meristohm

4 ms·

1.
by meristohm 22d ago
For those who are able (physically and/or mentally able) to go by some proportion of human power, I highly recommend significantly reducing reliance on automobiles. Walk and bicycle instead; less need to make time for exercise, plus a
2.
by meristohm 2mo ago
What are the environmental costs? Given that we exist in an ecosystem, and rely on myriad other life for our own healthy-enough existence, focusing on jerbs and the cost to build the data centers, and ignoring all the other costs (to name a
3.
by meristohm 2mo ago
I would be more inclined to give to people via Patreon if there was a way to set a desired income amount and a transparent "overflow pipeline" for what happens with any extra money.
4.
by meristohm 2mo ago
No, but I don't use LLM stuff; I value effortful practice towards improving how I do things, without converting too much external energy in the process, and while I still use and benefit from computers, I prefer a low-tech approach to
5.
by meristohm 2mo ago
Do you understand the unbridled desire to consume a massive amount of resources to move a human body in a multi-ton knobby-tyred truck from home to school to work to grocery store and back, and to play the flashiest games, to wear shorts in
6.
by meristohm 2mo ago
...and it's fine to not use the loud, vibrating power saw and instead take some extra time to use a handsaw, and thus get more practiced at it. It's fine to hire movers, but sometimes they end up damaging stuff. My solution is hav
7.
by meristohm 2mo ago
I reckon a lot of people on this forum have poorer health thanks to man-made pollution. The more money a person has, the greater the chance they spend it in ways that increase environmental harm. (Travel is a big one, and buying large homes
8.
by meristohm 2mo ago
Would there be so many billions if we didn't figure out how to convert petroleum into fertilizer and so many other useful things? My point is that, just because we now have billions, it feels wrong to justify maintaining those billions
9.
by meristohm 2mo ago
Because all this fancy tech requires concrete and iron (smelted by burning fossil fuels), we're still in the Iron Age: https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/2024/03/how-to-escape-from...
10.
by meristohm 2mo ago
I learned about snail teeth in The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating, by Elisabeth Tova Bailey! It's a lovely, shortish nonfiction book about a woman with a rare infection that affects her nervous system and has her mostly in bed for years,
11.
by meristohm 2mo ago
For an animated version of this story, see Cosmos, season 2 (I forget which episode, but it was helpful in teaching about this in high school)
12.
by meristohm 2mo ago
Fair question (I'm neither the blog author or the person who linked it here). I read the short blog entry and the why is not answered. My own reasons for de-Googling is that I'm uncomfortable with how I pay for Google's servi
13.
by meristohm 2mo ago
Taxes support the infrastructure that those with Dragon's Sickness need to keep extracting gold from the uninfected and less symptomatic.
14.
by meristohm 2mo ago
Years ago, when I was considering putting effort and time into learning more computer programming languages, I realized I cared far more about learning other human languages: I was a recent parent, and the importance of strong, positive bon
15.
by meristohm 3mo ago
What does "human flourishing" mean? And why do you want humans to have maximal access to energy? (what I'm getting at is, what story of humanity matters to you?)
16.
by meristohm 3mo ago
I abhor exercise for the sake of it . Instead, I refuse to use a car to do anything but bring my family members to distant medical appointments, and the rare carpool'd vacation. Anything within ~ten miles of home I do with human power
17.
by meristohm 3mo ago
Somewhat related: in logging country, on several occasions I've seen logging trucks full of tree trunks pass each other in opposite directions.
18.
by meristohm 3mo ago
One way to reduce the speed of such large vehicles in urban areas is cyclists to conspicuously use the wider lane. I do this regularly with my Class 1 ebike (assists to 20mph), in part because the wider lane is smoother (I often carry a chi
19.
by meristohm 3mo ago
Long-time de-Googled Pixel user here: while it's not for most of the people I know, for whom the barrier to install LineageOS / GrapheneOS / etc on their Android pocket computer is as yet too high, advertisement-company Googl
20.
by meristohm 3mo ago
...and a consequence of living in dense concrete "jungles" is increased energy consumption to cool ourselves, further increasing average global temperatures. What might the consequences be of living amongst trees (and plants in ge
21.
by meristohm 3mo ago
Yep! Evaporation through leaf stomata creates the internal pressure drop that pulls water from the earth into the roots.
22.
by meristohm 3mo ago
I like helping others learn and grow. Having a child helped focus my sense of purpose, but I already cared to help others, as a classroom teacher and private tutor. Parenting gave me a second childhood, during which I read Complex PTSD by P
23.
by meristohm 3mo ago
I prefer breathing like a resting dog: deep inhale, immediately relax and exhale (just let it out; it'll be forceful at first and taper off), and take the next inhale when the need arises. Ideally I do this with water and food, too (fe
24.
by meristohm 3mo ago
Zero. Unless by "AI" you mean "software tool", in which case full-text search in Calibre ebook reader, language training with Clozemaster (I don't use the LLM-generated definitions, nor the images--too disturbing, a
25.
by meristohm 3mo ago
Incredibly efficient, but if they're burning hydrocarbons to move, at scale they are incredibly damaging to earth's atmosphere, and to animals disrupted by engine and propeller noise. International trade is wonderful, all this new
26.
by meristohm 3mo ago
Too many of us (here in the United States, anyway) rely on external energy conversion to do what we humans once did with our stored chemical energy. Using a drug to treat the symptoms of that technology-enabled behavioral dis-ease feels wro
27.
by meristohm 3mo ago
If the clog involves toilet paper, I'd rather not put a brush in that. Here's how I use a plunger effectively: Submerge it and then angle it to swap out some air for liquid, so you have more mass to push into the pipe. Tip it back
28.
by meristohm 1y ago
Whatever I do for money isn't a huge part of my identity, so telling a boss (if/when I find myself in that situation) to stuff it with the AI nonsense isn't going to be difficult. Decoupling one's self-worth from the job
29.
I Don't Like "AI"(ian.mccowan.space)
43 points by meristohm 1y ago|20 comments
30.
by meristohm 1y ago
A poem I composed from the section headings: It's Not "AI" Its Boosters Are Misanthropic The Hype Sucks And It’s Encroachingly Ubiquitous Its Obsequity Is Annoying And Its Prose Is Vapid Its Boosters Don’t Give A Shit About C

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