Rusty Swarf @rustyswarf@refactorcamp.org
Industrialist, philanthropist, bicyclist.
Joined Jul 2018
Puzzling that there's no climate optimism on either side.
Liberal Climate Chaos Optimism: Once there's no "normal," we have freedom to invent crazy microclimate ecosystem designs.
Conservative Climate Chaos Optimism: Same, but with no fear of using nukes and similar scale tech to influence weather.
Pondering ways to characterize environmental politics:
Liberal Ideal: We should freeze ecosystems as they are, prevent further contamination.
Conservative Ideal: We should freeze rate-of-industrialization at its recent state.
Both sides feel rooted in fear of change.
Does this make sense?
Really appreciating woodstoves during this cold snap.
I feel like they're the closest thing we have to "Mr. Fusion" from back to the future: you just take trash lying around on the ground in the woods, chuck it in the box, and get energy out!
Rusty Swarf
boosted
Is our search turned off? I can't seem to search anything cc @zacharius
I already have too many toots to search for my own without a search function. Looking for something I tooted about how some science fiction approaches closer to reality instead of escaping from it...
I get the super blood part, but what does wolf mean?
Is there any particular university that's pre-eminent in Environment / Climate / Ecology / Meteorology stuff?
Seems like there's no obvious choice the way there is for engineering, medicine, finance, etc.
I'm being nudged into a marketing role where I work, and it's forcing me to re-examine a long-held belief: Advertising Is Evil.
Anyone care to play devil's advocate?
Rusty Swarf
boosted
The New Yorker’s “Touchstones” essays on classic albums are quite good. The inline samples of Missy Elliott’s musical references and supercuts of other artists borrowing Janet Jackson’s chair dance are a great evolution of online music writing. (There’s also one on Nirvana 🤷♂️) https://www.newyorker.com/culture/touchstones/an-appreciation-of-missy-elliotts-1997-album-supa-dupa-fly
I think the best New-New-Deal would be to give young people a Guaranteed Basic Job working for one or two elderly people, as IT support.
At the local computer store:
me: "Do you have any advice about how to learn to use this [new smartphone]? Like, what do all the different swipes mean?"
repair technician: "Ummm, I'd suggest finding a small child and asking them to teach you."
US Medical Billing continued:
Bizarro Future: Instead of paying for health insurance or a legal retainer, you pay your monthly healthcare budget to a PR firm who will counterattack the service provider in the court of public opinion as soon as you receive a bill.
Has media coverage surpassed the legal system as the standard way to contest medical bills in the US?
Odd asymmetry: nobody can hire lawyers to match an insurance co.'s legal team, but no amount of hospital/insurance PR can dispute public opinion about an absurd bill.
https://www.vox.com/health-care/2018/12/18/18134825/emergency-room-bills-health-care-costs-america
What's the best metaphor for aggregated public opinion?
1) collective unconscious
2) mob mentality
3) psychosphere
4) overton window
5) wisdom of crowds
6) clash of civilizations
7) other?
There's a lot going on in this interview with Adam Curtis:
Politics as pantomime, narrative void, South Park.
https://www.economist.com/open-future/2018/12/06/the-antidote-to-civilisational-collapse
Early new-years resolution: spend time with more negative people.
I'm such a contrarian that the most reliable way for me to be optimistic is to be surrounded by the despairing.
On a purely syllabic basis, I'd like to hear a Kirsten Gillibrand shout-out in a rap song.
100 years after cars made horses obsolete and destroyed the carriage industry, it's odd that ferriers, leather-saddlemakers, and horse-breeders earn a premium over their modern equivalents: auto-repair techs.
The Wall Street Journal has become "Rich Kids of Instagram" for old people.
Rephrasing the question:
If you had to create scientific climate data for the place you live, what events would you feel confident recording, with relative certainty about dates?
Do you have any personal heuristics you use to record annual weather patterns?
People who grow plants often keep calendars and record "first frost," for example.
Homeowners might keep track of major storms with repair/cleanup bills.
Seasonal workers might keep track of their hours, indicating a fish spawning or the beginning/end of snowpack.
There's no un-inventing addictive human creations, so the cultural response is to gradually develop immunity by establishing norms.
Historically, isolated cultures have been more susceptible to newfangled vices. Where will the gamer-slums of 2050 be?
Industrialist, philanthropist, bicyclist.
Joined Jul 2018
