Google, Meta, X and all the Tech Bros

Sorry, I’m not actually disagreeing with what you said, I’m just kind of sick of that phrase. There absolutely is such a thing as a fish despite what people who learned just one fact keep repeating.

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and here i was thinking that the prevailing misinformation was that birds are not real.
what am i actually catching when i take the boat out to the reef? what are those scaly, tasty creatures that bite my hooked baits and lures?

…and the birds have scales and the fish have wings…

is the simulation hallucinating me?
i fish, therefore i…
.
.
.

i cannot do that, Dave
:musical_note:daisy, daisy, …


.

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The idea is that while “bird” can be defined as anything past a particular point on the evolutionary tree – though palaeontologists do not always use the same one – “fish” needs to be defined as anything between two points. And since you would only do that if you were interested in some aspect of the animals other than their genealogy, some people who don’t care about anything else have started insisting that makes it an impossible concept.

I’m sorry to be derailing about it, but it’s really dumb, and it goes with this whole thing of making evolution just about statistics on gene sequences and ignoring all the changes in what living things are actually like. I wish it would die already.

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You could argue that the defining trait of modern techno-fascism is that the ruling class simply believes anything not made by them is inherently worthless. They don’t want us to be able to make a living from what we create because they think it’s a waste of resources for us to do it at all.

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These are the stupidest people of all time.

Yes, please, “delete” IP laws. Make it a trivial matter to reverse engineer and release a Twitter/Facebook/Instagram/TilTok clone into the world (or just plain copy it wholesale) and undercut your wealth and influence.

I double dog dare you.

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Word.

If people don’t think enshittification is also coming for Bluesky like an out of control freight train then they are deluding themselves. Enshittification is coming for everything.

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He’s probably sure that nobody is going to steal his full self driving IP.

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They had the CEO of Bluesky on On the Media this week trying to make the case that they have firewalls against enshittification, but I’m not convinced…

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I wont be surprised at all if Mosk buys it and basically shuts it down.

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This is a recurring discussion here and I’m sure in other places online…

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They’re building the Torment Nexus, aren’t they?

I’m sure Douglas Adams – who wrote with an anti-apartheid sticker on his typewriter – wouldn’t have been thrilled with the association, either.

Sirius Cybernetics Corporation Tesla will be is the first against the wall when the revolution comes now.

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You know it!!!

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I wonder how much of that is really from the sources though, versus assholes just appropriating the cachet of culture seen as for intelligent people. Lord of the Rings isn’t even sci fi.

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Good question… it could be that they don’t actually read these books. But it’s also possible that the messages in the stories just missed them. We all bring ourselves to a work, after all.

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You would think Lord of the Rings, over a thousand pages about taking great risks to destroy a superweapon that is too evil to use, would also not be subtle. Likewise for a lot of the torment nexus books. These people don’t just bring themselves to a work so much as smear themselves over top of it. :face_exhaling:

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Yeah, I don’t think it is…

They still see themselves as “natural superior” to the rest of us… :rage:

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There’s always the company Palantir, named after the magical communication tool that Sauron used to corrupt Saruman and Denethor.

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I’m sure they are sincere and they’ve built-in the means to do just that, given that it’s open source, but i still call bullshit until they follow through on their promise to offer a more Mastodon-flavoured BSky. The people with the money would probably have something to say about opening up the walled garden.

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These are the same people who complain about how China steals IP and competes unfairly.

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