breather (u/breather)

breather commented on So long, and thanks for all the bytes chethaase.medium.com/so-l... · Posted by u/ckue

musicale · 2 years ago

> Throughout history development of tech has almost always driven by seeking economic leverage. I'm sure there are exceptions but I can't think of any.

What about:

- curiosity (much of science, mathematics, etc.)

- artistic expression (musical instruments, demoscene)

- fortunate accidents (penicillin)

- just tinkering around (all sorts of inventions)

- play and fun (many non-commercial computer games)

- communication (telegraph, telephone, email, ...)

- self-expression (blogs)

- being dissatisfied with something and trying to change it (many more inventions)

- basic needs (advances in food, shelter, medicine...)

- trying to gain a military advantage (all sorts of weaponry and defenses)

- exploration (e.g. traveling to the bottom of the ocean, or landing on the moon)

- ideology/philosophy/religion (GNU and free software; cathedrals; pyramids)

etc.

At the end of the day much of technology is motivated by human needs, interests, desires, fears, etc.

OP's move from tech to comedy writing shows that interest or passion can be powerful motivators.

breather · 2 years ago

I'm as keen to wax poetic about the non-economic potential of technology as the next person, but I'm not deluding myself into thinking that was why the technology was developed in the first place.

Also, a military advantage is an economic one, there's no real difference between the concepts.

breather commented on Pirate Site Blocking Boosts Legal Consumption, Research Finds torrentfreak.com/pirate-s... · Posted by u/gslin

ls612 · 2 years ago

I mean the Great Firewall works fairly well so it’s a matter of political will not technical capability.

breather · 2 years ago

Fairly well being the key phrase—it's not difficult for a determined individual to bypass.

breather commented on So long, and thanks for all the bytes chethaase.medium.com/so-l... · Posted by u/ckue

noncoml · 2 years ago

> Tech for tech's sake helps nobody

If it wasn’t for science, art and tech for their own sake we would still be on the trees gathering bananas

breather · 2 years ago

Art? Yes, of course! I have no clue what you're referring to with tech, though. Throughout history development of tech has almost always driven by seeking economic leverage. I'm sure there are exceptions but I can't think of any.

Not sure what you're referring to with science at all.

breather commented on So long, and thanks for all the bytes chethaase.medium.com/so-l... · Posted by u/ckue

treprinum · 2 years ago

I always wanted to program, to create great things, got really good at it, but most of the time I was overtaken by folks playing politics that only used tech as a stepping stone to something they always wanted to do but only tech gave them financial resources to do that.

breather · 2 years ago

Tech for tech's sake helps nobody. Politics is a fact of nearly every facet of life—you can accept this and play the game or accept that you're in the backseat.

The worst people in the world already know this and run our industry. There's no reason we have to accept them.

breather commented on The game theory of seduction and marriage with Jane Austen optimallyirrational.com/p... · Posted by u/delichon

rendaw · 2 years ago

Just a few weird things while reading this

> Unlike in the modern dating process, they cannot get to know a potential partner intimately before deciding whether or not to commit to a relationship.

Does intimacy somehow lend knowledge of whether someone's looking for a long term relationship?

> Tinder data shows that men like 10 times more profiles than women do and that 1 in 50 of their likes leads to a match versus 2 out of 5 for women. Faced with many men happy to date them, women have to identify the ones who may be willing to invest in a long-term relationship.

This seems to be saying that men send out lots of likes because they want to play around... but I thought men sent out lots of likes because if they didn't they wouldn't even get a single match, which doesn't say anything about interest in long term relationships.

breather · 2 years ago

This also sort of raises a red flag for the author—short term relationships weren't really a thing in the world of Austen, just prospective long-term relationships and essentially affairs.

breather commented on Show HN: macOS-cross-compiler – Compile binaries for macOS on Linux github.com/shepherdjerred... · Posted by u/shepherdjerred

schleck8 · 2 years ago

Why would it? You can cross compile for macos with the go toolchain on Linux too and that doesn't even require an additional compiler. Just GOOS=darwin GOARCH=arm64 and then the regular command. Apple can't regulate everything

breather · 2 years ago

The most obvious answer is you need the system frameworks to link against.

breather commented on Pirate Site Blocking Boosts Legal Consumption, Research Finds torrentfreak.com/pirate-s... · Posted by u/gslin

breather · 2 years ago

Is blocking pirate sites even really possible or are they referring to the whack-a-mole game states play?

breather commented on Alexei Navalny has died reuters.com/world/europe/... · Posted by u/0xdeafbeef

ncr100 · 2 years ago

I'm not sure that's an accurate reflection of the man's views. Your sequencing is not construable to a new fact.

He did recant any notion of Ukrainians being Russian. He also asserted ukrainians Right to independent self-governing.

breather · 2 years ago

This all may be true, but he still has a track record as an expansionist, as nationalist, as islamophobic, and as ethno-nationalist. He may not have presented much of a change in Russia's behavior the way the western press has implied he might have.

breather commented on Smoking has long-term effects on the immune system pasteur.fr/en/home/press-... · Posted by u/gmays

Cacti · 2 years ago

Most of the moralizing is from hypocrites who just dislike the smell.

breather · 2 years ago

I think there are perfectly valid reasons to not like cigarette smoke, I just think that constantly harping over the "health" aspect rather than the "resolving the conflict of the smoke itself" aspect is not helpful.