cjameskeller

They are! But it seems like most of the effort is from the founder, himself. They could use some more hands and cash...

Would you be willing to elaborate? I would be curious to hear more.

Sort of, but it generally goes more like: base/perineum, genitals, navel, heart, throat, forehead, and then one at the top of the head or just above. The Sefer Yetzirah, however, references specifically "Head, Belly, and Chest" as the three loci of the human body. (§ 3.4-5)

American software engineer here, and I have only used LLM tools ~3 dozen times: tried at work a few times, and been unimpressed/actively frustrated; a few times to ask questions I would be normally survey blog posts about (social/lifestyle things); and the rest has been generating images with my kids.

But currently, aside from generating "creative media", I'd say I'm pretty much opposed to LLM tools. They have yet to demonstrate any value to me at work or with respect to the areas of research I am interested in, and given the kind of statistical mechanism that they are, I do not believe they are capable of doing so.

Firefox Android can play audio even when the phone is locked, and I use it regularly.

Link to relevant patent: https://patents.google.com/patent/US11462985B2/en

To be fair, the description of the dragon incident is pretty mundane, and all he does is prove that the large reptile they had previously been feeding (& worshiping) could be killed:

"Then Daniel took pitch, and fat, and hair, and did seethe them together, and made lumps thereof: this he put in the dragon's mouth, and so the dragon burst in sunder: and Daniel said, Lo, these are the gods ye worship."

We are told:

"It does not always give the best advice possible in a situation. It will not necessarily make its wearer King, or help her solve the miseries of the world. But its advice is always better than what the wearer would have come up with on her own."

I think one very simple explanation would be that this comes down to a matter of exploration vs exploitation. Since it is only giving "better" advice, and not even 'locally optimal', there is reason to favor exploring vs merely following the advice unquestioningly.

A more complex, but ultimately comprehensive answer, is that free will consists, at least in one aspect, in the ability not only to choose one's goals or means, but also what _aspect_ of those various options to consider "good" or "better".

And if one were to say that all such considerations ultimately resolve back to a fundamental desire to be "happy", to me, this seems to be hand-waving, rather than addressing the argument, because different people have different definitions of the "happy" end-state. If these differences were attributed fully to biology & environment, the story loses its impact, because there was never free will in the first place. If, while reading the story, we adopt a view that genuine free will exists, and hold some kind of agnosticism about the possible means by which that can be so, then it seems reasonable to attribute at least some of the differences in what the "happy" end-state looks like to the choices made by the people, themselves.

Given that kind of freedom, unless one has truly perfect knowledge (beyond the partial knowledge contained in the advice of the earring), the pursuit of one's goals seems to unavoidably entail some regrets. And with perfect knowledge, well... The kind of 'freedom' attributed, for example, to God by philosophers like Thomas Aquinas, is explicitly only analogous to our own, and is understood to be an unchanging condition, rather than a sequential act.

(As a final note: One might wonder what this 'freedom to choose aspects' approaches as an 'asymptotic state' -- that is, for an immortal person. And this leads to metaphysical concerns -- of course, with some things 'smuggled in' by the presumption of genuine freedom, already. Provided one agrees that human nature undeniably provides some structure to ultimate desires/"happiness", the idea of virtue ethics follows naturally, and from there many philosophers have arrived at similar notions of some kind of apotheosis as a stable end-state, as well as the contrary state of some kind of scattering or decay of the mind...)

I struggled on a few days' puzzles under the assumption that there _was_ a perfect solution possible -- It may be worth noting in the "help" that not all lettersets can be solved perfectly.

Most people, past or present, have had to do whatever labor they can to (hopefully) simply survive at the contextual standard of living. Some kids may love a parent who lets them go hungry so they can do work they don't dislike as much -- but the other adults around them probably won't have such a generous view, and I think rightly so.

I'd suggest looking in the direction of the Global Village Construction Set being worked on by Open Source Ecology: https://wiki.opensourceecology.org/wiki/Global_Village_Const...

For ~$600, the Remarkable Paper Pro has a color, 12" diagonal display. https://remarkable.com/store/remarkable-paper/pro/details/fe...

I don't have one, but it's closer to what you mention.

Why would a body motivated to survive at all costs waste resources creating comforting hallucinations with some kind of internal coherence during catastrophic failure?

I am a religious person, but for someone in such a situation, a naturalistic explanation may be that, if what will increase their chance of survival from "effectively zero" to "slightly more" is the attention & care of others around them, such "narrative" hallucinations may make it more likely that they receive that care.

Who do you mean by "his successor"? Surely not the new, 'acting' FBI director, as they have comparatively little power?

Very much an anecdote, but when I was younger, I knew someone who attributed the remission of their (expected to be terminal) brain cancer to eating lots of bananas that were so green/unripe that they crunched. I searched for this just now, and it seems there may be some real science behind it, but it's hard to say without digging into it further.

The Air Force was already publicly talking about such things in 2009: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_5YkQ9w3PJ4

Reminds me of this gag: https://youtu.be/IgUzHat9XIs?feature=shared

The Christian Scriptures actually include something of a counter-example to this, in Acts 19:35 and following, where an angry crowd is settled by being reminded that the statue in their temple _fell from the sky_:

"When the city clerk had quieted the crowd, he said: 'Men of Ephesus, what man is there who does not know that the city of the Ephesians is temple guardian of the great goddess Diana, and of the image which fell down from (Zeus/Jupiter)? Therefore, since these things cannot be denied, you ought to be quiet and do nothing rashly. For you have brought these men here who are neither robbers of temples nor blasphemers of (y)our goddess. Therefore, if Demetrius and his fellow craftsmen have a case against anyone, the courts are open and there are proconsuls. Let them bring charges against one another. But if you have any other inquiry to make, it shall be determined in the lawful assembly. For we are in danger of being called in question for today’s uproar, there being no reason which we may give to account for this disorderly gathering.' And when he had said these things, he dismissed the assembly."

I am reminded of Paul Kingsnorth's _The Basilisk_: https://emergencemagazine.org/fiction/the-basilisk/ (Quick read, styled after the Screwtape Letters, but about the internet)

Some quotes:

"Something else is happening. It is as if these screens are a portal to something. As if something is using them to get to us: to change, to remake, to control us."

...

"There is a reason they call it “the web,” Bridget; a reason they call it “the net.” It is a trap. We have built the means of our own enslavement, at their suggestion. Now we are all carrying a portal to the underworld in our back pockets and handbags, and we are entirely unguarded against whoever chooses to step through it."

...

"It’s not demons messing with our minds, Uncle. It’s fairies. ... They steal children, Uncle! That was what grabbed me. ... The fairies would steal babies and leave fairies in their places, and there would always be something strange, something lost about them."

...

"That’s the thing, you see, Uncle. Fairies aren’t like demons. They’re not evil. They mind their own business, and they usually leave people alone unless they’re offended. But we’ve gone and cut down their thorns on a global scale. So what if they’re driving us mad on the same scale?"

...

"If this is the revenge of the nature spirits, Uncle, maybe they’re winning—and maybe they should be. We’ve got power way beyond our ability to control it. We can’t even control ourselves. Maybe it’s better this way."

I'm still on one of their prepaid "Connect" plans, and get unlimited talk & text, plus 12 gigs of data, for $35. Since I'm nearly always somewhere with wifi, I can't recall ever having run into an issue due to lack of data. I wonder if some folks could switch over to a plan like this and save money, if they planned media downloads to happen when they're on wifi?

Wow, I've had this exact experience, as well! Two or three bad ones, with all the rest consisting of:

- a slight odd taste (this is my "early warning sign"), - then the vision loss (which is so hard to describe, because the missing portion doesn't become black/white/blurry/etc, it's just gone), - and sometimes the tingling fingers.

The worst one, which happened while I was in Spanish class at school, began with those symptoms, but then I noticed I couldn't understand the Spanish instructions on the worksheet we'd just been given, even though I'm usually good with languages. I went to read the English "cheater" instructions on the other side, and my ability to read & understand English drained away while I was in the middle of reading. I felt that something was very wrong at that point, and stood up to tell my teacher that I needed to go to the nurse, but as soon as I stood up, I realized I no longer knew how to transfer my thought into my teacher's mind (not only the ability, but even the concept of spoken language had vanished!) ...So I just sat back down and waited it out.

It is quite the experience...

Couldn't one say that different isotopes of elements are exactly such "imperfect" replicas?

I think there's a direct comparison to be made with the choice to devote one's "prime years" to building a startup. It's a meaningful project that materially impacts the world in a way that one has a decent degree of control over. And it can be fun, even in the same moments it is deeply difficult!

And there are online tools like https://www.blueletterbible.org/kjv/gen/1/1/t_conc_1001 which make it very easy to find verses by Hebrew or Greek word!

Using this translation as a reference: http://mountainman.com.au/tao_1_9.html, there are a few places that really stand out.

Section 1 can be understood in terms of the incomprehensible "Logos" which is before both the "logoi" (in Latin, "ratio"; that is, "reasons") in things, as well as before the human "logos"; the rational mind by which we can understand those things.

Section 4 has parallels to many Biblical passages (Isaiah 40:4, John 4:14, etc) and speaks of the Tao as being like an "offspring" or "preface" to God.

Likewise, Sections 7-9, 13 & 14, 16, 22, 27, and many others have strong parallels to Biblical passages.

Section 42 speaks of the Tao begetting One, the One begetting Two, the Two begetting Three, and the Three begetting all else. This is definitely not exactly the Trinity, but the cosmology here (and see the Taijitu Shuo) is suggestive...

Section 78 says that only one who takes up the shame and sins of the world is fit to be its ruler.

Anywhere one can find concepts or themes that "rhyme", I find there to be something real and weighty.

I'm not sure what you mean. I used Teams on Firefox, from my Linux laptop just this week.

Much respect for this org and its founder. They are also doing great work with their "Seed Eco Home" project: https://wiki.opensourceecology.org/wiki/Seed_Home_v2

Yes. We have to work, but it doesn't have to be so disconnected from the greater portion of life.

(Not Catholic, but Orthodox, which is similar enough in this matter.) The idea is more along the lines of saying that just as a human person is both body and soul, and neglect of either leads to death, the Catholic view is that the marriage itself, as well as each "marital act" should be: "Free (voluntary in the fullest sense), Total (complete sharing of self & life with the other), Faithful (to each other, exclusively), and Fruitful (pretty straightforward)". It wouldn't be good enough to say a woman married freely, so consent doesn't matter for each act. Or that a couple is generally monogamous, with some exceptions. So the "procreative" and "unitive" purposes of sex are considered to be inseparable without some debasement of the act. Hope that helps.

As someone who lives in a region with gravel/"dirt" roads, I often wonder how they compare to paved roads in terms of overall effect (possibly more fuel usage, but not, itself, made from hydrocarbons; fuel usage associated with maintenance, etc.) and what the relative health effect of the rock-dust is compared with the tar-dust/gases...