pdfernhout

7 ms·

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by pdfernhout 6mo ago
I'm hoping that someday more people will appreciate the humor in my sig: "The biggest challenge of the 21st century is the irony of technologies of abundance in the hands of those still thinking in terms of scarcity." Until t
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by pdfernhout 6mo ago
A deeper issue from the post-war era and science according to Dr. David Goostein, then vice-provost of Caltech from 1994: https://web.archive.org/web/20240213233731/https://www.its.c... "The c
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by pdfernhout 6mo ago
Inefficiency all too often is celebrated by our society, as I wrote in 2010: https://pdfernhout.net/beyond-a-jobless-recovery-knol.html "Also, many current industries that employ large numbers of people (ranging from t
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2100 – Beyond the Horizon – A Utopian AI Short Film by the Flo Factory [video](youtube.com)
1 points by pdfernhout 7mo ago|1 comments
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by pdfernhout 7mo ago
"What if the future didn’t end in collapse… but in transformation? 2100 — Beyond the Horizon is a utopian short [ten minute] film presented as a speculative visual timeline, exploring a possible evolution of human civilization from 202
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by pdfernhout 11mo ago
Some options for dealing with economic dislocation by AI and robotics that I put together about more than a decade ago (which relate to my sig: "The biggest challenge of the 21st century is the irony of technologies of abundance in the
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AI Could Wipe Out the Working Class – Sen. Bernie Sanders [video](youtube.com)
1 points by pdfernhout 11mo ago|2 comments
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by pdfernhout 11mo ago
"The artificial intelligence and robotics being developed by multi-billionaires will allow corporate America to wipe out tens of millions of decent-paying jobs, cut labor costs and boost profits. What happens to working class people wh
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by pdfernhout 1y ago
Anxiety is not identical to depression, but consider: "The Chemical Imbalance Theory of Depression: Where Is It Going?" https://www.madinamerica.com/2020/02/chemical-imbalance-theo... "The spurious
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You Have No Idea How Terrified AI Scientists Are [video](youtube.com)
2 points by pdfernhout 1y ago|0 comments
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by pdfernhout 1y ago
Indeed; good point! And how will all that play out? Better communications or more schlock to wade through on the internet? Or both? As a historical analogy, a lot of telephone switchboard operators lost their jobs with the beginning of dire
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by pdfernhout 1y ago
What I put together circa 2010 is becoming more and more relevant: https://pdfernhout.net/beyond-a-jobless-recovery-knol.html "This article explores the issue of a "Jobless Recovery" mainly from a heterodox e
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by pdfernhout 1y ago
"a friendly and kind guy mostly contented with his life" reminds me somewhat of another Irish author, James P. Hogan (who I was lucky enough to meet in person once through Princeton University's Infinity Limited science ficti
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by pdfernhout 1y ago
We already have that "defeated underclass" courtesy of a century of mainstream schooling (according to NYS Teacher of the Year John Taylor Gatto): "The Underground History of American Education -- A conspiracy against ourselv
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by pdfernhout 1y ago
Retrotopia by John Michael Greer has an aspect similar to different technology levels. Except that in the novel they are essentially taxation zones relating to infrastructure. If you want to live in a zone with, say, publicly maintained roa
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by pdfernhout 1y ago
The future the USA could have had, sigh: "A brief history of Steve Jobs’ automated factory at NeXT" https://www.cultofmac.com/news/a-brief-history-of-steve-jobs... "Put simply, there was never any necess
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by pdfernhout 1y ago
Good point and links on architecture. I am so grateful to the architecture student who told me about Jane Jacobs around 1990 and opened my eyes to how much urban architecture design (things like height restrictions as in Philadelphia, unsaf
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by pdfernhout 1y ago
Just saw this idea recently -- to add to your list: "Magnetars’ strong flares forge gold and other heavy elements" https://earthsky.org/space/strong-flares-magnetars-forge-hea... "After black holes, neut
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by pdfernhout 1y ago
Thanks for the example. I agree they look very similar, which is what dsego saw intuitively and commented on. The difference in the two examples is essentially whether things need to be proxied or not. If someone does not mind that proxying
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by pdfernhout 1y ago
Thanks for the replies. Having to add "proxy" or similar everywhere is the ergonomics issue to me (others might disagree).
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by pdfernhout 1y ago
Yes, I noticed that similarity too a bit -- from the use of a "HyperScript"-like approach (although Mithril can be used with JSX too). https://mithril.js.org/hyperscript.html Aberdeen is innovative in that it&#x27
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by pdfernhout 1y ago
As a deeper issue on "justification", here is something I wrote related to this in 2001 on the risks of non-profits engaging in self-dealing when they create artificial scarcity to enrich themselves: https://pdfernhout.
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by pdfernhout 1y ago
Coincidentally, and as another pre-1.0 fart myself :-) -- one who remembers when Ted Nelson's "Computer Lib / Dream Machines" was still just a wild hope -- I was thinking of something similar the other day (not USPS-spec
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by pdfernhout 1y ago
Something I wrote related to this in 2001: "An Open Letter to All Grantmakers and Donors On Copyright And Patent Policy In a Post-Scarcity Society" https://pdfernhout.net/open-letter-to-grantmakers-and-donors... &
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by pdfernhout 1y ago
I wrote StoryHarp for creating speech-interactive choose-your-own text adventures back around 1998 (in Delphi for Windows desktop), and ported it to the web about seven years ago (with some limitations) using TypeScript and Tachyons: https
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by pdfernhout 1y ago
Thanks! And at least Hacker News can help: :-) "Ask HN: Who is hiring? (April 2025)" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43547611
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by pdfernhout 1y ago
In theory, a general strike is always one more check on political power: "What would a general strike in the US actually look like?" https://wagingnonviolence.org/2025/04/what-would-general-str... &quo
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by pdfernhout 1y ago
To support your point, here is a 1975 book: "Resignation in protest : political and ethical choices between loyalty to team and loyalty to conscience in American public life" by Edward Weisband and Thomas M. Franck https:/&#
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by pdfernhout 1y ago
Maybe DNS for mail addresses is like a Post Office Box number? :-) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post_office_box With 20/20 hindsight, if the FSF had used a P.O. Box number in the license, the license addresses wo
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by pdfernhout 1y ago
I'm getting more at things like a perspective shift, like represented with ideas at these links: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ultimate_Resource https://www.remineralize.org/ https:/&#x2

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