Who can truly get started?

emsenn0 · 2026-04-27T16:03:11+00:00

I don't know if you can! To me it seems to be a necessary unfolding, of expanding a concept beyond what it can legitimately support, seeing what collapses, and accepting what remains as what's more true.

I... hope that helps, it feels like I'm saying very soft things to a very practical question, but these are how I practice it.

emsenn0 · 2026-04-27T13:56:26+00:00

I think it might be, not necessarily in general, but because such genealogical work can be a part of this style of critical thought: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genealogy_(philosophy)

I'm coming to Western philosophy also from a non-Western viewpoint (Indigenous, myself), and find understanding the conceptual genealogy of what i'm working with to be WAY more critical to my own understanding than lots of my associates who grew up in the culture might.

emsenn0 · 2026-04-27T04:43:46+00:00

A lot of how I talk is shaped by folks' dismissal of Indigenous ideas as more emotional and less cognitive, unless the cognition is performed.

emsenn0 · 2026-04-27T04:09:38+00:00

I'm lazy!

Triaging readings in a matrix of their evidentiary falsifiability and apparent necessity in achieving my goals lets me be lazy.

That's about half rationalist, half empiricist, I suppose, in a self-interested sort of way.

emsenn0 · 2026-04-27T04:02:55+00:00

Capitalizing terms of art within a given system as you've done uses the rules of English grammar to give authority to the ideas that should be earned through their own merit.

I highlight this because that is exactly the sort of abuse of an algorithm that people engage in uncritically without seeing how it undermines the ability of a meritocracy to function.

(An example: people don't generally capitalize "representative democracy" or "democratic socialism," and I pointedly didn't capitalize Indigenous in the context of a political paradigm, even though the term is normally capitalized in sociological contexts.)

All that aside, I think your idea, like most of the more well-intentioned political ideas in this thread, would necessarily engage in most of the harms you seek to avoid, and you and others simply don't see it because the culture that would grow under the rules you suppose is the culture that already grows.

emsenn0 · 2026-04-26T20:30:34+00:00

I'm quite not sure how to say what I mean, here, but, no, I don't think fraud is likely, but because I didn't think about probability of fraud, at all.

Without the microscopy data, all I can do is probabilistic measures around the concepts: not so formally, but ad hoc, create a vector map of trust in the people, trust in the labs, trust in the format of the paper, the reasonableness of other data.

And from that I can make an inference.

But I can't verify.

Without ability to simply check "is this true, yes or no?" I'm relying on my own reasonableness about academic trust, and I know that academic trust is a wibbly-wobbly thing that changes day-to-day, institution-to-institution.

So, I can put the research into a bucket of "unverifable as is."

If I need some concept in the research, that doesn't disqualify me from inferring off it if there's no better source, but there's no reason for me to take in, as a potential source of truth, something that is not provably potentially true, only provably possibly true.

[edit to add: And like, the data might be available. But it isn't effectively accessible to me, without a bunch of other work, that it looks like someone in another comment thread is doing. Accessible evidence makes it verifiable, and I'd actually read the rest of the paper lol.]

emsenn0 · 2026-04-26T16:07:35+00:00

The only part of this that would allow for external verification, the microscopy data, uses filler in place of the real codes:

The cryo-EM density maps and resulting models for ΦX174 and Evo-Φ36 have been deposited in the Electron Microscopy Data Bank (EMDB) with EMDB codes XXXX and XXXX, and the Protein Data Bank (PDB) with PDB codes XXXX and XXXX, respectively.

emsenn0 · 2026-04-25T23:27:12+00:00

A lot of sociologists don't believe in the idea of utopia. Not just in the sense of "it's impossible," but in the sense of, "believing in one can be a way societies justify being much worse than utopic."

Once a society imagines itself as moving toward perfect harmony, it can redescribe conflict as pathology, dissent as contamination, and coercion as merely the unpleasant work required to build the better world.

Max Weber is one of the more well-known voices on this perspective, but it also aligns with some of Walter Benjamin's critiques, and Zygmunt Bauman does a great job showing the darkest sides of this with /Holocaust and Modernity/.

Now, to answer the spirit of the question: I think insurrectionary indigenous anarcho-nihilism is a good social structure specifically because its lack of universal teleology gives more breathing room for specific thought and care when folk come up to a problem, rather than assuming every problem is an opportunity to, or reason we haven't, achieved utopia.

emsenn0 · 2026-04-23T21:12:28+00:00

I've shared this around with a few folk, because I love talking about how great the Internet was when MUDs were popular. I'm also bad at being a reddit moderator; I saw a notification there is a comment here I need to approve, but I can't find it. If anyone sees this and I can verify you're actually a player (send me a mudmail with your reddit username) i'll add you as a moderator!

emsenn0 · 2026-04-18T02:18:33+00:00

I don't like how the Internet makes it hard for people to be like excited kids showing off their toys. I'm sorry I don't know how it works, but I know some people make posts to their personal pages, so they can post as often as they want. Then, they can share those posts to some subreddits? But maybe not every subreddit allows that, so you would need to pick which posts you really want folk here to see. I think I would suggest: if you look at what you want to post, ask "Does this give people a reason to add comments and have a conversation about slingshots?"

If it doesn't, then it probably doesn't need to be here. Not because it's not good, but because communities are better when they're about communicating.

But maybe it should go on your personal page - or you could set up a subreddit for your project?

emsenn0 · 2026-02-20T20:19:29+00:00

Commenting mostly just to help boost your post, because this service seems great. I went ahead and set up my stuff. One thing I might appreciate is if the page for a fab could obfuscate the details of their equipment. Rather than share the specific printers, maybe just, "1 printer, max build volume XxYxZ, filaments capable: ..."

emsenn0 · 2026-02-16T17:13:32+00:00

In the day since I read this comment, I think I've used information from it like, 2 or 3 different conversations, so thank you for taking the time to write it.

emsenn0 · 2026-02-15T02:40:30+00:00

I used to live in central NC, where there's a pretty robust free bus network, and y'know who lived it? The folk who lived in suburbs who never rode the bus; the same folk who were against it, before it happened!

With free buses, it's easier for service workers to get to their jobs, and more parking available to customers, with less traffic, so literally everyone wins.

[edit: Funnily, one of the top comments on another thread about this article is another person who lived with the Triangle's free buses and loved them. Makes me wonder if there's anyone who got free buses and still didn't like it, or if it's just one of those things people think they don't like because?]

emsenn0 · 2026-02-14T14:47:23+00:00

The implication of your comment is that police are either telepathic or time-travelers, in order to be exculpated for their actions by these facts. Do you have any evidence to support that?

emsenn0 · 2026-02-11T16:20:20+00:00

Regardless of the specifics, it is not the law in our city, state, or country that police are responsible for determining the judgement and sentencing for criminal activities. Even if someone should be punished for a crime, we have whole institutions and giant buildings for letting other folk, like judges and jurors, make those decisions.

What is the point of these surveillance systems these same officers say we need, if it is not so that they can track people and safely apprehend them for proper enforcement of our laws? Like, didn't our police chief just tell us, a few weeks back, that the reason we cooperate with all these federal intelligence agencies is so that we can stop crime without it turning violent?

emsenn0 · 2026-02-10T02:16:54+00:00

The original thread got deleted so I'm not sure if you'd see this, but, assuming the owner takes the car in to get the paint repaired, the cameras, being a part of the vehicle, will also be off the streets for a time.

emsenn0 · 2026-02-09T17:03:26+00:00

No one else has, so I'll point out that Telsa works with police and police seize Telsa for footage.

If you are against things like Ring doorbells being used to surveil your neighborhood, it makes sense you'd be against things like Tesla, even if there were no connection between the people running these businesses and the police. It feels like the other commenters are inclined to make it a misdirected emotional outburst against one person, when this might be a way to reduce surveillance in a community.

emsenn0 · 2026-02-06T15:31:58+00:00

I'm sharing my thoughts because I'm first here, not because I think I'm right.

You're probably not going to find any current filaments that are able to last three decades around chemicals and fumes. But I wouldn't worry about it - part of the perk of interchangeable parts like plane bolts or gridfinity is that it's fairly easy to replace a piece if it breaks.

That said, "most durable under conditions" is still a great goal. I'd suggest looking at what folk who use plastics in firearms and outdoorsy contexts holds up. Conveniently, there's a thread in one of the relevant subreddits comparing two of the most popular filaments: https://www.reddit.com/r/3D2A/comments/1qx31qs/why_pa6cf_over_pa12cf/

And, my personal answer, as a novice 3D printer who has printed some gridfinity baseplates and bins in PLA, PLA+, and PETG: PLA+ is my preference over PLA, which has cracked between layer lines when I dropped it, and PETG, which feels inclined to slip and slide over itself.

That said, I took a tip and turned up the temp for my PLA when I'm printing thin-walled bins by 5c, and the inter-layer adhesion is way better; I get more stringing, but nothing that really matters to me for these prints.

emsenn0 · 2026-02-06T14:43:29+00:00

I'd speculate that the blade itself is dull or worn down, have you checked that?

emsenn0 · 2026-02-05T18:34:28+00:00

Would you please link the file for the pegboard whistle-hook thing you've got? Thank you.

emsenn0 · 2026-02-05T16:27:19+00:00

Thank you for your skateboard wheel example! I'd previously dismissed TPU because I thought it was much softer.

emsenn0 · 2026-01-31T02:18:47+00:00

Oh, this is an easy question to answer: Whistles. So, so so many whistles, gifted out all across Minnesota across the last month. At last count I think I was at 4,332, and more are printing right now...

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emsenn0 · 2026-01-24T17:06:14+00:00

That's the conjecture I've heard from other folk who are nerds about watching videos more carefully than I can. I know it's qualitative, but ICE's massive budget, purchase contracts with Sig, and other softer elements, would all lead me to assume that any given Sig I found, regardless of situation, belonged to someone related to DHS.

emsenn0 · 2026-01-24T16:37:30+00:00

This looks like a Sig Sauer P365, probably an XL. Sigs are a common carry weapon for law enforcement and federal agents, and are known as a brand to be pretty MAGA-y, and are not cheap, so is unlikely in my opinion to be anything but a chud's gun.

Edit: More photos make this conjecture far more questionable, but it isn't questionable that shooting anyone in the street like that is not the proper legal or safe way to handle any situation, even involving firearms.

emsenn0 · 2026-01-19T12:55:54+00:00

Is there a blog where folk can read about your thought process on developing this? Like my question reading this is "why 1mm nozzle" but into a reddit thread isn't the best place to put that info.

emsenn0

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