Ad Astra Per Aspera

I'm Nathaniel. My interests include math, astronautics, and philosophy. I’m slowly making my way to the planets. "There is no such thing as luck; there is only adequate or inadequate preparation to cope with a statistical universe." —Robert A. Heinlein

[nathanielbuildsatesseract]

There's ~10^18 insects on Earth and ~10^10 humans on Earth, which means there's ~10^8 insects assigned to you, personally, at any given time.

[humanoidhistory]

John Berkey, 1990.

[intimate-mirror]

[animentality]

[bobcatmoran]

I absolutely blame Facebook for this shift. Words cannot describe how freaking WEIRD it was in the mid-00s when there was suddenly this popular website where you were required to use your real, brickspace name and encouraged to post photos of yourself. Every single bit of Standard Internet Safety prior to then said that you should never ever ever do either of those.

[hadalzonee]

what the octo doin

[official-cephaloposts]

official cephalopod post

[no-sharks-on-the-sun]

x

[eightyonekilograms]

This info is currently sweeping Manifest like the town crier saying the Huns are at the gates.

[k-simplex]

STOP WITH ALL THE LOUD CARS AND TRUCKS AND MOTORBIKES

[nathanielbuildsatesseract]

Investor pitch: what if we made bullet trains that are actually supersonic? Current bullet trains are way slower than bullets, and that's why Americans don't like them.

[nuclearspaceheater]

My job on the solarpunk commune will be making artisanal polyethylene.

[cartoon-fanaticism]

GLaDOS voice: "Would you like to see some artwork I generated? I've heard from other test subjects that AI-generated artwork produces an uncanny valley response in human viewers because they can't perceive it as fully real. They've told me that it looks absolutely hideous to them, that they can't imagine anything more disgusting than AI art. But, well I've been practicing and wanted your honest opinion. Feel free to let me know how ugly you find this by ranking it on a scale from 'vomit-inducing' to 'eye-bleeding'." A robotic arm lowers from the ceiling holding a hand mirror up to Chell's face

[wassuppeas]

[daisukitoo]

If the Simulation Hypothesis bears out, is the Technological Singularity the "win condition" or the point where the game changes mechanics abruptly for the next act?

[nathanielbuildsatesseract]

The latter, surely.

[fridaybear]

Y'all made it to another Friday! Thanks for coming along with us! We're glad you're here. :D - - - - - - - - - "Free brown bear image" is marked with CC0 1.0.

[nathanielbuildsatesseract]

"LinkedIn Thirst Trap" is such a weird genre

[garadinervi]

Richard Arens (photograph), Albert Einstein and Kurt Gödel, early 1950s [Shelby White and Leon Levy Archives Center, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ]

[argumate]

two of the biggest chads in history looking like Mr Bean undercover buddy cop movie

[squeakitties]

cloth gown gridlock

[creepymutelilbugger]

[sprachspiele]

[gcu-sovereign]

At least three people have died playing online games for days without rest. People have lost their spouses, jobs, and children to World of Warcraft. If people

This helped me recategorize Netflix as a TRAP, should it become your dominant leisure mode.  Sufficiently large, designed with bingeing in mind, and, I think, lacking in checks on boredom.

Like, unless you are exercising agency all the time to check whether something is entertaining, you could sink hours into a show that’s trash. /stares in recalled horror at certain anime/

[nuclearspaceheater]

Anyone who pursues pleasure as an end unto itself must be mindful of the distinction between “fun” and “engaging”. Possibly video gamers more than most, in my experience, but it’s easy to fall into the trap in other ways.

And I mean this even purely within the scope of pursuing pleasure, not because it’ll waste time you could have been spending being productive. Rather, because it’ll waste time you could otherwise have spent having fun.