Notices by josef (jk@mastodon.social), page 16

@envgen Hell & Don'ts

@envgen what the hell should you don't

i have a program to control my fans but the integration time on the sensors is only about 1 second, and the result is that whenever my computer is under MEDIUM load, the fans just alternate between 0 and 100% every couple of seconds, which is REALLY distracting

@englebright (ever since i learnt how to correctly pronounce Fresnel ive been unable to correctly pronounce Fresno)

its ok because while in the future there'll be killer drones, youll be able to get Your Head Asplode insurance on the blockchain (surprisingly cheap premiums due to the 21st century panacea of Financialisation)

@popefucker @espectalll both of these things are qualitatively similar to, respectively, more advanced future forms of surveillance and killer drones. but i guess the worry is that when something becomes sufficiently cheap/easy/scalable/anonymous/controllable, it crosses a threshold where it begins acting in a different way altogether, i.e., suddenly you can 'get away with' stuff you couldn't before

@popefucker @espectalll i suppose it's similar to the invention of automatic rapid-fire guns, which were enthusiastically adopted by armies that could afford them, and greatly increased the death toll of war - until new technologies and strategies appeared to deal with the fact that they were just so quantitatively different from what was possible before. but it took a surprising amount of time for that to happen, or at least, a surprising number of needless deaths

@espectalll @popefucker the argument is that "now", robots and computers are currently not able to do those things, but if they could in the future, it would make doing a lot of (currently impractically expensive) bad things a lot more feasible

@popefucker @espectalll well, at the moment, all of the most effective ways to oppress people involve convincing other people to go out there & do oppressive things - like in a police state, you have to have a lot of people who want to spread an ideology (either through words or force). using automated systems (robots/AI) gives you way more leverage and power, since now you no longer need to recruit or convince people, you just need to buy some robots and computers

@szam these are really good

ive started putting lots of !!!!!!!!!!!!!! at the end of my serious toots, so that serious people who want to have an argument with me think im not being particularly serious. it seems to actually work as a filter. try it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

cryptocurrencies are a really good example of how many people don't seem to realise how important a role society & psychology play in the fundamental characteristics and functioning of a technology. if you assess a technology on its technological merits you will only be able to understand a small part of what actually happens when you give it to people: what people do to it, and what it does to them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

@envgen you somehow managed to do the opposite, u egg !!!!!!

@tomharris @englebright with tag names in lojban