

It’s not about finding habitat, but a large scale version of kill or be killed, or stay quiet and hope they don’t see you.
There will be times when the struggle seems impossible. Alone, unsure, dwarfed by the scale of the enemy. Freedom is a pure idea. It occurs spontaneously and without instruction. Random acts of insurrection are occurring constantly. There are whole armies, battalions that have no idea that they’ve already enlisted in the cause. And even the smallest act of insurrection pushes our lines forward. Tyranny requires constant effort. It breaks, it leaks. Authority is brittle. Oppression is the mask of fear.


It’s not about finding habitat, but a large scale version of kill or be killed, or stay quiet and hope they don’t see you.


Definitely not to enslave. The path that the 3 Body Problem goes down is a science-based eldritch horror.


I knew I remembered that name. Great book and reference.


I was with Pizza Hut when we got that directive of empowerment to do what was best to retain the customer. No manager needed for most things, just treat them well. We had a lot of regular customers, I wonder why. That was a long time ago.


Escaping from one gravity well to go to another gravity well that is far more deadly is foolish. Both Mars and the Moon, as well as probably any body that doesn’t have some sort of erosion mechanic, has fine, sharp dust which is terrible on both equipment and biology.
I still am a believer just as I was a 70s kid that O’Neill was on the right track, and space is the next logical place for humanity. What has changed over the decades is my belief that we can get there. Not because of the science or the technology, but because of our tendency to focus resources on other things that don’t help anyone. The window is all but shut on space now. And any billionaires that send people to Mars in some grand colonization scheme are just dooming them and wasting more on their own ego.
So whatever happens now, humanity will have its eggs in one basket, and that basket does have an expiration date.


I’d say answer just to see if the Dark Forest is valid. If it is, honestly they’re going to find us eventually anyway.


So, Ender’s Game


I’ll bet the cause of that is simple. The one person who knew how to change the message no longer works there, and while that has been mentioned to the higher ups, it’s not a priority so it got shoved into the “to-do” pile.


I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s instructions to modify the system prompt to maximize effectiveness, and everyone leaves it at the generic default. Just like so many people leave other things at the default and just plug it in and go. Thank goodness the Cisco hold music is decent. I grew to love it while holding on the VA phone lines a lot for my dad.


Funny you mention a phone tree, something that’s been hit by AI. It’s actually been around longer as voice recognition that finds a close match to a keyword, but in theory AI should be able to take a request and break down what is actually needed.
I haven’t run across an AI version that works well. I don’t know if that’s because the voice recognition part is still bad, or if they’re using Co-pilot (since I know how it mangles simple requests in text).


You forgot the mandatory lead message. “Please listen closely as our menu options have changed.” No, they haven’t. Ever.


I didn’t know that. So they can’t even rebrand well.


The movie “Pirates of Silicon Valley” shows how being the better product isn’t a requirement to dominate.
Windows wasn’t the first on the scene with a GUI, they just got a better foothold into the market and spread into the business world to become the default. If we’re talking about waves, MS has been riding that wave of being used the most everywhere for a long time while giving mediocre products.


And weight is a factor too. The lbs/in on that things tires has to be far more than any other offroader, and wet sand is going to give far sooner than dry, packed sand. Snow and ice might actually be more stable than sand in most cases, the physics are different.
The section from Andor to Return of the Jedi is the plateau of Star Wars. The rest have good parts, even great ones, but that stretch is the core.
Star Trek isn’t as obvious, it’s a scattershot of ups and down all the way through. Which is appropriate, as most of it is episodic with mainly references holding it together.


Death ray from space?


It’s just Breaking Bad, the other two are just manifestations of it.


I’ve partially closed one before when I was by the window to help block some of the light but still allow me to look out. It was also a half-filled plane and I had the whole row. If someone beside me was sleeping or reading and it was too bright I would have closed it fully.
Just be aware of your surroundings and others. Too many people are so deep into their own stuff they don’t see others around them or what might help them.


Yes. You can either give them your real one, or not. That’s the point being made. Actually the point of the whole page is that just loading a website tells a huge amount about you, even if you are behind a vpn and extensions to minimize your fingerprint. You are a product for sale.
There are different levels of AI books, and websites like BN and Amazon ask on their submission what specifically was done by or assisted by AI to get a read on what authors are doing. Full AI written based on a bunch of prompts gets garbage, I agree there, and it’s also the easy route so the market is being flooded, especially the low effort ones, since that’s far easier to do than actual prose from AI. But AI can also have a subtle aid to an actual writer. I realize some people are dead set on zero AI, period, and I understand the reasons. It sucks we’ve gotten to this point where some incredible things can be done, and yet so much as been ruined by that progress too, when it could have been done better and more honestly.
As someone who has a few books on Amazon and BN, I’ve used AI for a bit of behind the scenes for artwork, then taking that in Gimp for the final product. The books were done mainly to see if I could put them together and was fun to do. The hard part is actually selling any, it’s a nightmare for the same reason, oversaturation.
I will say that BN’s website sucks big time. I thought Amazon’s was flaky but figured it out, but I’m surprised I ever got books onto BN as much as it hangs, and I haven’t been able to get onto my account in a while to even see how the books are doing there, but I doubt I’ve sold any because I haven’t seen evidence, and I question who goes there now to buy a book.
Fix your website!
Oh, and they also just raised the minimum print price to like $14.99, so no cheap books, and if you have a low cost book there, no one is going to buy it now for those prices. Brilliant.