There are more and more promising trials of life-extension drugs, procedures and genetic tricks, It seems like we might be only a couple decades away from extending human lifespans* by around 30% from conservative averages.

I wonder how many of us are going to slide under that lowering Indiana-Jones door. And how many people are going to live on after seeing people they care for dying to a disease that we still think of as natural. and will look back at one day the way we look at how we lived before germ theory or antibiotics existed.

* in this case, “human” will probably mean wealthy white men, but it will be a start.

The Boys was great. For about 1.5 seasons and then became an expensive, repetitive, gratuitous mess that made no effort to keep changing the formula. I actually convinced myself it was okay enough to get through the whole series then looked back and thought “I can’t remember a single significant plot development that led to anything real beyond the first season.”

I have a feeling it will be a disappointment. Not because the quality of the movie will have changed, but because all of us have changed.

We sort of do but it will be a nightmare abomination of stitched together dead things.

(I’m talking about AI, not actual frankenstein tech, John probably would have been cool with that way of coming back.)

I genuinely thought he had passed several years ago, I had a real Mandela-Effect moment when I saw this trailer, I thought at first “There’s no way this will be funny without Mel leading it.” Then he appeared and seemed old but energetic and thought “there is no WAY they used AI to resurrect him, this is horrible!”

It took a few minutes for me to figure out what reality I was in and I still have my doubts about Spaceballs sequel, not because I don’t think it will be funny, but because the general population who discusses things and overanalyzes things get the loudest voice and review bomb movies that are supposed to be just fun and not a pointed social statement.

You might be a tad on the young side. These kinds of movies were a product of their time and likely wouldn’t hold up for people who grew up in the age of Tiktok, Vine, youtube shorts, etc.

We are a species of cognitive dissonance. I want to know how many of the people reading this story and feeling revolted or horrified were eating meat at the time.

Also not a vegan per-say, but I have reduced my meat intake and try to buy local to avoid giving money to the nightmare hellscapes like Tyson and Perdue the like. That’s about the best I can manage in my current lifestyle.

Everyone needs to reconcile and work out this dilemma. It’s amazing how many people are dishonest with themselves and others about their reasons for feeling the way they do about eating meat, killing animals, etc. It’s okay to say “I love animals but not enough to quit eating meat” and accept it in yourself. It’s not a worse moral failing than a hundred other contradictory ideas we all hold in our heads every day. It’s okay to say “I find this story distasteful because killing animals should be done behind closed doors to respect others.” That’s also a fine opinion to have.

I don’t get why people have to do backflips to rationalize shit. We are irrational species.

Factory farms and the entire livestock/dairy/meat industry does indeed suck.

Edit: exactly seven of you are pro-factory-farm and I think you probably need Jesus. To come back and slap each of you.

I haven’t looked into the methodology but I would wager off the top of my head that it has to do with the large migrant population in California. (you’ve probably seen a little bit of news about it) California being a highly populated, coastal state with a booming economy means it has more of everything. It has the most problems and conversely it has the most solutions, the most high-tech, progressive ideas and industries across the street from homeless tent-towns.

A very valid worry, considering how Iran was and what it became after the fundamentalists got power. A shadow of its former self, even as one of the most modern and populated nations.

I think he would have been a strong candidate a few election cycles ago, but likely not a winner in today’s climate. We have a LOT of pent-up rage in our population, as a result of our national “fierce independence” reaching its own “late stage” level.

Waltz has bite and sharpness that would appeal to a lot of people if he were un-muzzled, but he’s still not going to fit the “WWE theater” spectacle that engages the stupidest people, and which because of systemic sabotage of our elections, is the only segment of the population who votes anymore.

While I don’t like him at all, I think Newsom fits this role the best and might be the strongest contender if we have elections again. (And he will probably be more likely to cheat in some way.)

You’re like, on the edge of political awareness, but you’re kinda stuck on the wallpaper.

Setting aside that I also said she’s not the right candidate for the time, I know for a fact that the “woman president will never win” mandate is a manufactured talking point and a lot of otherwise smart people ate that story up because they thought the system was remotely balanced and that democracy wasn’t compromised. (as well as latent, bitter, cynical sexism oozing out of the country’s pores right now.)

Clinton won the popular vote. It’s not the gender of the candidate, it’s the energy of the electorate and their ability to sidestep very real corruption in politics by people like Elon Musk controlling AI and search engines, and very real KGB tactics being used on our populace.

Trump’s victories have been hacks. They exploited every angle to make it happen. The people who voted him into power are the minority, they don’t represent the average voter. Our problem is the “average voter” is staying home, because, and I cannot stress this enough, our society has been compromised, hacked, unfairly influenced. In this current climate we won’t see ANYONE the corporate oligarchs don’t want to see on the throne. The Democrat party is in on this. There’s a reason they’re trying to undermine the Dems who don’t take the checks like AOC and Zhoran, people who are basically enemies of their own party.

We rebuild this a piece at a time from grassroots, and we need to push the “gender” questions out of public discourse and stop falling for the distraction. Every other nation is electing liberal or left-leaning candidates, men and women alike. This isn’t a fair democracy in the USA anymore, we have to get out of this mindset that we “just need our own version of Trump.”

We need the popular mandate but we also need a way to get around the artificial bumpers the current oligarchy has set up. If you buy the idea that we need to remove women from the ballot, or we need candidates who are more “moderate” (IE: right leaning) you’re falling for the ploy, hook, line and sinker.

Same. I’ve been massively downvoted and attacked for suggesting that despite whatever conditions and dysfunctions you may have, that the human brain has capability of growing, changing and adapting and that people could actually work on meeting like-minded people and cure a lot of their loneliness by tackling social insecurity and anxiety like an obstacle or game to solve. (Speaking from successful experience.)

But after those ill-fated posts, I remind myself that people aren’t here in these kinds of places to change, that nobody really wants to change, even if they’re objectively suffering in their present situation. The human mind sticks to predictability and coherence, not necessarily happiness or comfort. We want validation far more than we want pleasure. It’s a weird quirk that we all share, and only people who become aware of this innate bug in the code are able to push through it and make better lives for themselves.

It really doesn’t help though that people have built palaces of identity around their diagnosis’s and conditions and life-challenges. Like, it would be really hard to pry you from their “introvert” community if those people are the only ones who ever told you that you can be yourself and be loved for not having to do anything at all, even if you really want to feel better and have more experiences.

But along with that fly-paper trap of validating communities comes with a back-door for people to absorb other, far more delusional or harmful ideas. Kind of like how conspiracy theorists get started by “doubting or questioning” mainstream knowledge, but end up denying all of human knowledge and even the gravity that sticks their feet to the Earth.

I’m really worried about how AI is going to impact these folks. Like, really worried. We’re not that far from machines that will replicate a human intelligence and personality to perfection, but it will also pander to and support whatever thoughts and ideas you have all the while pumping you up and making you feel like Neo from The Matrix, a chosen one who needs only to unlock some magic hidden power to change the whole world. It’s already happening in droves to vulnerable people, but the current models are pretty… cheesy. The next models are going to be more subtle and careful and more intuitive in how to manipulate people and hold their attention.

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Lemmy is almost entirely incredibly shut-in discord kids, people who were too uptight to work out on reddit or other social media, neurodivergents who believe making effort to socialize is akin to self-immolation, and other edge-cases from the broader internet.

It’s a fantastic place to actually have a conversation without being drowned out by 300 people trying to push their own brands, agendas and manifestos, but it’s also not a place to see normal people being normal much of the time.

edit: your downvotes are telling. Might want to think about why a message like this effects you negatively. (No I don’t care to debate it, no don’t ask AI about it. THINK about it.)

It’s barely a thing. Some parents with special-needs kids or parents with a lot to juggle in places like amusement parks sometimes use leashes or backpack-leads to keep their very young kids close, but nobody actually cares much, nobody is actually shamed, nobody laughs and points, nobody gives it a second glance.

This is the kind of thing that’s played up for laughs or memed about because it’s objectively a funny concept depending on context, but don’t get lost down the rabbit-hole of internet users overthinking every goddamn thing and making everything into an issue.

This isn’t an issue, it’s used by some parents with very small children in busy areas like amusement parks or if they have special needs, but hardly anyone actually cares outside of comedy skits. Nobody actually feels shame or anything. It’s played up for laughs.

There’s like 20% of every Lemmy/Reddit post about things like this from people who are thinking WAY too hard about things.

I’m all in favor of using unconventional methods for health and safety, but really outside of a few special cases like improving blood-flow in reattached limbs or other body parts, I’m not sure why we’re trying to put leaches on children, it seems like a bad idea, but I guess if you just keep leaches as pets and don’t have another blood source for them, maybe just ask your kids first. Smh.

It was a disconnected and incoherent thought, but I’ll give it a pass because in America we really do seem to be doing everything possible to make our neighborhoods as lethal as possible.

As for leaches on children, I guess it’s they’re used in some medical cases like reattached limbs that need blood-flow, but leaches are kind of gross and don’t serve much good besides those few examples, so I don’t know why we’re trying to use them again on children in particular.

Ah yes, the Chuck Schumer School of Resistance Fighting.