Formerly u/CanadaPlus101 on Reddit.

  • 2 Posts
  • 166 Comments
Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: June 12th, 2023

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  • They are not in NATO, actually. That requires proximity to the Atlantic. They’re Western though, that’s true. Being in a city could be a bit of a risk.

    In South America or southern Africa you’re going to deal with waves of people trying to expand in from the north. No way of life escapes that unscathed. Not to mention, the projections for food scarcity on other continents aren’t nearly as rosy, if there’s soot in the upper atmosphere, maybe because of the higher population to start with.

    And then there’s poverty as a whole separate dimension of things. Here or in Australia I’m pretty sure the capacity to build things like generators will continue. In the third world there’s absolutely no guarantee.


  • Where would you move to ride out a potential WWIII?

    Australia. There really is no better place in the event of nuclear war. It’s a continent-island, meaning easy to defend, it grows and can build just about anything, and being in the southern hemisphere it should be safe from nuclear winter.

    Specifically, a rural property somewhere agricultural. Maybe Queensland or Tasmania.

    If you could move anywhere to minimize the impact on you of the worldwide rise of fascism…

    That’s almost a different question, though. Whichever European country is the most securely democratic. There’s lots of non-war ways fascism can suck aggressively.



  • One big thing I notice is that the youngest speakers all use [ɹ̈] for “r”, instead of the more traditional [ɹ], which means it’s formed in the back of the mouth now. I have to think that will change the trajectory of the whole phonology going forwards if it holds up, since dropping front-of-the-mouth r is a major tendency English has had.

    Use of “like” as a hedge is the most famous change for young speakers all over the Anglosphere. It’s just handy, honestly, to have a quick way of conveying degrees of certainty in this highly complicated world. If future English grew that into a full mood system it would actually be great. At the other end, the last vestiges of grammatical gender have been on their way out for centuries, and are leaving at an accelerated rate now.

    I think young people are much more comfortable verbing nouns than older generations. English is noted for doing this, but usually the words that can be used either way are fixed. In the absence of a better verb I’ll often improvise one, and be understood no problem by speakers my age, but I’ve never heard an older speaker do this.








  • Thanks, that’s really helpful. I suppose it makes sense that not just material but cut size and bit would matter. They usually focus just on the geometry on YouTube.

    Out of curiosity, what’s the lowest you’ve ever gone? It’s hard to picture machining happening at something like 60RPM.

    If you want to get that through steam or electric motors or whatever that’s up to you

    Since I’m interested in technological bootstrapping more generally, I think most about water wheels, actually! Steam engines need to be machined, which is a chicken-and-egg problem (or I guess crafted freehand to a machining-like precision, like Vaucanson’s lathe). Electric motors don’t necessarily, but they need a source of electricity, and that’s either a lot of batteries or another rotating power source, which again doesn’t solve the problem.

    Waterwheels can be made with hand tools - maybe even primitive tools - and can achieve surprisingly modern efficiency and power density. They do require the right topography, but then again they spin indefinitely without needing to be fueled. 50hp is still a sizable wheel, near the top of what existed in pre-modern times, but I’m guessing you can do basic things with an underpowered machine.