So there’s this boy fighting evil aliens in a giant robot

Mamoru Oshii must be feeling so validated rn

High oil prices benefit countries that do not depend on it, for example due to their extensive green energy generation, or their dense electrified train networks

Non-generative models like RNNs or symbolic AI, sure. Generative models warrant a special caveat.

Such models, especially LLMs, are different from other technology in that even when they are being used by proletarians for their own aims, they contain a certain element of danger that is subtle and hidden behind the facade of a simple chatbot. Over time, the user will be misled into thinking that they are talking to another human, which has already led to suicides and murders instigated by them.

This is not because there is anything spooky about the technology itself, it’s just linear algebra and probability theory running on a big computer, but because the human mind tends to project its own thoughts and feelings onto other people, animals, and indeed objects. However, unlike with other humans, the user of an LLM will be much less careful, observant, and restrained in their fantasies, especially since it is eager to please and will try to motivate them towards continuing down the line.

If a socialist society is to put generative models to use, it must be able to somehow prevent “discussions” with the model to venture into psychologically suspicious territories. An LLM must never replace human interaction, it must no venture guesses about your friends and family, and especially it must NEVER be used for therapy. Nothing good can come from pretending it cares about you. Only then, and after following many other guardrails already in place for both training and use, can we even claim to enjoy its benefits.

tbf I think that’s actually his current status

The atrophy of the American public mirrors the ossification of its administrative state. As the EPA, the CDC, the USPS, and other institutions representing bourgeois concessions to the proletariat are systematically eroded, the American working class has no longer any means to realise its own interests through administrative means, and it loses the ability to meaningfully shape its environment. The space of potential futures within the system is considerably narrowed, and the narrower it becomes, the less people find a future in it worth fighting for by legal means. Expect protests to die down, and instead more assassins and armed groups to emerge.

The secret to keeping friends is to actually communicate with them at least every few weeks. It doesn’t need to be anything big, just checking in and signalling that you exist and do care. If you don’t do this, even if you yourself can remember, they might forget because tragically, this is just the way the human brain works for most people. When Steve moved, he likely went and looked out for other people to help him over the loss of this connection, and then they became his best friends, not immediately, but over the course of years and years. Even though none of this was your fault, how was he supposed to know you were still interested in his life after not hearing from you for over a decade?

Solar + Wind = Mandate of Heaven

The KPD faced tens of thousands of Nazis in open battle on the street, which might well be called “doing nothing” in comparison to the SPD’s strategy of trying to appeal to centre-right voters by assassinating Rosa Luxemburg

Basically every Ghibli movie that deals with WWII (Grave of the Fireflies, The Wind Rises, Porco Rosso etc). Miyazaki lost his mother in the war and spent his entire career traumatised by the contributions of his father to the imperial war machine as an airplane designer

Whoever wrote this headline, I can assure you that China’s dance robots will never be equipped to handle your kind of gymnastics

I sure wonder if there is any historical precedent of this specific thing actually happening and how it might have worked out in, say, the winter of 1812

Given the state of US education, I am genuinely glad they don’t think it’s actually less risky

You don’t get a big decision in life. You get a huge number of small decisions, and the course of your life will be dictated by their combined weight. In order to not regret your life, you must be prepared and principled making these small choices, and that is why reading theory and learning about the structure and dynamics of society is important.

That being said, you cannot go about your life just expecting to somehow become a revolutionary, because a revolution is a thing much bigger than you alone. It is a movement of the masses, shaped and kicked off by the entirety of a country’s material conditions, and at least in the beginning, it will be pure, untamed chaos. You don’t get to choose your place in it, instead, the sheer historical weight of the desperation of the oppressed masses will sweep you up and put you in a place of its choosing. A revolution will toss your life around like a boat in a storm, and if you aren’t careful, it will crush you.

Hey everyone, I’m back! I’ve been off-grid for a year and a half bc I got a PhD position and didn’t want to lose it due to political background checks against “extremism” during the trial period (obviously these checks mostly got leftists fired -.-). It’s about a new way of mathematically tackling nonlinear PDEs and I’m extremely happy with it because I can finally apply my specialist knowledge towards something actually useful, at the forefront of research!

They mostly do that, Bilibili has a content feature where you can skip to different sections of the video, in that case the individual lectures

Just made myself an account, these guys are crazy, uploading 30-hour videos of a whole conference :O

As someone who is into this area of research, I am a lot on YouTube and its clones, but just now I wound up searching for his lectures on DDG and I notice that, at least in this field, the lectures on it on Bilibili already begin outnumbering those on YT. I might need to change platforms soon

1. No one here claims to be a revolutionary. We are an instance for memes and theory, we don’t even do organising like a union or a communist party, and we are certainly not a revolutionary cell.

2. The “stop participating” argument is the most worn card in the deck of the anti-communist debater. Participation in the system is not like seal fur or tropical woods, you cannot live your life in a way that avoids it. Capitalism’s total commodification of basic human rights means you cannot even obtain food and shelter or receive life-saving care without taking part in it. Telling someone to “stop participating in the system” amounts to promoting suicide.

Communist parties do not “await” revolution. When you only wait for revolution, you will keep doing that forever. Communist parties work towards forcing a revolution (to the best of their abilities), by bringing about the conditions under which revolutions are successful, and this means organising, building a public presence, teaching theory, and supporting the actions of the revolutionary element of society, such as unionised labour, student groups, and the proletariat in industry and service economy.

They also protest against the police state and the war machine, engage in antifascist activism, and try mitigating the most immediate environmental and psychological effects of capitalism while they are unfolding.