clyde

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Everything posted by clyde

  1. The Next President

    I like listening to podcasts and ASMR and video-tutorials. I typically listen to that stuff when I'm the only one in the room or car. I recently heard an idea that conservative talk-radio provides many folks an illusion of social-interaction when they are commuting and that this fills some essential need. I can identify with that idea based on my own media consumption. So I'm willing to give some considertion to the idea that conservative talk-radio and its availability has a part in further bigoting the populous. What if Trump-supporters just don't know about ASMR?
  2. Pinball Club

    So I have gift keys for: -StarWars Balance of the Force pack -Iron & Steel pack -Civil War Send me a message on Steam if you want any or all of these.
  3. Rainbow Six: Siege

    I had a great couple of matches this morning. The randoms and I gelled so well. On multiple occasions we surrounded the objective, breached simultaneously and won. It's a really cool feeling to spend two minutes getting into place and setting up and then explosions, smoke, bullets flying for 10 seconds and then you see "Round Won". It's so intense. Also one of the new operators has bear-traps that downs and immobilize enemies until a teammate releases them. It's a really fun addition to the game not only mechanically (a near-lethal non-electronic defense that can be placed on any area of a floor) but it also allows for a lot of laugh-out-loud moments where the last person on your team is checking every corner and it's getting more and more intense then SNAP! It's hilarious. I need to figure out how to communicate the levels to those who aren't familiar with them so y'all can see what this game is like in the head of the player. It's kinda like Jenga? Where there is an awareness of changing vulnerabilities in a space and you are constantly hypothesizing how the space is changing based on sights and sounds and logic. It's like Home Alone or Surviving The Game on defense where you are listening for clues about what is happening on the floor above you. But you know the floor above you intimately (after many hours of play).
  4. Pinball Club

    Couple of things: -I'm interested in having a tournament next week. Taking table-nominations. -There's a Pinball FX2 Hunble Bundle https://www.humblebundle.com/weekly -I'm thinking changing the thread title to "Pinball Club: [table name]" for the tournament to attract more participants. Thoughts?
  5. Automation: Where did all the jobs go?!

    I think groups make different decisions than individuals do due to the difference in social pressures (both attractive and repulsive) in operating as a single agent and operating as member of a group. Inefficient biases still exist in groups, but I suspect that they are less likely to make inefficient decisions because of things like vetting, diverse self-interests, and how individuals want to be seen by their peers. I hate working in groups, but I'm also paralyzed when making decisions such as which type of health-insurance I should buy or where I should get my car repaired; groups take a lot of the pressure of failure off me and have a wider spectrum of perspectives with which to inform decisions. Also, I'd rather fail as a group than fail as an individual. As far as how to distributed funds to the groups, I don't know, but I would certainly prefer that individuals would still maintain some mobility between groups. It depends on whether or not the individual identifies with the group. Part of the reason I think it would be a better idea to fund groups rather than individuals is that it would hypothetically encourage the skill and ideology of collectivism. This becomes more problematic the larger the group and the lower levels of investment of individuals, but I'm thinking that funds would be proportional to the size of the group. By the way, we aren't talking about permanent, distinct groups necessarily. It could be something like project-proposals that individuals can choose to align themselves with and contribute their time or support to. Hypothetically they could move between projects. Churches exist in rural communities, I don't see any reason something like what I'm suggesting couldn't. Still, they would be the ones making decisions of how best to work together.
  6. The Big VR Thread

    I'm not sure how to take this:
  7. Automation: Where did all the jobs go?!

    Regarding how far I would take it, I'm looking at my position more like where should we start. Until we have housing, medical care, food, transportation, environmental protections (which is a poverty-issue since environmental ailments are more likely to affect the poor), public education, communications, and an array of means of production guaranteed for all.. I think that a basic income is not as good of a value proposition than free public services. From what I understand, y'all are suggesting that basic-income is a good starting point and that public services should take less priority; that's what I'm disagreeing with. As far as our automated future and housing goes, I think that a better way to house everyone is through public housing programs (such as community-run collective residences) rather than just giving everyone cash and saying "Do what you want with it." I suspect that I think of currency in a much different way than y'all. In my view, basic-income would just be a new profit-stream for capital to vacuum back up. If we want to provide alternatives to the dystopian future that benefits capital, then I think funding (mostly) local community works that benefit more than single individuals would be far more likely to succeed.
  8. Automation: Where did all the jobs go?!

    The idea that groups should make decisions about which resources are available to individuals within the public because the infividuals are not capable of making the best decisions is obviously unpopular here. Do y'all feel that public schools should be dissolved and vouchers for charter schools should be distributed instead? How about environmental regulations? Would you prefer that individuals dispose of their garbage however they can (and not pay a mandatory garbage bill) rather than providing municipal waste-collection? If not, how do these examples seem different from what I'm proposing?
  9. Automation: Where did all the jobs go?!

    I would support removing the vetting of anyone (rich or poor) to receive public services. I don't mean to suggest that the best course of action would be to take mincome off the table and throw the money at existing public infrastructure without consideration by the groups that most need infrastructure and those who operate it. And just to be clear, I think that rich people spend their money poorly in the vast majority of cases. If that's something that you value enough to choose over a public program then I understand, but if I'm choosing, I would rather people have guarantees of certain living-standards than the high they get from shopping for consumer goods.
  10. Automation: Where did all the jobs go?!

    Both of these articles seem to be about how the poor don't spend as much on luxury goods as the rich largely because they are spending their money on basic needs. I don't think I'm suggesting otherwise. @superbiasedman Any community is going to be authoritarian in some sense, some more or less than others. In that way, yes I'm describing authoritarian allocation of labor and resources. But if we are measuring whether or not groups should make decisions on what resources and services individuals within that group should be provided with, I suspect we would use some measurement of averaged living-standards within a reasonably equitable spectrum (no enormous inequalities od wealth as we have now). Even though some people eat less than others and some people have kids that need education while others do not and some people benefit from a space-program more than others, I don't think that providing folks with spending money is going to provide society significantly more value than bolstering public education, subsidizing quality housing in every area, developing a medical institution that can serve people more effectively and more inexpensively, feeding everyone without exploiting agricultural laborers to the extent America does now. You are right that I don't have evidence that my suspicions are correct. But I do suspect that there is a larger benefit to a greater quantity of people (especially those in need) by increasing the availability of public services than putting cash in the pockets of everyone who is poor enough to get the benefit. We are talking about limited resources right? Of course I'd prefer both, but I'm viewing every dollar given in mincome as a dollar not spent on these programs. To avoid abuses by centralized authorities, I would hope that most of the increases in public spending would be used to fund projects that are conceptualized, selected, and operated by local groups.
  11. Automation: Where did all the jobs go?!

    If we are at at impasse it is not because recreation is not included in my idea of "healthy". I don't know why you are assuming that.I'm am being judgmental and condescending to the impoverished, because I'm judgmental and condescending to people as a whole when discussing their capability to wisely allocate labor that benefits communities beyond the ones with which they identify. I don't understand why you would require that I have the same faith as you in people to spend money in reasonably understandable, beneficial ways... in order to converse.
  12. Automation: Where did all the jobs go?!

    I'll use the term "expenditures that are unnecessary for living a healthy and productive life and that benefit a small set of individuals rather the a larger community" instead of "private luxury" to avoid confusion. What I am trying to say is that there is a huge amount of potential in improvements to the community as a whole that I think would better serve the purpose than giving everyone a little bit of money for candy after their basic needs are met. Public education, environmentally sustainable energy, public transportation, affordable housing, means to produce, infrastructure (like the internet) that makes it easier for communities to form on smaller issues. I think it's difficult to imagine the community running out of ideas for beneficial improvements before funding becomes an issue.
  13. Automation: Where did all the jobs go?!

    Saving up funds by not eating healthy is exactly the kind of thing that I wouldn't support. I wonder how those studies measure whether or not the desperately poor have spent their money well. Seems to me that if basic needs which everyone should have are paid for with public funds, then additional public funds shpuld be used on community development rather than private luxury. There are a lot of things public money could be spent on that would benefit a wide swath of folks that are not only not funded now, but would never be funded if it depended on infividual members pooling cash that they could spend privately instead. Also there are reasons that companies are willing to spend billions on advertising campaigns. People are susceptible to the illusion that consumer goods will provide them with better community statuses. I suspect that public programs have a better chance of lifting all ships.
  14. Automation: Where did all the jobs go?!

    I don't have as much faith in people as you do. I'm not being judgemental and condescending to poor people exclusively, I have the same feelings about the rich. I expect folks to spend money on stuff that won't help anyone but themselves and in many cases won't even do that. Why would we need a mincome if the money for it was spent on social programs that benefit us as a community? And programs that are decided on and formed by the community.
  15. [DevLog] Gravity Wolf / Dino's Side Project Circus

    That's totally an update.
  16. Automation: Where did all the jobs go?!

    I think I'm more interested in funding social-welfare programs and public infrastructure for the commons than I am for mincome. I don't think that the majority of people have the ability to use free money for basic needs like healthcare, rather than luxury items. Advertising has convinced the population that consumable fads and convenience are necessities.
  17. Automation: Where did all the jobs go?!

    I live in a rural area and I just got back from a rare trip to New York City. I thought a lot about related subjects. I thought the public-transit system from New Jersey to Manhattan was impressively efficient and the number of people that seemed to be maintaining it compared to the number of people using it seemed to be ridiculously low; this is more like some sort of economy-of-scale in regulated infrastructure of the commons than automation, but they seem like pretty much different versions of the same thing. Once in Manhattan, I got a strong sense that labor-demand what absurdly low due to the amount of people who were willing to commute in to work. So think about this combo: centralization-of-the-means-of-production due to economy-of-scale AND fast and reliable transportation. The results seem like there is a lot of competition for any jobs. I'm sure I'm missing some aspects of this, economics always overwhelms me. Another thing I've been think about is how automation makes things less expensive for the consumer. The internet, laundry-machine, gas-motor, and refrigeration are great examples of this. I wouldn't be able to comfortably live on so little income if sending super-specific requests to a global network and retrieving answers, doing my laundry, hauling groceries, and keeping them cool were all things I had to do manually. That's a side of the coin to consider.
  18. Please tip your postmate

    I just want to say that I hear you syntheticgerbil. This business-model seems to depend on people caring more about not looking like a douchebag to the delivery person than caring about the math.
  19. Please tip your postmate

    So should students tip you?
  20. Please tip your postmate

    I'm confused. I was under the assumption that Lyft was paying their freelancers less than Uber and depending on tips to make up for the difference. Is this not the case?
  21. Frontline documentaries

    I really enjoy Frontline documentaries. I get excited about new releases and sometimes check the back-catalogue for refreshers on complicated topics. I think it might be fun to have a thread where we can discuss various episodes among those who are interested. The most recent episode is about the heroin-epidemic in the United States of America. The documentary proposes that the climb of heroin-addiction is directly related to attempts to correct over-prescription of pain-medications. Later on, the documentary looks at various forms of treatment and how it is affecting a few individuals in the various permutations of treatments. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/chasing-heroin/
  22. Frontline documentaries

    I did not know that.
  23. Please tip your postmate

    Unsurprisingly, I'm not the first to come up with this idea. http://www.thenation.com/article/socialize-uber/ This one was also good. I like how it points out that there is a massive opportunity for cooperatives to take over this economic distruption. http://www.geo.coop/story/cooperatives-uber-moment
  24. Please tip your postmate

    This would Letting the driver be tipped just seems like a way to externalize labor-costs. This Scoot thing looks interesting; not because I am anywhere near San Francisco, but because it looks like it might be a consumer-cooperative. I wonder if it is a co-op. These sharing-economy jobs could benefit greatly from being run by a worker owned co-op imo.
  25. Please tip your postmate

    This Postmates company sounds incredibly exploitative of their workers.