You can't be 100% sure that you aren't the only conscious mind that exists, and all of this is an illusion. Or that the all powerful FSM isn't just running a fractal pattern on his cosmic computer and it became sentient, perceiving itself as trillions of perspectives, each deeming themselves a separate consciousness and thinking they live inside a universe with "laws of physics" when they're really only a pattern of energy with no time or space. The fact that neither of these scenarios aren't testable doesn't make them not possible. It just makes them not scientific perspectives.

Clearly Ellison is no fan of 70's sci-fi.

Musk is making a choice. Alexa isn't making a choice, so while you are free to think, "Hey! The programmers of Alexa decided that they would push Harris's agenda while remaining mute on Trump." But that is only one possibility. It could equally be that there is a preponderance of bad things about Trump in it's feed just because he's a jackass who contradicts himself at every turn, shows massive signs of cognitive impairment and malignant narcissism, and Alexa is following a directive to not say bad things about politicians.

It always ends with 'watering' the crops with an energy drink.

The good news is that now the people who throw money at fascists to remake America in their own hateful image now have less money to sponsor the campaign of potential winners with the same vision. I say, go for it Donald. All the money in the world won't save you from your fate if you lose this election, and more than half of your donors will be too financially drained and discouraged to continue giving money to other fascist politicians. Thus upping the odds for people who come to DC to enact legislation that actually helps people.

And before you say it, I'm under no illusion that everything the non-fascists do is for the greater good. There are some Democratic political crooks, some are pulling the wool over their supporters' eyes, and are entirely there to enrich themselves. That used to describe the GOP politicians too – a mix of the good and the bad, regardless of what you think of their policy –but all the ones with conscience have left the party and all they're left with are fascists and grifters.

Sooooo... how long have you known you were autistic?

Seriously though, there is a real difference between clinical treatment and pop psychology, but scientific inquiries that lead to better treatment options can always be distorted, misunderstood, and profited off of by the willfully or otherwise ignorant. One doesn't cancel out the other. More insight is still a good thing.

Apple would make all of this trouble go away if they offered consumers a choice of running their walled garden version of iPadOS or some Linux OS that they are free to install anything on it they want. People would have a choice, but choosing to stay out of the walled garden would be substantially poorer an experience that only OSS zealots would do it.

I've met a few people who claim to not be able to make pictures in their heads. The conversation usually goes like this.

Me: "What is the color of your house?"

Them: [eyes go up for a second] "[States the color.]"

Me: "How do you know?"

Them: [eyes go up for a second] "....oh."

I can't speak to whether there are any people who actually don't make pictures in their heads, but my anecdotal experience is that they make them so vague or so quickly that they aren't even consciously aware that they are doing it.

I learned my view of right or wrong from my own sense of empathy, and not wanting to cause other people suffering or injustice because I don't want others to cause that in me.

Face it. If you need God and Jesus to tell you that something is wrong, otherwise you are happy to satisfy your violent, abusive, petty urges, then you just aren't a good person. Other people can do good for good's sake without a rulebook. Not being able to see that as a possibility says volumes about you and nothing about the heretics.

I tried to give up drinking Diet Coke for decades. Had zero success that lasted longer than a week. Thank the powers that be that I have managed to avoid alcohol or any drug harder than caffeine... I'd be equally powerless. I can be yelling at myself to stop inside my head all the while going to the counter at a convenience store, and carrying another bottle of soda up to the register, feeling no control over my movements. I've heard the conscious/unconscious split described before as a rider on an elephant. The rider thinks he is in charge of the elephant's movements when instead, the elephant is in charge and the rider is simply engaged in a post-hoc rationalization loop, fooling himself at every turn that, "I meant to do that."

But it doesn't matter if the part of you making decisions is the elephant or the rider. It's all still a part of you. Capital Y YOU are making the choices, whether small y you is aware of the choice's origin or not, and YOU should be held responsible for that choice.

Incidentally, I "chose" to go to a hypnotherapist two years ago regarding my dietary choices, and haven't had a sip of Diet Coke since.

The Xs are incremental due to the character limit on the platform. Thus I would suggest that the new term for 'tweets' be a portmanteau of X and increment:

Xcrement.

Correct me if I'm wrong, and I'm only going by memory, but there have only been a few rolling blackouts in the last 2 decades in California. There was in the early '00s that turned out to be a result of energy manipulation by profiteering ENRON, and more recently planned blackouts during high wind conditions, NOT due to a shortage of electricity but due to wanting to prevent downed lines in certain areas that might start brush fires.

The only other blackouts I recall are from cars crashing into poles and the like.

You're missing the fact that the price and size will iteratively decrease, and the power or your mobile device will iteratively increase to the point where your mobile device and a pair of odd-looking glasses will substitute entirely for a computer. They are not there... yet. But inevitably we are all going to be augmented with wearables to the point where laptops will only fit highly specialized use cases.

They have to start somewhere, but this is where it is going.

..is exactly what the planet needs Fixed that for ya

5 Insightful?

So every politician who voted to bring down the cost of insulin has an insulin dependent diabetic in their immediate family?

Every polititician who votes for LGBTQ or racial minority equal rights has an LGBTQ or racial minority in their immediate family?

No politician who votes for relief for 9/11 first responders or veterans doesn't have a vet/fireman/policeman in the family?

I think you're so jaded that you've lost sight of the fact that people can have empathy and care about others enough to act in their interests even if it doesn't serve them personally. It is enough to have a value that their actions serve. Values like equality for all, including people not like them. We're all human, even politicians. Some of them are craven and unprincipled, yes. And some of them are doing great work for people who are under-severed by society. Many of them are a little bit of both.

Maybe this is just projection on your part?