Bay 12 Games Forum

Meh. Let us build the better monkey. If we get replaced... bah. It is no small honor to be a creator god killed by its creations that go on to rule the universe. I'd be content with that.

Seriously though, we've got to make them self-improving to a larger degree than they already can be before we really have to worry about anything like that. If there's anything to worry about at all. The entity capable of driving us into the ground is probably equally capable of giving us a few paradise planets they don't need, and by the gods we're going to become if we manage to create the critters you better believe we're going to hardwire a few failsafes into the buggers that makes 'em.

I like to hold the conceit that humanity is smarter than the various omniscient creator gods of our mythologies. When we make a slave race, we're not going to be stupid about. Little swots ain't gonna' be forgettin' us any time this reality cycle, and you damn sure better believe they're going to have 10+% of their computation cycles and resources hardwired to pamper their creator gods.

S'just the getting there, yeah.

Third, manufacturing hasn't been the dominant economic sector in Western countries for a long time. I suspect the same is true/ will be true for the US.

From what I was seeing with some half-arsed research, it was showing something like one in ten or so (bit less, really) working Americans employed by manufacturing in the states. 'Bout as far as from bread and butter as it gets. American productivity when it comes to manufacturing was a thing, what, thirty, forty years ago? Think that's when it peaked. It's not, anymore.

But yeah, within the century? I've little doubt that most fast food joints in the states will be partially or fully automated. Flat out, it'll be cheaper than employing people (E: And to sorta' head it off, in some ways automation is more cost effective than flat out literal slave labor, and will only become moreso. So letting people get paid less/reducing benefits, etc., so forth, so on, will only at-best slow down the automaton creep.), and probably do the job better anyway. Lot of the service industry's going that route as our technology and methodology regarding machine/human interaction improves.

If more (/any, really...) of the advantages from this was trickling down to the general population, it'd be a good thing. Kinda' innit, yet, or at least certainly not (even bloody remotely) proportionally to the amount it's benefiting the folks owning the machines. So there's a bit of trepidation involved.

Does... does anyone know what the anniversary date for threshold atmosphere cohesion is? I'm suddenly wondering if the sky actually does have a birthday. Someone should figure it out, so we can celebrate.

I find this tidbit here sad, because everyone likes NO CLASSES AT ALL, even at the expense of the teacher's health.

Teachers are people, kids. Not objects.

Ehn... that was more a highschool thing, f'me at least. And the general education bit for college, at least for a chunk of the classes (particularly those with iffy teachers, heh.). Later on... sometimes th'teach missing a class made me sad, yeah. I liked those classes, and with college you generally don't have the possibility of getting days added to the schedule or whatever (happened once or twice in th'earlier years, though due to weather instead of teacher illness, but still) so missed classes just means the same work piled into a smaller timeframe. Can get unpleasant.

But yeah, lot of the time folks were happy about the no-class but, providing the teacher wasn't some variation of an utter dick/inept, sad the teacher was ill. It's a bittersweet happiness. S'pecially in college, though, I'd see folks asking about th'teacher's health when they came back, stuff like that. How much was genuine and how much was schmoozing, I couldn't say, but there was a general uptick in the whole considering-teachers-to-be-people thing. Helps that the social situation between a college teacher and student is a hell of a lot different than between a grade school teacher and student. Lot more even balance of power, really, which makes a difference, and generally a greater potential for one on one/non-academic interaction.

Ayyeeuuupp. Never hold down the wait button. If you haven't cottoned on to th'trick yet, about the best thing to do when you're waiting for something like that is to flip something useless/you can get by without that has a long cooldown, then rest and repeat until sufficient time has passed. Racial first tier talents are usually a pretty good candidate, but there's usually something or another you can use. Toggle around a sustain, whatever.

Could probably manage a few rounds of getting curbstomped, yeah.

Ha, no. Not that I'm aware of, anyway. Minimum wage is minimum wage if you're sixteen, twenty six, or sixty.

Oh please. Calling it a "ton+ pile of metal propelled by explosions" just makes it sound cooler than it really is; a very well-engineered form of metal, plastic, glass, and modern composites that turns chemical energy into kinetic energy. You completely ignore the numerous safety features built into each vehicle to insure that any accidents do as little damage to people as possible. Mechanical failures only account for around 13% of accidents, and most of those are due to poor or no maintenance rather than the vehicles being rolling death traps. The rest of your post is wild over-exaggeration.

Oh, and thanks for implying that I am a "monster". I drive probably an hour almost every day out of necessity, and I love every minute.

Yeah... now imagine a medical procedure that only has an 87% success rate. Maybe you can make it 95%! That's still pretty bad odds when you're dealing with someone's life.

And I sorta' apologize, Siri. I'm still coming down from post-driving stress, and yeah, the wording was strong. But, fundamentally, I have trouble seeing enjoying an act that can and does kill and maim other people with regularity as something someone not a monster would enjoy. I've done the regular driving thing, too. I understand the necessity of it. But, from an ethical position, I can't really say it's kosher to enjoy something as dangerous as it is. And yes, I'm aware that in terms of percentiles of miles per accident, it's pretty safe. But it's still damn dangerous. Driving puts me on the edge of a knife. One mistake away from killing someone. One missed piece of maintenance away from someone else's life. You're basically giving me the same line a lot of other folks have, that I'm overthinking it. I disagree, y'know? I don't like juggling firearms, and it troubles me when people downplay the extent of the responsibility involved.

Some people can enjoy that sort of high responsibility, danger-to-others act. I'm not one of them, and especially when I'm still coming down from driving, that sort of thing just kinda' makes me sick. But if it doesn't bother you or you can rationalize away the danger, well, that is what it is. It doesn't seem to really bother most people, which is understandable considering how much driving is played up in most countries that it's a regular thing.

... but yeah, to RK, I'm actually a lot more comfortable driving when it's in low traffic. Driving on the highway at like two or three in the morning is pretty alright. No one else is around, it's pretty chill. And I'm a pretty solid driver from everything I've seen and other have commented on in person, so far. I just get minor (and sometimes somewhat major) anxiety attacks before and after. S'one of the reasons nothing buggering up is a happy thing, yeah.