Profile pic is from Jason Box, depicting a projection of Arctic warming to the year 2100 based on current trends.

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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: March 3rd, 2024

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  • I have four, all in mid-grade school (7-8).

    A mobile of various paper models of satellites, along with a research paper that told about them.

    A cardboard model of the USS Monitor from the Civil War (for US History obviously).

    Another for history was a functioning balsa wood model of a guillotine, with a (dull) metal blade. And a deheaded G.I. Joe (I didn’t have any French aristocrat dolls handy).

    A video book report made by with a few friends using the library’s video camera (back before phone cameras). We did it in the style of a satirical news program/Monty Python humor with various clips from reporters of parts of the book’s story. I don’t know why I never asked for a copy… but you don’t think about that as a kid.



  • I see your point, but that exactly was a coping mechanism for something that didn’t have a solution. Is assisted suicide a modern version as a way to deal with an unsolvable problem (and I’m all for it btw, just comparing the goals of both).

    I don’t think they are the same as finding ways to avoid grief, which is what the topic of a replacement of the lost individual is about. I’m sure anyone in the therapy field has already explored this to find any benefits of prolonging.

    But in regards about the claim: I don’t even know how far the cloning has gone, or how it’s been accepted. But I have heard that immediately getting another pet to replace that loss isn’t a good thing to do for similar reasons for owner and pet, and the cloning is worse because it’s pretending it’s the same animal (in most cases, I can’t say everyone). That’s how it was sold, getting your pet back. I can’t see how this can turn into a better route for grief when there isn’t any, and might turn to despair or anger when the new version of the pet doesn’t act the same as the old.

    But you’re right, there’s no data, it’s just a gut feeling based on my own experiences that I’m still dealing with in some respects.

    If anything, the AI acting as far as just visual is not a huge jump from watching old video of them from the past. It’s a bit odd, but I can accept that times change and some things become normal that were not. Having an AI that responds back as if they were the person crosses the line that I’ve been talking about. Some people think ChatGPT with its flaws is still a person, so they’ll fall for this being the loved one from the grave, and I still hold that living in that fantasy is not healthy for the mind.




  • There is comfortable, wealthy, and the super rich. The first ones still look at money as the rest of the population, while the ultra wealthy (the top .1% or higher) use their assets for power. They don’t have to concern themselves almost all of the time on price tags for things, it’s irrelevant. It’s what their influence can allow them to do that is far more important. So yes, the richest live an expensive lifestyle, but they don’t care.

    I agree with others on the middle class falsehood. You either have enough assets and income to be able to live well, or you don’t. At this point many millionaires are not that well off either because their expenses put them in the same situation the poorer people have to deal with. Maybe it’s not only one paycheck away from disaster, but they have their own buffer zone that’s not as large as they’d like in bad times. Likewise, there are “poor” people who manage their budgets well enough that they are comfortable, but because they don’t have a lot they are at the mercy of things around them so that can disappear quickly.

    The rich line is where you can lose entire businesses or a house or other large material thing and the money part doesn’t phase you.







  • I could see you not reacting well to the gift and them being upset, but then it turned into something more than that. They made the mistake of doing something that you claim is well known you don’t like. You held your line and rather than let it sit for a bit insisted it had to go. Now you’re both mad/upset over a gift. Doesn’t make sense, does it? Even more so if the value of this object isn’t that much even new. Who is hurt more by this? You’re confused about their reaction but were you hurt by the act of giving, even if it was something unwanted? The core thing you should ask yourself is why it became an argument, and was it worth it? It doesn’t even matter who was right.