Probably just get a military contractor to do it anyway

I think technically he could order someone with the legal authority to use lethal force to do that. So probably the NSA or CIA.

I think this would be different for someone not on parole. So like if you’re just speeding and get pulled over I believe they would be violating the law/Constitution if they forced your thumb against your phone.

But they probably do it anyway so good idea to follow the lock down above in this thread.

(Also don’t use electronics to do crimes y’all.)

At least they didn’t ignore the terrain alarm.

I read somewhere but can’t find it now about a time where a plane crashed or nearly crashed because the older pilot was sure the “terrain” alarm was a mistake and ignored the directive to pull up. I believe they were flying on instruments (common these days at night or poor visibility).

I’m guessing they mean like in the absence of energy, right? Because can’t massless photons warp spacetime as the get to higher and higher energies?

I read a pretty convincing article title and subheading implying that the best use for so called “AI” would be to replace all corporate CEOs with it.

I didn’t read the article but given how I’ve seen most CEOs behave it would probably be trivial to automate their behavior. Pursue short term profit boosts with no eye to the long term, cut workers and/or pay and/or benefits at every opportunity, attempt to deny unionization to the employees, tell the board and shareholders that everything is great, tell the employees that everything sucks, …

This seems like a perfect opportunity for a counter intelligence operation, though. Yeah China wants our former military but since they’re military it seems like an easy lift to convert them into US assets either misinforming or sabotaging China.

Most of the military people I know took their oath to the Constitution seriously. I’m sure if the spooks at the CIA or NSA or whatever the new secret spy org is called asked, they could find some soon to retire guys who want to help out.

You forget your place, comrade.

I wonder if this is the harbinger of a bunch of companies breaking up after decades of consolidation.

It would definitely be good to have a big round of breakups to get competition going again. Then we just have to fight against the consolidation that will start up in 20-30 years.

Now do the banks and grocery stores and airlines and car companies and farming and…

But for a few years there they made a LOT of money!

Every time I install Windows the first thing I download is total commander. I can’t function without it.

It looks like midnight commander with some upgrades

Someone should tell this guy that hot dogs exist.

I’ll let others address the “enshittification” angle but I thought I’d point out that “shareholder value uber allies” is a relatively recent … “innovation” … in economic theory, brought about by failed Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork and Milton Friedman in the last half of last century:

https://www.chicagobooth.edu/review/what-made-chicago-school-so-influential-antitrust-policy

The rethinking of what the boards of companies are supposed to do (from maximize stakeholder value to maximize shareholder value) and how they can operate (from requiring justification to approve mergers to requiring justification to block mergers) really took off with them, and exploded when former union boss Ronald Reagan found “religion” (because Nancy’s pussy was just that good) and ruined the economy for workers.

Lots of other people contributed, including Clinton after he “won” the 1992 election with 40% of the vote due to Perot splitting the Republican vote. His campaign of fiscal conservatism but without less bigotry became the model for the Democratic Party for the next two decades.

Anyway, Biden’s FTC is finally working to help workers again, which might even release the death grip of the Chicago School from our economy. We’ll see after November I guess.

https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2024/04/fact-sheet-ftcs-proposed-final-noncompete-rule

This genie is probably impossible to get back in the bottle.

People are going to just direct the imitative so called AI program to make the face just different enough to have plausible deniability that it’s a fake of this person or that person. Or use existing tech to age them to 18+ (or 30+ or whatever). Or darken or lighten their skin or change their eye or hair color. Or add tattoos or piercings or scars…

I’m not saying we should be happy about it, but it is here and I don’t think it’s going anywhere. Like, if you tell your so called AI to give you a completely fictional nude image or animation of someone that looks similar to Taylor Swift but isn’t Taylor Swift, what’s the privacy (or other) violation, exactly?

Does Taylor Swift own every likeness that looks somewhat like hers?

Yep! But they’re a dickens to actually eradicate. I’m going to be hatcheting some gashes in a big one or two on my property in August or September so I can poison its roots with glyphosate when it starts getting ready for fall. I’ve learned the hard way that if you leave the roots healthy you’re making tons of future work for yourself.

Privet is also a runner based plant and it’s also not from North America, but I’ve had more success looking it the old fashioned way.

It’s really gratifying to watch native species rebound and move back into the places after the introduced/invasive plants have been removed.

What’s really gonna suck is when people are like “holy shit why did they let us kill all the bugs if they were so important?!!”

Personally my property (2 acres) is free of all pesticides and herbicides. I’m killing introduced species of plants (trees of heaven and privet) by hand mostly pulling them out of the ground.

This year I might add Japanese honeysuckle to the target list.

I mean we’re probably doomed to some sort of major collapse either way, but I’ll do what I can on the micro scale and vote for people who will fight for the right path on the macro (e.g. never Republican).

PS - I do use poison bait inside for ants and cockroaches so not 100%. Only when they get noticable. Sorry.

Well just for one example, Joe Biden has been aggressively using the powers he has via the department of education to cancel outstanding student loan balances that were completely legal and very profitable for usurious loan servicing companies.

No Republican would do that.

He and the Democrats leveraged their control of Congress in 2021 and 2022 to pass legislation that is going to do more to reduce our contribution to climate change than ever before. Not enough, but way more than any Republican would do.

I feel like that means our democracy is sort of working.

In so called “blue” states, they’re expanding voting access.

I agree that campaign contributions are a serious challenge, but for example Bernie and Elizabeth Warren have done great things without contributions from billionaires.

We can do this, but we need to stand up in the face of fear and push as hard as we can. The only thing to fear is fear itself!

Vote Save America can help leverage donations to the most effective campaigns possible for progressive causes.

https://votesaveamerica.com/

That’s the mission of the people who are trying to tear apart our democracy: make people think the whole system is broken and beyond repair.

That’s where all these people arguing against voting for Biden and Democratic majorities are coming from. They don’t actually think the two parties are the same (or they wouldn’t if they were honest about them). But they sure as heck think America would be better if not everyone could participate in it’s governance.

So it’s up to us to work on defending the democratic power we have and work on repairing and improving our democracy. That means completely redesigning the campaign finance system. That means expanding voting access. That means expanding the Article 3 courts from top to bottom. We need to fix our media. Break up monopolies and oligopolies. On and on.

We can make our democracy better if we work together to fix it.