Scott Adams Thread (Garfield Cartoonist)

[freebeard]

This thread is in danger of it becoming a dumping ground for my stream of consciousness, so -- caveat lector and all that.

I did a search on a whim to find out what happened to Mac OSX Summarize Text. It turns out it's turned off by default in the System Preferences at Keyboard/Shortcuts/Services. I am become invincible.

It's ontopic because Scott Adams sez AI can't summarize. Summarize Text predates AI and it does a good job. As a test I read a few text passages, drew my own conclusions, and had Summarize Text do it's thing. I found close agreements to my own summarys.

So if you have OSX, do not fear multi-thousand-word wall of text contracts, abstracts and legislation.

[Piotrsko]

Originally Posted by freebeard

[Suspicious 0bservers says a 8-10 percent chance of a Solar Kill Shot this weekend (four CME on the way), I'm going to buy beans and silver]

Amazing prediction, the guys that do this cant even egree on how strong or fast these CME are.

[redpoint5]

SA main point today was the "slippery slope fallacy". To summarize, everything continues on a trajectory, until it doesn't, due to being acted upon. His claim is that slippery slope has no useful predictive power. He relates it to the "if you give an inch" saying that implies people will always demand more if you keep giving more.

Although not explicitly stated, my take is that these phrases lack predictive power because one could decide not to give another inch, or one could decide where the bottom of a slope will be.

What I synthesized is that a well-functioning system constantly manifests errors, but has within the structure error-correction.

My first thought is how DNA is constantly damaged, but has multiple strategies to protect the body. First, damage repair is attempted on the DNA. If that fails, a signal to cease replication is sent. Finally, apoptosis (self-destruction) is ordered.

A well-functioning institution will still frequently produce errors, and those errors have to either be corrected, contained, or eliminated; else, malignant terminal cancer.

SA takes the white pill with faith that the US political structure is robust, and points to more tumultuous times in the recent past that it has endured.

Originally Posted by freebeard

"Long march through the institutions
The long march through the institutions is a slogan coined by socialist student activist Rudi Dutschke around 1967 to describe his strategy to create radical change in government by becoming part of it. The phrase "long march" is a reference to the physical Long March of the Chinese communist army."

The only way cancer bad ideas persist is through a process of mutation (change to the underlying form) and metastastasis (spread through body of institutions).

Marxism was so thoroughly discredited that it required tweaks in defining who the good guys and the bad guys were, to survive in flourishing free-market societies. The only remaining Marxists accept that everyone would be much worse off, but that is preferable so long as everyone is equal (which is delusional).

The neo-Marxists extend the theory that workers are the exploited and that owners of the means of production are the exploiters by proclaiming that any person or group holding an advantage does so at the expense of people and groups that have achieved less. The good guys in this framework end up not being the workers or the owners, but the robbers, thieves, and unproductive among us. The more miserable a person is, the more esteem they receive. Obviously, this provides the incentive to appear to be as miserable as possible. Not only are the categories of misery arbitrary, but they are corrupted by an incentive structure that encourages membership by deceit.

Is intersectionality the last mutation of Marxism before petering out, or are there sufficiently numerous other mutations capable to metastasize? Any guesses on what the neo-neo-marxism might be?

Originally Posted by freebeard

This thread is in danger of it becoming a dumping ground for my stream of consciousness

That's the entire point of this thread, but some mistakenly think the point is to form consensus on certain topics, such as fringe notions of justice, and claim anyone not adopting the BSC definition are bad actors.

[freebeard]

SA takes the white pill with faith that the US political structure is robust, and points to more tumultuous times in the recent past that it has endured.

While I agree with that, what we see now is the calm before the storm. If the election doesn't flip like last time, according to Maxine Waters[' projection] the hill are crawling with Antifa in training. The riots in 2016 will pale in comparison.

S0 is focused Solely [pun] on this weekend.

SIX SOLAR STORMS ON THEIR WAY TO EARTH | S0 News May.10.2024

Hope my land line survives. I did buy an M-80 can opener, since the only ones I have (Hamilton-Beach side cutters) are electric.

[freebeard]

So Scott Adams parting shot today (or was it yesterday already?) was the suggestion to not rebuild Rafah, a city in the Middle East, but to build a whole new (15 minute) city. 'just buy a few farmer's fields' IIRC.

He has no idea what the permitting and financing would do to the concept. As it turns out in the 1970s I worked with the Cerro Gordo community, who's intent was a new small town -- let alone a major city -- from scratch. There is an incredible amount of inertia to overcome.



They settled on a ranch above Dorena Lake. every morning on the way to work as I rose above the dam on Row River Road, the weather, sun and fog were never the same twice. There're 13 people living there today, maybe I should get in touch.

[redpoint5]

Originally Posted by freebeard

So Scott Adams parting shot today (or was it yesterday already?) was the suggestion to not rebuild Rafah, a city in the Middle East, but to build a whole new (15 minute) city. 'just buy a few farmer's fields' IIRC.

That's among the things he trivializes that is not so trivial. Besides that, a 15min city (I don't know what exactly that implies), suggests to me central planning. Should be as successful as Soviet communism.

Some crazy once said "man does not live by bread alone". Obviously that's ridiculous, and the solution to depravity is to build cookie cutter housing and dole out government bread.

... An episode or 2 ago he mentioned some Supreme Court case that ruled that a felony conviction does not nullify constitutional rights, in particular the 2nd amendment. I've not looked into it yet, but that could be good news for me.

As an aside, I always thought it silly for there to be a blanket rule that the 2nd amendment no longer applies for any type of felony conviction. There are felons who got caught driving intoxicated for the 2nd time, or folks that stole office equipment, or contributing double the legal campaign contribution limit... plenty of ways to end up with a felony while showing no signs of violence or aggression.

[freebeard]

...a 15min city (I don't know what exactly that implies)

Wonder no more. It's here now.

https://springfieldoregonspeaks.org › projects › climate-friendly-areas
Springfield Oregon Speaks - Climate-Friendly Areas
Beginning in 2025, the Springfield City Council will formally designate one or more Climate-Friendly Areas and adopt corresponding amendments to Springfield's land use plans and the Development Code. If the selected area (s) include property outside the city limits, Lane County's Board of County

Springfield Climate-Friendly Areas Overview

What it means is seven story Soviet-style housing blocks. For a preview, you have the University of Zero at Franklin Blvd.

[redpoint5]

Originally Posted by freebeard

Wonder no more. It's here now.


What it means is seven story Soviet-style housing blocks. For a preview, you have the University of Zero at Franklin Blvd.

If they go with 4 stories, there's no legal requirement for an elevator (I had the 4th floor at the apartments, which is fun to drag appliances up and down).

Just looked it up, and 15min refers to the walking time to major destinations such as grocery stores, parks, doctors, etc, with the idea being that most needs are met within reasonable walking distance.

What that implies to me is central planning. Also inefficiency. Having 100 small grocery stores isn't as efficient as 15 large ones. Not only that, but they'll have less variety. Everything that uses economies of scale to drive cost down will instead cost more.

Anyhow, there are already 15min cities; they're most every small town in the US. Few people like them, which is why they are small.

[freebeard]

Just watched The Coming Population Crash

He suggests the religious rural population will prevail over the degenerate urban populations as they both decline.

I live next door to a grocery store and it takes me 7 1/2 minutes to walk one way. Had I the proprioception to ride a bike, 15 minutes would include halfway out Main Street.

The bus breaks the 15 minute rule, but takes in half the county.

[redpoint5]

Originally Posted by freebeard

Just watched
He suggests the religious rural population will prevail over the degenerate urban populations as they both decline.

I live next door to a grocery store and it takes me 7 1/2 minutes to walk one way. Had I the proprioception to ride a bike, 15 minutes would include halfway out Main Street.

The bus breaks the 15 minute rule, but takes in half the county.

Of course the religious population is what persists and periodically expands. That's why even the most backwards death-cult religions have endless streams of people for exploitive professors and misguided youth to champion. Who knew that having a sense of purpose and meaning were the key ingredients to living purposefully and meaningfully? I thought convincing others to detest their origin and be as miserable as can be was the secret to flourishing.

Anyhow, death-cult religions are by definition more limiting in perseverance to life-cult religions, so I'm long-term unworried. The demoralized, dehumanized, degenerate city-dwellers impose their own limits, and will be replaced by those with a higher gaze.

I passed by twice today on my trip to Roseburg. Charged for 5 minutes in Harrisburg. 12hr work day felt good.