I’m no expert, but I do know that dopamine, the reward neurotransmitter, can play a big role in psychological addiction, as opposed to physical addiction to the chemical itself. With respect to physical addiction, your body adapts to having the chemical and craves it, such that you get withdrawal if you cut it out. Some drugs, like cannabis, aren’t physically addictive, but are psychologically addictive. You don’t get physical withdrawal symptoms when you cut out the drug, but you do miss it and your mind refers back to it, which is what makes you want it. I’ve found that smoking weed is far more psychologically addictive than consuming THC gummies, because there is a strong link between the act, smoking, and the effect, getting high, because smoking puts the drug quickly into your bloodstream via your lungs. Conversely, it takes 30-45 minutes for edibles to kick in, so it weakens the link between the action, eating the edible, and the high, which doesn’t come for a while afterwards. Gambling, porn, etc., are psychological addictions that rely on the dopamine (reward) connection.

The lawsuit faulted Jacksonville Beach Police for hiring and putting O’Connell on a sensitive case despite his own legal history.

“O’Connell is an officer with a documented history of volatility and poor judgment, having previously been terminated from the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office for threatening to ‘blow up’ the agency, later reinstated, then arrested for domestic battery before resigning under the weight of those charges,” the lawsuit said. “Jacksonville Beach PD hired him anyway, assigned him as lead investigator on a sensitive child-luring case, and later promoted him to corporal after his investigation resulted in the wrongful arrest and prosecution of an innocent man.”

So, a shit cop who has no business having a badge and a gun does a shit job. Who’d have figured? In my opinion, all settlements of claims against improper policing should come from police retirement funds, not public funds. Put the liability on those capable of making the changes necessary to correct the situation.

This is a great way to handle it. Just let liability fall on on those responsible for the hazard. Your shitty AI just told some idiot to drink bleach? Your AI company is liable for the damages. Simple, effective.

Nuclear weapons were the holy grail of warfare, a game changer. AI is viewed by some as a similarly revolutionary, powerful tool.

It’s a valuable part of the education…

Damn Gurl, those are some lobes!

Just think about how they will manipulate the public as their AI influencer bots become more realistic. It’s a limitless propaganda army. The people around you shape your views and habits, and Meta is making every effort possible to control public discourse. This will not end well.

That’s quite the headline.

God, I’m so sick of AI that I feel like a luddite. I used to be a tech nerd, and enjoy the cutting edge of developing technologies. Now I just wish we could go back in time. I think the problem isn’t so much the developing technology, but rather the way it is being crammed down our throats whether we want it or not. Everywhere I look I’m inundated with AI slop. Youtube has gotten ridiculous. I used to be able to find interesting content fairly easily. Now, every search is full of an endless array of AI slop from brand new accounts with only a few hundred followers. Anything good has been buried by 10,000 AI-generated ripoffs. Maybe someday AI will come into it’s own, but it is nowhere near there now, and I am so, so tired of having to deal with it. It’s like the entire world is being turned into one of those automated customer service telephone lines that are completely useless; that you’re stuck navigating until you’re put on hold for 30 minutes when you ask to speak to a human.

I wonder if GrapheneOS’s sandboxed google play services will work?

Gah, beat me to it! It’s impossible to have an original idea on the internet!

Probably the greatest Picard moment in the entire series.

I’m with you. I used to love being in on the bleeding edge of technology. Now it just disappoints me. Enshittifcation is the norm. Instead of “how can we make this game more fun,” it’s all about “how can we wring more profit out of this,” and gathering personal data for marketing is a favorite method. I never thought I’d become a Luddite, but here I am.

Thanks for the insightful comment!

Mine runs a little warm too, but I have hotspot on 100% of the time, as I use it as my wifi source. Battery life is still very good.

I haven’t noticed a thing on my Pixel 9 Pro running GrapheneOS.

I used to have a kindle and it would periodically lock up and I’d have to do a hard reset and then re-download all my books. It was extremely frustrating. I finally got tired of it and ditched ti for a Kobo Clara. Whats nice about the Kobo is that it doesn’t have all the janky DRM bullshit, and it just works. You can load up books or pdfs from any source. So much happier now!

By doing something for exercise (e.g. walking) vs. doing nothing, you get around 80% of the benefit of an optimized exercise strategy. I agree 100% about healthspan being as important or more important than lifespan. When I was fat, I had a real wake-up call coming back from a family vacation. I was carrying my 2 carry-on bags up the jetway after exiting the plane, and I was out of breath. As I waited for my ex-wife and kids, they wheeled up a man probably a decade older than me in a wheelchair with an oxygen tank, and I saw my future in that instant. Having recovered my health and fitness has been life changing for me. Not only can I do all the things I used to enjoy when I was young, I hang out with a younger crowd and attract women half my age. My only regret is that it took me so long to begin to properly care for myself and develop the habits that keep me strong and healthy.

Aging lies at the intersection of genetics and environment, which means that 1) not everyone ages at the same rate, and 2) there are things that you can do to slow the rate of aging. The levers you have to pull include sleep, exercise, nutrition, supplements and drugs. I’m fortunate to have good genetics, with a couple of SNPs associated with longevity, and over the last 5 years or so have optimized the above factors to greatly improve my health and vitality. I turn 60 in June, I am in the best shape of my life, and most people assume I’m in my mid-40s and are shocked when they learn how old I really am. I feel like I’ve experienced something of a minor miracle, as I spent probably 20 years of my life morbidly obese and was in very poor health when I started. 60 year old me could kick 30 year old me’s ass any day of the week. If you want a specific blueprint of things you can do to move the needle on your lifespan and healthspan, Peter Attia’s book “Outlive” is very good. If you don’t want to give a narcissist that is in the Epstein files your money, the book is available for free as an audiobook on spotify, and I’m sure it can be found as an epub sailing the high seas.

I’m with you. I ran Qubes for a while for security reasons, and it was just too much of a pain in the ass. Ubuntu is easy.