Tootfinder

"""
The barbarian role of cultural demolition crew is especially important when you consider how often cultural reconstruction is needed. Many of Rome’s glaring defects — exploitation, authoritarianism, corrupt self-aggrandizement — flow from deeply human tendencies. Time and again they’ve transformed promising civilizations into decaying, oppressive monstrosities. Time and again, history seems to cry out: Bring on the demolition crew! And time and again barbarians cheerfully respond to the call. Their previous massive wreaking of destruction, near the end of the second millennium B.C., had come after civilization went through centuries of apparent ossification.
In a way, barbarians are just a special case of that general and potent zero-sum dynamic in cultural evolution: brutal competition among neighboring societies. This rivalry renders ossified cultures vulnerable to a makeover, minor or major. They may be taken over by a vast neighboring civilization, which will revamp them in its image. Or they may be infiltrated and perhaps even disassembled by barbarians, paving the way for future reassembly. Or they may revive and prevail — an example of the “challenge and response” dynamic stressed by Arnold Toynbee. In any event, the point remains the same: however deeply human the tendencies of exploitation, authoritarianism, and self-aggrandizement, cultures that surrender to them may not be long for this world.
"""
(Robert Wright, Nonzero: The Logic of Human Destiny)
Is it time for the barbarians now? Or perhaps we — here on Fedi — are the barbarians.

Love this, by D.J. Grothe
We are truly only just getting started. All we have to do is to fail to kill everyone, and things will get better.
"Human civilization has existed for only 3% of the time that anatomically modern humans have existed. And modern industrial civilization has existed for just 2% of that 3% — just 0.06% of the time that anatomically modern humans have existed. Maybe we’re just getting started!"

Dare I admit that I don't really understand what std::move() does? Of course I dare. #CPlusPlus
Reading the "Move: What it is, and how to use it" section on https://herbsutter.com/2020/02/17/move

Move, simply
C++ “move” semantics are simple, and unchanged since C++11. But they are still widely misunderstood, sometimes because of unclear teaching and sometimes because of a desire to view move…

How unusual is this heatwave and is climate change to blame? #environment

How unusual is this UK heat and is climate change to blame?
Scientists are clear that global warming is making heatwaves like this hotter and more likely.

Fuck Liz Truss
https://www.instagram.com/p/DKWtxobNcx_/

Christian Stöcker on Instagram: "Quiz Questions: Who wrote this deranged but familiar sounding treatise about a „globalist“ (read: Jewish) conspiracy that „hates western civilization“ and is trying to take over the world? I‘ll give you a second to think about it. The answer is: @trussliz, the former (salad survival length) Prime Minister of the UK. The (very real) international conspiracy of far right pro fossil fuel crazies is taking root everywhere. It showed its face at #CPAC. These people want what #Trump does, but everywhere."
22 likes, 0 comments - chrisstoecker on June 1, 2025: "Quiz Questions: Who wrote this deranged but familiar sounding treatise about a „globalist“ (read: Jewish) conspiracy that „hates western civilization“ and is trying to take over the world? I‘ll give you a second to think about it. The answer is: @trussliz, the former (salad survival length) Prime Minister of the UK. The (very real) international conspiracy of far right pro fossil fuel crazies is taking root everywhere. It showe…

Ab heute mittag wird das Schiff bis morgen Abend in Würzburg liegen. Die Stadt erkunden wir bei dann eventuell etwas weniger Regen morgen. Heute entspannen wir an Bord und haben die Sauna für uns reserviert.
#CHaufFluessen25

At a "couples retreat" for human-AI pairs, users of services like Replika and Nomi grapple with the virtual reality and emotional limits of their partners (Sam Apple/Wired)
https://www.wired.com/story/couples-retrea

My Couples Retreat With 3 AI Chatbots and the Humans Who Love Them
I found people in serious relationships with AI partners and planned a weekend getaway for them at a remote Airbnb. We barely survived.

swingers: Swingers and parties (2013)
A bipartite sexual affiliation network representing “swing unit” couples (one node per couple) and the parties they attended.
This network has 96 nodes and 232 edges.
Tags: Social, Offline, Unweighted
https://networks.skewed.de/net/swingers

As @… 's 5 principles of civilized AI have popped up again at #bibliocon25 I was wondering if they are published somewhere in a reliably quotable form?
There's a recording of the talk on Youtube (

Juten Tach allerseits ☕
Heute Tag 2 in Würzburg. Nach dem Ruhetag gestern, an dem sich nach 4 Städten in 4 Tagen auch meine Beine ein wenig erholen konnten, wird nach dem Frühstück die Stadt beginnend an der Residenz erkundet.
#CHaufFluessen25