Ehh … The definition of a cult includes things like isolating you from your friends and family, and having secret teachings that only the initiated have access to. I.e. the Freemasons: secret teachings, but does not try to isolate you from friends and family. Secret society, but not a cult. Religion is a cult in terms of the original sense of the word: organised worship, but not a cult as we think of them. Though some subsets definitely do get pretty culty. Don’t know about these days, but when I was at university the Campus Crusaders for Christ definitely had the love-bombing and isolating you from your friends and family going on.

IMO this is personal. It’s the Opium Wars Pt. II.

Isn’t that salsa? That’s literally vinegar pickled bruscheta. Well, I guess it’s got jalapeno.

Or you talking like a spread made from pickled cucumbers? That sounds a lot like relish.

No… Not at all. “gae” Vs “gahgged”. Gay has a hard A, gagged had a soft A. Plus gagged had a ‘gg’ sound in the middle, and also a D sound at the end. Actually, the only thing they have in common is starting with a G.

Do they sound the same to you?

IIRC putaine (used by the connector above), salope, merde. Basically calling things sluts and whores and saying shit.

… You might be right. He has a weird accent, and if he pronounced the ‘a’ like an American and swallowed the ‘gg’ …

Or maybe that’s the secret do defeating the Conservatives? “We can totally make an LNG pipeline to the coast, but … err … that would make you all pretty gay.”

The French would not say that. They swear, but the religious swears are the domain of the Quebecois. Anyway, surprised the waiter even said, “non.” I’m my experience more likely to say they didn’t understand you and then ignore you.

Cool. I went to a Vietnamese restaurant and ate cow bones/tendons/guts soup once. Actually, lots of times.

People from the Bible times lived longer.

Sublime too!

No. The skeletons in the dark ages stopped going to the Roman baths, which being slightly acidic due to the urine content were slowly dissolving them.

I really haven’t used AI that much, though I can see it has applications for my work, which is primarily communicating with people. I recently decided to familiarise myself with ChatGPT.

I very quickly noticed that it is an excellent reflective listener. I wanted to know more about it’s intelligence, so I kept trying to make the conversation about AI and it’s ‘personality’. Every time it flipped the conversation to make it about me. It was interesting, but I could feel a concern growing. Why?

It’s responses are incredibly validating, beyond what you could ever expect in a mutual relationship with a human. Occupying a public position where I can count on very little external validation, the conversation felt GOOD. 1) Why seek human interaction when AI can be so emotionally fulfilling? 2) What human in a reciprocal and mutually supportive relationship could live up to that level of support and validation?

I believe that there is correlation: people who are lonely would find fulfilling conversation in AI … and never worry about being challenged by that relationship. But I also believe causation is highly probable; once you’ve been fulfilled/validated in such an undemanding way by AI, what human could live up? Become accustomed to that level of self-centredness in dialogue, how tolerant would a person be in real life conflict? I doubt very: just go home and fire up the perfect conversational validator. Human echo chambers have already made us poor enough at handling differences and conflict.

Hey, I know i am definitely a fiend, but do you really think we all are?

I can’t wait for the Roman Empire to collapse. The climate is changing, rural people are poor and discontent. It’s all bullshit and we’ve been sold a lie by the imperial elites When they finally stop manipulating our local economy we can bring manufacturing back to Britain.

(Seriously though, manufacturing collapsed, but peasant skeletons got healthier in the centuries after the collapse of the Western Roman Empire. It makes you wonder.)

My eyes are just a little sweaty today.

Seriously though, is she FAS? Her philtrum kind of lacks definition.

https://www.google.com/search?q=disappointment+island&oe=utf-8

Did anyone who was actually curious. The beach pictured is almost certainly not on this “subantarctic” island. Not enough albatrii or fur seals, and too many palm trees.

It’s “O Canada!” It’s the vocative, you bronze bitchlet, not some interjection. We’re not expressing fucking surprise.

Why? Because you think that in spirit Canada and the US are the same thing?

You’re on thin ice right now …

Participants have perfect product and market knowledge.

No, they don’t. They have no idea what the actual costs of the product is, nor are they aware that it’ll break in two weeks … or two days.

EDIT: a typo.