I thought it was just getting good.

I never actually had an account or much inclination to use it but it seemed like the first online service ubiquitous enough for local government and business notifications. In that sense, it was just starting to be a real benefit for an informed populace

However downvoting as that seemed more like a prerequisite to your posted opinion - I’ll agree that it’s fine for all the loonies to rant at each other there, but that makes the opinion “popular” …… crap, wrong community

I’d never justify that urge to spend ridiculous money updating every year to the latest and greatest, but people tend to under appreciate the massive improvements from accumulated incremental improvements.

OLED screen on my iPhone X was revolutionary (and I’m sure Android had it first), as just one example, and now most phones are. Personally I find ultrawideband and “find my” very innovative and well implemented. Or if that’s too small a change, how about the entire revolution of Apple designing their own SoC for every new model. There’s emergency satellite texting, fall/crash detection, even Apple mostly solving phone theft is innovative (even if you don’t like their approach)

When we see steady improvements, humans tend to under-appreciate how it adds up

Just like always, it depends on how you define or redefine ai. For example, what used to be called ai has been very successful in photo processing. The same thing is going to happen: some portion or incarnation of the current generative ai will be successful, but it will be dismissed similar to “it’s just machine learning, not ai”

I have a lot of hope for Apple’s approach, where they are incorporating it as tools into specific capabilities, and prioritizing privacy. While there’s no direct profit, it should help sell a lot more devices with ever higher tech specs. I also like their “private cloud” model that has a lot of potential beyond private ai

I understand you don’t appreciate where we’ve come from and how fast, can’t see the year to years changes, but the iPhone is just a little over ten years old. Do you really not see huge changes between an early iPhone and today’s?

It very much comes down to how you use them. Within my household, I don’t think I’ve ever had an Apple cable go bad. However I’ve had third party bad from purchase, and my teens go through cables every 6-12 months.

What kind of abuse do your cables go through?

• do you pull from the hard plastic or the cable?
• are they on the floor being stepped on or with chairs rolling over them?
• when carrying are they just stuffed in your backpack or neatly rolled up in a plastic pocket or in a baggie?
• when tangled, do you just pull harder or do you untangle?

The Wikipedia article on animal consciousness has an interesting discussion

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_consciousness

Of particular note as I sit here petting my dog, is the example of self-awareness in dogs. Historically dogs don’t seem to exhibit self-awareness, but we used a mirror test and dogs aren’t as visual. A sniff test, using their dominant sense, shows they are

Thanks for the fascinating rabbit hole …. Popping my head back up: it seems like no. It actually reminds me a lot of the term “artificial intelligence” where every time it’s demonstrated, the definition changes. So the question really is whether we move the goalposts or whether we just define the intended meaning poorly.

To me it looks like both terms have an implied “like a human” that has not yet been met. When an animal achieves the definition of sapient, it’s the definition that’s wrong because accepted use implies “like a human”.

And of course the real answer in both cases is to use more precise terms. That’s where things get really interesting

If an alien can travel to meet us, and we have nowhere near the technology that we could travel to them, then yes they are far beyond our level of technology.

Since the question mentioned “civilization”, these are sapient beings, not just microbes or animals of some sort. While there’s still a chance of primitive life in our solar system, sapient life pretty much implies travel from outside the solar system and we can only do that in our fiction

That makes A great movie plot but it seems awfully far fetched , even in the reality where aliens visit us

Why is it not answered?

• since they are by definition far beyond our technology, it may not be up to us
• since they are by definition sentient beings (op said “civilization”), then how are they any different. When we say “human” it’s just that it’s the only sentient being we’re familiar with. Anything applying to a “human” most likely applies to any sentient being. “Seizing the means of production” might be analogous to like Ethiopia seizing from the US. Good luck with that, see the first point
• statistically those aliens are almost certainly microbes, which have no opinion or rights. It’s all on us whether we preserve them as a unique or beneficial (to us) form of life. They’re no different than a coral reef

Legend has it that you can drink beer instead. A decent IPA should do it, or a bunch of decent IPAs and you won’t care

Never thought of that - I usually put baked goods in the microwave to keep them sort of fresh. Is it big enough for a 9”x12” baking pan? Tall enough for a layer cake?

Does anyone still have a bread box? I assume it’s to stop rodents, but hopefully most people don’t have rodents in their house. Does a bread box do anything else, or is that another technology that can fade into history?

Edit: TIL;

• https://www.tasteofhome.com/article/how-to-keep-bread-fresh/

Same with model Y. I’m more concerned with people using that unknowingly instead of the button

From what little we know, the guy had every right to do things the way he did, and posting an immediate reply to the Mayors lie was my re than valid

Why isn’t this a criminal investigation? I see fraud, lyin to the victims, a coverup, harassing a whistleblower, and abusing government resources for personal reasons. Do they not have anti-SLAPP laws?

BT on my 2016 Subaru has been solid. Actually there’s some sort of bad connection in the data path so the BT is more reliable than the wired connection

So you know which sofa cushion the EarPod is under

Jokes on you …. I’m in the US and my company is trying to bribe us back to the office with good free lunches. Still can’t compete with work from home but half and half is working so far

Mine has a non-stick pan. It all comes down to how quickly you empty it. Emptied immediately, it rinses clean. If it sits around while I eat, I’ll need to scrub a little