An “instance” is a server that talks to all the other Lemmy servers, where your account info and login are stored. There’s a lot of benefits to decentralization - even if one instance goes down, like lemm.ee, it doesn’t really impact the whole of Lemmy too severely. The cost of running an instance isn’t super high, which means that if an instance is being annoying about advertising or something, you can ditch it with little cost to yourself and even run your own instance if you want. A single cabal of admins can’t ruin it like Reddit (cough cough Spez) and it can be easier to curate your own experience by choosing what instances you want to ignore completely.

Any given instance is not necessarily a safe harbor, but as long as Lemmy is around, there will probably be multiple instances to choose from. The only thing you really lose is your post history - and you can link to your old account info in your new account for continuity’s sake.

Rationalists are (supposedly) smart enough to figure out that Roko’s Basilisk wouldn’t waste cycles torturing someone in effigy if they decided they’re going to ignore the threat of Roko’s Basilisk. It’s the opposite of a catch-22.

Oh, I’m sure there are bots on Lemmy too. The general userbase, however - of people who are sick of Reddit’s BS - are also going to have very little tolerance for bot BS, so the instances are incentivized to try to keep bot activity down lest they be de-federated.

I’m staying, not because I want to - but because I have a lot of friends and family who can’t afford to, and if push comes to shove, my savings are going towards helping them get out too.

except that the government run land registry can deal with disputes in a flexible and fair manner. A blockchain with smart contracts cannot.

at the same rate of time change

Not true! The faster you’re moving through space, the slower you’re moving through time.

it’s the parties with the majority of the “proof of XYZ” creation hardware. Which are not normal people.

Originally the idea was that it WOULD be normal people using their own CPU cycle time to secure the chain and mint new blocks. Even then, as long as no one party holds the majority of hash power, the incentive is to support the security of the coin rather than subvert it. The moment that changes is the moment that Bitcoin dies, because no one will be able to trust it any more - which also means there is an incentive to make sure there are enough competing BTC farms.

there’s the possibility of developers of a blockchain choosing to rewrite the ledger, causing splits.

The blockchain is upheld by the combination of the developers and the miners. If the developers aren’t acting in good faith and the miners don’t like it, they don’t move to the new chain. Sure, you get a split, but odds are one of them is going to die.

The government will fail you, but Trump will ensure the government fails you even harder and faster, that it fails more people, and that it will bring as much of the world down with it as possible.

Have you fought a goose before? Clearly not considering how you’re mouthing off.

People know to steer clear of Canadian geese for good reason. They’re known to break people’s bones with their wings when they decide you need to be punished. The weight/strength ratio is vastly different for birds than it is for mammals. Birds have to fly, so they’re built ridiculously light for how strong they are - and they have to be strong to be able to fly.

A swan is much bigger and - critically - much meaner than a goose.

Oh hey, yet another article perpetuating the narrative that Luigi is guilty. Must be a day of the week that ends in ‘y’.

This is why stoy said the First Past the Post system needs to be dropped.

The thing missing from most of these bullet points is that extracting energy from rotation reduces the speed of the rotating object.

Even black holes are affected by the gravity of objects near them, same as anything else - which means that the black hole will slow down if you slingshot an object around it.

That’s why it’s called energy extraction rather than energy creation.

So sure, you could make a black hole bomb… but making the black hole in the first place would take as much - if not more - energy than you’ll get out of it. And usually you’re going to do enough damage just throwing a black hole through your target.

Nostalgia.

LLMs are AI as much as the enemies in a game are AI. It’s not General AI though, which companies really seem to want people to believe it is.

Not even close to all software. There was a broad mix of stuff that used 2-digit years that would have had problems with it, stuff that used 2-digit years where it wouldn’t really impact anything, and stuff that used 4-digit years and so wasn’t a problem.

However, if it drove any sort of critical infrastructure, it had to be audited just in case it fit in the first category.

My dude, just because the Catholic Church won’t stop being the Catholic Church doesn’t make a progressive pope a bad idea.

If you think that’ll stop them, I have a bridge to sell you. In case you hadn’t noticed, the law doesn’t mean anything any more to the people in power.

That depends on if they’re reporting LESS money than they actually made, or are reporting MORE money than the shop itself actually took in.

If everything is in cash, you can inflate it pretty easily without raising eyebrows.

I dropped Reddit when it was announced that you could be banned for upvoting something.

Luigi is also, in all probability, innocent.

Which means the Claims Adjuster is still at large.