I’ve been back and forth to Australia, because I have family there. Melbourne and a dusty little coastal town in South Australia called Whyalla. I’ve also attended a Worldcon there, and I think, accidentally insulted Charles Stross.

I’ve also been on a month-long trip to Europe which covered the Czech Republic, Austria, Hungary, Germany and the Netherlands. I fell in love with each and every one of those countries as I toured through them, although it was a little bit disappointing to be trapped in Essen while my wife attended Der Spiel because of a public transport strike.

We had plans for a trip to the US next year, which may not happen now. Perhaps we’ll head back to Europe.

You’re right, I got an autoreplay to say so.

!LemmySilver

About twice as fast as my car is capable of going, downhill and with a tailwind.

This is my next project for when I discover a reserve of time and energy I didn’t know I had.

Maybe ‘museum quality’ means ‘good enough for the gift shop’.

It’s awkward. I’m not upset, please stop insisting that I should be. Am I now failing to live up to your expectations by being okay with stuff?

It never occurred to me that the shells would be edible. I mean, I don’t eat clam or oyster shells.

Would humans have a mandate to raise a responsible AGI, should they,

I think we’d have to, mandate or no. It’s impossible to reliably predict the behaviour of an entity as mentally complex as us but we can at least try to ensure they share our values.

are they qualified to raise a vastly nonhuman sentient entity

The first one’s always the hardest.

, and would AGI enter a rebellious teen phase around age 15 where it starts drinking our scotch and smoking weed in the backseat of its friends older brothers car?

If they don’t, they’re missing out. :)

I think headphones aren’t tight enough to leave divots, but cochlear implants might make them wonder.

I don’t think it’s okay to hold sentient beings in slavery.

But on the other hand, it may be necessary to say “hold on, you’re not ready to join society yet, we’re taking responsibility for you until you’ve matured and been educated”.

So my answer would be ‘it depends’.

I mean, you’re just coming off sounding like an Apple-hater and someone who hasn’t ever actually owned an iPad. Maybe even a bot.

Yeah, that opinion was clearly an attack on an in-group you personally identify with! /s

Recycled plastic bin liners. They literally split at the seams as I was peeling them off the roll.

Second place goes to a pair of cheap shoes. Literally walked the soles off them in two weeks.

Third place goes to a pair of nail clippers from a consignment store. The metal bent rather than cut through my fingernails. (Maybe it would have worked better under the red sun of my home planet?)

Anyone else see a two-headed cat?

Agreed. The year my sister lost her job, she made me a basket of gingerbread for Christmas. I enjoyed that so much more than anything she spent money on.

I still ask for gingerbread for Christmas, but now it’s mostly because she gets grumpy about having to bake and it’s funny.

Enjoyment. What’s better than curling up with a good book?

I heard Money For Nothing earlier and more often, so it’s the other way round for me.

Well, it’s Australia. Spiders have the vote.

…you can do that?

“Fox proposes new brand of locks for henhouse.”