TheDag
Per Aspera ad Astra
No bio...
User ID: 616
TheDag
Per Aspera ad Astra
1d ago
I’ve played it!! I also like it hah. It’s very simple and I enjoy that.
TheDag
Per Aspera ad Astra
1d ago
I love you for this. Wow. I forgive all our previous arguments and even your comment about humans being machines. ;P
TheDag
Per Aspera ad Astra
1d ago
Was this man actively “treating” patients while saying all this?
Good Lord.
TheDag
Per Aspera ad Astra
1d ago
Agreed. That was my first thought as well.
Psychotherapy is just… criminal at this point, imo. They have so much power and authority in society yet clearly do not have any idea what they’re doing.
TheDag
Per Aspera ad Astra
5d ago
Yeah I know but my phone autocorrected and I’m too lazy to change it atm
TheDag
Per Aspera ad Astra
5d ago
Reposting another post from last week which @Blueberry put up right before the CW thread switched over:
—-
So any opinions on the drone sightings in New Jersey? Is it just mass hysteria and people mistake airplanes for drones? Are they aliens? Supernatural phenomenon? Just a distributed prank by drone owners?
So far the confusion and appeal to the government is bipartisan:
Lawmakers from across the political spectrum on Sunday criticized the federal government’s response to mysterious drone sightings in the Northeast, as officials emphasize there is no evidence of a security threat.
Democratic Rep. Jim Himes, a ranking member on the House Intelligence Committee, also expressed frustration with the administration’s response to the public. “The government has a real responsibility to put more information out there so people better understand what the real dangers are,” he said on “Fox News Sunday.”
Trump said Friday that the government needs to convey more information and shoot down the drones.
Asked Sunday about the president-elect’s post calling on the government to shoot down the drones, Mayorkas said, “We are limited in our authorities.”
What drives me crazy is that only phone videos seem to exist and phone cameras suck for faraway objects in the night. Is there not one good camera with a zoom in New York/New Jersey?
Edit:
This orb ABC News was puzzled over is really an out of focus Venus:
https://x.com/MatthewCappucci/status/1868052013164134899
—-
I know many Mottizans think this is all just deep state weapons testing or something, and I’m curious for theories in that vein along with more esoteric ones?
What does the U.S. gain from this? Will Trump meaningfully increase what we know about these drones or muddy the waters?
How much do we not know still about what the spooks are up to?
Let’s talk about East vs West, the narrative of the “inevitable rise of China,” and some of the historical reasons why the West is currently ascendant. Pasting a post from SQS by @RandomRanger:
———————
Rigid and inflexible governance practices, worsened by a lack of competition. Consider the Seaban where the Ming relocated whole villages away from the sea to combat piracy. That's a bizarre thing to do, rulers usually like having trade. But the Ming were so strong they didn't care, they had no peer competitors and so little need to search for revenue. The consequences for this stupid crap didn't hit them immediately. The Qing didn't raise taxes for about a century or two because they wanted to be benevolent, so the footprint of the state was very light compared to Europe. The population ballooned and they had the same number of officials, it was a mess. Proto-industrialization was accelerated by the military-industrial complex, China wasn't usually under threat... They could afford to do all this suboptimal governance that would get them annexed if they were in Europe. In Europe, states had to search for qualitative military advantages in metallurgy and shipbuilding, they had to squeeze out as much tax revenue as they could from people. Europeans weren't interested in ritualized trade missions where they gave out more than they received to 'tributary states', they wanted profits. The Chinese state didn't care so much about profit, they assumed they were the richest and the best from the start.
China built a huge fleet and explored all around the Indian Ocean, terrifying all the natives. But they felt like there was no use for it, they had plenty of money already. And the steppe nomads were acting up again, so they scrapped it and refocused. They thought they were on top of the world, so resisted catch-up industrialization for some time in the 19th century on the basis that they already had everything they needed.
Many megadeaths later, the lesson sank in. Today they push out official party doctrine books about how important scientific and industrial development is, overcorrecting if anything: https://www.strategictranslation.org/articles/general-laws-of-the-rise-of-great-powers
————————
Do we see China reversing these tendencies? How will a Trump presidency change things?
What does the future of Taiwan and AI, chips, etc look like at the moment? Is Deepseek really as good as they say?
TheDag
Per Aspera ad Astra
7d ago
Ooh yeah Alaska seems fun. And awesome. How did you like them?
TheDag
Per Aspera ad Astra
7d ago
Exactly!!! It’s basically a luxury resort that has to entertain you all the time because nobody can leave.
Also the cost is extremely solid if you get deals, we ended up getting a free cabin which is insane.
I do admit a lot of the people on the ship annoy me though. Luckily I don’t have to interact with them, but I feel for the staff.
TheDag
Per Aspera ad Astra
7d ago
Well yeah I saw but you’re not responding to the pagan accusations. :(
TheDag
Per Aspera ad Astra
7d ago
Cruises are amazing. How many people here have been on one?
TheDag
Per Aspera ad Astra
7d ago
All of what you’re talking about is possible, relatively easily in my opinion. Do you think scientific advances will stop?
We have barely scratched the surface of what is possible. You aren’t thinking big enough, still. In 10,000 years, assuming we don’t collapse our society and technology continues to progress, we will be powerful beyond belief. Space will be a cakewalk to master.
If you want some serious reading on this I recommend Beginning of Infinity.
TheDag
Per Aspera ad Astra
7d ago
@hydroacetylene curious for your response?
TheDag
Per Aspera ad Astra
7d ago
You have to think longer than a few generations. Or course it’s going to be terrible for the first century or two. Everyone on board with the mission knows that.
They are inspired by something far grander than their own small existence. I hope you are able to understand someday.
TheDag
Per Aspera ad Astra
7d ago
Yep, another way to say this is that our response to shame is dramatically over exaggerated exaggerated.
TheDag
Per Aspera ad Astra
7d ago
I’m surprised at your lack of vision here, 2rafa. To me it’s more than obvious we can conquer space. We’ve already got people living in the ISS. If we don’t blow ourselves up it’s only a matter of time imo.
We went from having our home be sub Saharan Africa to living in the entire world. Space is just the next step.
Is anyone a part of EA/rationalist adjacent trading / crypto communities or group chats?
Would you be willing to invite me? I can trade a couple of invites.
More options
Context Copy link