Me over here in my Spaceballs shirt.

“Privacy” in the modern sense is less about protecting you from personal embarrassment or financial loss, and more about protecting society from the dangers of mass data collection.

Historical examples of mass datasets that were misused:

• The Nazis used demographic records (birth, death, marriage records, etc.) to identify Jews and other undesirables in conquered countries.
• Japanese Americans were identified for internment in part through illegal use of census information.
• The Rwanda genocide was facilitated by tribal information being printed on drivers licenses.

In none of these examples were the data collected for the evil purposes it was eventually used for. In some cases, the evil purposes were completely forbidden by the rules governing the data, but they were used anyway.

Information is a form of knowledge. Knowledge is power. And power in the wrong hands is dangerous.

When in doubt, shut up.

Not all species reproduce sexually. Not all sexual reproduction involves pairs.

I got a contact sugar high just from clicking that link.

The problem is that an AI built to maximize paperclips might conclude that converting the planet to paperclips is an acceptable cost of maximizing paperclip production. It might understand why humans think it’s bad to convert the planet, but disagree. It would need to be explicitly programmed to prioritize human life over paperclips.

otherwise we would just switch it off

If it were super-intelligent, it could probably trick us into leaving it turned on.

A paperclip maximizer driven by self-preservation? WCGW?

Who grades the test? Who judges the competition?

Yes

“I have too much self respect and dignity, love my family way too much, and do not want my sweet district to have to endure a hurtful and hateful primary against me by the President we all fought for, only to fight and win my election while Republicans will likely lose the midterms,” she wrote in a statement.

She could just not run for re-election if that’s what she’s actually worried about. Resigning early doesn’t make sense.

It may be possible…

It may not be necessary…

I can wire anything directly into anything; I’m the professor!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGKxWatPkd0

Ancient creators of Hyrule!

Vibes of newgrounds.com circa 2005

A reflection in the glass of the window.

It’s actually the Stargate characters edited into a Star Trek meme.

A&W

I’ve never wished a man dead, but I have read some obituaries with satisfaction.

Left-to-right, top-to-bottom:

1. From the TNG episode “Darmok”, where Captain Picard has to learn how to communicate with an alien through shared danger.
2. From DS9, the decades-long Bajoran resistance to the brutal Cardassian occupation.
3. From the Voyager episode “Message in a Bottle”, where the holographic doctor has to go outside his comfort zone in order to recapture a federation starship from the Romulans.
4. From TNG, the friendship between human Geordi and the android Data.
5. From DS9, the friendship and subsequent romance between Odo and Kira
6. From Voyager, Janeway’s insistence that Borg drones are still people.

“Make out” makes out so many things.