#both are autonomous beings

[coquelicoq]

we get a lot of really great stuff in system collapse about murderbot's relationships with ART and ratthi, which makes sense, because it spends almost the entire book with them. but i also love how even though mensah isn't there for most of the story, other people keep reminding mb of her:

chapter 2, page 25: “From ART’s personnel file, she [Karime] was older than Mensah and she didn’t look like an intrepid space explorer, either, even in the protective environmental suit.”

2, 27: “It took Karime three seconds to process the abrupt statement. (She was almost as good at not looking annoyed as Mensah was.) She kept her expression neutral and patient.”

2, 28: “In the underground colony room, Karime lifted her brows. ‘Another occupied site?’ I thought she was being careful not to show too much reaction. It was the way Mensah would have played it.”

4, 70: “Iris looked at me and I saw her hesitate, because her hesitation looked a lot like Dr. Mensah’s hesitation. And I realized I really didn’t want to go down there.”

5, 104: "Iris has that same thing as Dr. Mensah, the thing where she’s able to look and sound calm under circumstances where shit is possibly about to go down.”

it's spent so much time with her and it knows her so well and respects her so much that she's the model against which it compares all other humans. it thinks about her when they're not together. it's protective of her. it has such total faith in her competence. it (non-romantically) loves her and doesn't want to not see her again. idk man, it just gets to me! and they were teammates (oh my god they were teammates!!)

bonus:

I said, aloud, "You have to be kidding me." (ch. 2, p. 28)

seven pages later, in reaction to the same thing:

Mensah had had time to review the feed video. She muttered, "Oh, you have to be kidding me." Yeah.

twinsies 🥰

#something about their relationship is just sooo potent because of the structural power that mensah has over mb #and how mb has always been trying to navigate how much it cares about her and respects her with how afraid it is #of being a thing that she owns #because even if she doesn't exercise that power over it the fact remains that the context in which they live makes that possible #like! socially constructed ideas of personhood creating inherent violence in the human-construct relation! #even if she means well. even if it's necessary for mb to have a legal owner so that some corporate doesn't claim it as property. #it's not that mensah is an unsafe person it's that the power imbalance is intrinsically baked in because of #the broader social context of constructs as nonpersons. as property and equipment #all of that is true! AND it respects her and loves her. AND they're teammates! they are both trying so hard #to create sth just and beautiful out of sth really messed up. and trusting each other to collaborate in that way! #it was SO necessary for mb to leave at the end of ASR and SO necessary for it to get proof at the end of ES #that she would not try to stop it from leaving. that it was free. that it was autonomous #idk idk i'm rambling i just. i care them #the murderbot diaries #mb teammates #mb sc #system collapse spoilers #system collapse #my posts #murderbot

[girl-please-study]

Teaching yourself sounds fun until you realise you're teaching a fucking idiot

#open uni being autonomous is both a blessing and a curse #legit had to google every single word what will become of me- #random #tw swearing #self teaching #biochemistry #youtube to the rescue honestly #student struggles

[crimeronan]

Feeling very emo in the club tonight over how Luz might react if/when Willow and Hunter start getting closer and closer (pre any poly stuff ofc). Cause like. She's so happy for him! Genuinely. She wants him to have people who love him like she does and who would protect him with everything they have and Willow is PERFECT for that! But I also think everytime she manages to successfully strongarm Hunter out the door to go spend time with his new Friend/Crush/Person and she just sits there for a second before crumpling to the floor because she's fucked up and misses him immediately. Bonus: Amity would NOT understand why Luz insists Hunter go spend time with Willow without her when it makes her act like a sad wet cat when he actually does

YEAH YEAH YEAH YEAH YEAH. YELLING. I'VE ALSO BEEN THINKING ABOUT THIS

luz is pretty private about her breakdowns because she's so determined that hunter never find out how messed up she is (even though he has a pretty good inkling already) but amity catches her having a transparent panic attack at some point anyway and is like

.....do you not trust your other guards? [awkwardly] i can??? stay here??? just this once???

and luz is like [bright smile] [manic cheer] [still crying] no no no!! nooo haha everything's fine. i just haven't eaten enough today <-excuses that work forever

amity: you know if you want him here you can just tell him you want him here. he won't even complain about it. he asked you like fifteen times if you were sure

luz, flapping her hands: nonono! no it's fine i'm so glad he's having fun i hope he wants to stay with her forever and quits his job and- [catching her breath] [hiccuping slightly] i'm So Happy

amity: yeah okay. i'm gonna go get him

luz: DON'T

amity:

luz: don't say anything don't do anything please please please amity i'm Begging You. i need him to be happy i need him to be normal. ONE of us needs to be okay

amity: .....okay. hey, um. can i. can i give you a hug-

#luz accepts and then promptly starts sobbing harder about how sorry she is for making amity do this when amity doesnt even like her #and amity is like. I DONT HAVE THE EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE TO FIELD THIS CONVERSATION #huntlow #horrible mindscape trauma pals #shitty idiot repression gang #lumity #the kicker is that of course hunter and willow would BOTH be perfectly happy to hang out with luz there #but luz has decided that she ruins everything she touches so shes gotta do exposure therapy for Being Alone Forever #because obviously the best outcome for hunter and everyone else would be if she was alone forever!! #she won't abandon hunter ever she'll let him keep autonomously choosing her but if he ever wants to choose someone else then GREAT!! #great awesome amazing that's fantastic that's so good he's going to have such an amazing life and she is NOT CRYING! #luz noceda #hunter toh #amity blight

[fellhellion]

I can’t tell whether this is me having an autism moment or whether this is the kind of thing that crops up 6 months out of a film’s release, and I’m not trying to be an asshole but hand wringing about what if btsv reveals Dana is Gabriella’s biological mother is just. Not a concern I understand tbh.

Like for one, atsv shows less than nothing about her other biological parent. We know Jack shit about whoever contributed 50% of her DNA to the point where there’s just as much evidence for like. Alt Miguel spawning this child asexually like a starfish or this baby arriving in a little white blanket via stork.

There’s no family photos in the bg, no other parent was in Gabriella’s life when her father died otherwise we would’ve been shown them etc. we have more evidence for alt Miguel being a trans man that got a sperm donation than we do a partner being involved in the creation of this kid lmao

also blah blah blah it’s a good writing decision that there’s no partner shown there because otherwise it invites a dimension of moral complication to the story (ie. the violation of trust and consent that is secretly replacing someone’s partner) that atsv just isn’t trying to court, because the entire point of Gabriella as a writing device is to be an additionally sympathetic dimension to Miguel’s motivations and guilt.

Secondly, PAD is the main guy continually referencing Dana as Miguel’s fiancé (whether past or current) and unless he somehow sneaks his way into the writer’s room, I genuinely don’t understand any kind of concern that we’re somehow going to get an other parent reveal for Gabriella when the opportunity for that came and went already, and the film writers have been very open abt the fact they’re taking liberties w this iteration of the character (Asking for Oscar Issac’s opinion on the writing as a Latino man etc) and thus Miguel’s characterisation isn’t supposed to be a one to one adaptation of any singular comic run.

#like if this is just people venting what if scenarios for like #idk playing w what if scenarios ig then aight I guess. but in terms of people who feel like this is a Genuine Concern I dontttttttt #personally understand where that opinion comes from #like yeah sure bad writing always possible but what reason do we have in the story being told to revisit this plot point and ask did #alt Miguel have a partner? when the opportunity to include that info if it was relevant has already come and gone #like yeah the real answer to all of this honestly seems to be a kind of shadowboxing over ships but like. guys. #I don’t understand getting genuinely worked up abt this #also blah blah blah ‘why is Gabriella’s consent not something the story speaks on?’ great question! two parts to the answer! #one is that it’s a writing shorthand where the Point is to make you feel sympathy for Miguel #and thus Gabriella functions as an extent and motivation for his guilt and we just don’t got the time tbh to really dig into this outside o #a transformative space #and secondly within society children are thought of a functionally part of a Family Unit and not autonomous beings and that’s part of the #belief underpinning the very shorthand #she functions as part of the concept of a Family as opposed to an autonomous being who’s also a kid #and thus what she represents in the writing both as a child and a girl is the loss of and desire for family in Miguel #tunes talks critical #long post #tunes talks spiderverse

[willonerdygoat]

that feeling when you're both unsure of who's fronting and controlling the body, having a mildly panicked dialogue of "is it you?" "I don't knooow, no??"

So yeah we're starting to get the hang of switching/possession XD

#willogenic #willomancy #parogenic #paromancy #thoughtform #It was so funny we were just doing our evening routine and then bam suddenly no one was in control #That was after practicing my dude fronting so yeah #We came to the conclusion that either: #We were both kind of controlling the body since we wanted it to do the same thing #One of us was controlling it but we overthought it #Plurality isn't real but that doesn't matter because the experience is (my dude is skeptical lol since that involves glitch not being #autonomous. My dude definitely believes glitch is autonomous.) I've been thinking about that a lot lately but also most things aren't real #In that viewpoint so it doesn't really matter #I'll stop before I descend into philosophy XD

[pizzapasta23045]

My ass when the shogun puppet:

It's... Yeah.... It's a... thing...

#my ass when the shougun puppet say she is emotionless! she clearly isn't! because why would Scaramouche be able to feel things and not her? #i am so sad for her! please choose self actualization! find a hobby! do something your creator cannot/would not do! #both the puppets (raiden and Scaramouche) are treated so terribly by Yae and Ei in entirely different way #like i get it they're nothumsn but they're complex beings with autonomous thinking! and a consciousness! #and you just don't fucking acknowledge that! #als the puppet is so clearly not meant for ruling! because the techniwue is Khaenri'ahn and why the hell would Khaenri'ahn create god-like #robots to lead them! they were probably meant for combat of course the fatui manipulated her #why did Ei even use those fucking projects? what if Khaenri'ah put some secret idk recording device and didn't mark it in the notes #ei you are a dumbass #a himbo even #or a... shebo?... I guess #textpost #raiden shogun #raiden ei #yae miko #pizza's shogun agenda

[tardytothesimspardy]

Mah-wwige

It took me two months but I finally did it.

I broke up Laurie and Rich very abruptly because I realized that I was stalling because I couldn't really think of a reason that wouldn't end up being annoying in the long run. Like, I could have had Rich catch Laurie cheating on him with Summer, but then there's the risk I would do something wrong and Summer could end up getting a bad sentiment from it and everything would be awkward, idk. I didn't want to deal with that, so I just had Laurie start yelling at Rich for stuff, lower their relationship, and then I had her break it off before immediately moving in with Summer and her daughter.

I had Buck go somewhere else for this, for nothing else than the fact that he was grinning ridiculously in the midst of his parents loudly arguing right in front of him. It seemed weird.

So like I said, I immediately had Laurie go to Summer's house and she basically proposed on the spot.

While I was at the house, I stuck around a little to set things up, to kinda have some stuff going on, having them get married and stuff, before hopping back to Rich and Buck.

Most of the stuff was aspiration stuff and training Patches, which was quite fun. If I'm being honest, Patches kinda freaks me out, I'm not sure why. Are poodles really that big? I have no idea.

I mostly had Shawna (Summer's daughter) bond with Patches and train him, which is difficult because he has some very difficult-to-train traits. When Flat first came to the house, Patches straight out attacked him, so that wasn't cool.

With Laurie and Summer's marriage, I was going back and forth about whether they should elope or have a wedding, but I went with elopement because 1) it's free, and 2) it's a lot faster, not to mention fewer Sims to manage, so here are the pictures from that (it's a nice change to see the green of Willow Creek in spring than Oasis Springs)

Rich did walk past as Laurie and Summer were doing this, but nothing happened beyond Summer and Laurie getting weird moodlets from him being there.

To close, look at this adorable interaction! I wanted something sweet for Summer and Shawna and selected "Express Love", because that sounds right up Summer's alley, and it was so cute.

Summer even pinched Shawna's cheeks, it was ridiculous.

As for next time, Flower Day is right around the corner, and Buck is gonna have the fun of celebrating it with basically his dad around, unless Flat or Flo decide to come over for a visit.

#It's honestly really weird going into this household because now it's just Rich and Buck #And if I'm being honest I have no idea what to do with either of them #I tend to default to making Sims promote and upgrade skills #But I don't really want to do that with these households #I want both to make more friends because they need social lives (just for something to do) #But I'm not even really letting Buck do his homework #Well #If he does it autonomously I won't stop him but I won't tell him to do it #But he is basically freshly a child right now bc it's currently spring and his bday isn't until winter #So we're gonna be here a while lmao #the sims 4 #ts4 #simblr #the sims 4 gameplay #the sims 4 screenshots #sims 4 #ts4 gameplay #images have alt text #the brokes

[goblin-simming]

#ts4 #sims 4 #ts4 gameplay #Family - Tsodak #Remmus Gaia-Tsodak #Targeous Tsodak #they do this autonomously btw. they are ~insufferable~ <3 #on days when they're both around i spend the whole time going 'stop being gay you have things to do' #because all they wanna do is bother eachother

[angerissue]

Six months before the battle of Sokovia, Bruce had sought professional help for his PTSD, but then he was retraumatized during a routine mission with the Avengers. In consequence, his body started to reject his normal form in favour of his transformed one, which caused discomfort whenever he was in his normal form. He felt tense and off, like he was in the wrong skin, and he began favouring his transformed state. This drew the concern of Natasha Romanoff, who discovered a method to help him revert without discomfort. She called it the "lullaby".

During the lullaby, Natasha rested her hand against Bruce's own, and she spoke softly and quietly to him. This made him feel more relaxed, and therefore more comfortable and willing to revert.

🚨 This post discusses gender biases associated with abuse and trauma.

🚫 Please do not reblog this post.

I. Why Natasha Romanoff?

Among Bruce's teammates, Natasha was the only person who could perform the lullaby on him. This wasn't because he liked or loved her, though. He appreciated her as a teammate and found her amicable, but if Bruce liking someone was the only requirement for the lullaby, it would have worked with his other teammates too, and this was not the case. Rather, Bruce has always been more comfortable around people who present as women, especially when it comes to conflicts and confrontations. His father was abusive, and confrontations with him never ended soundly, so Bruce becomes uncomfortable during disagreements with other men now. There's an internalized association with Brian's abuse. This intensifies when he's in a transformed state. When he initially refused to revert and his teammates tried reasoning with him, he was hostile to everyone but Natasha, partly because of the above association. Natasha’s behaviour was another reason for Bruce's favourable response. She'd been observing him and noticed he wasn't receptive to his other teammates, so she tried a drastically different approach that was calmer and way more passive, using her knack for psychological manipulation to accomplish it without coming across as fraudulent. Natasha spoke quietly and encouragingly, and she reached out and made physical contact with Bruce as well, which his teammates had not done. It was a strategic move, and it paid off better than she expected. Bruce did not pull away or fight her, and he soon reverted. Unbeknownst to Natasha, when Bruce was still a boy, his mother often held his hand and spoke gently to comfort him, which Natasha had mirrored. Just like his other association, this association was stronger in his transformed state, too. Natasha understood her actions had been successful, and this became the lullaby.

II. Bruce’s Thoughts.

Bruce never considered the above reasons for the lullaby’s success, even after it was retired. Instead, he credited its success to Natasha merely being clever, and knowing enough tactics from her years of espionage (and interrogation) that she could easily find something that worked with him. Bruce never knew there was a personal component to it, or that it harkened back to his childhood, and he never knew other people would've reacted differently, and been more resistant to what she did. Despite the lullaby's success and convenience for both Bruce and the Avengers, Bruce had mixed feelings about it. He was appreciative of its existence, because it served an important purpose and it was even therapeutic in a sense, though he had always been an extremely self-reliant person, and the lullaby made it difficult not to feel dependent on Natasha. He was frustrated that he was losing control of his body in the first place too, moreso because it reminded him of the issues he'd previously had with his condition. There was a lot of uncertainty. The lullaby was indeed useful in the moment, but he dreaded the thought of needing it down the road. Bruce's reversion issues were ultimately a result of his PTSD relapse, which was successfully treated with medication once he returned from Fiji. Bruce had not considered medication before this, because his discomfort was exclusive to his normal form and didn't affect his transformed state, so he believed the problem was directly related to his condition, rather than his mental health. He had been very confident in his recovery up to that point, and even after the last disastrous mission, he never thought it was significant enough to impede him that much. If he'd asked his teammates for input, especially Tony, who also had PTSD, he may have gained more perspective, but he was reticent about his personal issues and never bothered.

III. The Lullaby Nowadays.

Natasha Romanoff is no longer around in Bruce's most recent verse, because she had died during the team's search for the infinity stones. However, if she were still around, the lullaby probably wouldn't work anymore. There was a moment during the battle of Sokovia where Bruce wanted to sit out the fight, because of certain concerns with his condition, but Natasha forced him to fight anyways. Bruce still respects Natasha as a tactical expert, and part of him understands why she used him like this, but her actions in Sokovia created new associations that counteract how the lullaby worked. Bruce never fully regained his trust in her, and this would render the lullaby ineffective now.

IV. Where was Hulk?

Simply put, Hulk was still a dormant and passive personality in the system. He couldn't front at the time, because he still hadn't developed enough for it. This finally happened during the Johannesburg incident, six months later, when the conditions were right. Not only was Bruce forced to relive his childhood trauma because of Wanda Maximoff's hex, but he transformed when this happened as well, a process that effectively puts him into a developmental state (which also put Hulk's own development back into the blender). Before the Johannesburg incident, Hulk was around in an imperceptible capacity, but he wouldn't have been able to front or influence Bruce.

Disclaimer: The content in this post is unique to this adaptation of Bruce Banner. Feel free to like, but please don’t reblog without permission.

#( headcanon. ) #( essential. ) #this is the same idea as someone refusing to see a therapist of the same gender presentation as their abuser. #or being uncomfortable in a room full of a certain gender because of previous bad experiences. #it's a very subtle thing. #bruce's issues also stem from his experiences with ross. #canonically when bruce was working on his gamma experiments he took his childhood doll and a photo of his mom to the test site. #when ross saw the doll he tore off its arm. then he said he admired bruce's father and called him a 'real man'. #which was so messed up because the guy was incarcerated for killing his wife. #so there's a whole thing about authority figures and toxic masculinity and men in general and it's all mixed up in bruce's head. #fortunately he's had many positive experiences with men since then and he's not as uncomfortable as he used to be. #he feels more autonomous and less like he's under their thumbs. maybe a little less threatened. #that said... there's a reason hulk fronted when bruce was angrily approached by bucky. and when bruce was being yelled at by tony. #both of which happened way after the lullaby was retired. #and that reason is? bruce still has issues. #abuse mention cw

[exopelagic]

fun new cold symptom: hallucinating a plant breeding experiment in bed while trying to sleep

#I am DYING here man #I’ve been in bed trying to sleep since before 10pm it’s been 4ish hours #I keep waking up every few hours and I’ve been so stressed abt these plants bc they’re in really poor experimental conditions #I think i convinced myself that I was some kind of autonomous turned sentient robot in my uni’s experimental greenhouse #and I’ve been looking after these plants and monitoring soil conditions and photosynthetic rate and that kinda shit #and people keep coming in and messing with the plants and it’s not just my experiment that I’m looking after!! #they’re fucking up big important expensive experiments with like transgenic crop varieties and shit that can’t be done again easily #and this is all. overlaid over my bed because I was in that half awake state where I’m just about conscious of my surroundings #but I didn’t know what they really were #so instead of lying in bed I was this robot which has sensors all along this table attached to plants that I’m taking care of #but I also have this big communication thing by my head which let me move around a big camera and talk to people #there was a whole undercurrent of whether or not I was really a person. and me being scared they’d shut me down both for fucking up #and for not being the basic robot anymore bc I wasn’t meant to be sentient #and SOMEHOW. this is all happening while I’m in bed bc I have a fucking fever and I’m lying propped up in a slightly uncomfortable way #to let me actually breathe through my nose #what the FUCK #i only just snapped out of it when I was going to text my friend abt the experiment and I slowly had to realise that’s not real #I just wanna sleep for like a straight 6-8 hours please I’m so tired and people outside are being loud now #maybe I take more paracetamol I’ve had long enough since my last dose now and I think that’s sensible #luke.txt

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Three AI insights for hard-charging, future-oriented smartypantses

MERE HOURS REMAIN for the Kickstarter for the audiobook for The Bezzle, the sequel to Red Team Blues, narrated by @wilwheaton! You can pre-order the audiobook and ebook, DRM free, as well as the hardcover, signed or unsigned. There’s also bundles with Red Team Blues in ebook, audio or paperback.

Living in the age of AI hype makes demands on all of us to come up with smartypants prognostications about how AI is about to change everything forever, and wow, it's pretty amazing, huh?

AI pitchmen don't make it easy. They like to pile on the cognitive dissonance and demand that we all somehow resolve it. This is a thing cult leaders do, too – tell blatant and obvious lies to their followers. When a cult follower repeats the lie to others, they are demonstrating their loyalty, both to the leader and to themselves.

Over and over, the claims of AI pitchmen turn out to be blatant lies. This has been the case since at least the age of the Mechanical Turk, the 18th chess-playing automaton that was actually just a chess player crammed into the base of an elaborate puppet that was exhibited as an autonomous, intelligent robot.

The most prominent Mechanical Turk huckster is Elon Musk, who habitually, blatantly and repeatedly lies about AI. He's been promising "full self driving" Telsas in "one to two years" for more than a decade. Periodically, he'll "demonstrate" a car that's in full-self driving mode – which then turns out to be canned, recorded demo:

https://www.reuters.com/technology/tesla-video-promoting-self-driving-was-staged-engineer-testifies-2023-01-17/

Musk even trotted an autonomous, humanoid robot on-stage at an investor presentation, failing to mention that this mechanical marvel was just a person in a robot suit:

https://www.siliconrepublic.com/machines/elon-musk-tesla-robot-optimus-ai

Now, Musk has announced that his junk-science neural interface company, Neuralink, has made the leap to implanting neural interface chips in a human brain. As Joan Westenberg writes, the press have repeated this claim as presumptively true, despite its wild implausibility:

https://joanwestenberg.com/blog/elon-musk-lies

Neuralink, after all, is a company notorious for mutilating primates in pursuit of showy, meaningless demos:

https://www.wired.com/story/elon-musk-pcrm-neuralink-monkey-deaths/

I'm perfectly willing to believe that Musk would risk someone else's life to help him with this nonsense, because he doesn't see other people as real and deserving of compassion or empathy. But he's also profoundly lazy and is accustomed to a world that unquestioningly swallows his most outlandish pronouncements, so Occam's Razor dictates that the most likely explanation here is that he just made it up.

The odds that there's a human being beta-testing Musk's neural interface with the only brain they will ever have aren't zero. But I give it the same odds as the Raelians' claim to have cloned a human being:

https://edition.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/01/03/cf.opinion.rael/

The human-in-a-robot-suit gambit is everywhere in AI hype. Cruise, GM's disgraced "robot taxi" company, had 1.5 remote operators for every one of the cars on the road. They used AI to replace a single, low-waged driver with 1.5 high-waged, specialized technicians. Truly, it was a marvel.

Globalization is key to maintaining the guy-in-a-robot-suit phenomenon. Globalization gives AI pitchmen access to millions of low-waged workers who can pretend to be software programs, allowing us to pretend to have transcended the capitalism's exploitation trap. This is also a very old pattern – just a couple decades after the Mechanical Turk toured Europe, Thomas Jefferson returned from the continent with the dumbwaiter. Jefferson refined and installed these marvels, announcing to his dinner guests that they allowed him to replace his "servants" (that is, his slaves). Dumbwaiters don't replace slaves, of course – they just keep them out of sight:

https://www.stuartmcmillen.com/blog/behind-the-dumbwaiter/

So much AI turns out to be low-waged people in a call center in the Global South pretending to be robots that Indian techies have a joke about it: "AI stands for 'absent Indian'":

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/29/pay-no-attention/#to-the-little-man-behind-the-curtain

A reader wrote to me this week. They're a multi-decade veteran of Amazon who had a fascinating tale about the launch of Amazon Go, the "fully automated" Amazon retail outlets that let you wander around, pick up goods and walk out again, while AI-enabled cameras totted up the goods in your basket and charged your card for them.

According to this reader, the AI cameras didn't work any better than Tesla's full-self driving mode, and had to be backstopped by a minimum of three camera operators in an Indian call center, "so that there could be a quorum system for deciding on a customer's activity – three autopilots good, two autopilots bad."

Amazon got a ton of press from the launch of the Amazon Go stores. A lot of it was very favorable, of course: Mister Market is insatiably horny for firing human beings and replacing them with robots, so any announcement that you've got a human-replacing robot is a surefire way to make Line Go Up. But there was also plenty of critical press about this – pieces that took Amazon to task for replacing human beings with robots.

What was missing from the criticism? Articles that said that Amazon was probably lying about its robots, that it had replaced low-waged clerks in the USA with even-lower-waged camera-jockeys in India.

Which is a shame, because that criticism would have hit Amazon where it hurts, right there in the ole Line Go Up. Amazon's stock price boost off the back of the Amazon Go announcements represented the market's bet that Amazon would evert out of cyberspace and fill all of our physical retail corridors with monopolistic robot stores, moated with IP that prevented other retailers from similarly slashing their wage bills. That unbridgeable moat would guarantee Amazon generations of monopoly rents, which it would share with any shareholders who piled into the stock at that moment.

See the difference? Criticize Amazon for its devastatingly effective automation and you help Amazon sell stock to suckers, which makes Amazon executives richer. Criticize Amazon for lying about its automation, and you clobber the personal net worth of the executives who spun up this lie, because their portfolios are full of Amazon stock:

https://sts-news.medium.com/youre-doing-it-wrong-notes-on-criticism-and-technology-hype-18b08b4307e5

Amazon Go didn't go. The hundreds of Amazon Go stores we were promised never materialized. There's an embarrassing rump of 25 of these things still around, which will doubtless be quietly shuttered in the years to come. But Amazon Go wasn't a failure. It allowed its architects to pocket massive capital gains on the way to building generational wealth and establishing a new permanent aristocracy of habitual bullshitters dressed up as high-tech wizards.

"Wizard" is the right word for it. The high-tech sector pretends to be science fiction, but it's usually fantasy. For a generation, America's largest tech firms peddled the dream of imminently establishing colonies on distant worlds or even traveling to other solar systems, something that is still so far in our future that it might well never come to pass:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/09/astrobezzle/#send-robots-instead

During the Space Age, we got the same kind of performative bullshit. On The Well David Gans mentioned hearing a promo on SiriusXM for a radio show with "the first AI co-host." To this, Craig L Maudlin replied, "Reminds me of fins on automobiles."

Yup, that's exactly it. An AI radio co-host is to artificial intelligence as a Cadillac Eldorado Biaritz tail-fin is to interstellar rocketry.

Back the Kickstarter for the audiobook of The Bezzle here!

If you’d like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here’s a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/31/neural-interface-beta-tester/#tailfins

#pluralistic #elon musk #neuralink #potemkin ai #neural interface beta-tester #full self driving #mechanical turks #ai #amazon #amazon go #clm #joan westenberg

[gold-rhine]

i keep seeing posts about how furina was Actually Competent As A Ruler, which i think are misguided, even if they are coming from well-intentioned place. like, ppl love furina, and so they have an impulse to advocate her good qualities, which is v understandable, but where it derails i think is in assumption that agency = power, so ppl feel the need to prove that she was Actually Good At Power.

This also shows bc these posts *always* bring up neuvi, to either compare furina to him and say that he Did Her Dirty By Stealing Her Power, or to be like, actually they were Dual Rulers, and even if he was running the government, she was Girlbossing Too, like she was handling diplomatic relations or smth else, we just never got to see The Girlbossing.

both Stealing Power and Girlbossing Off Screen takes, I think, are not only textually incorrect, but also miss one of the central points of Fontaine, which is that its government was a hot mess and NO ONE there was Good At Power. Neuvi was absolutely not Girlbossing himself. Whats the point of like trying to prove furina was in charge of More Things, when all of the things were in shambles. The only efficiently run institution in fontaine is autonomous prison.

like, Furina is Marie Antoinette coded for a reason. She is a critique of monarchy, literally a divinely appointed monarch, that shows that putting in power a random person just bc of their birth circumstances, while they are not qualified at all, and then forcing them to be a figurehead under intense scrutiny of society that expects them to somehow be More Divinely Special than normal ppl, will be horrible no-good for both that person AND society. We had to watch her cry every day for 500 years cut scene for a reason. losing archonhood *frees* her to be what she actually wants.

Neuvi on the other hand, is a thesis of how impartiality for a ruler turns into indifference and inaction. Yes, he was incorruptibly fair in his judgements, but he was judging using the flawed laws inside of a flawed system, and this lead to tragic cases like Navia's dad' death and general bureaucratic and inept government. Like we had to listen to Navia yell at neuvi about it for like 5 minutes straight, come on. He realized that the system was flawed (his stories mention his disdain for courts being run like opera performances), that laws were often nonsensical, but he didn't try to change it, because as a dragon, it was basically not his circus, not his monkeys. only when he started to care about humans and forced by a crisis, he challenged the system, and his final ruling as he ascended to the power of god of life again, is markedly NOT impartial, but made with favor for humans. The thesis is that the judge should rule from a position of caring FOR the judged.

these two are explicitly not Cool Divine Bosses Ruling Together or Neuvi Stealing Furina's Importance As An Archon, but two sides of one miserable coin about how badly run fontaine actually was.

#rhine talks #furina #neuvillette #neuvi #im sorry but the only actual girlboss in fontaine was rizzley #and later navia

[mrm101]

#Artemis 1 is currently rolling back to the VAB from LC-39B for the second time #but this time after a successful WDR (Wet Dress Rehearsal) or fuelling test and rehearsal countdown on 20 June at the fourth attempt. There #known as the 4 inch LH2 Quick Disconnect (QD) #this line removes hydrogen from the vehicle that has been used to flow through the engines and feed lines to pre-cool them down ready for t #This did not prevent both the Core Stage and ICPS upper stage being fully fuelled #the bleed line was simply closed (since the engines would not be fired during this test countdown). However in order to get the count to co #the Autonomous Launch Sequencer (ALS) #took over at T-33 seconds it could not be fooled in this way. It noticed the bleed line was not open and the engine therefore weren't pre-c #In the VAB the seal on the bleed line will be replaced #and possibly all the rubber bits or 'soft goods' on the other connectors at the same time. Most importantly Artemis will be fitted with its #flight batteries #some avionics swop outs on the upper stage and the Orion spacecraft will be loaded up with some final test payloads. In all some six to eig #The first available launch date is currently 23 August and roll out would take place 10 to 14 days prior to that. Once the FTS ordnance is #giving enough time for three launch attempts. Pic: Artemis 1 begins roll back on early morning 2 July NASA

[think-fast-psychonaut]

YES, YES, YES!!!

THIS!!!! THIS is what I love about Hollis' character and how the writing of Psychonauts treats Raz as a whole. Yes Raz can make autonomous decisions. Yes he is a child. Both of these things are true, and Hollis exemplifies this perfectly while still being an incredibly well written character. When Hollis confronts Raz at the end of her mind level she is furious. And she has every right to be! Raz seriously Fucked! Up! And it was important that he learned that lesson! But in the Nerve Center? After she's had time to cool down and think?

She goes down on her knee, to Raz's level, and delivers an important lesson as his teacher.

These moments are how Hollis joined the ranks of some of my favorite characters from this game, and I love her

#psychonauts #psychonauts 2 #razputin aquato #hollis forsythe #analysis #writing

[lyralit]

ᴡʀɪᴛɪɴɢ ʙᴏᴅʏ ʟᴀɴɢᴜᴀɢᴇ

Anger

Anger is one expression of fight-or-flight mode — an automatic, instinctive reaction to a threat. In many cases, there is an underlying fear of being harmed. Thanks to autonomic nervous system arousal, the heart rate increases, pupils dilate, and the face may flush. Other signs of anger

Balling the fists

Crossing the arms tightly

Clenching the fists once arms are crossed

Tight-lipped smile

Clenched teeth

Shaking a finger like a club

Stabbing a finger at someone

Attraction

Pupils dilate

Women will cross and uncross legs to draw attention to them

Mirroring – (usually unconsciously) mimicking the other person’s body language

Closed to Conversation

Keeping the hands in the pockets (esp. men)

Arms and legs crossed

Sitting back

Folding the hands together on a table (creates a barrier)

The “figure-four” leg cross (setting the ankle of one leg on the knee of the other) and then grabbing the lower half of the top leg with both hands.

Openness and Honesty

Exposure of the palms

Arms and legs unfolded

Leaning forward

Submissive Signals

Smiling – that’s why some people smile when they’re upset or afraid

Slumping the shoulders

Doing anything to appear smaller

Distress

Men in particular have a tendency to stroke or rub the nape of the neck when they’re upset. It acts as a self-soothing gesture to deal with a “pain in the neck.”

Crossed arms – arms act like a protective barrier

Self-hugging – arms are crossed, hands gripping upper arms

One-arm cross – one arm crosses the body to hold or touch the other arm – women keep a hand on a purse or bag strap to make this look more natural

Clutching a purse, briefcase, or bag with both arms

Adjusting cuffs or cuff-links (men’s version of the purse-strap grab)

Folding the hands together in front of the crotch (men)

Lying

Lying causes a subtle tingling in the face and neck, so the gestures below are attempts to eliminate that feeling

Covering the mouth – can be like a shh gesture, or they may cover the mouth completely – some people try to cover it by coughing

Touching or rubbing the nose or just below the nose – often a quick, small gesture, not a scratch

Rubbing the eyes (especially men)

Scratching the neck with the index finger

Superiority, Confidence, Power, Dominance

Steepling the fingers (aka setting the tips of the fingers together)

Folding the hands behind the back

Thumbs sticking out from pockets when hands are in pockets (can be front or back pockets)

Hands on hips

Straddling a chair

Hands folded behind the head while sitting up (in men)

[source]

#body language #writing #writerblr #lyralit #creative writing #writers #writblr #writers block #writing ideas #writing prompts #writing tips #writing reference

[ixtaek]

Who in the Chain pays taxes?

Twilight - Twilight has helped finance two separate businesses, one of which is right under the castle’s nose. There’s no way he can play the “I don’t have money” card. But he’s also from Ordon, which seems to be its own semi-autonomous region. So I suspect he pays some village taxes but Dusk keeps him from having to pay Hyrulian taxes. She also hired someone to audit MaloMart so it evens out in the end.

Warriors - He definitely pays taxes. Taxes, in turn, pay his salary.

Time - Time does not pay taxes and complains about taxes often. Malon actually is the one paying.

Wild - Pre-Calamity he paid taxes like Warriors. Now, there are no taxes. It’s better this way.

Four - Pays his taxes but sends them with a bill for all the swords he makes the Royal guard which is always, curiously, about twice the amount he just paid in taxes. Picking up the refund is an excuse to see Dot. He uses the fact he pays taxes as evidence he’s an adult when people mistake him for a child.

Hyrule - I am convinced that Hyrule doesn’t really understand money. He does not pay taxes.

Legend - He would not pay taxes except the Hylian equivalent of the IRS has been side-eyeing Ravio’s shop a long time, so to avoid an audit or raid while he’s away, he pays both of their taxes and hates every second. Ravio has never paid taxes in his life and won’t start now.

Sky - You don’t have to pay taxes if you’re married to a goddess~

Wind - In spite of being a literal child he is wanted for tax evasion.

#linked universe #lu chain #I’m in pain so I’m rambling #lu wild #lu warriors #lu time #lu twilight #lu four #lu sky #lu hyrule #lu legend #lu wind