zifnab25 [he/him, any]

Somebody explain to me why Eminence in Shadow is good, because I’ve watched three episodes and it just seems like horny Batman.

Weird how the size of your nose changes with your facial expression.

This is cool, from a digital visuals perspective, because it is building out a very detailed library of human behaviors to model after. A richer catalog provides a lot more potential for engines that want to render more complex human behaviors.

But its also kinda… illustrative of the soft upper limits of generative AI, as this is still ultimately a discrete (and presumably fairly limited) library of motions that will result in visually distinct characters all falling into the same set of physical behaviors. Both a small rambunctious boy and an elderly infirm woman crossing a gap in the pavement in the same way isn’t realistic. And while you can solve this by adding more data points, you’re still having all small rambunctious boys and all elderly infirm women crossing the gap in the pavement in the same way. And while you can solve this by adding variations… how much modeling are you really willing to do for sufficient variance? Idk.

We get generative in the sense that we can reskin a stick-figure model very quickly using a catalog of behaviors. But we don’t get generative in the sense that the computer understands the biomechanics of a human body and can create these stick-figure models in believable states.

No microphone

Its funny, because I’d love to have a sound setup that accepts audio. I do FoundryVTT games regularly from my couch, and being able to talk at my TV, rather than setting up a bluetooth headset, would be great for hybrid home/remote games.

I know my TV has a built in mic, because it occasionally goes into “Did You Say Something?” mode based on keywords I never bothered to figure out. But I can’t get it to sync with the server I’ve set it up against.

Damned near everything has a mic in it, but nobody wants to let you use it for what you want.

“$45B fund and I have no idea what I’m doing” would normally raise some questions about economic rationalism.

We’ve finally found him. The one European Jew Israel won’t admit.

We can’t forget what we never had the chance to remember

Its like Israeli leadership is actively trying to kick off a world war.

staring at my Microsoft DevOps certification, dejectedly

No no no. This Is Whataboutism.

You’re only allowed to comment on Russian wartime media practices in exclusion. You can’t view it through a holistic lense of state sponsored manufacturing of consent.

Kuikanmäki told Yle that it is still unclear to him why this connection to China has prevented him from taking up the role as Minister Purra’s advisor.

Can’t believe the Finnish security leopards would eat my face.

Fu Linghui, a spokesman for the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), said the release of data would be suspended while authorities look to “optimise” collection methods.

“In recent years, the number of university students has continued to expand,” Fu said. “The main responsibility of current students is studying. Society has different views on whether students looking for jobs before graduation should be included in labour force surveys and statistics.”

This issue, as well as the definition of the age range currently set at 16-24, “needs further research,” Fu said.

Isn’t this basically consistent with the… I want to say U6 unemployment metric within the US? Basically, if you’re in school then you aren’t an active member of the labor force and don’t count as “unemployed” for the purpose of government statistics?

I remember back during the '07/'08 US downturn, lots of young people re-entered academia in pursuit of MBAs / Law Degrees / etc, because the job market sucked and pay in professional fields was worth the time/cost of a higher caliber of degree. When they fell out of the labor market as a result, the US unemployment rate adjusted in response.

Wonder if we’re going to get a Blowback on the Congolese Wars.

Come to think of it, I wonder of a War Nerd or Lions Led by Donkeys already exists for it.

“What is the return on investment?”

In the case of 3Body,

That’s only very loosely a “profitable” enterprise. Certainly, the initial generations won’t see any kind of profit simply due to the length of the journey.

The same principle applies to other planets – if it’s profitable, it will be pursued.

But a practical ROI can only really be measured within a single lifetime. And extraplanetary travel will always have a return of $0, as anyone deciding to perform extra-planetary exploration today will not see the benefits for generations. One might argue a more Ursula LeGuin-esque view of interstellar colonization - as a struggle for survival that simply expands beyond the frontiers of a single planet. But then, what we’re really talking about with Martian colonization or extra-Solar travel is some kind of politically or ecologically motivated Exodus. Because the economic exploitation of the New World was mostly just hit-and-run raids early on. The Virginia Company was an abject failure as an economic exercise. It cost far more to maintain than it yielded.

The real motivating force behind early colonization was the 30 Years War and the flight of the Protestants. What you’re ultimately going to need are some Huguenots with space ships. Even then, the real labor force in colonization were indentured servants and slaves. And there’s not going to be a Trans-Atlantic Triangle to move people from Earth to the spacial frontier, because… Its space. There’s nothing out there.

Cynical take: To kill us. Dark forest style.

As a sci-fi explanation for the Fermi Paradox, I found Dark Forest Theory compelling and thrilling.

As an actual IRL explanation for a lack of First Contact, I’m totally underwhelmed. Space is big. The speed of light heavily truncates both travel and communication. Extraterrestrial life certainly isn’t common, as evidenced by all of the planets in our own Solar System that are lifeless.

It should be noted that

That strikes me as highly implausible.

Other thoughts: If aliens showed up it we wouldn’t detect them in atmo, not as a quick fly by. We’d detect something huge like engines or something going real fast way out in space. Like on the edge of the system. If they were in our atmosphere they would make themselves known one way or another at that point.

The sheer amount of energy for super-luminal travel would suggest we either can’t see them or can’t miss them.

But one posits a degree of technological advancement so beyond our current scope that we can barely conceive of it. And the other posits a kind-of soft ceiling to scientific advancement, such that alien life just can’t be an issue even in another thousand lifetimes.

If first contact is anything, it will more likely be communicative than a literal fly by. Humans tuning into the extraterrestrial equivalent of AM radio will be the first to discover an advanced off-world civilization.

Going back to 3Body, one of the most compelling plot beats for me was

Like, that’s what I imagine a real human/alien interaction would look like for… centuries. Long before either saw the other one face-to-face.

Petroleum?

Wind Power.