Wandering Adventure Party

On the "Diplomat" model fridge the coldest setting is 10 and the warmest is 1.

Why did they call it "The Diplomat" ?

What a comical name for a fridge.

The temp setting in a kitchen refrigerator is a knob with numbers 1 -10

It is labeled "Temperature Control"

Next to 1 it says "min"
Next to 10 it says "max"

Which setting will make it the coldest?

@carrideen

aw man I was pulling for Willy or Gunther. Well Sandy is a nice addition. And I guess Clint deserves a redemption arc. Maybe.

Two of the most momentous parts of the game are when you fix the public bus and when you get the ferry service working again.

You bring all of the materials to fix the boat but still need to buy tickets to use it because buying tickets for a nice functional local public transit system are kind of part of the whole allure.

Stardew valley is a popular game with people in my generation. Like most video games it's a power fantasy.

In this case about growing food, having a functional "third space" in your community and fixing public transit. Pure escapism.

Also there are magic forest spirits and dungeons with monsters and treasures.

@emma @cstross

When all of the women are either struggling housekeepers or obedient wives. When all of the men are either too poor and overworked to think about anything political or safe in their all white christian men's only board rooms new targets will still be needed.

Do you not like going to church? Do you want to listen to the wrong music? Think a tattoo is nice? Do you like foreign cartoons from Japan?

The only person who might be safe is Ted Cruz. Maybe.

@Anke @RogerBW

The general public is mad at the ruling class, mad at the powerful and wealthy -- I think some of these people lean into this kind of thing in hopes that it will quell the cries for retribution.

There are other forces at work, but very cynically it is clear that the right is desperately looking for anyone who can take the blame for the gross decadence and inequality.

If they weren't doing this their only political activity would be defending rich MFers from higher taxes.

The GOVERNMENT will tell you (yes you) how to be your gender correctly.

That's all this is. It's bullshit.

I'm also very curious if any cis people got the letter by mistake. It seems likely.

Nearly all of the people who have been harassed in public over restrooms rules tend to be cis women who look a little butch or like a bowtie or something.

This isn't a flaw it's a feature. Because part of the purpose is to make a gender dress and behavior code for adults.

No men shall wear pink or nail polish. No women shall have whiskers on their chin or leave the house without a layer of foundation.

It's kind of obvious that what the Republican Kansas legislator would like to do is make being LGBT illegal. I find it somewhat promising that they have done something technical, creepy, and obnoxious instead. But they are pushing that boundary in the most obvious ways.

They are still too scared to do what they really want. The public ought to be disgusted.

I am.

Are you an "LGB" person ?
Are you enjoying an upstanding gay marriage with a white picket fence?
Are you a black American (oh wow) but not (oh no no) an immigrant ?

Are you reading the room ?

We're next! We are next.

Don't get it twisted this attack on trans people in Kansas (how did they identify the people they sent those letters to? They have a list, the monsters.) is a trial, a test. Let them get away with it they will move on to the next smallest group they feel they could target without public backlash.

That is how this works.

Kansas goddamn.

God damn it all.

#KansasGoddamn

@meuwese @tshirtman

The LLMs are not "mad" ... the people who are using them in mad ways are.

@meuwese @tshirtman

IDK. To me the "Chinese Room" is about something else. Maybe the irrelevance of the inner-workings of a system. Maybe about how so much of our perception of "living" and "thinking" is tied to a particular pace of time.

This isn't the Chinese room, it's a magic 8 ball. But this magic 8 ball is the pastor of our church. Our savior and our guide and HOW DARE you disrespect him!

@janeishly @jackwilliambell

I know. Some guys are just like that.

@PizzaDemon

I totally looked it up. LOL. I hate it when people call a character in a movie "Tom Hanks" when that was just who played that character.

OK I don't "hate" it ... just a pet peeve.

That inability to simply be alone is very real and very human. When you talk to a chatbot you are talking to a rubber duck, a volleyball, yourself.

But it isn't a self help exercise. It is a prescribed job requirement. It is a solution looking for a problem.

The "AI" SF story would not have amazing thinking computers who scare people who don't want to recognize they are human. It would have wooden dolls and people that get mad at you if you don't say "hello" and play along.

The exploration of AI we need is the one that grapples with the way that people will ascribe life, agency, trust to the obviously inanimate.

Think about the movie "Castaway" Chuck Noland (Tom Hanks) is so alone that he makes himself a friend/god out of a volleyball with a bloody hand-print on it. He talks to it. He prays. He needs it to limit his creeping madness in isolation.

More interesting to me on this re-read were the bits of the book about artificial intelligences. I don't think many SF writers have hit the mark on the real issues that AI might raise. But it's understandable. Writers care about characters so they want AI to be a character, and they want to wrestle with questions of humanity and discrimination. All very interesting.

Not relevant to the thing that is being called AI right now.