Honestly, there was a short time where I thought the prat fall might have been an intentional bit… then it just lay there and eventually the guy shows up to drag it off stage lol.

Ah. Thanks!

What is FOI in this context? The closet thing I found to something that makes sense would be Freedom of Information, but that doesn’t seem quite right, or I’m not understanding the connection.

Even before AI was a big thing, I really wish we had some kind of class, or at least an explanation from our teachers on the basics of how learning works. So much unnecessary drama could have been avoided if the kids had a better understanding of why their teachers were asking them to do things this way instead of just saying “do it this way because if not I’ll give you a bad grade.” Obviously younger kids aren’t going to be equipped to handle all the neuroscience, but I’m sure there is some simplified explanation that could be given that would get the point across.

This was an extreme example of this, but it was emblematic of the general way my teachers handled students who didn’t understand the point of the assignments or teaching methods: I forget which grade I was in, but in one of my math classes there was a day in class where I was solving the problems but not doing it exactly the way the teacher was teaching it. When he insisted, I asked why I had to do it that way if it works either way. He said something like “Because I have the big desk.” Basically just an appeal to authority without any further explanation. “You’re a dumb kid and I’m an adult, so do what I say.”

But what would the shareholders of oil and MIC companies do if we stopped spending that money on oil wars? Won’t someone please think of the shareholders!?

This is just reminding me of my current cat who will open the door to my room, then get inside and close it. I think it’s to get my attention, but the funny part is always when he is ready to leave and he realizes the consequences of his actions.

I’m also pretty sure that cats understand human languages and just choose to ignore us most of the time.

Idk… I’ve had a few pretty shitty pencils.

I think I get it and kind of share a similar belief. Most people are “good,” although I’d use a less morally relative term to describe it: Pro-social. People tend to behave in a way that works well with others. This makes sense if you think about it without getting caught up in all the “humans bad” philosopher stuff. One of our defining features as a species is our ability to work together. We form communities, developed languages to communicate, cultural norms and laws to create agreed upon guides on how we behave towards each other, etc. We wouldn’t have gotten this far if we were always stabbing each other in the backs.

At the same time, there are some unfortunate behaviors and phenomenon that emerge out of these dynamics. In group/out group thinking, an unwillingness to change things if it means causing disunity with the community, etc. And while I think most people are good, there are different people with different personalities, and clearly we have at least some psychopaths who are willing to exploit peoples’ natures for their own gain. Also, circumstances can create constraints on how people behave. If you can’t afford to be altruistic, you might end up acting in a selfish way, although even then that’s not always the case.

The fact that you can look out into the world and feel bad about all the people who are getting hurt, even if you aren’t personally affected, should already tell you that there is this “ goodness” to most of humanity. Otherwise a) you wouldn’t care and b) all those bad people would deserve it anyway. So that is the hope that keeps me from full on nihilism. Unfortunately I also think that there are a lot of other factors in place which make it increasingly unlikely that we’ll be able to organize enough to survive. Wealth disparities and technological asymmetry allows those handful of psychos to wield a lot of power and it’s getting harder and harder to fight back against that.

So yeah, I don’t think “people are doomed even if most of them have good intentions” is that contradictory of a view to hold.