I hate to think about the human race becoming obsolete, but it makes sense if you think about it.

Awesome comment, thanks for the detail.

To play a bit of Devil’s Advocate (from a bench-top scientific standpoint I come from immunology/microbiology background—so I know enough theory to be dangerous but don’t have your depth of evolutionary understanding) doesn’t a lot of this rely on cosmic timescales? I’m sure I could easily do a web search on this, but I think there are a lot of galaxy clusters that are much older than the Milky Way. That would give the potential for many multitudes of planets that have been around much longer than Earth, which gives a lot of time for intelligence to evolve and sustain. Now, if an intelligent civilization can ever survive for that long is a different question in and of itself.

I personally have wondered if the natural, sustainable, next step in any intelligent evolution is artificial forms of intelligence. Maybe biological intelligence is just the bootloader for less squishy forms of life? Immortal silicon life sort of renders the biological limits of space travel a lot less problematic. I know that comment exceeds the scientific into the philosophical, but it’s a thought I’ve had a lot lately.

Yeah, and also I wouldn’t go out of my way to shit on someone who believes we live in a simulation. Simulation theory is sort of plausible with our current understanding of tech—but right now it has just as much evidence as most religions (which is none for both). So yeah, I don’t think it’s good practice to try and dunk on people for their beliefs.

Na khorocho, que si?

I truly think there is a component of unprecedented, shared psychological distress (everyone needing to stay inside like solitary confinement) and post-COVID cognitive distortion that makes the entire pandemic feel like some sort of fugue state. I was working in healthcare during it and when I look back at those years it feel like someone that was a dream. I’m in my 30s and no other part of my life feels like that.

Thanks, I appreciate it.

I have a pretty high tolerance for disrespect (either from patients or other specialties) since I work in Emergency Medicine, but COVID was just off the charts.

And it’s this weird thing where a decent percentage of humanity was working super hard to save everyone else—did save most everyone else—and a ton of people are just going on about the “Fauci Ouchie” and nanochips.

The general public has no idea how many people we saved with the mRNA vaccines and critical care medicine. They’re blatantly oblivious to it. The death toll would’ve been monumentally worse without a coordinated effort of public health, healthcare, and research. Yet no one has any idea. COVID was simultaneously one of humanity’s greatest unrecognized accomplishments and one of its greatest blunders.

If you’ve ever read or watched The Expanse series I feel like it’s spot on as far as humanity’s response to disasters.

I was assaulted by a family member for not giving “IV Ivermectin” to someone with COVID who I had just crash intubated (honestly thought they were going to code, but somehow didn’t) back during the Delta wave.

My view of humanity has gotten pretty pessimistic since COVID. If I had the guts I’d honestly love to go create an insulated community of people who actually think about stuff and want to help each other.

Ha ha so true. I thought you were joking but you never know with the internet.

Slightly educated guess medical opinion here?

As far as risk is concerned:

Smoke>>>vape>nothing.

Vaping will definitely have adverse effects we start cataloging more in 10-30 years. My guess? Likely some form of lung disease (maybe more of a restrictive pattern due to the microparticles in vapes—I could see if being like silicosis or pneumoconioses) and some forms of cancer.

I mean you basically don’t smoke then. Most of the effects of smoking are based on pack-years, which is the number of years you’ve smoked a pack per day. So two packs a day for 10 years? 20 pack years.

You have barely any pack years, and you stopped so young that the adverse effects are definitely reversed (10 years of cessation to reverse risk of lung CA/COPD).

Ones I’ve experienced because of healthcare and would’ve otherwise not really known about—

US tech CT Tech Xray Tech Medical Simulation Tech/Actor (this varies, can also be IT. Med sim centers need a ton of IT) ECMO Perfusionist

1. Smoking
2. Smoking
3. Smoking

There are already a lot of good answers but I want to highlight this. Chronic tobacco smoke causes increased aging due to multiple mechanisms. Moreover, environmental tobacco exposure from second hand and third hand smoke prior to the 1990s was MASSIVE. So even if you didn’t smoke you got insane daily exposures to the same chemicals.

If you’re addicted to a substance seek help for it.

This was my life when I experienced addiction.

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House of Dragons was actually pretty good. Reminded me of the beginning of GOT. Not sure if it’s continuing, though. But at least it’s a prequel so the plot points are all already out there in his history prequel books.

Yep, been saying this for years.

We know he told the show creators huge future plot points. That ending was the ending, it sucked, he’s embarrassed, the series will never be finished.

Yep. Been saying for a while that it feels like old Reddit.

I wonder if it’s a nerd-level thing. Reddit devolved as it turned into another social media outlet instead of a niche internet techie place.

Honestly pretty much all through complex scenes and groupings in the app. I have different scenes for morning, late afternoon, and night. They all vary based on mood and season. That’s pretty much it. Only use automation for outside lights and to mimic presence when traveling.