Europeans largely do not believe in the right to self defense

It's funny you say this because, at least from what I've seen, groups that are historically discriminated against seem to be receiving more latitude in skirting the law.

Are you kidding me? You are not being "press ganged", when you try to play music the music player shipped with the OS is opened.

Apple Music can not be uninstalled. That's pretty much "press ganged" in my book.

your point would carry more weight were it possible to switch the default music player

I'm not trying to play music. I'm not even logged into the Apple Music app.

I'm just trying to put my bluetooth earbud in my ear to make a Teams call, and 1/3 of the time I get an onboarding prompt to join Apple Music on my work computer. Can't turn it off.

The age of people all across the world being able to just connect to each other other the internet is coming to an end. I wish the internet was still a business backend and hobbyist playground but I'm not sure it ever was just that.

Star Trek isn't real life, when human labor stops being valuable the humans who's labor was previously vital will be at best left to rot in squalor.

Couldn't have said it better myself. The only reason we are worth keeping around is because what we do is necessary to keep the machine running. The idea that the AI singularity would lead to infinite free stuff for everyone is ridiculous.

The Expanse would be an apt sci-fi example where almost no labor is needed and everyone survives on a bare minimum UBI unless they want to risk it all and go into space.

A generation of people left behind. The birthrates will continue falling.

The bitrates, on the other hand...

For some reason programmers start thinking that we'll transition away from a whole world of societies built around the concept of individual ownership, i.e. your landlord charging you rent, company owners owning the company and the resulting product and paying you what they deem the work you own is worth, and move towards something like communism, all because people working in IT or marketing departments are having a hard time.

I'm sorry but us programmers didn't invent capitalism, and it wasn't our consent under the condition of having a good run under it what kept it in place.

If AI only blows away programming, sure you are probably right. If AI blows away white collar labor, which is at least half of jobs, then yeah something would give way.

And if AI blows away all white collar labor, those former white color workers will be unable to afford much blue collar labor, which will hurt the blue collar labor market too.

not to mention some number will switch to blue collar (or try to) and pretty much everything will tumble down.

Have to start making our own steel in the backyard and killing sparrows

I'm not sure if I'd call it culture wide, but a significant number of non-tech people in my life were not just aware of it but actively considering "investing".

Something worth noting is that the types of vulnerabilities LLMs introduce are notably different from what humans introduce, way fewer local issues like syntax mistakes, simple memory problems, etc and far more broad issues like authn/authz

What do you mean about syntax mistakes and memory problems?

Something like incorrect SELinux configurations?

I don't know who is telling you this, but the people who gave me that line lived through several recessions including '08 and are still making money buying rental properties to this day. They know more about the present situation than you do.

You will own nothing and be happy.

Came here to say this but you beat me to it- sorry to the author but home ownership gives you a real tangible piece of equity for the rest of your life if you maintain it reasonably well. This is especially true for people who aren’t good with saving money.

This^^^ The article is just more globalist tripe espousing owning nothing.

- A happy home owner (not a boomer)

What a masterclass in modern spin:

1: Take a problem, in this case tobacco consumption

2: Isolate a part of it, ideally a the part that is most visible and/or easiest to go after. As others have mentioned, Sweden has a large culture of non-smoked tobacco consumption

3: Define an easily achieved win condition, brand it as complete success. In this case "smoke-free" means under 1 in 20 Swedes smoke

4: Get your buddies in the press to publish breathless articles on your 'Incredible' milestone

5 (ideally optional): If anyone ever tries to hold you accountable, double down.

To be entirely fair, a whole country switching from smoking to safer oral nicotine is a massive health win. The bad things in cigarettes are mostly not nicotine.

To be clear they commonly use snus which is tobacco product, not just nicotine pouch. It shares many of the health issues associated with smoking tobacco and also has it's own ones (e.g. related to gum health).

I don’t fear second hand gum issues

And what are those many health issues shared between snus and cigarettes?

As an ex snusare and ex smoker, this is a pretty wild claim to make my friend

Looks like my information is a bit outdated. Some published research do state that snus cause increased risk of certain cancers (e.g. esophageal, pancreatic, stomach cancer, colorectal, oral and pharyngeal cancer), but some newer research suggest that this inconclusive.

The other primary risks are things which tie more to nicotine in general (like stroke & various effects on pregnancy including increased risk of stillbirth).

Next one! ....Norwegians and the global climate benefits of Electric cars :-))

> Define an easily achieved win condition, brand it as complete success. In this case "smoke-free" means under 1 in 20 Swedes smoke

How is that an "easily achieved" win condition?

> If anyone ever tries to hold you accountable, double down.

Basically the entire policy of the current US administration summed up in a sentence lol

You only think that because you don't consume news from other nations.

Really? Just 3.

I didn't say it was the only one, it's probably the worst offender though