The truth has value in decision making, while comforting lies have value in stress reduction. Choosing ‘truth’ over ‘comfort’ is a long-termist strategy. Being satisfied by a simple answer will make you feel better now, increasing survivability in the short term, but finding a better model of the world to operate by, a.k.a. learning, lets you make better decisions for the rest of your life.

In a computer, checking a memory address would be closer to what we would call ‘conscious’ actions in a person. It is performed actively by software. In a brain, we still don’t really have a full understanding of how memory is stored, but we at least know it isn’t part of our experience that we have explicitly defined storage locations that we address. If it were, we’d have a name for it. Computers and brains are metaphorically similar but structurally and functionally quite different.

Free will is based on the concept of the individual, a concept bounded by a separation already as arbitrary and illusory as a nation’s border. It’s pragmatic to pretend these things exist in your day to day life, but they don’t mean anything to the universe.

Ultimately, asking for a simple guide to privacy is like asking for a simple guide to safety. It’s a broad category, and different people have different needs. Certain parts are simple (privacy: avoid interaction with big tech, safety: don’t leave a fire unattended) but many elements are either unnecessary (windows privacy-supporting software for someone who only uses an iphone, flotation devices in the Sahara) or necessarily complex. (data hygiene procedures, having the correct type of fire extinguisher) There is no prebuilt ‘Privacy Guide for Darkguyman’s situation.’

Oh man, that first sentence, already…

This summer, Elon Musk spoke to the National Governors Association and told them that “AI is a fundamental risk to the existence of human civilization.”

Human language has 2 layers. Signifier and signified. Computers have 3. Signifier (variable name), memory address, (no human analog) and signified. (stored value) A pointer would be a signifier (word) for which the signified is the non-existent human analog to a memory address. You can have a word that refers to a thing that doesn’t exist (e.g. unicorn) but it won’t help the analogy.

In your example, the signifier ‘coffee’ is akin to a variable name. It is a signifier that dereferences to a value within the scope of our agreement. We can agree it holds the stored value of 65, allowing us to say something like butter = coffee - 60, bring me ‘butter’ eggs, but we don’t have a memory address system so it’s not the same process as a computer.

For a computer, there is a middle step to a variable dereference. It sees ‘coffee’ and first looks at the table of references, finds the variable ‘coffee’ has it’s value stored at address 1 ['coffee':1, 'butter':88, 'unicorn':73] and then pulls the value (65) from the memory at address 1. A pointer would be another variable, such as ‘*monkey’ (e.g. *monkey = &coffee, which can be read as “pointer monkey shall hold the value of the address at which coffee is stored”) which would be added into the reference table as a variable stored at another address, say address 2, and would store in address 2 a value of (1).

word        address       value
coffee      1                65
*monkey     2                1

Language just doesn’t have the analogous concept.

Any technology is cool if you look at it in isolation. I just can’t get terribly excited because I generally doubt they will be used in a sensible/humane manner.

Med tech is looking cool. It’s one of the few unambiguously good uses of AI. AI systems for reading scans, detecting disease, etc. seem like they could be used to make medicine faster, easier, and more affordable, but I have doubts that the tech won’t just be used to increase profit margins and somehow mess things up to benefit insurance company executives.

CRISPR/synthBio looks like it could do amazing things, but I have to wonder how long until things hit the sweet spot, intersecting democratization of powerful tools and destructive ideology, and lead some lunatic or group of lunatics to develop a society destroying bioweapon.

It’s hard to get excited about the development of a new power when you look at who’s likely to hold it.

I tried seeing if the analogy could be made to work but I am unaware of any natural language with an analog to pointers. Natural language references generally frame the concept that serves as a pointer in relation to the object rather than as a particular object.

It’s depressing how important this is. Walmart is core to a lot of American’s purchasing. If Walmart decides to kiss the ring, even for a while, when they stop could determine when a wave of anger will hit, maybe even control the midterms. If they just pass on the prices now, many americans’ cost of living is going to soar, right at the same time many of them will be facing layoffs as businesses choke to death on materials costs.

Anyone else remember what happened last time large numbers of americans experienced large amounts of free time? Do you think they’ll be any happier when they are experiencing that level of free time without the benefit of CoViD stimulus? A lot of people are going to get hurt.

So which one are you?

Absolutely. I was an absolute loner for the better part of a decade. Then my depression just disappeared. I joined a community around a streamer and had loads of fun. Just find the intersection between your preferred subject (literary analysis, anime tiddies, etc.) and your preferred communication method. (Text forum, voice chat, real life meetings, etc.) You’ll find at least someone you can hang with, maybe more. Just go at it with openness and joy.