A single income used to afford a house, and family, a car or two, vacations, and retirement savings.
Then we needed families to have two incomes to have that lifestyle.
Then we held on to that system, but had that lifestyle, WITHOUT the building up of any savings, and without the vacations.
Then we needed two incomes just to be able to LEASE that watered-down lifestyle.
And then we needed two incomes and good credit to juggle that watered-down lifestyle, and deferring debt to some point down the road when we assumed we’d be high-income earners.
Now we are in stunningly dangerous territory. We’ve largely given up any luxuries, and we struggle to find the CREDIT to LEASE basic essentials like housing, food and medicine. Often we fail to do so.
Inflation has hit us incredibly hard, but when student loan payments start up in mere weeks from now, it’s going to be CRIPPLING, not just to those with debt, but EVERY business that needs those people to buy their goods and services.
We’ve been robbed of our future by corporate greed and the psychopathic cruelty of the boomer-run government.
… And just in the past 6 months we’ve seen the invention of the first artificial general intelligence. Even if it never got any better than it is today, it would still decimate the workforce. But it is getting better. At a staggering rate. We are headed for a jobs crisis the likes of which has never been seen in all of human history.
Add to that the rise of fascism in a global scale.
Add to that the hundreds of millions of anticipated climate change refugees, and potentially catastrophic failures of the ecosystems which sustain various crops.
Add to that that all of human experience and evolution has left us WILDLY unprepared to understand let alone solve problems of this pace and magnitude.
GPT4 absolutely is the foundational block of the first AGI.
I’ve been working with it exhaustively since it was released. I’ve built frameworks around it to give it a memory and other supplements. I have ZERO doubt that this is the first AGI, or at least it’s the engine that powers real AGI.
Hard definition to fit because it all depends on what you define as ‘general’. Its not great but tbh you can ask it a question about anything and it will give an answer, so I’d argue that’s general enough
Another fairly soft definition, which to debate I gotta ask what is ‘intelligence’ to you? Defined as rigouroudly as you care to, cause you’ll find its pretty damn hard to get anywhere fundamental.
My point with this is usually if something has no definition, its probably not that good to use as a definition for other things, like AI
Realistically the only way you could consider AI not intelligent is of you specifically require aspects of humanity within it, as such if aliens existed and didn’t have anything analogous to “thought” would they then not be intelligent?
But of course the AI is trainable, hence how it got trained.
Actively learning doesn’t come up in the definition, but it being able to respond to multiple comments with context shows it does actively learn and understand the topic at hand.
Its for sure much more sterilized than natural intelligence, but tbh the main reason it doesn’t train on its input data is because it would turn to junk fairly quick with the mess of messages it must get.
I’m not sure I get your ‘appearing intelligent’ comment, either something does or doesn’t actively learn under your definition, so where does the appearance come from? Unless you mean because people are undecided of conversation is active or not, which would put it on the fence (again under the active definition)
That's the thing tho ... most humans won't survive this. The super rich are buying up remote properties/islands at an incredible rate and want Mars asap.
Most of the rest of us will die of starvation, fires, heat, dehydration/poisoned water or the massive storms.
If I’ve learned anything from Musk and Zuckerberg, it’s that the super rich really aren’t all that competent. They know how to operate within the system as it is and leverage their existing advantage. I’m pretty sceptical that they can actually save themselves either. They’ll need other people to do that for them, but the problem they face is, why wouldn’t those people just take charge themselves? Once the system they operate in is gone, what do the wealthy really have to offer? No actual skills for the most part. It’s all socially fabricated smoke and mirrors.
Mars is a pipe dream. Unless Earth goes full Venus, it will be vastly better then Mars for at least the next thousand years. Terraforming Mars would be a centuries long endeavor, and terraforming Earth would be vastly easier.
Technically we are already terraforming Earth. We know what emitting greenhouse gases does, then we still do it intentionally, then we get sad about, but are not surprised about, the results of our actions on the global climate. We are knowingly using technology that alters the global climate at this very moment, and this has already significantly and successfully altered the global climate.
That’s terraforming, baby!
We are just terraforming the Earth to be more hostile towards human life, explicitly to make a tiny population of rich assholes who’ve been promising to whip their dicks out and rain down golden showers of prosperity for a century happier, because us peasants are apparently as fucking stupid and submissive as those rich assholes believe we are.
Not that I support everything about her, but Elizabeth Warren literally wrote the book on our 2 income problem.
Society tracks “family income” and for a gigantic portion of history that was one income, then in the 60s-70s women started entering the workforce in larger numbers (in the US, not sure about globally) and we see family income “rising” so we think “great, we’re growing! We’re doing well!” Except that it only grew because of an additional income.
Now we’re at the point you’ve mentioned where that isn’t even enough anymore especially when the vast majority of jobs seem to offer around 50-60k unless you’re a specific professional/tech bro.
I’m a perpetually single blue collar schmuck, I’ve completely given up on the idea of homeownership, and am very very quickly realizing my retirement plan has to be a shotgun to the head.
What a wonderful future we have to look forward to.
And I’ll just add this so no one has to later: GlObAlLy We’Re BeTtEr ThAn EvEr! Because you know, that totally helps…
Very well written and accurate. I just want to add that the financial requirements to raise children have been out the window for some time as well. Not that they would want to exist in a world with climate change anyway.
Rome always falls in the end. The law of entropy is absolute. Like so many empires before us, the sociopathic greed/glut/power lust by the “winners” will be our end. Our height was WWII, I see no shame in that. We did a good thing after centuries of committing enslavement and genocide, then we declined into the sunset for the next empire to write about in its history books.
When the system has become this exploitative, some sharp short/medium term pain is better than limping along for another generation or two when we’ll have to collapse or revolt and do the work of rebuilding we already need to do anyway.
Reminder: being comfortable passing the buck of consequences to future generations is why we’re here.
Am I the only who doesn’t give an eff about Shakespeare? Sure I love the history of it all, but there’s too much good shit to read that doesn’t involve an annoying archaic English and will never use it again unless you do plays in the park.
Except that apart from maybe the bible, there is probably not a single literary body of work that is as often refered to as Shakespeare’s in western media, literature, movies, series, games … you name it. It’ll help you appreciate A LOT of other stuff a lot more if you get into it a little. Shakespeare is used and reused everywhere, all the time.
Sure I see it all the time with different mediums and not just with Shakespeare. You don’t need to know or enjoy the original to love something newer. Outside of History or English majors why do I need to read something that reads so dumb when I read it. Sure I can be a fool or someone who just doesn’t like the style.
It’s fair to say that something is not for you, but Shakespeare is more than just old stories; they connect our culture back to its literary foundations. Of course one doesn’t have to know the original to love something newer; that was true in Billy Shake’s day too, since he stole those stories from history and mythology and put a new twist on them.
There is value in studying the classics: it is a lens through which we can examine a distant culture’s values, beliefs, drives, weaknesses, prejudice, and motivations to better reflect on our own. It is a cause worth pursuing, even if there’s no direct payoff. For better or worse, these rich and vibrant stories are part of our cultural canon and were written by a master storyteller and poet.
His friends car blows up he tells the judge it was just a prank bro it was just a prank judge in light of this new evidence I rule this case dismissed everyone cheers
This isn't just about abortion, I don't get why all the headlines are focusing on that
It's really hard to see why this is a partisan issue, "let's make it hard to change the constitution" doesn't really sound like an inherently right-wing position.
Making it harder to change the constitution is an inherently conservative position. That’s basically what conservative means – it’s a desire to keep things mostly how they are (or how they used to be, in the supposed “good old days”).
You are thinking of the Old GOP. New GOP doesn’t vote on conservative values. They’re just an underfed truffle pig scrounging in the dirt for any crumbs that will increase their power. It’s pathetic. Theyll eat their own leg if they get hungry enough.
Headlines are focusing on abortion because this proposal was very clearly meant to make it substantially harder for the later vote on an amendment to protect abortion rights to succeed. The GOP knows that, when put to a direct vote, at least 50% will vote for legal abortion. But in a state like Ohio, 60% just might be a realistic ceiling.
I mean, do you really think it was a coincidence that this proposal was done in this particular moment?
It’s because the right want to make sure the people can’t go and do something like enshrine fundamental rights like reproductive freedom. Safe from their meddling
The reason people focus on the abortion angle is because there is a vote to enshrine abortion rights in the constitution in November. This bill would apply to that vote. It would also make it harder to try again and harder to have grassroots initiatives in general.
I wonder why changing the constitution is suddenly an issue the Ohio GOP wants to vote on…
Because it was pushed through as an august election not long after august elections were banned (due to high cost and low turnout), but almost immediately after legalizing abortion wound up on the November ballot. Sure it’s about more than abortion, but it’s also very much about abortion, otherwise it would’ve waited until November.
The high cost comes from having to mobilize polling locations, poll workers, logistics for voting infrastructure, ya know, all the stuff that goes into making an election happen.
Special elections like this need to have all the same setup as a general election, but since it’s focused around one (or a handful) of issues, AND the general election still has to take place in November, it’s pretty wasteful. I’ve seen the estimates are around $20-30 million to make a special election happen.
Elections themselves are expensive affairs. Not just for the sides, but also for the host government. Worth it of course, but it’s a huge strain including shipping and hosting the ballots, machines, etc to every location. Add in that poll workers are paid. And it uses a ton of space. All for one yes or no question to be asked 3 months before all this was going to happen anyways. Elections happen on their own every year, that’s the default. And there’s usually one in the spring too. It’s one thing if it actually cannot wait, like if we were asking for a referendum on an ecological catastrophe or a Supreme Court shenanigan that opened up a stupid outdated law to happening with serious effect. But this, this absolutely was not worth the cost and could have waited 3 months unless your sole concern is to make abortion or marijuana harder to access in this state even if the majority of Ohioans want them.
It’s because the majority of Americans are actually united on many issues. The chances an amendment passes with 51% is highly unlikely. So anything unconstitutional getting passed is a none issue. That’s why no abortion ban has made it to amendment status. Amendments override lower laws. So a body autonomy amendment would take all abortion bans of the table even when the state senate which in this case is held by the GOP despite not having the population vote.
They are stupid if they do. Biden has taken what Trump was doing and turned the volume way WAY up. The escalating Trade War with the United States is a big reason why the Chinese economy is stumbling.
You guys are probably using privacy enhancing browsers, signs of the WebDRM technologies starting to be used. They want to track you or you don’t get to access their content.
Do you have cookies turned off or something? I accidentally opened a link in Firefox the other day and got hit with that until I realized I have Firefox set to never keep any history, cookies, etc.
You’re in a desert walking along in the sand when all of the sudden you look down, and you see a tortoise, it’s crawling toward you. You reach down, you flip the tortoise over on its back. The tortoise lays on its back, its belly baking in the hot sun, beating its legs trying to turn itself over, but it can’t, not without your help. But you’re not helping. Why is that?
Lol kids should give each other nicknames that are classroom objects and terms from the text. Or names of historical figures. “oh, now we can’t say Abraham Lincoln because it’s a nickname”
It makes teachers wonder why, yet again, they’re being forced to bear the brunt of the culture war, and they’re going to eventually quit.
Then the schools won’t be able to find good teachers, the education system will be further deteriorated, and private schools will become the only schools worth attending, further eroding the future prospects of working-class Floridian children and America as a whole.
I don’t think that’s the grand strategy at play, I just think the people in charge don’t care if it happens, as long as they get enough praise from their voters.
Ohio is about to get real cool. The abortion vote is going to enshrine it in the Ohio consitution, but along side it, legal marijuana is also on the same ballot.
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