I think it is an illusion because as you approach the speed of light everything in your wide view contracts to the front of where you are going, so it would seem like you are moving back. Stop, and you now appear closer. It's probably why you do not see this effect on sci fi films, instead they show the ship moving forward by streaking the stars showing through the window, which is more intuitive for our brains to understand.
Dear app developers: please do not detect screenshots, and do not change behavior. It is my phone and I should have the right to save anything on my screen for my own purposes and you should not know that I do that.
I have a TV in my Google Home that I cannot remove. It says it's offline and when I try to remove if it says "communication error". Yes, I know, I stopped using that TV 5 years ago! Normally, I haven't seen such bugs from Google, but lately it's been getting worse.
Many positives. For example, the buildings get to be maintained and left in a better condition, rather than deteriorate. Streets look better too, and landrods have an interest that their assets are located in areas with low crime and adequate public services, as that improves the value of their properties. Often airbnb properties are well maintained, and I've seen a few examples where derelict properties were turned into nice looking houses in my town.
Landlords such as Airbnb hosts usually invest a lot in furniture and equipment, helping to keep the producers in business. Not to mention provide employment thanks to renovations, cleaning and maintenance. I'd say it leaves the economy more vibrant and benefits all. A classic example where landlords were banned was the Soviet Union, and all the housing problems that followed. Although the USSR finally collapsed, people there still live in the old Khrushchevkas...
>>Many positives....buildings get to be maintained
Sure, let's talk about second-order effects as if they somehow contradict the main issue of extracting all profit.
Yes, to the extent there is investment that returns to the local economy, both as good/services purchased locally, and assets that remain local. that is a positive. But remember, these are ALL ostensibly profit-making ventures. To the extent the profit leaves the local/national economy, it is an absolute negative. If the landlord is a local, and their profits are spent locally, it is all positive. When the landlord is foreign or doesn't participate in the local economy, it is a hard negative. And a foreign or corporate-/oligarch-ish landlord has no incentive to put anything back into the local economy, or maintain the buildings beyond the minimum, so any positive effects are minimized contrasted with a local landlord who might take pride in his buildings & reputation and participate in community building because it is his community too. (Obviously exceptions exist, but exfiltrating the profits is a pure net negative.)
AS for your AirBnB argument, it is fabricated fantasy. There may be isolated instances where it is a positive, but I've recently read reports from four continents how both movements and laws are underway to attempt to undo the damage AifBnBs do to communities; you conveniently ignore this while tacitly arguing against it. The fact is, even as an AirBnB guest, remote owners suck, while on-site owners are typically great (I just enjoyed one of the best examples last week). The remote owners superficially spiff up the place so it takes good pics, but do the absolute bare minimum of short-term maintenance, while the on-site owners renting out parts of their own building actually invest in the property.
And overall, the influence of turning a substantial number of buildings into short-term rentals is pernicious. The people staying in those buildings by definition have no investment in the local economy, culture, or society, so they do nothing to help the commons issues. The reduced housing stock droves up rental rates for actual locals, allowing often remote landlords to extract more money from a declining community. It is effectively two methods of stripping assets and wealth from a community, effectively making it poorer — please explain how involuntary impoverishment makes improvements in the life of a community or it's individual people.
you can already get that information by reading books in the library.
The biggest barrier is not information, it's the ability to secure enough of the materials and equipment.
For example, information for how to make a nuclear weapon is already there in the library. However, mining enough yellow cake and then purifying it is an industrial scale operation, out of reach unless you are a nation state, and have good mountain tunnels, etc. To a lesser extent, this is also true for producing chemical weapons. The theory is there, but actual production extremely out of reach. No LLM can help you there. (You can verify by reading up on Aum Shinrikyo to get an idea of the staggering scale required)
Sure, information on all sorts of things is in “the library”. But (a) most people in the world don’t have access to a decent library (if you’re on HN you’re statistically much more likely to), (b) most people have no idea how to use one (same), and most importantly (c) AI will distill the knowledge from ten books you might need to read into step by step simple instructions if you ask.
Highly unlikely. Just the energy cost of running centrifuges, let alone manufacturing them is impossible to hide. It's staggering when you consider it.
To put some more perspective, an LLM could show you how to make a Boeing 747 in detail, but the actual chance of someone making one with no tools and logistics would be 0.
There are numerous large companies with the resources and technical know how to match either Pakistan or India's efforts here, companies already experienced in yellowcake extraction and complex production processing equipment manufacture.
> To put some more perspective, an LLM could show you how to make a Boeing 747 in detail, but the actual chance of someone making one with no tools and logistics would be 0.
Pakistan, India, and many companies have resources, tools, logistics experience .. I have no idea how this sentence is meant to meaningfully refute those facts.
> LLMs haven't changed the economic realities.
I don't recall mentioning LLM's and I remind all that the bulk of nuclear weapons development happened before LLM's were a thing.
FWiW there are better actual arguments why it is unlikely (but not impossible) for a non state actor to put together a nuclear weapon .. the comment above is not one.
