Yes, it has that figurative meaning but there's also an ACTUAL meaning to the words, no.

AmiMoJos statement was stupid and I'm explaining how **using an example in the PRECISE context that he/she did, the transfer of wealth to/from government**.

For example if I called you a "routinely sanctimonious cunt", I mean it figuratively, not to anthropomorphize that your actual vagina has feelings of superiority. I would assume your cunt routinely has no emotions, in reality.

It kind of feels to me like it's hard to get excited about things these days? I mean that if you think a particular breakthrough is cool, well you didn't consider problems X or Y. And it was done better, by Z. And it's going to destroy the environment. And people on the opposite side of the political spectrum like it, so that's a problem too. Etc.

I'm not sure if we're really in an unusually negative-thinking period if history, or if it just feels that way to me, in the current political climate, in my own state of life, etc.

Either way, as a GenXer it's kind of relaxing! Back to the days when caring about things was SO not cool. ;-)

David Brin is a science fiction author who wrote a collection of books in the "Uplift" universe. The 30-second summary is that there are countless sentient species around the universe and a galactic civilization spanning billions of years. before humanity was discovered, no known example of evolution creating advanced intelligence was ever discovered. Instead, superior advanced species "uplifted" primitive species to be intelligent through gene modification, selective breeding, etc.

One of the species in the book was kind of a like an organic wheel chair that had evolved in a close-to-weightless environment--short stub legs to accelerate and hardened wheel-like structures with some kind of magnetism involved.

Very interesting books and very creative in exploring just how different evolution in radically different environments might be.

"Slashdot reader AmiMoJo commented: "This is perhaps the biggest transfer of wealth in American history."

You mean aside from the $2.66 TRILLION the US (federal) government collects every year from taxpayers?

I agree that we shouldn't feel that we need to contain robot designs to humanoid or humanoid-esque shapes and mechanics, but I would disagree that there are only a very few niche cases where walking on legs make sense. Legs (limbs more generally) have millions of years of evolutions behind them, and they work very well in many situations (walking on the ground, running, climb trees, ascending a cliff, swimming, etc). They may be considered jacks-of-all trades, and they may be less efficient than wheels or treads when moving on flat generally regular surfaces, but limbs are incredibly versatile.

I'm waiting for humanoid spider robots...

Excuse me, my error. Half marathon, 13 miles.

I am so puzzled by this kind of reaction. This is the first time something like that has ever happened! Check out "WABOT-1" -- I'm not sure if it was the first bipedal robot to walk at all, but it's a product of the 1970s. Look at the progress in 50 years!

Then Check out Honda Asimo from ~2010. Asimo was only about 15 years ago.

I think going from WABOT to Asimo to an autonomous running robot that can run 26 miles in under 2 hours—in half a century—is absolutely amazing. The engineers who designed and built it should be applauded.

"But it's both sad and ironic that those traits may also spell the end of mankind."

Ah, I see from this and other posts that we're entering a new cycle of the "oh no, the world's end is imminent because of: (check all that apply, according to your therapist)
( ) climate change
( ) pollution
( ) overpopulation
( ) COVID (deprecated)
( ) Trump
( ) Illegals
( ) Illegals being prosecuted
( ) Trans people not being allowed to strip in front of kids anymore
( ) (Other) _________________"

This has been a persistent neurosis especially peculiar to the West since what, 990AD? What's old is new again.

In fact, the existence of nuclear weapons has given us 75 years of Great Power peace, something unheard-of in the modern era.

You're arguing that since a woodworker works with materials that make violins he's "obviously" the right person to give an expert opinion on that Mozart symphony?

Let's observe that physicists in particular have insisted atomic war is literally imminent pretty much since the moment the weapons were invented ... two generations ago.

It isn't.

The "animals" as you describe them, had the chance in 1948 to accept the two-state solution offered by the British Mandate.

They refused it, quite explicitly because their leadership believed they (with the assistance of adjacent Arab states) had the ability genocide the Jewish populations of the region. Subsequently they, or their paymasters in Tehran, haven't hidden even slightly that their goal isn't coexistence, it's extermination.

They said, in effect, "No thank you, we don't want to share this land, we would rather kill them all".
And they're still not kidding; since 1994 the total international contributions to the Palestinians has been >$40bn. Did they build power plants? Water desalination? Ports? Infrastructure? Nope. They used it for terrorist-hiding tunnels, weapons, and rockets.

I agree, the reaction IS worse than the unprovoked attack. This is how punishment and conditioning works. https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fintersol.ca%2Fnews%2Forgan... Even in 'enlightened' systems, if someone shoplifts a $100 shirt, we don't simply take $100 from them as a 'commensurate' punishment. We put them in jail.*

*ok I realize the concept of jailing shoplifters in 2026 is hilariously outdated; we don't do this any more unless they're white or asian or hispanic, and even then it's rarely done. I submit the societal consequences as further proof of the point.

Aside from them being convincing, I'm interested in hearing what fact asserted there is wrong.

Amusingly, those guys you DISMISS are agreeing with you, you sanctimonious cunt. The article from way back in 1958 explains how the AMOC very specifically is overturned, and the colossal climate consequences.

If only we held the same strict standard to the people casually ransacking retail stores in urban areas.

Nevertheless, the US still has the highest percentage of successful missions to Mars, compared to organizations and countries with all-metric programs.

Funny, that.

... But I would willingly suffer brain rot instead of being locked in with "...more than a dozen millennials gathered in a brownstone apartment in Brooklyn ... For two hours of reading, drawing and conversation."

Or, it's something that's happened cyclically for eons.

These guys in 1958 are vastly more convincing than modern climatologists
https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fharpers.org%2Farchive%2F19...

Paleoclimate shows clear pulses of warming about every 120k-140k years followed by cooling 30+ times in the last 5 million years. The last... About that many years ago.
Per the wiki on the subject: "... It has been observed that ice ages deepen by progressive steps, but the recovery to interglacial conditions occurs in one big step..."
Wait long enough, and being present when it happens is inevitable.
https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2F...

The idea that we are doomed as a species is laughably pessimistic.