“This is not a peace. It is an armistice for twenty years!”
Ferdinand Foch, 1921
Technically, an orbital "Rods from God" weapon would also still qualify under "sticks and stones". Just very big ones.
Conversely, there are many other people from his time that definitely did exist and verifiably so. I have a bronze coin minted in Judea by Pontius Pilatus. I can look at it, I can touch it, it's real. Even as an avowed agnostic, I see no reason why Jesus couldn't have been a real person (minus the miracles that were almost certainly later additions).
I do agree that in the grand scale of things we're actually very early. That alone would explain a lot.
Unfortunately we've pretty much used up all easily available resources. Anyone 'starting over' would have a much harder time getting the things they need to really get the ball rolling again.
When humans first discovered gold they practically only had to scoop it out of rivers. You'll be hard pressed to find any streams with such appreciable production anywhere in the world today.
Nah, I'm willing to bet there is actual physical life in our very own solar system (apart from all life on Earth, of course). Europa's oceans for example have a decently high probability of hosting microbial life.
Of course, discovering primitive life all around us would be a bad sign the great filter is still ahead of us instead of behind us...
The most boring one: most species off themselves before they fully get off their starting planet. We will go the same way. Take your pick from climate change, war, pandemic, ... or even a combination of several!
Exactly this. In ancient Roman times, emperor Caracalla was infamous for having many of his enemies outright killed. One of these was the brother of a soldier who was assigned to his personal guard at the Rhine border regions. When Caracalla got off his horse for a piss, he got a gladius thrusted between his ribs. For all his might and power, he very much brought that on himself.
Sometimes people like that soldier are the last line of justice in the world.
I'm a Reddit refugee from when they axed 3rd party apps. I was quite active in the ancient coins subreddit, but there's simply no way I will ever grace their site with a click again.
There's an alternative on Lemmy, which I've used, but there's literally only one other active person. Two does not a community make.
I'm gonna go with "no" judging by how things have been going in the past. I hope to be proven wrong, but I'm not holding my breath.
I agree, all the evils of yesteryear are still there and active, just either well-hidden or people simply don't care/pretend not to know (cfr football world championships in Qatar, ...).
We've made enormous progress technologically, but humans are still the exact same as 2000 or 5000 years ago. We've changed exceedingly little in that time, and the few things that have changed could be reverted very quickly if shove comes to push concerning climate collapse etc.
Best I can do is a token effort as long as it doesn't upset the shareholders.
I live with my SO and child and I'm still lonely as fuck. Not their fault, it's not their role to be my therapist or w/e. But I sure wouldn't mind being able to hang out with some people who share my interests. But ever since Covid, that reality is just... gone.
Depends on the capabilities. If i can automatically open my garage door with my mind or draw a bath, or control a cursor on a screen, then no. If it enables entire new ways of experiencing sensations or memories, or ways to share them, or fully immerse you in a virtual world indistinguishable from reality, then maybe. If it's not from a company Musk has any hand in.
Yes!! Such a classic.
My hognose once surprised me by "throwing" rocks off his ridge. He was trying to burrow and apparently thought they were in the way, so he carefully yeeted them down one by one. I was rather impressed by that as well.
A few years ago, mid pandemic, I started collecting ancient coins. I was really passionate about it even thinking about finding ways to make it a small after-hours job or such, but I've since run into a few walls and have subsequently lost my drive. For example, I wanted to take very high resolution pictures of the coins and then compose a catalog of sorts, but while I have all the gear that I need (camera with a macro lens) my shots keep coming out wrong and I've since kind of given up on the idea altogether.
My entire life is one long succession of passionately started projects that got abandoned either midway or after heavy setbacks. If I ever find one that brings me lasting happiness, I'll gladly share it, but for now I'm just as much on the lookout as you are.
I don't enjoy doing it, but I do it with the goal of showing myself I CAN do it and to gain joy/accomplishment for that, and also because these are some specific weak points of mine I've been trying to polish and repair for ages. Also, I'm always very impressed with people whose handwriting looks like it was printed because it's so precise and consistent. Mine has always looked like I was a doctor (I wish), so I just wanted to improve in that regard.
Fuck cocaine, gimme ketamine and shrooms!
All joking aside, both are illegal where I live and carry the same sentence as horse and actual coke. ¯\(ツ)/¯
I've been consistently trying to write and draw for 15+ years, with weekly practices, and I haven't seen any appreciable improvement. My handwriting is still erratic and illegible, and I can't carry a story thread over a page or two without stumbling and falling hard. Meanwhile, both my grandfather and mother are accomplished artists. Guess it skipped a generation...
For every right-wing tough guy urging his crying son to “man up,” there’s a voice from the left telling him that to express his concerns is to take airtime away from a woman or someone more marginalized.
AutoTLDR bot managed to capture the very essence of this piece. All you need to know is in here. A two-pronged assault on masculinity with no obvious (non-toxic) way out.
I've been playing since about a month after release and have since reached lvl 81 (just to show I put in quite a lot of game time since I started). In my first month of play I came across ONE single griefer who TK'd people on purpose. Considering I'd played hundreds of games I thought this game was a shining example of a great community.
However.
The last three(ish) weeks or so, I feel like I'm playing a whole different game. About 1/3rd to a quarter of my games involve randoms with really toxic behaviour. Training mobs on you, throwing barrages on the group for fun, destroying our own sentries in defense missions...
But there's one thing that is apparently suddenly a "fad", I guess? That is kicking someone from the game right before extraction. Seriously, I've run several full 40 minute rounds, usually on decently high difficulties (7-8), with no real communication with any players whatsoever, let alone tk's or toxic shit, and then you suddenly get kicked as soon as the Pelican is on the ground.
WTF gives? I don't know if it's a reportable thing, I doubt it, but I sincerely hope it's just players getting somewhat bored while waiting for more content and that it'll pass, because if this is going to be my regular experience from here on out, I'm going to look for something else to play. Not the devs' fault in any way.
Even IF you somehow manage to navigate today's maze of failures, rejections and heartbreak, what is your reward? To live yet another day in misery? To wait until climate change, war or disease does away with us?
A reward would be to be able to rest. I don't mean death per sé, but it seems like that's the only real-life thing left available to people like us.
Yes, yes, I know very well that "if nothing has meaning, YOU get to choose the meaning". Except I don't. Maybe if I was rich or powerful. But I'm poor, in poor health and powerless.
I read Camus' Sisiphus, and I, for one, cannot possibly imagine him happy.
It took ~5 minutes and there was ZERO pain.
I even anticipated this. There was no reason to think it would be hard in any kind of way.
Why am I like this?? Why is my brain such mush when it comes to my executive functioning while several other parts of my mental being are more than fine or even slightly supercharged (when I'm not depressed or out of mania)
The kicker? The appointment isn't for a doctor or a dentist or something else that would be "normal" to dread.
It's an appointment to pick up a brand new company car. A 2023 Mercedes EQA to the tune of 50K€. Most people would JUMP at that kind of opportunity, but not me. No, I sit there contemplating whether I even deserve a car that costs twice my annual salary, and that I'm just deluding myself into thinking I'm a valued part of society, that someone will realize they made a mistake and such a car was never meant for me (or "anyone like me").
This after a double dose of 15mg ritalin, by the way. Without it I would never have been able to push myself over that limit to begin with.
Fuckin' a...
AI inflicted this upon my retina, so you shall suffer the same fate.
I'm a 40-year old dude with... let's say, plenty of issues. Most of them stemming from childhood but adulthood has been equally painful so far.
I've been looking into self-help a lot lately and notice that many techniques tell you to focus on a person whom you consider an example, a role model you want to emulate.
The problem is, I don't have any. None. My own father was an abusive alcoholic who offed himself when I was 15. My mother did her best but was a neurotic wreck with many untreated mental health issues of her own. She eventually found a new partner whom I looked up to for many years since he was finally that role model I thought I needed.
But a few years ago he tried to seduce my own partner (which luckily didn't succeed), resulting in my esteem for him immediately imploding completely.
In the greater world, outside of my own little atmosphere, there aren't really any actors or business people or coworkers, bosses, teachers... that I've looked up to or ever had any kind of relationship with. Sure, there are many people I admire for whatever they may have contributed to humanity, but that doesn't mean they're some kind of shining example in every area of their lives.
I guess I'm just trying to communicate that I'm a 40-year old dude with daddy issues and I have no idea how to healthily cope with it or even fix it.
Before anyone asks, I'm on a waiting list for professional treatment. Been a month, 5 more to go (in a best case scenario).
How did others cope with this specifically? Did you have any insights in what ideas to emulate or how to handle certain difficulties in life through the lens of a mentor? Is it even desirable or is it just another crutch for the weak-minded to cope with, well, being weak-minded?
Just checking to see how all this works. As a fun treat, see what you can identify in the mini hoard :)