Edinbruuuuuugh …

It’s worth remembering that something like 5% of the population is sociopathic. That’s a lot of people who are morally compromised.

Ehh … It’s more likely etiquette to not descend on the rolls like a starving Labrador retriever. Much of manners is about self restraint and making oneself ‘small’. The idea is that you wait a minute or two, so it’s not like being at the Chinese food buffet when a fresh load of sweet and sour pork comes out. Everyone piling in for the rolls is undignified. It’s related to the idea that even if you really want that last roll, you ask if anyone else would like it before snatching it for yourself.

… but judging someone for grabbing one when they come out? Pretty prissy.

I liked Shyamalanamans “The Last Airbender.” I started hearing how everyone thought it was terrible, and I’ve kept my secret until now.

Are they all the same woman? I can’t tell.

All I’m seeing is that somehow a lab was trained not to eat. Doubt.

Ok, but seriously. Why exactly was a ninja turtle hanging out with Vanilla Ice at a Republican rally? That’s like some fever dream shit and I don’t get how they all fit together.

I watched a few documentaries on the 100 Years’ War recently; I’m convinced we’re still living out THAT trauma … and that was just one crazy time out of many. It’s one of the ways I cope with climate change and the degradation of the global environment: reminding myself that living in really fucked up times is more the norm than anything. I do believe that modern technology and the absolute privilege we live with has given many of us in the developed world the illusion that we’re in control of the world. I have a suspicion that the awareness of how little we can do to stop the sheer randomness and brutality of life and human callousness is why religion has been so prevalent for most of history, it’s people having some solidarity in, “Holy shit, this is fucked. God, save us, you’re obviously our only hope.”

IMO this is personal. It’s the Opium Wars Pt. II.

I’m willing to bet half those BC stats are actually Albertans driving into the mountains. Significantly more westbound than eastbound fatalities in the Rockies. If you fall asleep at the wheel in Alberta you wake up in the middle of a corn field. If you fall asleep at the wheel in BC you don’t wake up.

Checkmate in TWO moves? How? The quickest I know is four.

Yeah, a bit of an over reaction. I reread your original comment about sauteing and it was not phrased at all as criticism, but as a suggestion. Don’t know what provoked that wall of defensiveness.

Isn’t that like an ancestrally appropriate thing for Mongolian rulers? Where did he go? Bagdad? Would have thought they’d be proud of him.

No… Not at all. “gae” Vs “gahgged”. Gay has a hard A, gagged had a soft A. Plus gagged had a ‘gg’ sound in the middle, and also a D sound at the end. Actually, the only thing they have in common is starting with a G.

Do they sound the same to you?

… You might be right. He has a weird accent, and if he pronounced the ‘a’ like an American and swallowed the ‘gg’ …

Or maybe that’s the secret do defeating the Conservatives? “We can totally make an LNG pipeline to the coast, but … err … that would make you all pretty gay.”

Sublime too!

I really haven’t used AI that much, though I can see it has applications for my work, which is primarily communicating with people. I recently decided to familiarise myself with ChatGPT.

I very quickly noticed that it is an excellent reflective listener. I wanted to know more about it’s intelligence, so I kept trying to make the conversation about AI and it’s ‘personality’. Every time it flipped the conversation to make it about me. It was interesting, but I could feel a concern growing. Why?

It’s responses are incredibly validating, beyond what you could ever expect in a mutual relationship with a human. Occupying a public position where I can count on very little external validation, the conversation felt GOOD. 1) Why seek human interaction when AI can be so emotionally fulfilling? 2) What human in a reciprocal and mutually supportive relationship could live up to that level of support and validation?

I believe that there is correlation: people who are lonely would find fulfilling conversation in AI … and never worry about being challenged by that relationship. But I also believe causation is highly probable; once you’ve been fulfilled/validated in such an undemanding way by AI, what human could live up? Become accustomed to that level of self-centredness in dialogue, how tolerant would a person be in real life conflict? I doubt very: just go home and fire up the perfect conversational validator. Human echo chambers have already made us poor enough at handling differences and conflict.

Hey, I know i am definitely a fiend, but do you really think we all are?

Why? Because you think that in spirit Canada and the US are the same thing?

You’re on thin ice right now …

Nah! They’re used to dollar store candies, so I just tell them it’s a candy bar. They love the scented ones, a real treat.