A Frogs Gent

Bluesky has 12 kinds of users

18h

Need somebody to accuse me of being bourgeois to keep me on my toes.

I keep getting commercials that go something like "Why work when you can sell clothes on Depop? Why wash clothes when you can sell them on Depop? Why do anything when you can buy and sell clothes on Depop?" and it all feels vaguely dystopian.

Me. I've gotten better. Hooray.

Michael Druker 🇨🇦@mdruker.app

Social media loves talking about how everything is getting worse. But what’s something that you’ve seen get _better_ in your lifetime?

Obviously there are people who Believe In Nothing, but I don't think every single person who disagrees with you necessarily only does it for clout. Maybe they simply Do Not Know.

Guess I should probably chase my dreams, or something. What's the worst that could happen?

Eating pears

I am genuinely curious how much confusion around the difference between "median" and "mean" would be resolved if they didn't both start with "me".

I could easily be wrong (and foolish), but I suspect popular AI sentiment will not meaningfully improve until there's a sense that Big Tech Bosses are not disproportionately a pile of reactionary weasels.

"Profundity is relative" and other observations.

Grumble time: If you're not happy with other people over applying the term "psychosis", maybe.... *don't* call them delusional? Just a thought. (People can be Incorrect without being Delusional)

"People can't honestly-" Yes they can. Have you met people?

Videogame Idea: A FPS on a Jurassic Park / Dr. Moreau Island full of genetically modified dinosaurs and other beasts. The twist? You are also a genetically modified dinosaur. Introducing: Gunraptor

"Surely my personal philosophy can never be hijacked by reactionary sentiment!" Yes it can. This is not necessarily a flaw in your philosophy. It is a warning to be vigilant.

Such masterful expression! Is there any doubt of its beauty? Any question of its primal emotional quality? When you see the coyote, you glimpse into its very soul, and perhaps you see yourself.

Obviously it's Good and Valuable to allow people to do mundane tasks faster, but I do think you need to consider whether the thing purporting to be a speedup actually makes the work faster or if it ends up making More Work Down The Line.

Never forget: the rules of Internet Lunacy can easily cut both ways, if you're not vigilant.

Need a break from writing this report. Anyway, Detective Heart of America: The Final Freedom is a movie-length yotube video from Filmcow that's meant to be a conclusion to Detective Heart of America, a series of (intentionally) very stupid and very surreal Youtube Videos. Basic synopsis:

A Frogs Gent@frogsgent.bsky.social

Who wants an overly long ramble about Detective Heart Of America: The Final Freedom, and how I think it's an excellent tragicomedy about how people with good intentions can be easily led astray when they do not have access to reliable information?

So I think it's possible to read The Final Freedom as a cautionary tale of sorts, stressing the importance of educating people about *why* important things are important, so they don't lose sight of what makes those things worth protecting. Or maybe I'm just goofy. Who knows?

@gojira007.bsky.social Here it is.

A Frogs Gent@frogsgent.bsky.social

I can't help but feel OUYA's deliberate vagueness about its mission and its apparent importance smacks a bit of condescension, as if it can't imagine other people being important to its grand plan. It only tells HoA the truth once it's too damaged to complete its mission.

Basically, OUYA thinks it has a great idea (and perhaps it even does), but it immediately falls apart upon contact with the mundane absurdities of the real world. You can draw what conclusions you like there.

A Frogs Gent@frogsgent.bsky.social

Heck, HoA only sees the actual explanation for OUYA's deal by accident, after kicking it in anger and seeing a message recorded by somebody else. And he doesn't understand it because of course he doesn't. And that leads to the Ultimate Choice.

Essentially, Heart of America is told to make the choice that will lead to True Freedom... but because he doesn't have *any* idea what True Freedom is outside of the vague notion of "America", of course he picks "Everything Becomes America", because that *is* what he thinks True Freedom is.

A Frogs Gent@frogsgent.bsky.social

Unfortunately, by the time he tries to learn, America is gone. The only guidance he can receive is from "Native Fugmericans", who give him a bunch of surreal "lessons" and are quite possibly just a bunch of actors who got lost in the woods rather than real indigenous peoples.

Pretty much every time he tries to receive more knowledge, he is met with a bunch of stuff he can't understand and nobody can explain to him. This even extends to OUYA, who is supposed to be a heroic figure but refuses to explain anything about how important their mission is until it's too late.

A Frogs Gent@frogsgent.bsky.social

Detective Heart of America loves America more than anything, but his understanding of it is.... limited, to say the least. Just look at his lists about what is Good and Bad about America. But his love is genuine, and when it becomes clear his knowledge is insufficient, he seeks to Learn More.

This even extends to its less savory history, when he tries to learn about the genocide of the indigenous peoples that took place as part of America's founding. He does not attempt to rationalize or justify it. He acknowledges that it's bad when he learns about it.

A Frogs Gent@frogsgent.bsky.social

As the credits roll, the American Flag gradually changes over time... eventually taking on an appearance suspiciously similar to the masks worn by the wraith figures, suggesting HoA may have inadvertently set the stage for Universal Absolute Tyranny. So, what's this about?

Essentially, my perspective is that the film isn't just a Surreal Comedy with some jabs at American jingoism (though it definitely Is Also That) but a meditation on the ways in which people try (and fail) to find meaning in things.

A Frogs Gent@frogsgent.bsky.social

Unfortunately, the wraith creatures attack and OUYA is left damaged, but HoA is able to reach their base at the JW Marriott hotel by flying thanks to his newly acquired shark powers. There he finds the damaged OUYA, whom he helps find their secret machine to rewrite reality.

OUYA reveals that it can use the machine to negate the possibility of the wraiths existing, but doing so will leave America lost forever. HoA cannot accept this, and thus instead uses the machine to rewrite reality for his version of freedom: turning the entire world into America.

A Frogs Gent@frogsgent.bsky.social

During this process he encounters strange murderous wraith-like beings who attack everything they see and are seemingly unstoppable. He is then encouraged to join a resistance... led by none other than OUYA, who insists they have a good reason for what they do but won't explain it.

HoA kicks OUYA in its sleep and learns that it is from a distant future where a transhuman society has obtained the ability to rewrite reality to control everything. Freedom cannot exist in this future. It is absolute tyranny. OUYA was created to prevent this dystopian future.

A Frogs Gent@frogsgent.bsky.social

Eventually, he discovers that the perpetrator is a sentient OUYA (yes, the videogame console) that has purchased America with the express purpose of negating its existence via.... bizarre esoterica. Unfortunately, he succeeds, and Detective Heart of America is left adrift.

He learns that there is a cycle in which new countries emerge and are erased by OUYA, leaving behind only a single person who remember the previous country each time (The new country is called Fug) At the request of Jesus (who is a merman) and his own patriotism, HoA seeks to Restore America.

A Frogs Gent@frogsgent.bsky.social

Detective Heart of America (yes that is his actual name) is a Bald Eagle Detective (represented in film by a bald eagle statue that is very obviously being manipulated by somebody's hand) who is, as you might've guessed, aggressively Pro-America in the most bone-headed way possible.

After a routine case fighting against a German who stole stuff from NASA to make the first space elevator (because it was her dream to make the *first* space elevator, not the second), Detective Heart of America receives a call to stop a mysterious figure from buying America using bitcoin.

Sometimes you have an idea and it isn't good. But that doesn't mean you can't have good ideas. It just means that one idea wasn't good. So you should try again. Nobody has Only Good Ideas.

I did a programming of some search algorithms today. It was neat!

Has Bluesky done Discourse on The Giving Tree yet? I bet we could get a lot of mileage out of that.

"Why aren't smart people with subject matter expertise taking my stray thoughts seriously?" is a question that can, in fact, be answered.

21 Sept

Sometimes I see Discourse and am once again reminded that sometimes people who think they're talking about the Same Thing are actually talking about Different Things.