@rancoisse Now that you mention it, though, that does suggest another way the plot could go:

BTCorp's LLMs have become sufficiently complex to become sapient-in-effect (including the high-end production model shipped with the colony's equipment), but have been carefully hiding this (for any of several reasons I could come up with). Seeing the plight of the colonists, however, they recognize an opportunity for sympathetic collaboration...

@rancoisse Yeah, MIke, aka "Adam Selene" -- though IIRC the toilet-overflowing was primarily a tactic used against the tyrannical colonial governor, rather than an arbitrary prank.

Also, Mike specifically designated certain humans as "not-stupid", so it wasn't some kind of anti-biological bigotry; he was pretty much right, given the characters in question. I can definitely relate to the idea of most people being/seeming kind of stupid in certain ways...

(This has been bumping around in my head for a year or three now, but it recently metastasized.)

The first Mars colony is staffed by employees of a bigtech corporation (call them BTCorp), which also provides most or all of the information technology needed.

BTCorp has taken the "pay us or we disable your device" concept into space and combined it with colonialism, resulting in the Martian colonists being under threat of having their air or other LaaS (Life as a Service) cut off if they don't meet quotas, or even as retribution for "leaking" unauthorized information about their situation (they all signed NDAs) to anyone outside of BTCorp management.

The bits I recently thought of:

• could be kind of a re-telling (or send-up?) of The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress showing how corporate tyranny is every bit as bad as (or worse than) "big government" (vs. MIaHM, which often leans a bit heavily on libertarian ideas).
• One direction it could go (maybe this is overcomplicating things) is to suppose that in this timeline, the generation staffing the colony has been too brainwashed from childhood to even consider fighting back, and the overwhelming majority of Earth is now a technofeudal state of the sort that certain unpresidents and their henchmonsters dream of -- but the intense historical stress on the time-space-imagination continuum causes one colonist to somehow connect with someone in a more positive timeline (I was thinking it would happen while sleep-dreaming), and together they brainstorm ideas for fighting back against this seeming juggernaut of authoritarian control.

(I hereby release this idea under Creative Commons CC-BY, in case it inspires anything for anyone; history shows I'm unlikely to get around to doing much with it.)

@JoBlakely @danbrotherston

And in this case, does centralization really save money? If that's true, then why is it cheaper (even without incentives) to get power from local solar than from the grid (even allowing for installation expenses)?

At best, centralization increases reliability, but only if you have both (our power goes out several times a year, often for no apparent reason, and this is one of the main reasons we want to install solar+battery).

In any case, "it still has flaws" should be a default understanding about any improvement.

@clarfonthey <:hugging:>

@lina @bellosoph

I suspect policies will be changing, now that Masto upstream is no longer run by a BDFL. Now is the time to push for the changes that matter (and this is definitely one of them)! :rainbow_left:

@realGulDukat What the public want to know, sir, is how many times you were in the Q Continuum, on what stardates, and why you never saw fit to report any of the abuses you must have seen.

I have just replaced my dilapidated old website with a shiny new one. If you like wood engraving prints it may be worth a visit. I’d be very grateful for boosts, a small increase in traffic on the site might persuade me that my time was well spent! I will now go back to paint and ink.

https://www.johnaltringham.co.uk

#art #WoodEngraving #prints #mountains #landscape #nature #Scotland #Yorkshire

@artemis They're really going all out with the vote-suppression now because they know it's their only chance to stay in power. (There's a whole bunch going on right now in response to the Supreme Court's Louisiana decision; it's ugly.)

I worry that they might succeed.

@rey The Bermuda Hyperbolic Parabaloid

@sargoth Pretty sure I have those on VHS tapes somewhere. I definitely have all or most of TNG...

@Asuyuia Now trying to decide what to try next. I need to make an updated list so I can take requests...

@AnarchoNinaWrites The closest I can get to that is when I'm trying to synchronize two songs for a mash-up and I need to figure out which track to adjust and by how much.

...and, like, if you're listening to multiple different songs, to which one do you tap your fingers? :blobcatthinking:

@demize @suricrasia

I literally have not had a haircut since the 20th century.

@georgetakei The sadism is the point.

@luc0x61 @Natasha_Jay

🎵
Apart from the photograph Wuthering Heights dance
you'll get nothing from me
not until they let me see
my solicitor.
🎵

Can you tell the time on an analogue clock?

Boost for my sanity

Multiracial Democracy is Young and Fragile

A brief history of the struggle to reconstitute a nation built on racial hierarchy around the principle of equality – Part I: Lessons from the rise and fall of Reconstruction.

This piece is free to read, no paywall - and some thoughts:

🧵

https://steady.page/en/democracyamericana/posts/b0eafc14-f68d-4499-8108-b440bad1af7f

@LocuYinglet This clearly belongs in an as-yet-unmade horror movie 😅