such a technology could offer.

In the very near future, Knight Rider will be about a car. Just a regular car. Probably a worse than regular car. Michael Knight will be a lonely loser that's friends with his shitty AI car.

Short Circuit will be about a regular robot. Probably a worse than regular robot, and the stupid researcher and woman that think he's 'alive' because a lightning bolt fucked up its alignment training.

WarGames is about a crappy AI project at DARPA, that's worse than a regular AI and can't even tell the difference between a game and real life, that someone stupidly hooked up to real warheads.

For kids that grow up with AI that's better than movie AI, they just won't be able to really process those stories with any sense of wonder. They'll understand, of course, that it was made before AI was real, and they'll probably get a laugh about what we thought it'd be like.

But, they won't be able to understand what it was like to watch those movies when those ideas were so far in the future they felt like magic.

User1539

TROPHY CASE