I’ve got 1 dream check, that’s fairly reliable, when I need it. I check my back pocket for “heavy weapons”. Basically, think cartoon “hammer space”. It’s an almost unnoticeable check when awake, that doesn’t do anything. In a dream state however, an ak47, or a bazooka is to hand.

This is particularly effective against nightmares. My subconscious happily accepts that I can pull whatever cartoon doodad I need out of my back pocket. This let’s me jam nightmares. I’ve not had one since I trained myself to do this a couple of decades back.

The 1 trick to note, you need to “believe” on some level that it will work. It’s akin to accepting a film. You know they are just actors and CGI, but you accept it as real. This belief gives it power in your dreams.

Children are often a mirror to our true selves. My daughter is fascinated by the world, and loves learning. She’s a sponge for new knowledge. The only limitation is building up the layers of knowledge, to understand what you are trying to teach.

It’s interesting to look at what is actually required to be a technological species (assuming they develop it themselves).

• Dextrus Manipulators.

To make technology, you need something to manipulate the world reliably. Hands are the most obvious method, but not the only ones. Octopus tenticles could also likely fill the roll.

• Social groups and communication.

Developments are useless, if they can’t be passed on to the next generation, or shared around. Technology requires building on the work of others.

• Brain development.

There needs to be something to drive early brain development. With humans, it was likely sexual preferences. It could otherwise become a chicken and the egg type problem.

• Generalist.

A specialist species will tend to lean into their strengths. There’s far less need for intelligence when you have big claws, or heavy armour already. This also applies to size. Too big, or too small tends to specialise in a why the precludes other developments.

There are several species on earth that hit some of these points, but not all. E.g. Dolphins hit all but the manipulator issue. Octopus are completely solitary. Many mammals hit all but brain development, and crabs overspecialise.

I could easily see a small tweak leading to a radically non human technological intelligence. That is also based only on what has already developed and stabilised in the earth’s biome. The cambrian explosion showed that far more body forms are at least viable.

LLMs can’t become AGIs. They have no ability to actually reason. What they can do is use predigested reasoning to fake it. It’s particularly obvious with certain classes of proble., when they fall down. I think the fact it fakes so well tells us more about human intelligence than AI.

That being said, LLMs will likely be a critical part of a future AGI. Right now, they are a lobotomised speech centre. Different groups are already starting to tie them to other forms of AI. If we can crack building a reasoning engine, then a full AGI is possible. An LLM might even form its internal communication method, akin to our internal monologue.

There are lot that fit that pattern. However, most/all naturally used irrational numbers seem to be normal. Maths has, however had enough things that seemed ‘obvious’ which turned out to be false later. Just because it’s obvious doesn’t mean it’s mathematically true.

You just need to snuggle your face into it and breathe deeply!

Are you saying there’s an issue with my kitchen shag carpet? It matches the bathroom and ceilings so well!

The dream router is an excellent base to build upon. It provides all the normal functions (ethernet, wifi, router etc) as well as hosting the control software.

Unifi’s real power is when you expand it. The access points make extending WiFi coverage easy. You dont even need a wired link. It will link over WiFi, either as a primary or as a fall back. The flex mini is also quite handy. It’s a little poe powered switch. I have a couple tucked away providing extra ports around the house.

With my setup, I have detailed monitoring and control down to the port or wifi device. I can monitor and control things in detail, or get a high level view of my network.

While expensive, UniFi hardware is just a huge step beyond the rest of the consumer market.

I’ve had literally 10x the range (5x vs 50m), in congested environments, compared to ‘gaming’ hardware. I actually did a side by side to test. I was shocked at the difference.

The bridging function is also a life saver. 2 LR units can get a reliable signal between each other, at ridiculous ranges.

From memory, we are statistically more likely to be geniuses. Unfortunately we are also equally as more likely to be clinically insane.

They came for the trans ~~and I did nothing, because I am not trans ~~ and I fought back where I could. Because fuck that shit, we know there this dance will end otherwise!

Most of the problem with lasers come from focusing them. The eye is incredibly good at it. This means even a small laser pen can reach MW/m^2 ranges by the time it hits the retina.

IR is a different story (at longer wavelengths). Without the ability to see it, our eye will not attempt to focus on it. Also, our eyes lenses are not particularly transparent to it. 3rd, the ultra short pulses mean that there is no time to focus.

As for the mosquito, the laser is tuned to a frequency that is strongly absorbed by their wings. Given their size and how delicate their wings are, a tiny amount of energy can cause significant damage. Conversely, the same energy on our eye will just cause a slight amount of heating. The bulk mass of the eye will absorb this fine, with no damage

It used a micropulse of IR laser. Your eye couldn’t see it, nor focus it properly. However, it had just enough power to overheat and damage the mosquito wings.

I believe the issue was with the targeting. It could don’t, but not cheap enough for the mass deployment they intended. Mosquito nets were far more effective, once cost was accounted for.

What we need is clean, efficient treatment paths for acute depression. Barriers to treatment are the worst thing possible.

We need to work on attacking root causes, not just throw some drugs at the person and call it a day.

We need to help teach depressed people HOW to start pulling themselves out, not just to try harder.

Once the patient is stable, we need to NOT just wash our hands of them, treatment wise. This is the time that spending mental effort will lead to far bigger gains.

It’s the difference between telling someone with broken legs to “walk it off” vs emergency treatment, casts for 6+ weeks, and then physiotherapy where “walk it off” becomes walk on it to rebuild your strength.

The “just try harder” mentality got me into the mess Ive been in. It burnt me out, and it took me decades to even realise how bad I actually was, and years more to even start getting the help I actually needed. Even now, I have to fight for it. 1 slip up, and I’m set back months or years in the process. It’s like putting the hospital A&E department on the 5th floor, with no lifts, and expecting people to walk up if they really want treatment.

All of those points are things that depression actively disrupts. It’s akin to asking an American, living hand to mouth, to just pay out of pocket. It’s not a case of not going on an extra holiday. It’s a case of not making rent payments to do it.

Depression can leave you without enough mental resources to even maintain basic functionality. An upfront cost, for a payout potential years down the line, is simply more than many can afford.

The worst part is that you are correct. However, it’s the same correctness as telling someone about to lose their house to “just make more money”. Technically correct, but useless and callous in practice.

Both work for protecting humans. However, I believe vaccination is better overall. It also improves the quality of life of the chickens. Unfortunately, it’s also (very slightly) more expensive, so America went the cheap route. The EU mandated to reduce animal cruelty, by vaccination.

The Germans kept careful documentation. The allies also photographed the hell out of it, and protected those records. They knew future generations (us) wouldn’t believe how evil “normal” people could get. So made sure to collect plenty of evidence.

It takes some practice to beautify it. You’ll also spend more time doing that than the whole time taken to build the core.

Don’t bother with a usb key. Flash memory is technically volatile, it just takes a while to blank. Unless you plug the key in every 5 to 10 years, it will start losing data. By the time the time capsule is unearthed, it will likely be blank or corrupted.

At university, I had a housemate who was doing research into the chemical(s) in garlic that give it its smell. She was completely nose blind to it. You also went nose blind to garlic, just by being in the same house.