Exactly. Even for this thing LLMs are useless.

I like the last ineffectual thrust at the end right before it crashes. We've all been there.

Probably the best thing I've seen Ethan share.

Yeah trying to think if there's a way to somehow create unique instances but can't think of a away where they wouldn't easily break. You're only 1 dialogue tree branch away from becoming radicalised into some weird esoteric conspiracy theory or being convinced to leave your wife. Also it'd slop out.

Me and the boys discovering news kind of physics together.

Bummer. I've enjoyed his previous work and interviews. Also haven't read his most recent.

Inside some wolves there is a small girl in a red cloak and also her grandmother.

(This is a lie, I still dress up to travel. But I like to imagine that one day I'll wear sweat pants and crocs.)

Not sure if dehumanisation is overstatement, but the whole process is so dehumanising now, what do people expect? You're being asked to turn your brain off for the next 12 hours and accept some of the most petty degradations. (Especially in the US.) If I'm going Kafka mode, might as well be comfy.

No more degradation via airport security. Just plug yourself in, heck drug yourself into a coma, have enough chemical & food to keep you alive for a week or two. There's a cleaning function to hose you down before you emerge. Or delivery straight to hotel room before unsealing.

People dressed nicely when air travel was nice. Now you get packed in like a veal calf and intermittently force fed treats under the agreement that you don't move for 7-8 hours. The whole pretence of civility is gone. Might as well get packed into tiny shipping containers.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c8...

I really enjoyed his last book, but decided to ignore 10% of his catty asides as they weakened his larger points. The book will age very poorly because his editor decided to keep in the culture war sniping. So I do recommend it, with multiple caveats.

I was raised 2 different kinds of Catholic to balance out grandparental expectations, was probably an annoying atheist until about 2009, then mellowed out and now go to Quaker meetings because I think it's important to be around people in contemplation.

My beliefs have changed a lot in the last decade but I hope I haven't dragged too many people along for the ride against their will. Agreed though, I'm pro growth and think it's good to expand ones worldview but there is an unhealthy version of this.

I think for me, it's specifically the performative nature. That's not the right word, unless it's specifically online attention grabbing. But there's a kind of person who bounces from epiphany to epiphany that forces it on the other people in their lives with an aggressive piousness.

theonion.com/bored-sea-ca...

I'm just uneasy with the volume of people who go something like:

vegan -> frugivore -> carnivore -> raw liver only caveman larp

Christian -> atheist -> Buddhist -> Wiccan -> Catholic -> Orthodox

liberal -> leftist -> anarchist -> eco-primativist ->anarcho capitalist libertarian