I ran Debian on one of the surface pros a few years ago. It took a bit of hardware hacking, but it was great.

I use a TWM and spend most of my time in the shell, so I didn’t get to utilize a lot of the OS features. But things like reading comics, and surfing the web were pretty cool.

I always wondered if Gnome would be a better interface for it. It seems like they’ve been leaning that direction for a while.

Although I agree with you, I had that issue well before AI was a thing:

“I dunno, I just copied it from this StackOverflow post…”

<cut to me raging that someone would do that>

Agreed. I think they should have pushed for stronger disclosure requirements, but I also realise that isn’t actually enforceable.

I also find it very telling that people will talk about the negative parts of AI, but not acknowledge other automation tools that perpetuate the same problems. My experience is that most people’s complaints have a real basis, but they are just mis-diagnosed.

The problems seem to be our economic and societal structures, and AI is the new fancy tool that exacerbates those problems. But I’ve not heard a good reason why AI itself is that problem.

Well, if you ignore the bad things that someone does, then I can see how this can be confusing. I participate in US news discussions all the time, that’s how I know that Biden is a terrible person, who did terrible things.

If you want to be less confused, I’d recommend that you do the same.

Can you at least try to answer my question?

You laid out a set of criteria: “…wage theft, human suffering, environmental destruction and empowerment of the oligarchies”

All of the examples I gave meet that criteria. Why is AI different?

Come on, be honest.

Not really, no. Like I said, they were very similar.

And I don’t understand how you can see them do the above listed things, and claim that there is an “enormous gulf between the two primary options”. Yes, there are minor differences, but to say there is an “enormous gulf”, serously downplays how evil and monsterous Biden was.

Liberals refusing to see how evil and monsterous their politicians are, is one of the reasons that other monsters like Trump keep getting elected.

Different doesn’t mean Biden was good, just that he was so much better than the alternative.

“so much better” is where we disagree. The dude was a monster.

Did his administration blow up ships in international waters with no approval?

Not that I know of. But he sure did that to innocent people on land.

Deport citizens arrested by ICE to third-world countries with no trial and refuse to bring them back?

Yes

Dismantle USAID, killing multiple thousands of people?

Nope, but he forced people back to dangerous offices, killing thousands. He backed a genocide, killing multiple thousands. Bombed the hell out of who-knows-how many people. I don’t really care what tool someone used to kill others, I care that they killed others.

Remove protections from federal land and allow nature to be destroyed? Arrest citizens for using privacy features on their phones? Violate the first-amendment rights of national television broadcasters?

Yes

Let goons run around with full illegal access to every government database?

Yes

Deny healthcare to women based on their marital status?

No, but he sat back and did nothing when that happened, and had the full power to help them.

Beat and jail people protesting ICE raids?

Yes

Lie, cheat, scam, rape, steal, corrupt, and otherwise destroy anything they get their hands on?

Yes

I could go on, but it’s clear that you are ignoring my point: We were talking about “meaningfully different results”. Just because Biden didn’t do the exact same things as Trump doens’t mean that Biden gave us “meaningfully different results”.

Then why are you mad at AI? Those fit all of the same requrirements that you listed above. Why do you think one is bad, but not the other?

I think you are starting off with an incorrect premise: In the US, the role of the cops is not to keep people, or society safe. It often also has very little to due with “the law”.

The role is to keep the rich and powerful, rich and powerful. They are meant to oppress people, and keep the slave-machine running. Cops shooting people, stealing from them, escalating situations, and not knowing the law is the intended situation.

In that sense, the cops are doing their job to great effect, and don’t need any more training.

So are you mad at power-tools? The internet? Cars? Because they are “building on the base of wage theft, human suffering, environmental destruction and empowerment of the oligarchies.”

Why are you mad at one set of tools, but not the other sets of tools?

“permanant”

Brought to you by the same companies that “accidentally” re-add you to their spam lists.

No, not really. There are models based on freely given training data. There are models used without wasting large amounts of electricity. There are models that aren’t used to empower the oligarchs.

It sounds like you are mad at our economic and societal structures, but taking your anger out on the tools.

That’s… not too far from how I got into it. My parents didn’t know how to find porn, music, or tv shows my my linux systems

Thanks, that’s helpful. Feel free to PM me that link. And feel free to share more! I love trying new things, so I’m totally down to try a bunch of different solutions.

It’s been quite a journey for me, and it’s been kind of frustrating that there’s no go-to solution, because everyone has to find what that works for them. But I’ve been feeling a lot better since I started paying more attention, and I hope the same for you!

Which high-sodium electrolyte mixes and salt-pills do you use? I’ve got similar health issues, and have been looking for good drinks, but a lot of them have high-ish potassium rates, which I’m trying to avoid.

(feel free to PM me if you don’t want to share too much publicly)

Literally uses a political compass

I don’t actually use the political compass

Why don’t you look up how many people Biden and Obama deported, and sent to torture prisons, without trial. Biden increased childhood hunger. Biden killed millions of kids with bombs, drones, and policies. Remember when the pandemic was still raging, and he took away everyone’s benefits, and didn’t provide even close to the meager stimulus checks that Trump did? That killed a lot of people, who were forced back into unsafe work conditions.

How can you compare anyone to Kamala, a person who has never held real power.

He’s the governor of California, so he does have real power. He also openely abandond his voters as soon as he was elected. He’s a zionist. He did photo-ops while destroying people’s homes.

…I can say with certainty: millions of lives a year throughout the world would be saved if Newsome was president instead of Trump.

Where’s the evidence of this? All evidence points to Newsome gleefully operating the orphan-crushing machine, just like Biden and Obama did.

What meaningfully different results? Biden fast tracked money for the border wall. Stole from the working class to give handouts to his rich friends. Increased ICE, Police, Pentagon, and war funding. Deported immigrants, and sent them to torture prisons.

The Democrats were blowing up kids in syria. They were supporting genocide. They did more deportations than Trump’s first term. Lets look at the treaties and deals that they made: Dictators, Slave-Owners, Racists, Genocidists.

Wow, what “meaningfully different results”.