Recent posts

#1

Off the Record / Re: US - Greenland Crisis Thre...

Last post by crazy canuck - Today at 05:28:31 PM

Someone is selling red MAGA baseball caps in Denmark.  Make America Go Away.

#2

Off the Record / Re: It Was Nice Knowing You Al...

Last post by saskganesh - Today at 04:36:42 PM

Plan BA: I don't plan on surviving the apocalypse.

Plan B: improvise.

I got it covered, all angles.

#3

Computer Affairs / Re: Help me buy a computer for...

Last post by Valmy - Today at 04:07:33 PM

Microsoft decided it was too beloved by its users and have really doubled down on enshitification and refusal to allow you to even own a fucking license to use their shitty products.

If there weren't a million worse things going on in the world I would be bitching about them non-stop. If this was 1996 they would be enemy #1.

But its 2026 so instead Microsoft being horrible is just a minor annoyance.

#4

Off the Record / Re: The China Thread

Last post by Zanza - Today at 04:06:02 PM

Those dystopian religious cults cannot sustain our modern societies though. By themselves, they would eventually degenerate into a much more primitive society.

#5

Off the Record / Re: US - Greenland Crisis Thre...

Last post by Bauer - Today at 03:59:37 PM

Yeah, more like a heavily armed, incredible rich grizzly bear with rabies.

Perfect meme 

#6

Off the Record / Re: The China Thread

Last post by Valmy - Today at 03:57:28 PM

If individual rationality is indeed incompatible with reproduction at a great enough rate, then my fear is that any solution will involve suppression of individual choice in some way.  It doesn't have to be overtly authoritarian, but in my book if you live in a society that puts strong expectations on you and punishes you with ostracism for not complying with them, then the effect is much the same.

Exactly. There might be some kind of child quota every year and a draft where people will be required to have children. Or heavily pressured to with massive reproduction drives. Something horrible like that.

Or we just start growing people in test tubes.

I am just saying eventually those in power will find a solution and I think it will be really bad.

I don't think it has to be that dystopian.  I think it's going to be more like what is the case in Haredim Jewish communities, where most families have lots of kids because it's an expectation, and because these communities are so strong that social expectations are not treated as a suggestion.  Unfortunately, as a strongly individualistic person, these kinds of communities are not exactly my cup of tea although over the years I've realized that in addition to reproduction, another thing they provide that Western societies increasingly fail to is a sense of belonging.

Well sure. We all just might end up in high control group cults because those are the only societies that can sustain themselves.

If anything that seems worse and more dystopian. We have spent the last few hundred years trying to liberate ourselves from those kinds of societies.

#7

Off the Record / Re: The China Thread

Last post by DGuller - Today at 03:55:05 PM

If individual rationality is indeed incompatible with reproduction at a great enough rate, then my fear is that any solution will involve suppression of individual choice in some way.  It doesn't have to be overtly authoritarian, but in my book if you live in a society that puts strong expectations on you and punishes you with ostracism for not complying with them, then the effect is much the same.

Exactly. There might be some kind of child quota every year and a draft where people will be required to have children. Or heavily pressured to with massive reproduction drives. Something horrible like that.

Or we just start growing people in test tubes.

I am just saying eventually those in power will find a solution and I think it will be really bad.

I don't think it has to be that dystopian.  I think it's going to be more like what is the case in Haredim Jewish communities, where most families have lots of kids because it's an expectation, and because these communities are so strong that social expectations are not treated as a suggestion.  Unfortunately, as a strongly individualistic person, these kinds of communities are not exactly my cup of tea although over the years I've realized that in addition to reproduction, another thing they provide that Western societies increasingly fail to is a sense of belonging.

#8

Off the Record / Re: The China Thread

Last post by Valmy - Today at 03:39:44 PM

If individual rationality is indeed incompatible with reproduction at a great enough rate, then my fear is that any solution will involve suppression of individual choice in some way.  It doesn't have to be overtly authoritarian, but in my book if you live in a society that puts strong expectations on you and punishes you with ostracism for not complying with them, then the effect is much the same.

Exactly. There might be some kind of child quota every year and a draft where people will be required to have children. Or heavily pressured to with massive reproduction drives. Something horrible like that.

Or we just start growing people in test tubes.

I am just saying eventually those in power will find a solution and I think it will be really bad.

#9

Off the Record / Re: The China Thread

Last post by DGuller - Today at 03:36:19 PM

Yeah. They are collapsing everywhere.

I think Elon musk suggested that the main way to save the world is make everybody impoverished and ignorant and superstitious so we will go back to making 7 babies per lady. But somehow the countries full of the (comparatively anyway) impoverished, ignorant, and superstitious are collapsing their birth rates at an incredible speed.

It is kind of the main reason I stopped actually thinking much about immigration as a problem or a solution to problems here in the US. All those cheap immigrants will not exist in a generation or two. Mexico will barely be able to replace Mexicans.

I think reproduction and individual rationality are just not compatible.  I'm sure that if you give most species, if not all, the option of family planning, their population would be collapsing as well.  Sure, you may get some good feelings from raising your children, but those good feelings won't fully cancel out the cost and risks to yourself that come from reproducing.  You're taking one for your species when you reproduce, which is the kind of behavior that can only be achieved by instincts that overpower your rationality.

If individual rationality is indeed incompatible with reproduction at a great enough rate, then my fear is that any solution will involve suppression of individual choice in some way.  It doesn't have to be overtly authoritarian, but in my book if you live in a society that puts strong expectations on you and punishes you with ostracism for not complying with them, then the effect is much the same.

#10

Off the Record / Re: It Was Nice Knowing You Al...

Last post by Duque de Bragança - Today at 03:32:46 PM

I thought only scorpions would survive.

Cockroaches, scorpions, mole rats, and secret US government genetic engineering experiments will survive.

So there is still hope for deathclaws.