Honest question: what do we expect the Pope to say? For all intents and purposes, he is the head of a very old and established ‘religion’. He wouldn’t be the pope if his views were contrary to the teachings of the church as it currently exists.

There’s nothing technically stopping you from building an android smartphone just the way you like. In fact, there’s extreme modding folks that do things like already. What we really lack is a future-proofed connector standard for component connectivity that just works.

What? It is not illegal for children to access pornography. It is at best illegal for people to allow children access to pornography. (Outside of countries where pornography is banned outright)

I hate the fact that you’re probably right about that reason.

Just as there’s apparently still thousands of new-in-box lend-lease M1928 submachine-guns in storage. I’d wager a lot of large countries have similar stockpiles, especially places like Russia that can absolutely afford to just dump shit in random places.

To be fair, it’s a fairly normal civilian construction contract. As a capitalist, you go/do the things that make money. If that includes building bridges in an active war zone, it doesn’t matter as long as the bill gets footed.

Almost everything you said, with the exception of AI CSAM and suicide prevention, can hardly be considered a serious issue.

What’s wrong with searching for how to make a bomb? If you have the wish to research it, you can probably make a bomb just by going to a public library and reading enough. The knowledge is out there anyway

Exactly. Then it’s fine. He had his chance, he didn’t take it. Fair game

By doing controlled burns. You basically light an area on fire while it is safe to do so, and that burns up the dry material in that area. Ergo- less combustible material in times of drought.

Also, it helps clear old trees so that new trees can grow. (Additionally redwoods require fire to sprout, iirc)

The HU is a great band, change my mind.

The issue arises when you look at it from a geopolitics point of view. The US (aka the West) loosing manufacturing and design dominance in the semiconductor space means that there is less bargaining power to force others to do what the US wants. In the case of China, US export embargos for cutting edge semiconductor technology was meant to cripple China's technological progress, especially in the semiconductor design/production and AI model space. (Think of whatever shenanigans US companies have been doing with AI models, and what China has already demonstrated on Western hardware.)

Semiconductors are integral to modern weapon systems. If you've been keeping up with the news, you'll remember that even Russian missiles have been found to contain western-made electronics. AKA Russia has been buying US technology and adding it into their own weapon systems, rather than designing, producing and using their own. That makes Russia reliant on having a stable source of US components, be it imported legally or in spite of sanctions. The same goes for China. The fear is that China will eventually be able to manufacture weapon electronics comparable to US designs. Stealing the designs from US sources isn't particularly difficult, its always been the manufacture of said components that caused issues for China. Seemingly, that gap has been closing.

In short it's basically the issue of the West having made China the factory of the world, them having learned/being able to steal designs, and them now having the ability to produce almost anything. That makes them a strategic threat to US interests.

Anything that makes someone less reliant on you is a net negative if you wish to remain 'in charge'.

Between the TV and the bed there’s a black thing. The side profile seems to indicate it’s a couch.