The reason AI programs like Gemini are programmed to encourage you to let it make basic life choices for you like what restaurant you should eat at is because they intend to monetize your patronage.
It’s just a matter of time before the AI stops offering you the most highly rated option in the area or whatever aligns most closely to what you requested (If it’s even doing that now) and instead only recommends restaurants that have paid the company for that privilege.
Restaurants that won’t pay Google to recommend them to AI users are going to become functionally invisible, whereas those who are willing to purchase what amounts to targeted advertisements laundered through an AI “friend” will get new customers regardless of their quality.
Basic rule: If you aren’t paying for something, that means you’re the product.
Google Maps already does this, preferring more distant sponsored results over closer non-sponsored ones. All the claims that these algorithms make the same choices you would make if you just had the time and energy to research them are totally false. They make the choices that lead to profitable results for the companies that program them, with a user interface that gaslights you into thinking it was your idea all along.
You can see this at work already in Google Play store– you search for an app, and the only time the app you’re looking for is the top result is when the company behind the app has paid for the privilege– in which case you’ll see it twice.
You can also see this at work on Amazon, when searching by exact product name can sometimes put your result on the second or third page, while you scroll through alternatives that Amazon wants to sell you.
My dad was dealing with some mixed feelings so I told him āIn therapy when something is too complicated to do a simple āpro and contra listā we sometimes do an excercise where you imagine all these mixed feelings around a table in some kind of conference, letting each tell their bit and you leading the debate.ā
and my dad didnāt really respond and just stared ahead so I kept preparing lunch. Until a few minutes later when he suddenly piped up: āI am having a bad time at the conferenceā
I too am having a bad time at the conference
Reblog if you too are having a bad time at the conference
the thing is that for all its supposed faults, i would take this brand of 90s utopian globalism over whatever the fuck weāve been doing for the last 10 years in a heartbeat
(makes me think of a song from Sesame Street-
My hair is black and red, my hair is yellow My eyes are brown and green and blue
My name is Jack and Fred, my nameās Amanda Sue Iām called Kareem Abdul, my name is you
I live in southern France, Iām from a Texas ranch I come from Mecca and Peru I live across the street, in the mountains, on a beach I come from everywhere, and my name is you)
Hereās the Sesame Street songā¦
My kiddo was born in 2013 and we got the Dolly Parton Imagination Library books delivered for about three years before our local library was unable to keep participating due to funding cuts.
Many of the early board books were photo books that showed diverse babies/toddlers and families.
Iām certain it was meant to normalize young kids seeing a variety of people, even if they lived in communities that arenāt super diverse, and to be sure every kid that got the books saw themselves and their family represented.
There were also bilingual books in English and Spanish.
Idk if this graphic is just the DPIL books, but I know we had many of these and got some from our local library too. That Global Babies series is just gorgeous!
Thereās so much good lit out there for kids! If you have kids in your life (your own or friends/family), make sure they have access to good books! I always had a running wishlist for kiddo for books and was lucky to have relatives who liked to give books for birthdays and holidays.
After years of living in the adulting world, I think I’ve come to a realization: Manners exist to guide you to good conduct even when you’re in a bad mood.
When you’re happy, when you’re feeling generous, when you’re pleased with your gift or your service or your outcome, it’s easy to be nice. It’s easy to tip the waiter well when you’ve had a good day. It’s easy to thank the teller or the clerk when you got what you wanted out of the transaction. It’s easy to smile and chit-chat with strangers on the road when you’re in a good mood.
It’s hard to tip the waiter when you didn’t enjoy your food. It’s hard to thank the clerk for their time when you’ve just been told there’s a problem with their account and they weren’t able to fix it for you. It’s hard to think of something nice to say when your aunt gave you a crappy sweater you neither need nor want. It’s hard to be nice to people when you’ve had a shitty day. It’s HARD.
That’s what manners are for. Scripts and phrases that you learn by rote to say when you can’t think of a single nice or good thing to say from your own volition. Yes, they’re scripted. Yes, the sentiment is empty. But the scripts work in every situation, and the emptiness provides a buffer between your own unhappiness and the rest of society.
Because most of the time, it’s not the waiter’s fault that the food you ordered wasn’t what you expected. It’s not the clerk’s fault that your account is overdrawn. It’s not the fault of the barista or the stranger on the subway that you got fired today or your favorite aunt died. But even when you can’t summon a smile or a cheery word, you can still have manners, because they will serve you the same in sunshine or rain.
life pro-tip: sometimes you’ll do an oopsie in a public place and cause some level of mess. It’ll be embarrassing, especially if you don’t have the means to clean it up. You’ll think “oh no the staff is gonna think I’m so awful” but here’s my wisdom as The Staff:
I’m going to talk so much more shit if you just leave it and don’t say anything. If you tell someone “hey I’m so sorry I spilled something over here” I will say thank you and clean it. I might even remember you as a sweetheart if you offer to help clean (you do not have to help clean and I imagine most places would prefer that you don’t). One time a woman’s kid broke a snowglobe at a spot I worked at and she proceeded to act as a human wet floor sign guarding the glass heap while I ran to grab an actual sign, and I think she’s an icon.
But if I have to discover another Entire Cinnamon Roll (still warm) toppled on the floor with the cup left somewhere else because you wanted to hide the evidence and you don’t even have the decency to apologize and let us know, I will hate you and I will talk shit to my coworkers after. If you can’t clean it yourself, literally please just tell someone. It makes our lives easier, gets messes and slipping hazards off of floors faster, and makes me generally hate you less. Thank you for coming to my ted talk
Gomez and Morticia Addams got divorced. I woke up mortified and with a sense of inexplicable dread.
you literally donāt need any other plot and i would watch the movie
Every ānormalā adult is fussing around Pugsley and Wednesday because āpoor children that must be so hard for you to see mom and dad break up like thisā
But the kid are absolutely unfazed, arguing that āitās alright they will be together again soonā. The normie are so sad for the āchildren clinging to vain hopesā until Morticia and Gomez get married again two weeks after the divorce.
In the meantime Mama and Uncle Fester fight about which one of them will go to whose custody.
They pretend to argue in court and at meeting with lawyers over the splitting of the properties but thatās mostly Gomez insisting to leave more and more thing to his wife in an angry voice.
At home they decided not to talk to each other so Lurch has to (begrudgingly) transmit messages from one to the other, even when they are sat on either side of the table.
That works (more or less) then Morticia says one word in french and Gomez run to cover her with kisses until Morticia remind him that they are spliting (thatās the only moment he seems to regret the whole thing)
This. All of this.
Wednesday offers to help with split custody of Pugsley. her suggestion involved a big table saw
They fight over who gets to hire the expensive big-firm lawyer and who gets to hire the up-and-coming rookie divorce lawyer. Itās a whole Thing.
The up and coming lawyer is Thing?
Thing wins the case
itās actually started because Thing just passed the bar exam and no one will hire Thing
ā¦at this point iām sorry to introduceā¦the egg spoon.
Even better news about German egg related gadgetsā¦ the Eierkƶpfer (it also has a super long German name), for when you need a guillotine to open your egg neatly
No offence to Germany but why are you guys so fucking insane
nothing to see here. Just normal feelings about egg.
The guillotine device from a couple of reblogs above is der Eierschalensollbruchstellenverursacher
das Ei (pl. die Eier) = egg
die Schale = shell
sollen = to be supposed to
der Bruch = crack, fracture
die Stelle = site, place, location
die Bruchstelle = site of fracture
die Sollbruchstelle = predetermined breaking point
verursachen = to cause
-er =suffix to turn a verb into a noun (genus m)
der Verursacher = causative agent
der Eierschalensollbruchstellenverursacher = device to cause a predetermined breaking line around the perimeter at the top of a boiled egg so it can be opened neatly
Also: EierwƤrmer, egg warmers to keep the eggs warm during a long Sunday breakfast. They are often handmade and knitted or crocheted in a decorative shape, but they can also be bought. Popular as a gift for Easter.
ā¦I never considered that we might be the only ones doing this
I stayed at a B&B in Ireland last summer and had to explain how to eat boiled eggs to a different American every morning. Because Americans hear āboiled eggsā and immediately think āhard boiled eggsā. They all thought it was awesome, and all them giggled the entire time they were beheading their eggs.
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