Oh I'm sure editorial staff across all major media is prepping for the right moment to pop that front page. I'm guessing that we're not long from seeing the first "personhood for software" mainstream (premature) discussions popping up. I personally can't wait for it - it's going to be a real shitshow :D
> These people just want a dependable platform they control
Are you referencing Apollo/Reddit users? If so, I'm not convinced that 'control' is their main concern. I would guess that most users outside of the HN crowd care more about a nice UI, and of course being wherever all the action is. Both points do not seem in focus in any of the federated platforms I've seen so far. The UI is usually a carbon copy (at best) of whatever platform they're trying to replace, and the federation makes it less obvious for users where and how they get access to most engaging content. I am happy to be proven wrong though. The federated route is appealing to me on paper, but I'm not yet convinced it has good product/market fit with the general population on the internet.
Resigned from Twitter today.
Appreciate the opportunity, but didn’t think there was any real impact I could make there. Besides, it was sad to see my GitHub withering. Back to coding!
The important point of this story is not whether VIN plates should or shouldn't be affixed with rivets. It is whether the state should be able to _administratively_ confiscate personal and valuable property without a court order. Civil forfeiture laws have no place in democratic societies.
I made this mistake once, albeit with Newtons second law instead. I was explaining my estimations for changing some key processes in a company. As a kind of mental aid, I used 'F' as the total effort needed to make the change, while 'm' represented the size of the organization, and 'a' would represent the speed we wanted to perform the change with. F = m * a. A simple way of illustrating the exponential relationship between these factors.
But it blew their mind. It took on 'mystical' properties, as if we had distilled change management into pure Newtonian motion. I started seeing not only F = ma in memos on other issues, but also other equations like E = mc^2, trying to wrestle management lingo into relativistic conservation of energy.
I understand - it seems like a rational position to me to a certain degree. But regardless of circumstances leading to the event, what do you think you would do if you saw murders and rape right on your doorstep? Honest question by the way - there are plenty of examples of pacifists standing up to violence following a pacifist ethos.
It's close to where I live, and I have friends in Ukraine. So, it's probably fear and tribalism at the bottom of the stack, although I could also rant off a nice list of philosophic reasons for wanting to contribute. But yeah, probably just fear.
You raise good points. I feel like I should contribute, and I have experience and domain knowledge that would be useful, but up until now I didn't feel that the goals justified the means. But there has been wars all my life, and there will likely be wars after the war in Ukraine is resolved. Am I fine with my work being used in warfare for future wars, where I don't necessarily agree with the use of force? I'm having a hard time figuring out which route would lead to most regret - doing too little, or doing too much.
That seems like a very absolutist statement ;)
But yes, that's how I mostly feel as well. There's another part of me that questions, if I ever really had principles, if I can change them when things get scary.
Terrible story. Civil forfeiture seems utterly incompatible with any notion of a just society. It's like democracy just gave up and regressed to feudalism.
Even _if_ the author had turned out to be 100% guilty of whatever Amazon accused them of - this form of civil forfeiture is still punishment without trial and not in line with the sixth amendment.
In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense.
Their main customer base (by orders of magnitude) are advertisers. I'm not convinced that this move will change anything at all in those relationships.
I, myself, am a 'victim' of this, with two personal accounts grandfathered in from the good ol' days. I'm moving both of them to Protonmail.