Personal chat thread

[caltrek]

I received my Covid booster shot yesterday. I woke up this morning with a splitting headache and a feeling as if I were fighting something off. I am not saying they are related, as I can get headaches for other reasons. Still, they are rarely so severe. On my wife's advice, I have taken a couple of Tylenol and taken plenty of liquids. That seems to have helped.

[Revolutionary Moderate]

I got my COVID-19 booster shot today at noon. The only side effect that it has had is that is made my arm weak and sore, which was the same side effect that I had when I got my second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.

[caltrek]

Hopefully, I am not giving away too much about that Facebook group I mentioned if I share this link:

http://santafefilmfestival.com/index/fi ... -together/

[wjfox]

Visitors to my garden today.

[Yuli Ban]

Besides COVID and our bungled response to it, I hold the opinion that the next few years are going to be outrageously interesting. For many, it might be dystopian, but I find what's coming to be extremely fascinating.
Sam Altman's hinting at it:


The way I see it, we're going to have a couple years of multimodal and massively multimodal (i.e. three or more modalities) AI to play around with, and at some point between now and 2024, we're going to see the first "Magic Media Machine"— an AI that can synthesize just about anything within reason, giving birth to the age of "bedroom multimedia franchises." I wouldn't be surprised if OpenAI will be behind it.

By "massively multimodal," I mean that you could input text and it spits out an animation, complete with sound and captions, showing off the full breadth of its abilities rather than something that sticks to text and image or text and audio or audio and image or whatnot. A massively multimodal AI might be what we use to leapfrog to proto-AGI. All that's certainly coming in very short notice.

Really makes the new FTL forums feel like such a different place from the old ones. I remember reading those archives going back to 2011. Outside of the scare of an economic collapse in 2011 that never came, those early years of the old forums felt so quaint and optimistic in spite of the fact that sci-tech was just so lame by contemporary standards. 2021 is pure science fiction in comparison. Whereas 2011 didn't seem that outrageous to some hypothetical observer from 2001. Indeed, in some ways, 2001 was a more optimistic year to be a futurist because you'd be coming hot off that last big spurt of progress that happened in 1995-2000 (e.g. cloning, GPS, internet availability, DVDs, Human Genome Project, International Space Station, etc.) whereas 2011 was smackdab in the middle of a recession of visible progress in just about every field except smartphones and, to a VERY limited extent, AI (and even then, smartphones were still in an early phase of adoption and deep learning was a full year away from becoming a major AI trend).

And what even needs to be said about the FIRST forum for FTL, the one from 2009? I loved hate-reading that one because of how ancient sci-tech felt during that era. Just feels bad considering 2009-era futurism.

So let it be known that things have been accelerating recently; I hope no one's suffering any delusion that things have slowed down or haven't changed in the past decade.

[wjfox]

Just booked three weeks' holiday from later this month (I've been saving up most of my annual leave until year end). So I'll have plenty of time to work on Past Timeline in late December/early Jan.

[Revolutionary Moderate]

I have a terrible memory and I think I know why, because in 2001, when I was either 2 or 3 years old, I was injured when my older sister opened one of my mom's minivan's back passengers doors, which open by sliding backward, and I was standing behind the door, so the opening door hit my right in my forehead. I have no memory of this, although this is probably do to being not old enough, rather than a result of the accident. I can still see where the door hit me in my forehead. I don't blame my sister for this, since she was only 8 years old. It is only my long-term memory that is terrible as my short-term memory is okay, and perhaps the accident had some benefits, since my mental health is perfect, although I also live a stress-free life, so that might be why as well.

[Ken_J]

silly project I've been doing this month. Invent Calendar: an invention idea every day for the month of December.

[Yuli Ban]

[SerethiaFalcon]

Well, tomorrow I have 2,000 more words to write and then I am done with my first draft of my novel. It will be 60,000 words! Yay! This has been so grueling though! Of course, for a fantasy novel, this will be way too short, but I'm hoping whenever I end up working on my second draft, that it gets up to 80,000 words. There is one part of my novel in particular that definitely needs more added to it, so I'm hoping I can add more there, plus more stories and/or details elsewhere.

[Ozzie guy]

It's been fun watching Australia nuke our rivals in the ashes despite our two best bowlers being unable to play and one of our best batters batting with an injury.

I didn't realize Australia was still such a good criketing country.

Australia has 5 batters, one all rounder, one keeper and 4 bowlers in it's team.

4 out of 5 of Australias batters are in the top 10 batters world wide, half our bowlers are in the top 4 world wide, half of our bowlers who arn't even all rounders are in the top 8 all rounders world wide. On top of this its worth mentioning opening batsmen are at a disadvantage due to the ball being new so no opening batsman should make the list so we really acheived a miracle and got 4/3 batters on the list. Wicket Keepers also shouldn't make a list like this as they are not chosen for raw batting ability and are trained in keeping rather than just batting.

[Yuli Ban]

[wjfox]

Just had my booster.

[Ken_J]

missed a few days posting to the invent calendar videos. I have the invention ideas, just didn't post the videos for them yet. Not sure if that counts as a fail or not. But I will double up the next 3 days to get back to the right numbers.

I kinda wish I had the resources, time and health to build display concept models of each, and working prototypes of a few of them. but I'm just a future being stuck in a sick modern american living below the poverty line. so I guess we get get what we get.

[wjfox]

What a wonderful day!

- Met my parents, nephews, and sister in law for the first time in two years. And my brother again who I'd seen twice recently.

- Enjoyed giving/receiving presents (including a PS5 I bought for my nephews), then had a lovely Christmas lunch.

- JWST successful launch.

- Nice to just get out of London and experience a change of scenery after so long.

Easily the best day of the year, for me.

Wishing everyone else on this forum a merry Christmas and all the best for 2022.

[Time_Traveller]

For Christmas i received from my family and friend some smellies, chocolate, Mini cheddars, Star Trek Discovery and Picard seasons three and one, 2 t-shirts and a rather shocking present from my friend my very own AnyCubic 3D Printer.

[Ken_J]

finished my invent calander ideas for 2021. some are things I could possibly build prototypes for. But I guess that will have to be a wait and see thing. Not sure if we'll be wearing hazmat suits to visit the ruins of cities reclaimed by wilderness in the next few years like some cut scene from a post apocalypse movies or something.

[Yuli Ban]

Watched Don't Look Up yesterday. It felt very real. Unless we address the distortion of reality by politicians aided by complicit media backed by vested interests, we are never going to be able to deal with any crisis.

What you see presented in the news everyday is distorted. The 'debates' don't reflect global scientific consensus. The short news cycle remains ahistoric and acontextual - full of hopium (can't tell you how many times I've been asked to end on a 'feel good' note).

Govt policies are driven by short-termism, economic interests of lobby groups, and self-interest (corruption and profiteering) - nothing to do with what's needed to protect people, and deal with the problem. And the Telegraph/spectator/express & much of the BBC push to normalise.

The majority of scientists make up a minority of rhetoric on media and social media, because misinformation from fringe groups goes far aided by vested interests - who have preferential access to politicians and a non-independent media.

I don't think all media is like this- but many of the the biggest players are. There are few independent players like the Byline Times that are trying to put reality out there, but it's frankly like a drop in an ocean of misinformation.

You'll see scientists/medics/lobby groups who put out certain messages (groups that are fringe) portrayed prominently in the media. Why was Dr. Coatzee from SA who said omicron was 'mild' widely platformed in the media? We heard far less from many others issuing clear warnings.

The 'mild' narrative spread like wildfire, but the nuance that rapid exponential spread would far outstrip any 'mildness' didn't- with many media outlets platforming fringe scientists saying this was 'good news', and people should get infected with omicron to get immunity.
Why are UsForThem, an anti-vax anti-mask group with unclear funding repeatedly platformed by the Telegraph, by GMB & Radio 4? Why are supporters of the great Barrington declaration ('herd immunity via infection') on radio 4 constantly despite having been proven completely wrong.

Why does media dichotomize arguments and create strawmen- arguing for mitigations is being 'pro-lockdown'. Arguing for safer schools is being 'pro-school closure'... These are false dichotomous narratives created and perpetuated by politicians, media & fringe groups of scientists.

Why does the BBC never discuss how to makes schools safer, rather casting doubt on measures like masks shown to be effective in studies all around the world, with millions of children wearing masks to schools every single day. Why does it promote anti-science exceptionalism?

Why do many outlets/scientists engage in zero covid bashing of countries that are still maintaining elimination/suppression & have had massively lower deaths than us. Surely we should be looking at what they're doing rather than bashing them & engaging in xenophobic stereotyping.

Despite the extensive research on long COVID now showing it is a very concerning multi-system disease that occurs even in people with mild illness - why is it almost never mentioned, except to suggest it's 'mild' and psychosomatic (not the scientific consensus at all!)

Why does our media not highlight how exceptional UK policy is and how different our outcomes in the pandemic have been compared to other countries? Why does our media never highlight the real risks to children- never discussed long covid from children.

Never questions the frankly shockingly exceptional policies in the UK with respect to vaccination of children, and the impact this has had (children have died before they could get vaccinated, thousands have long COVID). Why? Shouldn't this be a scandal?
Rather, we see gaslighting of those impacted by realities never portrayed. And attacks to those trying to bring these to the fore. Gag orders on NHS frontline workers. Coordinated attacks on scientists. Hit pieces on scientists in the media.

It's not just an uphill battle. We need to recognize the power gradients here. Scientists individually, or even coordinated cannot fight massive power structures that work as systems to promote vested interests of the few. We simply don't have the resources or the influence.

As a scientist I feel that we can keep screaming into the void, but unless the power structures that control the flow of information are dismantled, we will get nowhere. Given the handling of the pandemic I feel zero hope for the climate crisis.

Don't Look Up isn't about a hypothetical future- it's about a very real present. Just look at the hopium push during the omicron crisis, how it normalized inaction, and the devastating consequences globally. We're living this every single day.

[wjfox]

Just ordered a Blue Yeti. My first "proper" mic. Maybe I could start doing some podcasts.

[erowind]

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