The “experiment” is one you conduct on yourself, it’s not for thinking about a process and using your imagined results as the basis of further study. It’s very useful in a number of non scientific fields, and it can serve as an aid in scientific education though, so it shouldn’t be written off generally.

The paper clip thought experiment is a punchy, memorable example of the conflict between what input you give to a computer and what the computer interprets from that. The goal is for people who hear it to remember that they need to be thoughtful about what exactly they want and precise in their phrasing when they’re programming or training an AI.

Tbh, I think we’re going the Russia route. I wish we could have as graceful a transition out of being a superpower as the UK (I’m not calling theirs objectively graceful, just less erratic and batshit).

Robespierre?

What the fuck?? I don’t understand how someone could see that as the better option. Like, I understand that some people just don’t care about other people, even those they’re in a relationship with, but I don’t understand how. Especially not if you’re socially connected enough for cheating on a partner to be an option for you.

“I’m dead 💔” is not what I’d say if I could answer it. I’d probably say something about dodging a bullet or unnecessary tests or the importance of trust.

The larger point stands though: if you feel you have to trick them, it’s not worth continuing. Maybe they’re cheating on you, maybe you’re overly suspicious*, but either way you don’t trust them not to cheat on you. If you can’t trust that, how are you going to trust them not to stealth or not to lie about their STD test results?

Plus, is that worry really going to go away if they say the right name? It could just be chance, and then you’re back at square one.

• I had a partner who lied to me about EVERYTHING (in reality, his mom didn’t die of cancer like mine, he fucking murdered her and was in jail for more than a decade, not in the merchant marines) and it fucked up my ability to trust for a long time, so I get that it can happen. That wasn’t my fault, but it was my responsibility to get past my trauma before subjecting someone else to it. I won’t ever be 100% unaffected by the experience, but I don’t make my husband atone for my ex’s actions.

As long as he’s not the calculus teacher…

It’s not as comfortable, certainly, but there are very overweight people with active jobs (my husband’s a butcher, and this describes about a third of the people working in his shop- they’re on their feet and walking around, lifting half hogs and doing really physical work).

For most people, as long as you stay active, you can continue to be active. If you’re completely or mostly inactive, it will take some time to gradually build up your endurance, and that’s certainly more difficult, the more weight you have to move, but walking is very low impact. I’m not suggesting that two people with BMIs of 22 and 42, respectively, would have identical walking endurance, but it’s not uncommon in my very walkable German town to encounter very overweight people who walk a ton.

Walking is obviously better at burning calories than driving, but we’re really efficient walkers and it’s not very difficult to eat enough to be obese while using walking as your primary mode of travel. If you walk at a moderate pace with little incline for 2 hours a day at 150kg, you’ll likely burn between 700-1000 calories (way more information is needed to get an exact number), and you can completely neutralize that by eating an order of fries with mayo, or a container of Ben and Jerry’s.

Turns out, living in a place that’s just not walkable most of the time will do that to you

2031 still sounds like a year out of a sci-fi story to me, but it’s only five years away

Misregistering your lemonade stand

Monkey’s paw: everyone is now from Newfoundland

Yin and yang

Black cat

Taps head

I don’t know why I’m surprised that the sun doesn’t know the difference between affect and effect, but I am.

If you don’t both feel like the lucky one, it’s not worth continuing

Cookies? Ad companies? Privacy? I think those are pretty mainstream things to know about (at least if you live in a country with regulations on cookies, you get a banner on every website)

I can see that, but I think I’d be cool with them knowing everything about me as long as it wasted a bunch of their money.

For non-metric users, three gallons of milk is probably more accessible. 400 kg is 880lb, which is roughly 12x as dense as water, which is the wild part (or it feels like it, that could be a totally normal density for stone, I’ve already put too much effort in for napkin math on a shitpost)

Same, although if I take them off or forget to put them on somewhere in public, I feel very naked

I’d like to imagine they’re 71, just hoping patiently for that youthful libido to finally abate