@tiotasram@kolektiva.social2025-10-07 12:52:49
Picture the human body. Zoom in on a single cell. It lives for a while, then splits or dies, as part of a community of cells that make up a particular tissue. This community lives together for many many cell-lifetimes, each performing their own favorite function and reproducing as much as necessary to maintain their community, consuming the essential resources they need and contributing back what they can so that the whole body can live for decades. Each community of cells is interdependent on the whole body, but also stable and sustainable over long periods of time.
Now imagine a cancer cell. It has lost its ability to harmonize with the whole and prioritize balance, instead consuming and reproducing as quickly as it can. As neighboring tissues start to die from its excess, it metastasizes, always spreading to new territory to fuel its unbalanced appetite. The inevitable result is death of the whole body, although through birth, that body can create a new fresh branch of tissues that may continue their stable existence free of cancer. Alternatively, radiation or chemotherapy might be able to kill off the cancer, at great cost to the other tissues, but permitting long-term survival.
To the cancer cell, the idea of decades-long survival of a tissue community is unbelievable. When your natural state is unbounded consumption, growth, and competition, the idea of interdependent cooperation (with tissues all around the body you're not even touching, no less) seems impossible, and the idea that a tissue might survive in a stable form for decades is ludicrous.
"Perhaps if conditions were bleak enough to perfectly balance incessant unrestrained growth against the depredations of a hostile environment it might be possible? I guess the past must have been horribly brutal, so that despite each tissue trying to grow as much as possible they each barely survived? Yes, a stable and sustainable population is probably only possible under conditions of perfectly extreme hardship, and in our current era of unfettered growth, we should rejoice that we live in much easier times!"
You can probably already see where I'm going with this metaphor, but did you know that there are human communities, alive today, that have been living sustainably for *tens, if not hundreds of thousands of years*?
#anarchy #colonialism #civilization
P.S. if you're someone who likes to think about past populations and historical population growth, I cannot recommend the (short, free) game Opera Omnia by Stephen Lavelle enough: https://www.increpare.com/2009/02/opera-omnia/
@cdarwin@c.im2025-10-08 16:23:42
Trump on Wednesday said the Illinois governor and Chicago mayor, both Democrats, should be jailed as they oppose his deployment of National Guard troops for his immigration and crime crackdown in the nation’s third-largest city.
The officials said they would not be deterred.
The Republican president made the comment in a social media post, the latest example of his brazen calls for his opponents to be prosecuted or locked up
— a break from longtime norms as the Justice Depar…
@arXiv_csCY_bot@mastoxiv.page2025-09-09 08:57:51
Influence of Stakeholder Involvement in M&E on the Performance of Donor-Funded Projects in Informal Settlements in Kisumu Central Sub-County, Kisumu County, Kenya
Brighton Savayi Amuni, Stella Silas Karimi, Felistus Mwikali Patrick
https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.05369
@arXiv_csSE_bot@mastoxiv.page2025-10-08 09:11:39
An Empirical Study of Security-Policy Related Issues in Open Source Projects
Rintaro Kanaji, Brittany Reid, Yutaro Kashiwa, Raula Gaikovina Kula, Hajimu Iida
https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.05604
@muz4now@mastodon.world2025-08-07 17:57:33
Singer-songwriter Nemahsis on the importance of being uncompromising – The Creative Independent https://thecreativeindependent.com/peo
@arXiv_hepph_bot@mastoxiv.page2025-09-08 09:35:40
Exact calculation of photon polarization observables in Bethe-Heitler process
Yu. M. Bystritskiy, V. A. Zykunov
https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.05011 https://ar…
@grumpybozo@toad.social2025-10-08 15:48:59
This is part of why I feel confident that I am in my last real job.
In 40 years of working, I've *never* gotten a job in IT/#InfoSec by applying for a publicly visible opening. I have had some interviews from *trying* to do it that way, but never made it to hiring. I think I may not mask or hype myself well enough. I suspect that this would be made worse by today's "AI" desolation.
I also stopped even trying to hide my professional cynicism some time ago...
@arXiv_csCL_bot@mastoxiv.page2025-09-08 10:11:20
Decoders Laugh as Loud as Encoders
Eli Borodach, Raj Dandekar, Rajat Dandekar, Sreedath Panat
https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.04779 https://arxiv.org/pdf/2509.0…
@cdarwin@c.im2025-09-07 01:47:24
A community science project finds that
⭐️ modest reminders to find joy in the day
✅ can have benefits that are on par with those of more ambitious well-being interventions
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-small…
@arXiv_csSE_bot@mastoxiv.page2025-08-07 09:31:04
Vanilla-Converter: A Tool for Converting Camunda 7 BPMN Models into Camunda 8 Models
Dragana Sunaric, Charlotte Verbruggen, Dominik Bork
https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.04352 https:/…
