USA complains because they can now be beaten [on the cheap] at their own game.
So are you saying in your cute whataboutism way is you are engaging in an act of war against the US? Perhaps it's time to test out your unstoppable missiles there Alexi. I mean acts of war are acts of war.
Better make that first one count, cuz we have a history of making the last one count big time.
We the public, hear the words.... Trump, Russia, Mueller.... We stop listening. Nobody cares. Move on... Seriously.
Wouldn't that be nice? Looks like you identified a new attack vector. Enough news about it and you will say I'm bored, so do what ever you want.
Your post has indicted that you are completely manipulable. I kinda hope you are at least a Russian troll, and not an American who will just accept anything because you are tired hearing about it.
I found an app on Google Play called Smart Ruler Pro. It was just one of those simple on-screen ruler apps... What was smart about it, and what the pro version had over the normal version was not very clear.
I haven't looked but I bet there is an AI powered ruler app or three by now.
I think that is the Hypnotoad app. All hail Hypnotoad!
Might as well ban Jordan Peterson if Sargon gets dinged.
Although you went over the top, there is no question that Youtube itself has been a little overboard lately, and some of the targets have been dinged unnecessarily. Weird thing is there isn't a rational basis for much of it. David Pakman was demonetized - with almost half a million followers - and it's hard to imagine anyone thinking of him as a right wing troublemaker. Possibly it fits in with your moderate left hypothesis. but I see him as a little further left than that.
But whatever. I'm pragmatic enough to understand that none of these demonetized or dinged channels were a justified action, and the trend is toward punishing those that do not agree with Youtube's increasing Social Justice agenda. Bummer. I can't be the only one who watches Terrance Popp, then Sargon, then Jordan Peterson, An Ear For Men, then Karen Straughan, Then Young Turks, then Pakman and all of the regular news channels.
One cannot consider themselves well versed if they only watch and hear what they already believe.
George Martin said it best. "When you tear out a man's tongue, you are not proving him a liar, you're only telling the world that you fear what he might say."
Yeah, it's Youtube's right to decide what they will allow or not. Many of the dinged channels will simply go to other sites with more liberal - oh the irony - attitudes toward posting things they don't necessarily agree with.
It doesn't even matter whether or not MS will EEE Linux, given that systemd is already turning it into a sort of Windows. I wonder how long until the developers add a registry.
I have an ancient copy of TurboLinux I'll ship to ya - which sounds like its just what would satisfy you. Pure unaltered, and systemd free.
It's clearly no charity.... this is Discriminatory pricing plain and simple.
No kidding? Of course it is discriminatory. Then again, so is special discounts/pricing for Veterans, NRA members, senior citizens, educators, and other groups.
It's just people on Medicaid, so already they are considered evil and money grubbing terrible entitled people.
I'm surprised no one commented that after buying a TV with this must have cloaking technology, they are partnering with various outfits to...
Wait for it........Serve you stuff that makes the whole thing pointless. So now you can be served those fine advertisements on a beautiful background that looks like your wall. Wowsers, what a brave new world full of wonder and promise.
I'd be all for a sort of '-2' that suppresses the sort of trash we're talking about from anybody who doesn't explicitly desire to see it. Would go a long way towards making our comments sections not look like a dumpster fire to random passers-by. To avoid being completely offtopic, I will note that I unfortunately grew up in a PC household:( I look back and think of all the fun I might have had if we'd had Amiga/Atari/Mac, but who knows for sure.
See that slide bar right above the comments? There ya go.
The Amiga was an absolute blast to use and work with. I started with a 500, then went to a 2000, a 3000 (my favorite) and finally a 4000 with a Video Toaster. Used them up until 2001 when I went to non-linear editing on a Mac. I had the chance to use one again a couple years back, and the GUI is still better than modern Windows, fluid and responsive. A pity that the wy they ran the company was so bad.
Slashdot should consider permanently IP banning or even better shadow-banning off-topic posts like the above one, because they are boring and dull as an expression of personal sentiment and do not contribute anything useful to the thread. Their only purpose is to derail discussion. IP banning and shadow banning of AC off-topic posts can solve this issue.
You have seen that little slidey bar that allows you to read at whatever level you want? I cut off everything below 2 when I'm not moderating and otherwise don't see that crap. Those bizarre wipes get to post what they want, and I decide what I'm going to see. Not perfect, but not far from it.
As a result, modern headlight systems are usually fine when viewed from straight ahead, but become uncomfortably bright when viewed from an angle (encountering such a vehicle on a curvy road, or cresting a hill). All too often I can't see shit because of that.
This! My pet peeve is when the two vehicles are at different heights or angles. In the hilly Northeast, its a sort of roulette. The oncoming car's lights might be focused on an area that isn't an issue, or you might be able to count the veins inside your eyeball. Some times I think that the people who designed these damn highly focused headlamps never ventured out of Northwest Ohio, where the land is utterly flat.
A different issue is the stupid blue lights. It has been known for a long time that visual acuity is at it's worst in the blue part of the spectrum. The human eye is most sensitive and vision most acute when using green light. The slightly yellow light of regular lamps isn't quite as good, but suffices, and red isn't super, but all of the other colors are better than blue.
The thing to realize is that we're fast approaching a point in which untrained or lowly trained human labor will become essentially worthless, and even most positions requiring a higher education will be in the same situation a couple decades from now with the advances in AI. Anyone who thinks human beings can in the long term remain competitive with systems that are specifically designed to be more cost-efficient than humans, doesn't understand a thing about automation or economics, or what this shift means for economies overall.
I suppose if the goal is making the product as cheaply as possible, and nothing else matters, well then that's just great.
But between you and me and the guy living under the bridge, in my world the goal is to sell the damn hamburger. At some point, with the continued elimination of jobs and the upward creep into white collar jobs, we might make those burgers very cheap indeed, but not have much of a consumer market..
For some reason a lot of people who know a lot about economics and making money on the supply side completely ignore the side of the equation that is the consumer. If people who would use your product have no money because they cannot find work, then they aren't buying your wonderful cheap product.
Of course, what is occurring is as jobs are eliminated, the first adopters of this technology do well. That's because others who would buy the product will still be employed. But as more jobs are eliminated, there will certainly come a tipping point when your customers disappear.
And if what is now surplus population is supported by a minimum basic income, well that's just going to amount to a tax that sucks up what profit you might have made by eliminating the jobs.
And as for retraining for a higher level job, certainly some can be retrained, but on the scale of human abilities, a lot of people working the most menial jobs are there because that's about the level they are capable of working at.
Since this is inevitable, there needs to be more discussion on the looming problem of what to do with the people who have been made completely useless.
Do we simply terminate them? Put them in concentration camps and feed them as little as possible and work at shortening their lifespan as much as possible in order to not spend too much on them?
Because the effects of this are completely ignored, or given the answer "Well someone has to keep the robots running" as some sort of strange idea that somehow more jobs will be created keeping the automation running than were eliminated by the automation - that would be an utter failure of the rationale for the automation.
Intead, we are charging ahead with a supply side only rationale which looks good for a short time, but is unsustainable.
We'll probably be making some tough decisions in the near future. The dark side of me envisions a new universal health care system that consists of a.38 cal pistol and cyanide capsules. If you become unproductive with no real options, you cure the problem with your medicine of choice.
Ohhhhh, patently offensive material! That could be like bleeding heart politicians and bullshit bills.
I wonder who's definition of explicit material they use as well. We had a group locally that defined pornography as anything at all that is internded to arouse a person sexually. Which by the way, included the Sears catalog ladies section. Regardless, that second thing is the real problem. I could care less about porn, but patently offensive material could be banning the letter N in a short time.
My favorite sad example is the man my wife knows who has a degree in aerospace engineering but is a waiter in a restaurant.
Do you realize how often aerospace companies hire then lay off numbers of engineers as the cycle of work ebbs and flows? They're worse than the construction industry in that regard.
I suppose that would be an okay explanation, but he preferred to be a waiter. Just not much drive.
And the ones doing them cannot "retrain" upwards or they would not have been doping these bad jobs in the first place.
Experience suggests that isn't the case. A lot of the time the limiting factor is not something like innate intelligence or skill, but lack of opportunity. Particularly opportunity to learn skills, but also to access better jobs.
I'm an aggressive person, born into a family that wasn't far from poverty. By sheer force of will, I worked myself up several "classes" on the social ladder.
While you are correct that lack of opportunity is one of the reasons that some folks don't do better, i can assure you that on the way up the ladder, I used my assertiveness a lot more than my opportunities. And I took advantage of every opportunity that came my way.
In this world, we have a strange dichotomy in that people are supposed to rely on the self, but any chance to blame outside forces is jumped upon like a drowning man clutches at a life preserver. On my way up and afterwards, I saw many intelligent and educated people working at menial jobs. My favorite sad example is the man my wife knows who has a degree in aerospace engineering but is a waiter in a restaurant. Or more personally, my sister who is degreed and brilliant, but never used her education, working dozens of low level jobs until her husband died and she retired off his investents. Or the neighbor who graduated as a geoliogist, but drives a taxi.
There are many more examples, but they all have one thing in common, and that is drive
They lack it.
On the other hand, I was gifted/cursed with about 20 people's worth of drive. Perhaps my experience counts for nothing, but my drive has allowed me to advance myself, and change careers a few times. But the lack of drive is what keeps a lot of people from their potential. And drive simply cannot be taught. You can train a drive free person for a better/new job, but without that drive it won't work.
.
Drive isn't the reverse of laziness either. No one would accuse my examples of being lazy. They've worked throughout their adult lives.
They will not. These jobs are gone. And the ones doing them cannot "retrain" upwards or they would not have been doping these bad jobs in the first place.
Exactly. Too many people have swallowed the concept that "I can be anything I want if I only try hard enough". Usually spouted by people of extraordinary abilities or teachers lying to students. Nope, everyone has limitations.
There are a lot of people in this world who are doing well to tie their shoes in the morning.
Whether these blue jean sanders are operating at their mental capacity, or are lacking the drive to perform a more intricate or mentally involved job is irrelevant. You can't increase capacity or drive. They will have to seek out further employment in the remaining low llevel jobs available.
And the falloff is already happening. There are many small towns that have had their factories close down. There are young people who might move to a new place, but what does a 50 something worker do? There are no jobs locally, so you pick up your life and move to a city where no one is going to hire you anyhow? Training a 55 year old for a new career is kind of a worthless task for just that reason.
I have a suspicion that suicide rates are going to skyrocket as suicide becomes a career path.
The jobs will come back in other forms the trick is you need a different skillset.
I hear this a lot. We have to keep in mind that the stated intent of present day automation is eliminating jobs
The hat trick will be eliminating jobs, then eliminating whatever jobs are created by the automation, then having as close to no humans employed as is possible..
The question is can humans do this? Certainly in a lot of the Western World, working is a core value, and having a job is considered a measure of a person's worth.
Can society adjust to a state where most people are not performing any paid labor? Or are we going to do something nuts like a massive depopulation culling? What is the sweet spot of automation to jobs to population? If almost no one is drawing a paycheck, even a product that has been reduced to 1 percent of it's original cost is going to remain unsold.
This is happening, and nothing is going to stop it, save for humanity bombing itself back to the stone age.
So the last question is will this usher in a new age of personal freedom for humans to do what they want to in life, as our time becomes truly ours - or will it create the ultimate social schism, with a relatively small class of elites surrounded by people living in slums - or even an alternate economy. Or will we figure out how to efficiently kill about 7 billion useless people - using automation of course.
Hopefully there are smart people working on this problem now.
The distinction between symptom and disorder is exceedingly fine. Every disorder has the potential to become a symptom if our understanding of the causes improves.
The issue of course, is where the line lies. There are some folks who believe disorders start at a low level, like those who drink alcohol alone being an alcoholic. I almost always drink alone. But I might only have 2 mixed drinks a year. Weird definitions, and quite up to the person rendering judgement.
Porn addiction. Is a person who uses porn as a masturbatory aid at all addicted? I think a person might be considered addicted if they end up with calluses on their peen, but what of the person who regularly uses it because no one else is interested in them? Or is it a safe outlet for men's natural inclination for multiple sexual partners? Monogamy is a matriarchal concept, and porn might be a way for some to cope with their sexual boredom or a partner who has diminished sex drive, without all of the messiness of actual affairs.
And that gamer. Finds an outlet that he enjoys, isn't bothering people. A really good chance that he is a societal reject. But the rejection is more the problem than the gaming. Did the guy self reject form society? That would be strange. We are not going to get 100 percent participation of highly socialized people when one of the cornerstones of society is castigation and expulsion. Conform or be cast out. So the rejected person does something else. And now some people want to call him mentally ill for it. Jeebuz K Ryste!
Way I figure, if he isn't harming others, let the poor shit alone.
That is when you suck at gaming, right? Anything else would not make much sense, because otherwise a lot of the human race would have a "TV disorder".
I ain't the brightest LED in the room, but even I know insightful when I see it.
Its time, and what we do with ours
Some people watch a hellava lot of Television. AHA! Television addiction. I spend many hours a day in front of a computer, some work, some play - Oh noes, computer addiction. I like to ride my motorcycle - a lot. I'm nearing 100K miles on my Shadow Spirit 1000 - Damn motorcycling addicts anyhow!
And yeah, there's time for video games, so I guess I'm an unholy mess of a multi level addict.
Damn people enjoying what they are doing anyhow!
My question to those who want to classify gaming as mental illness is how would you "cure" the illness, and what do you want the "cured" gamer to do with his time? This would give greaat insight to just who is having problems with gamers.
I basically log into WoW to meet people I know there. I also have no problems finding enough time for work and other personal interests besides gaming. Yet I log into WoW almost every day. Am I doing this "addiction" thing wrong?
I guess we have to look at who is doing the complaining.
I do some gaming in the evenings as a way of relaxing before turning in for the evening.I'm married and financially solvent. So I probably don't fit the mold.
But this is not who is being chased. There are a lot of young men who's main interest in life is gaming. They run a spectrum from the single guy who works but focuses on gaming, to the stereotyped guy that lives in his mom's basement.
But while it is not a mental disorder, it is a symptom of a problem. These men, many who were drugged to keep them in line as they were growing up, were never able to complete the growing up process. They have decided that gaming is just fine, and why not? They have friends online, the games they play bring them happiness, and no one is hurt..They have found a niche that allows them to physically exist in modern society.
The downside is that they tend to have no interests in socializing or pair bonding and definitely do not want children. So they run afoul of certain groups. Some who now want to classify these males as suffering from mental illness. Which is pointless, because these guys aren't looking to be "cured". They have found something to do with themselves in a society that insists on denigrating and chasing them away.
But this is not a mental disorder in the sense that there is something mentally wrong with the guy that can be cured through psychoanalysis or medication.
It is a symptom of the way many of us have raised our young men in recent decades.
[...] but what about towing a two-axle mobile stable with two horses in it, steep uphill?
I don't own any horses.
You're right--electric cars in general may suck towing heavy trailers up steep hills. So if that's something you're doing a lot of, I would not recommend buying a Tesla.
Now the other 99% of us who don't tow heavy trailers up steep hills, we'll be quite happy. And you'll be quite happy with your ICE car that does that towing with no problem.
Oh my gawd - I'm cruising at +2 so I didn't see his post. Allow me to eter the other things that Tesla cars cannot do:
Mining operations - Teslacars fail miserably at hauling hundreds of tons out of strip mines.
Baja California race - A stock Tesla was entered, but broke down 25 miles out. Seriously bad form Tesla!
Boat - Some rich hipster tried to use his Tesla as a boat. It sunk immediately, but on the upside, the locals had a lot of electrocuted fish to harvest.
Hauling trash to the dump - The Tesla got all scratched up, and could only haul a little bit of trash. A class action lawsuit is coming.
That hauling a horse trailer hilarity belongs right here in this list.
We're talking about Model 3 here. It starts at $35k. Yes, I know, for the moment you can only buy the more expensive version, closer to $50k, but it will be available at $35k once production has ramped up. Subtract fuel savings and you're well under $30k. Not quite 1% territory.
Ever see the price tags on a lot of the Pickup trucks out there?
Its one of those strange facts of life, where someone who drives a 80K pickup truck like a F-250 Limited can complain about the 1 percenters and their 50 K Teslas.
Then again, I've heard some of the boys yapping about those overpriced Priuses as well.
Slashdot Mirror
USA complains because they can now be beaten [on the cheap] at their own game.
So are you saying in your cute whataboutism way is you are engaging in an act of war against the US? Perhaps it's time to test out your unstoppable missiles there Alexi. I mean acts of war are acts of war.
Better make that first one count, cuz we have a history of making the last one count big time.
We the public, hear the words.... Trump, Russia, Mueller.... We stop listening. Nobody cares. Move on... Seriously.
Wouldn't that be nice? Looks like you identified a new attack vector. Enough news about it and you will say I'm bored, so do what ever you want.
Your post has indicted that you are completely manipulable. I kinda hope you are at least a Russian troll, and not an American who will just accept anything because you are tired hearing about it.
Or perhaps just a Trumpster.
I found an app on Google Play called Smart Ruler Pro. It was just one of those simple on-screen ruler apps... What was smart about it, and what the pro version had over the normal version was not very clear.
I haven't looked but I bet there is an AI powered ruler app or three by now.
I think that is the Hypnotoad app. All hail Hypnotoad!
Why did Sargon of Akkad have his channel removed, and I could go on.
Huh? Sargon is alive and well on Youtube - Here's the cite for a playlist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
Might as well ban Jordan Peterson if Sargon gets dinged.
Although you went over the top, there is no question that Youtube itself has been a little overboard lately, and some of the targets have been dinged unnecessarily. Weird thing is there isn't a rational basis for much of it. David Pakman was demonetized - with almost half a million followers - and it's hard to imagine anyone thinking of him as a right wing troublemaker. Possibly it fits in with your moderate left hypothesis. but I see him as a little further left than that.
But whatever. I'm pragmatic enough to understand that none of these demonetized or dinged channels were a justified action, and the trend is toward punishing those that do not agree with Youtube's increasing Social Justice agenda. Bummer. I can't be the only one who watches Terrance Popp, then Sargon, then Jordan Peterson, An Ear For Men, then Karen Straughan, Then Young Turks, then Pakman and all of the regular news channels.
One cannot consider themselves well versed if they only watch and hear what they already believe.
George Martin said it best. "When you tear out a man's tongue, you are not proving him a liar, you're only telling the world that you fear what he might say."
Yeah, it's Youtube's right to decide what they will allow or not. Many of the dinged channels will simply go to other sites with more liberal - oh the irony - attitudes toward posting things they don't necessarily agree with.
And now we won't have to install one more program just to have it. I don't know what you're thinking, but this is good news for users.
Remember though, each Windows update also destroys functionality from at least one program as well, so its a wash.
Have you tried Total Commander Ultima Prime? I can't live without it.
Do you have the Incredible Magnificent Platinum Dictator version?
No need, I'm happy with NetBSD.
pffft, new fangled sissy stuff......
It doesn't even matter whether or not MS will EEE Linux, given that systemd is already turning it into a sort of Windows. I wonder how long until the developers add a registry.
I have an ancient copy of TurboLinux I'll ship to ya - which sounds like its just what would satisfy you. Pure unaltered, and systemd free.
It's clearly no charity.... this is Discriminatory pricing plain and simple.
No kidding? Of course it is discriminatory. Then again, so is special discounts/pricing for Veterans, NRA members, senior citizens, educators, and other groups.
It's just people on Medicaid, so already they are considered evil and money grubbing terrible entitled people.
Wait for it........Serve you stuff that makes the whole thing pointless. So now you can be served those fine advertisements on a beautiful background that looks like your wall. Wowsers, what a brave new world full of wonder and promise.
I'd be all for a sort of '-2' that suppresses the sort of trash we're talking about from anybody who doesn't explicitly desire to see it. Would go a long way towards making our comments sections not look like a dumpster fire to random passers-by. To avoid being completely offtopic, I will note that I unfortunately grew up in a PC household :( I look back and think of all the fun I might have had if we'd had Amiga/Atari/Mac, but who knows for sure.
See that slide bar right above the comments? There ya go.
The Amiga was an absolute blast to use and work with. I started with a 500, then went to a 2000, a 3000 (my favorite) and finally a 4000 with a Video Toaster. Used them up until 2001 when I went to non-linear editing on a Mac. I had the chance to use one again a couple years back, and the GUI is still better than modern Windows, fluid and responsive. A pity that the wy they ran the company was so bad.
Slashdot should consider permanently IP banning or even better shadow-banning off-topic posts like the above one, because they are boring and dull as an expression of personal sentiment and do not contribute anything useful to the thread. Their only purpose is to derail discussion. IP banning and shadow banning of AC off-topic posts can solve this issue.
You have seen that little slidey bar that allows you to read at whatever level you want? I cut off everything below 2 when I'm not moderating and otherwise don't see that crap. Those bizarre wipes get to post what they want, and I decide what I'm going to see. Not perfect, but not far from it.
As a result, modern headlight systems are usually fine when viewed from straight ahead, but become uncomfortably bright when viewed from an angle (encountering such a vehicle on a curvy road, or cresting a hill). All too often I can't see shit because of that.
This! My pet peeve is when the two vehicles are at different heights or angles. In the hilly Northeast, its a sort of roulette. The oncoming car's lights might be focused on an area that isn't an issue, or you might be able to count the veins inside your eyeball. Some times I think that the people who designed these damn highly focused headlamps never ventured out of Northwest Ohio, where the land is utterly flat.
A different issue is the stupid blue lights. It has been known for a long time that visual acuity is at it's worst in the blue part of the spectrum. The human eye is most sensitive and vision most acute when using green light. The slightly yellow light of regular lamps isn't quite as good, but suffices, and red isn't super, but all of the other colors are better than blue.
The thing to realize is that we're fast approaching a point in which untrained or lowly trained human labor will become essentially worthless, and even most positions requiring a higher education will be in the same situation a couple decades from now with the advances in AI. Anyone who thinks human beings can in the long term remain competitive with systems that are specifically designed to be more cost-efficient than humans, doesn't understand a thing about automation or economics, or what this shift means for economies overall.
I suppose if the goal is making the product as cheaply as possible, and nothing else matters, well then that's just great.
But between you and me and the guy living under the bridge, in my world the goal is to sell the damn hamburger. At some point, with the continued elimination of jobs and the upward creep into white collar jobs, we might make those burgers very cheap indeed, but not have much of a consumer market..
For some reason a lot of people who know a lot about economics and making money on the supply side completely ignore the side of the equation that is the consumer. If people who would use your product have no money because they cannot find work, then they aren't buying your wonderful cheap product.
Of course, what is occurring is as jobs are eliminated, the first adopters of this technology do well. That's because others who would buy the product will still be employed. But as more jobs are eliminated, there will certainly come a tipping point when your customers disappear.
And if what is now surplus population is supported by a minimum basic income, well that's just going to amount to a tax that sucks up what profit you might have made by eliminating the jobs.
And as for retraining for a higher level job, certainly some can be retrained, but on the scale of human abilities, a lot of people working the most menial jobs are there because that's about the level they are capable of working at.
Since this is inevitable, there needs to be more discussion on the looming problem of what to do with the people who have been made completely useless.
Do we simply terminate them? Put them in concentration camps and feed them as little as possible and work at shortening their lifespan as much as possible in order to not spend too much on them?
Because the effects of this are completely ignored, or given the answer "Well someone has to keep the robots running" as some sort of strange idea that somehow more jobs will be created keeping the automation running than were eliminated by the automation - that would be an utter failure of the rationale for the automation.
Intead, we are charging ahead with a supply side only rationale which looks good for a short time, but is unsustainable.
We'll probably be making some tough decisions in the near future. The dark side of me envisions a new universal health care system that consists of a .38 cal pistol and cyanide capsules. If you become unproductive with no real options, you cure the problem with your medicine of choice.
I wonder who's definition of explicit material they use as well. We had a group locally that defined pornography as anything at all that is internded to arouse a person sexually. Which by the way, included the Sears catalog ladies section. Regardless, that second thing is the real problem. I could care less about porn, but patently offensive material could be banning the letter N in a short time.
Do you realize how often aerospace companies hire then lay off numbers of engineers as the cycle of work ebbs and flows? They're worse than the construction industry in that regard.
I suppose that would be an okay explanation, but he preferred to be a waiter. Just not much drive.
And the ones doing them cannot "retrain" upwards or they would not have been doping these bad jobs in the first place.
Experience suggests that isn't the case. A lot of the time the limiting factor is not something like innate intelligence or skill, but lack of opportunity. Particularly opportunity to learn skills, but also to access better jobs.
I'm an aggressive person, born into a family that wasn't far from poverty. By sheer force of will, I worked myself up several "classes" on the social ladder.
While you are correct that lack of opportunity is one of the reasons that some folks don't do better, i can assure you that on the way up the ladder, I used my assertiveness a lot more than my opportunities. And I took advantage of every opportunity that came my way.
In this world, we have a strange dichotomy in that people are supposed to rely on the self, but any chance to blame outside forces is jumped upon like a drowning man clutches at a life preserver. On my way up and afterwards, I saw many intelligent and educated people working at menial jobs. My favorite sad example is the man my wife knows who has a degree in aerospace engineering but is a waiter in a restaurant. Or more personally, my sister who is degreed and brilliant, but never used her education, working dozens of low level jobs until her husband died and she retired off his investents. Or the neighbor who graduated as a geoliogist, but drives a taxi.
There are many more examples, but they all have one thing in common, and that is drive
They lack it.
On the other hand, I was gifted/cursed with about 20 people's worth of drive. Perhaps my experience counts for nothing, but my drive has allowed me to advance myself, and change careers a few times. But the lack of drive is what keeps a lot of people from their potential. And drive simply cannot be taught. You can train a drive free person for a better/new job, but without that drive it won't work.
. Drive isn't the reverse of laziness either. No one would accuse my examples of being lazy. They've worked throughout their adult lives.
They will not. These jobs are gone. And the ones doing them cannot "retrain" upwards or they would not have been doping these bad jobs in the first place.
Exactly. Too many people have swallowed the concept that "I can be anything I want if I only try hard enough". Usually spouted by people of extraordinary abilities or teachers lying to students. Nope, everyone has limitations.
There are a lot of people in this world who are doing well to tie their shoes in the morning.
Whether these blue jean sanders are operating at their mental capacity, or are lacking the drive to perform a more intricate or mentally involved job is irrelevant. You can't increase capacity or drive. They will have to seek out further employment in the remaining low llevel jobs available.
And the falloff is already happening. There are many small towns that have had their factories close down. There are young people who might move to a new place, but what does a 50 something worker do? There are no jobs locally, so you pick up your life and move to a city where no one is going to hire you anyhow? Training a 55 year old for a new career is kind of a worthless task for just that reason.
I have a suspicion that suicide rates are going to skyrocket as suicide becomes a career path.
The jobs will come back in other forms the trick is you need a different skillset.
I hear this a lot. We have to keep in mind that the stated intent of present day automation is eliminating jobs
The hat trick will be eliminating jobs, then eliminating whatever jobs are created by the automation, then having as close to no humans employed as is possible..
The question is can humans do this? Certainly in a lot of the Western World, working is a core value, and having a job is considered a measure of a person's worth.
Can society adjust to a state where most people are not performing any paid labor? Or are we going to do something nuts like a massive depopulation culling? What is the sweet spot of automation to jobs to population? If almost no one is drawing a paycheck, even a product that has been reduced to 1 percent of it's original cost is going to remain unsold.
This is happening, and nothing is going to stop it, save for humanity bombing itself back to the stone age.
So the last question is will this usher in a new age of personal freedom for humans to do what they want to in life, as our time becomes truly ours - or will it create the ultimate social schism, with a relatively small class of elites surrounded by people living in slums - or even an alternate economy. Or will we figure out how to efficiently kill about 7 billion useless people - using automation of course.
Hopefully there are smart people working on this problem now.
The distinction between symptom and disorder is exceedingly fine. Every disorder has the potential to become a symptom if our understanding of the causes improves.
The issue of course, is where the line lies. There are some folks who believe disorders start at a low level, like those who drink alcohol alone being an alcoholic. I almost always drink alone. But I might only have 2 mixed drinks a year. Weird definitions, and quite up to the person rendering judgement.
Porn addiction. Is a person who uses porn as a masturbatory aid at all addicted? I think a person might be considered addicted if they end up with calluses on their peen, but what of the person who regularly uses it because no one else is interested in them? Or is it a safe outlet for men's natural inclination for multiple sexual partners? Monogamy is a matriarchal concept, and porn might be a way for some to cope with their sexual boredom or a partner who has diminished sex drive, without all of the messiness of actual affairs.
And that gamer. Finds an outlet that he enjoys, isn't bothering people. A really good chance that he is a societal reject. But the rejection is more the problem than the gaming. Did the guy self reject form society? That would be strange. We are not going to get 100 percent participation of highly socialized people when one of the cornerstones of society is castigation and expulsion. Conform or be cast out. So the rejected person does something else. And now some people want to call him mentally ill for it. Jeebuz K Ryste!
Way I figure, if he isn't harming others, let the poor shit alone.
You play too much video game.. here your prozac...
Both funny and insightful.
That is when you suck at gaming, right? Anything else would not make much sense, because otherwise a lot of the human race would have a "TV disorder".
I ain't the brightest LED in the room, but even I know insightful when I see it.
Its time, and what we do with ours
Some people watch a hellava lot of Television. AHA! Television addiction. I spend many hours a day in front of a computer, some work, some play - Oh noes, computer addiction. I like to ride my motorcycle - a lot. I'm nearing 100K miles on my Shadow Spirit 1000 - Damn motorcycling addicts anyhow!
And yeah, there's time for video games, so I guess I'm an unholy mess of a multi level addict.
Damn people enjoying what they are doing anyhow!
My question to those who want to classify gaming as mental illness is how would you "cure" the illness, and what do you want the "cured" gamer to do with his time? This would give greaat insight to just who is having problems with gamers.
I basically log into WoW to meet people I know there. I also have no problems finding enough time for work and other personal interests besides gaming. Yet I log into WoW almost every day. Am I doing this "addiction" thing wrong?
I guess we have to look at who is doing the complaining.
I do some gaming in the evenings as a way of relaxing before turning in for the evening.I'm married and financially solvent. So I probably don't fit the mold.
But this is not who is being chased. There are a lot of young men who's main interest in life is gaming. They run a spectrum from the single guy who works but focuses on gaming, to the stereotyped guy that lives in his mom's basement.
But while it is not a mental disorder, it is a symptom of a problem. These men, many who were drugged to keep them in line as they were growing up, were never able to complete the growing up process. They have decided that gaming is just fine, and why not? They have friends online, the games they play bring them happiness, and no one is hurt..They have found a niche that allows them to physically exist in modern society.
The downside is that they tend to have no interests in socializing or pair bonding and definitely do not want children. So they run afoul of certain groups. Some who now want to classify these males as suffering from mental illness. Which is pointless, because these guys aren't looking to be "cured". They have found something to do with themselves in a society that insists on denigrating and chasing them away.
But this is not a mental disorder in the sense that there is something mentally wrong with the guy that can be cured through psychoanalysis or medication.
It is a symptom of the way many of us have raised our young men in recent decades.
Meanwhile, I'll still enjoy my gaming.
[...] but what about towing a two-axle mobile stable with two horses in it, steep uphill?
I don't own any horses.
You're right--electric cars in general may suck towing heavy trailers up steep hills. So if that's something you're doing a lot of, I would not recommend buying a Tesla.
Now the other 99% of us who don't tow heavy trailers up steep hills, we'll be quite happy. And you'll be quite happy with your ICE car that does that towing with no problem.
Oh my gawd - I'm cruising at +2 so I didn't see his post. Allow me to eter the other things that Tesla cars cannot do:
Mining operations - Teslacars fail miserably at hauling hundreds of tons out of strip mines.
Baja California race - A stock Tesla was entered, but broke down 25 miles out. Seriously bad form Tesla!
Boat - Some rich hipster tried to use his Tesla as a boat. It sunk immediately, but on the upside, the locals had a lot of electrocuted fish to harvest.
Hauling trash to the dump - The Tesla got all scratched up, and could only haul a little bit of trash. A class action lawsuit is coming.
That hauling a horse trailer hilarity belongs right here in this list.
We're talking about Model 3 here. It starts at $35k. Yes, I know, for the moment you can only buy the more expensive version, closer to $50k, but it will be available at $35k once production has ramped up. Subtract fuel savings and you're well under $30k. Not quite 1% territory.
Ever see the price tags on a lot of the Pickup trucks out there?
Its one of those strange facts of life, where someone who drives a 80K pickup truck like a F-250 Limited can complain about the 1 percenters and their 50 K Teslas.
Then again, I've heard some of the boys yapping about those overpriced Priuses as well.