Basement Whatever
Escape the algorithm
advice aging ai algorithm aliens Art builder Chicago cities community consciousness design enshittification finance focus future games good tech governance happiness information Internet learning literature magic management media music organization perspective philosophy predictions privacy project reading reality social social media symbols technology travel ttrpg USA wealth work
about
Category: Post
-
Based on the 2024 presidential election, 54% of Illinois voters are Democrats, yet Democrats hold 82% of Illinois’ U.S. House seats. With one fewer seat to work with, Illinois Democrats would have a difficult time drawing maps that would eliminate another Republican district. Keeping their current 14 seats would give Democrats over 87% of Illinois’…
-
Europeans typically get lower salaries than their American counterparts. But they receive a slew of benefits that Americans don’t get, including healthcare and colleges that aren’t bankruptcy factories. Basically: USA gives people more money to make their own buying choices, but doesn’t keep costs low. Europe gives less money but prices are lower since the…
-
Broadcast during just 23 weeks of 1982, and reaching no more than WCIU’s Chicagoland perimeter, The Chicago Party conformed only to those codes that suited it. Taped live inside South Side nightclub CopHerBox II, The Chicago Party did feature smooth-talking hosts in veteran musician Willie Woods and his dashing best friend James Christopher. And it…
-
Curation – such as record collecting – has a beginning and an end. Curation does not continue infinitely; a record stops when it reaches its end. Curation is a choice among infinite options. A record costs money and takes up space, defining its limit. Your limited choices have meaning and therefore define you. Curation creates…
-
Somewhere in the bowels of X, Sam Altman indicated that to get to the edge of what you can learn from AI, ask for the hardest question it could reasonably answer. It gives back two answers – ones it can answer reasonably well given the availability of public information, and ones that are hard to…
-
Somewhere I recall reading that for elite athletes, the winning combination was genetic talent, the will to succeed, and the presence of a father or close family member with the capability and drive to act as a secondary coach. I thought about that when reading this interview with Rudy Kraft, one of the earliest writers…
-
The Fermi Paradox is essentially this: If the odds for intelligent life are so good, then why haven’t we met any aliens? The Paradox lists theories why. Personally, I think either they’re here and we don’t know about it, or we don’t know how to look. Casey Handmer has a new theory – we can’t…
-
society indeed did not become transhumanist – that is, not in belief. Few of the biotech users endorse the philosophy of technological transcendence. But society is heading there in deed. Conservative forces (religion, disgust, precaution) were in this case grossly outgunned by the force of sheer desire. We got, not transhumanism (as deliberate, informed, rational…
-
What’s actually important to me is that you really understand that this is a real possibility, for you, in your life. If you practice with honest diligence, with tenderness and patience and determination, one day you will understand that you were completely wrong about everything. And you will be so, so happy about that. More…
-
I love how art-world denizens dress when they come to Los Angeles. The collector class interprets “dressing for/with/about fine art in LA” differently than I’ve ever seen elsewhere in the world, applying vast economic resources to fashion interpretations that I can only describe as “downstream from 1960s CIA experiments.” — Read on freakpalace.substack.com/p/the-freakiest-outfits-we-saw-at-frieze
-
Today, we’re introducing Spectre I, the first smart device to stop unwanted audio recordings. We live in a world of always-on listening devices. Smart devices and AI dominate our world in business and private conversations. With Deveillance, you will @be_inaudible . — Read on x.com/aidaxbaradari/status/2028864606568067491
-
Can AI be used to analyze Powerball data? With the right dataset, it sure can.
-
A more straightforward tactic: talk to your children often about the kind of working lives I’m outlining here, and the age of AI more broadly. Make them understand that the kind of single-track careers they see on TV or hear about in school — the kind that many of us have had — aren’t really…
-
I wanted to see if AI could provide insight into local government. AI does analysis really well, those datasets are available, and it’s not something a normal person can do, unless they have hours to spare. Can AI simplify government bureaucracies so we can better understand our government. The answer? Yes, it can.
-
Before carrying out any plan, actually do the obvious things. When you’re about to make a big decision, pause, and ask yourself what obvious things a reasonable person would do before making this sort of decision. Would they spend a full five minutes (by the clock) brainstorming alternative options before settling on a decision? Would they…
-
“High-level sports,” according to Wallace, “are a prime venue for the expression of human beauty,” and this beauty’s “power and appeal…have to do with…human beings’ reconciliation with the fact of having a body.” Beautiful. Worth reading the whole thing.
-
Although it’s still very much in beta, the cold approach revival is signaling something hopeful: young people want to get outside and meet each other! Both sides of the gender divide are clearly starving for connection, and no matter how clumsy it’s looking in Miami, flirting in the wild is a massive step in the…
Basement Whatever 