Instant gratification culture. Got to have things faster and faster.

Current AI/LLMs are just very complex probability matching with some frills to make it work. Our brains may be something like that too, as chemical and electrical signals can be reduced to math. It’s all math.

What you described before is pathing, and that can be a simple routine or very complicated and breakable, depending on the needs of the game. The really sophisticated ones would even chart the player’s behavior and react or plan a path based on past actions (even on some C-64 games, which is impressive). There was one karate game where (subjectively and not well tested) if you let it run the opening demo or played it a while, the game’s character got better. And it wasn’t just a higher level thing, you could tell (again, just a feeling) that it started to anticipate your usual moves.

That’s on a different spreadsheet. We’re looking at the positives.

steady government funding

Until next year. Education, along with everything else, is going to take a hit.

Working-class voters, facing inflation and economic concerns, are shifting toward Republicans, with many bypassing college for well-paying blue-collar jobs.

Seems it’s correct that the Democrats have not given the working class what they want to hear. The sad thing is that the Republicans are the last place they should be looking for help. There’s of course third party…which after an election still results in two parties actually in in the seats (not) doing stuff.

Good news though, there’s no gridlock this time around, so I’m sure Republicans will now shine as they get all sorts of helpful things passed to improve…I’m sorry, to make America GREAT again.

Logo created using tables.

Everything find equilibrium eventually. I’m sure any limits for a runaway situation depend on a lot of factors, but their ceilings are all far above anything we could tolerate. Runaway doesn’t mean there’s no point to level out, only that at the time it’s not controllable and escalating fast.

The last “runaway” situation the Earth had was called the Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) 56 million years ago and globally had a 5-8 degree Celsius rise over thousands of years. That might be a good example of a natural situation and its limits. Keep in mind the differences in rate, we’re increasing the global temperature faster than the PETM (or anything we’ve found in geological history) so we don’t know how that faster rate will act in determining a peak. There’s theories of pushing the Earth into a hothouse world that would have its own equilibrium that is far hotter than we can survive.

I knew that was Climate Town. Great stuff.

The good news is that it will never get to that point. Venus is a different planet with a different makeup and history.

The bad news, it doesn’t have to get nearly that bad to be bad for us and the rest of existing life. Not even close. Just a few degrees more, and we’re doing really well in getting there.

I believe there’s some thinking now that dinosaurs weren’t doing all that well, stagnating, so without a meteor and volcanic activity they still would have changed in some manner eventually. But perhaps not enough to let the mammals fill any niches.

What gets me is how long life was on Earth just as single cell forms, and then suddenly, recently, it took off to bigger things.

Lots of scifi takes that route since we are very good at killing things. A well known version is the Asgard asking for help in Stargate SG-1 since they need more primitive tactics they’ve long ago forgotten.

Inconceivable.

Correction in your summary, they date back to 280 million years, before the dinosaurs. Not 280M more years. That would be very old.

All the posts are about combat between some guy with a short sword vs. a spear. No one has considered Paul’s ability to predict future actions and using that to determine the best outcome. Much like fighting a Jedi (who presumably could anticipate the immediate future), how can you fight someone who already knows how you’ll move and the best counter?

Leopards…leopards everywhere.

Sure, he was looking for solutions and allowed smarter people to steer the research. He also allowed the smarter man to take his place in office.

It could be that simple. He didn’t realize the potential the first time around and so many things got in the way, including a disaster that tried to force a leadership role on him. This time enough was changed and built up to prevent the obstacles, and he not only can avoid justice for his past, but he can, in his own words, “do anything and they’ll let you.”

As an American, I think you’re spot on. I keep thinking how America is portrayed in the series “Years and Years” might happen this time around.

I was told in posts from the last disaster that Spain has floods all the time and this isn’t a big deal. I’m beginning to think they might have been not telling the truth.

Something about pigs and lipstick…

When I first saw one pass by me in reality, my first reaction was “jesus”. And the colors I’ve seen on display (a Tesla store is nearby), wtf? Not that a good color would help a lot, it still looks very wrong.

But it is nice sometimes to finally get remembered, even if it’s for blame.