[2026-06-08] @manarenglish@twitter.com

Remember the Iran Riots of 2026, where 3000 people were killed, of which 500 were gov't, 2500 were rioters or civilians?

The documentary is called "The Test of Blood and Fire" (血与火的考验)

I'm helping a friend resub a documentary

血与火的考验1（1989年纪录片）中英双字#64事件#1989年天安门事件#中共国#民主 Episode 1

血与火的考验2（1989纪录片）中英双字幕#64事件#1989年天安门事件#1989年春夏之交的政治风波#中共国 Episode 2

血与火的考验3（1989年纪录片）中英字幕#64事件#1989年春夏之交的政治风波#中共国#民主运动 Episode 3

血与火的考验4（1989年纪录片）中英双字幕#64事件#1989年北京政治风波#天安门事件#中共国 Episode 4

[2026-06-07] @IRNAEnglish@twitter.com

If you understand this story, you’ve understood much there is to understand about geopolitics around Taiwan.

The current DPP government is quite literally cheering its own carve-up - as long as it annoys Beijing.

Here is what happened.

So recently, May 28th, Japanese PM Takaichi and Philippines President Marcos Jr. issued a joint statement (https://www.mofa.go.jp/files/101035755.pdf) announcing they would open negotiations to delimit their overlapping EEZ and continental-shelf boundaries.

As a reminder, an EEZ - Exclusive Economic Zone - is the area extending 200 nautical miles from a country's coastline within which that country has exclusive rights to exploit all natural resources.

Small problem: their EEZs directly overlap with China's, both from Beijing’s standpoint and Taipei’s, as they are less than 200 nautical miles from Taiwan’s coastline.

In effect, what Japan and the Philippines are announcing here is that they're agreeing bilaterally - without Beijing or Taipei at the table - to split between themselves waters that belong, in part, to someone else.

Unsurprisingly, that didn't sit well with Beijing. They issued a statement the day after - 29th of May - where they "strongly deplore and firmly oppose the so-called maritime delimitation talks between Japan and the Philippines" (https://english.news.cn/20260529/bf580c55d8ac43bfb38a298af63248e3/c.html).

Any rational person would have expected Taipei to issue a similar statement because, whatever you think of Beijing's claims, it's the EEZ around Taiwan we're speaking about here: surely they'd object to other countries carving up the resource rights off their coastline.

It's actually one thing Beijing and Taipei have aligned interests on: neither wants its maritime entitlements carved up by third parties.

As a reminder Taipei rejected the infamous 2016 Hague arbitration ruling on the South China Sea - siding with Beijing against Manila - for the same reasons: because the tribunal downgraded Taiping (Itu Aba), the largest feature in the Spratlys that Taipei occupies, from an “island” to a “rock,” which would have stripped it of its 200-nautical-mile EEZ.

In other words, defending their own EEZ is normally sacrosanct for Taipei.

Except... not this time. Taipei issued an angry statement, yes, but where the anger was entirely directed at Beijing. The statement (https://en.mofa.gov.tw/News_Content.aspx?n=1330&sms=274&s=122413) explicitly “commend[ed] Japan and the Philippines for working to resolve maritime differences”, reserving its sharp language to China because it "has no right to comment on the territory and appertaining waters of the Republic of China (Taiwan)."

Think for a moment about what it says about Taipei’s current DPP independentist government: the party that claims to champion Taiwan's sovereignty literally celebrated, as its first instinct, two countries announcing they'd carve up Taiwan's maritime territory between themselves. All because Beijing opposed it.

This caused quite a stir in Taiwanese politics, with the KMT calling the statement “humiliating,” warning that cheering the talks without seeking a seat in negotiations over the overlapping EEZs could seriously hurt Taiwanese fishermen's livelihoods in the future (https://focustaiwan.tw/politics/202606020013).

So much so that Taipei’s MOFA had to issue a new statement on June 2 specifying that the Japan-Philippines talks "should not impair our country's rights", with MOFA spokesperson Hsiao Kuang-wei finally acknowledging the delimitation waters “highly overlap” with Taipei's EEZ.

But then, confusingly, 2 days after - June 4 - Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung undercut his own ministry’s correction entirely (https://www.cna.com.tw/news/aipl/202606040247.aspx). The Japan-Philippines talks, he explained, are “aimed at China” and therefore, fundamentally good - Taipei's EEZ being carved up in the process being, apparently, a minor detail.

China protesting the talks, he said, is “getting cause and effect backwards” and he branded “the handful distorting the issue and shifting the focus” - i.e. anyone pointing out that Taiwan's EEZ is being carved up - as “falling into a trap and letting China benefit.”

So the same ministry, within 48 hours, both (a) asked Tokyo and Manila to guard against a danger to Taiwan's EEZ, and (b) declared that danger nonexistent and smeared anyone naming it as a Beijing stooge. Go figure 🤷

But this is actually just one part of a much bigger story - one about colonial nostalgia, about the three competing visions at play for Taiwan, and about why the West champions the one party in Taiwan that does NOT actually defend sovereignty and democracy.

I wrote it all up here: https://open.substack.com/pub/arnaudbertrand/p/the-sovereignty-fraud-taipei-is-now

xitter link: https://xcancel.com/RnaudBertrand/status/2063201615885320599#m

It's the kind of thing that's probably obvious being in a space like this, so why am I bringing it up?

Because many of us grow up immersed in liberal individualism and it goes something like this, "Be who you want to be! Whoever that is!"

Liberalism loves to act inclusive, while not really being inclusive (like when it backs systemic racism), but nevertheless, the thought of it gets embedded into people. As a result, people who have no proximity to power can become too open-minded about the behavior and beliefs of others.

Not only does this make it harder for the "left" to be distinct from liberalism, it makes it harder for the "left" to hold each other accountable. This is not a judgment of lemmygrad, mind you, but a point about being on "the left" in general and the transition of going from liberal to something like marxist-leninist. Just as every group, organization, and society has hierarchy of a kind for managing decisions, whether explicitly written and enforced, or unstated and informal, every group has conceptions of acceptable and unacceptable behavior and beliefs.

Liberalism, as noted before with things like racism where it often fails to be inclusive, does not bypass this basic aspect of material reality. What it does do is pretend it is not there. No liberal pundit is going to get on national television and say in response to a mass shooting, "The shooter was just living his best life and being who he wanted to be." Because whether they get said outright or not, there are hard limits on what liberalism finds acceptable, no matter how accommodating it tries to act.

So, "being who you want to be" is as real as the "free market" is free. These are lies that make liberalism seem more freedom free than it actually is and that promotes a softer view toward barbaric behavior from people who have no proximity to power. The liberals who are close to power have no problems calling upon it as needed to brutalize a people, but the liberals who aren't, the ones who might otherwise be drawn to a revolutionary mind, are made to think you should stand aside and let people be.

Thereby keeping them safely away from wanting to engage with power, away from wanting to set boundaries, and away from wanting to force a just society rather than simply yearn and hope for one. Overcoming this means embracing that there should be explicitly, collectively agreed upon acceptable behaviors and beliefs, and that this should be enforced. And that these should consciously derive from what furthers goals of liberation, decolonization, and so on. And consciously steer away from exploitation and abuse.

And again, on the surface level, this might seem obvious. But it's still something many of us will have to contend with at times, in revisiting the instinct of liberal accommodation and unlearning the lie that we can simply let others be, no matter who they are, and society will turn out fine.

This doesn't mean be a controlling ass in your personal relationships. What it does mean is organize around uncompromising principles and question the assumption that something is automatically okay "just cause it's how somebody is". Maybe it really is okay and even needs better accommodation / help with it (like what gets called neurodivergence). Or maybe it's a fucking Nazi and needs far more pushback. But every problem won't be as obvious as a Nazi, so investigate and have principles you can look to.

I've seen this word said a lot, specifically for Americans. I understand the basic throughline, that Americans benefit from imperialism and thus are complicit in its crimes.

But...what would be the difference in action if they weren't?

There is land back, but that doesn't include what happened in Africa and the middle east. If the average American is complicit in the genocide of Palestinians, what do you do about it? Is it just supposed to guilttrip them? Is it reparations? Is it a mass trial of a couple hundred million people...?

On a serious note his ultracomm ideology, nihilism, and the fact that I don't think I've ever heard him speak positively about another leftist made me doubletake what I was reading.

https://en.nhandan.vn/video-ha-noi-to-implement-nearly-90-social-housing-projects-with-over-78000-apartments-post162917.html

COSCO Shipping Heavy Industry (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. on Tuesday delivered the Seaspan Yangtze, the first vessel completed under Seaspan's 10K-series methanol dual-fuel retrofit program, after finishing all modification work ahead of schedule.

The project marks the delivery of the first methanol dual-fuel EPC (Engineering, Procurement and Construction) turnkey retrofit for Seaspan, the world's largest independent containership owner. The milestone reflects China's growing capabilities in green ship retrofitting and its increasing role in serving leading international shipowners.

A key highlight of the retrofit is its environmental performance. After being converted to operate on methanol, a cleaner marine fuel, the vessel's Energy Efficiency Design Index (EEDI) was reduced by approximately 55% compared with the minimum required standard. The ship's energy-efficiency performance and carbon-emission reduction potential are considered among the most advanced in the industry, providing a replicable model for the shipping sector's green transition.

The company has now established comprehensive expertise in green-fuel vessel retrofits through a series of methanol dual-fuel conversion projects and special survey repairs for multiple large LNG dual-fuel container ships. These projects have enabled the development of a standardized and scalable retrofit model covering mainstream alternative-fuel technologies used in international shipping.

Compared with the five- to six-year construction period typically required for a new large dual-fuel container vessel, the retrofit approach offers significant efficiency advantages. The entire process, from contract signing to delivery, takes about 18 months. During the 15-month equipment procurement phase, vessels can remain in normal operation, while the actual shipyard conversion work requires less than three months.

The shorter retrofit period reduces vessel downtime and operating costs, helping shipowners maximize returns while offering an efficient and practical solution to support the global shipping industry's transition toward lower carbon emissions.

Welcome again to everybody. Make yourself at home. In the time-honoured tradition of our group, here is the weekly discussion thread.

☭ Matrix homeserver and space
☭ Theory discussion group on /c/theory@lemmygrad.ml
☭ Find theory on ProleWiki, marxists.org, Anna's Archive

A great summary of the history of Cuba's struggle for independence and its development of socialism. It explains concretely why USians are so dejected despite their material comfort and why Cubans are so devoted despite their privation.

Also, even though this video doesn't cover urban design, this is a channel dedicated to it. I believe it's the only commie urban planning channel on youtube so I recommend watching his other videos, especially if you don't like how this topic is typically discussed.

Hello, your ~~matrix server overlord~~ friendly server admin here.

I'm making some... enhancements to my setup¸ and in the process of doing that, there will be some downtime for all services I run, including the GenZedong matrix server. I've prepared everything beforehand and I'm prioritizing the matrix instance, so it should be one of the first things back up, hopefully today, but it could take longer, so don't worry if you can't access it. It will be back soon :3

Once this is done, the uptime and general reliability of my services should be much improved, and I'll have significantly more capacity to host more services. I will also be instituting monthly maintenance windows, but that's not fully planned yet so more on that later.

I'll edit this post with updates as I go through the process.

Update 1: Most servers have been moved over to my new server rack with brand new OS installs and backups restored. There were some hiccups with outdated SPI bootloaders and slow copying times, which is why it took so long. The next step is to get all the software back up and running. Most of this process is automated. I just need to get the infrastructure in place for the automation to take over. Should be done soon, possibly tomorrow as it's getting late where I am.

Update 2: A system update corrupted the bootloader on three of my Raspberry Pi 4s. They have now been reflashed and are working again. I am now working on reconfiguring the software.

Update 3: GZD Matrix should be back up now, working on other services

Update 4: Trixie is now back up, so accounts can be registered again on the GZD matrix.

In Season 2 of The White Lotus, one of the main subplots involves a local hustler Lucia in Sicily, who by the finale, manages to finagle 50,000 euros from a naive young tourist to “save her” from her supposed pimp (a friend of Lucia pretending to threaten her) - a return on investment far greater that any hourly rates at play!

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Lucia and her mark, Albie

This section of the 嫖賭機關 discusses eight types of hustles that Ming courtesans may have run - written as a warning to potential patrons of the brothel. Each of these begins first with the hustle told from the perspective of the courtesan, and then ends with some meta-commentary from the author.

(一)起掇脫法 The Missing Gift

識破你是個水茄，遂生出活套之法。説：“有一遠客宿了四五夜，會早辭我，束裝回家。謝儀我籠袖中，遇着客來戲耍，不知失落何處。怎當媽媽打罵？望你代還，另日補謝。”
這筆帳，上在何人名下？咨嗟！假説禇回子不在，拿住烧䆙的回話。

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(一)起掇脫法

“Having identified you as an easy mark, I devise a clever scheme.

I tell you that a traveler from afar stayed four or five nights, and packed up and left early this morning. He gave me a gift that I tucked into my sleeve, but when other guests came and went, I somehow lost it and don’t know where it is. The madam will surely scold and beat me when she finds out, how can I bear it? I hope you can cover it for me, and I’ll repay you another day. ”

Whose account should this debt be charged to? Ah! If no one is here to speak reason, then seize upon the brothel-frequenter’s response.

The “gift” here given by the traveler is likely money, but could be other valuables, somewhat akin to a tip. The implication is that the madam must know about the gift or expects these “tips” to be shared with the top of the house.

As for the response, it’s also ambiguous whether the brothel-frequenter does cover the cost of the gift or refuses - the narrator suggests or says that the courtesan will seize upon his response (if positive) for future hustles.

(二)失落脱法 The Lost Hairpin

参透你是個私呱。猛可的就生支㲼。昨晚送你，昏黑歸家。吊落金簪一根。不敢回見媽媽，專等你来。再無別話。或換見成或照樣打千萬作速些。怕他一時查。聽他這話是真是假。真也貼他，假也賠他。

除非不上他門終罷。咨嗟！楚國不會忘依邻木到賣了招駕。

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(二)失落脱法

“Seeing that you’re a quiet fellow, a sudden scheme sprang to my mind.
Last night when I saw you off, I returned home in the dark and lost a single gold hairpin; I dare not face the madam again without it, so I’ve been waiting for you, and there’s nothing else to discuss. You must replace it with a similar one, or have one made exactly like it, whatever you do, do it quickly! I’m afraid she’ll check any moment now. You’ll have to abide by what she says about the pin, if she says it’s real, give it to her, if she says it’s a forgery, reimburse her for the cost.”

You can hardly refuse if you ever want to return to this brothel. Ah! A favor done will be remembered, even if it costs you dearly.

As with the first one, this also begins with the courtesan identifying a target based on some aspect that makes them more susceptible - in this one, a quiet or introverted patron less likely to loudly object.

Whether the pin in question actually was lost or not is irrelevant, as the narrator notes, this is really a question of whether the patron wants to see this courtesan again.

(三)騙拐脫法 The Disappearing Silk

認殺是個利巴。半江中就找鷹架。前日有一朋友，送我兩匹雲紗。昨叫針工裁剪，做不完，帶回家。今早去討，尋他不着。煩你替我查。根間怎會話？受氣何時了？空交淚如麻。

聽得說，心中油火兼加。那顧得不從容？那顧得當借？咨嗟！沒影兒，怎尋他？咨嗟！精皮庸，安忍打？

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(三)騙拐脫法

Having identified you as a gullible dupe, I set up a scheme right in the middle of events.

“A few days, a friend gave me two bolts of fine silk. Yesterday I had a tailor cut and sew it, but he didn’t finish it, so he took it home. This morning I went to retrieve it, but he’s nowhere to be found. Could you please help me track him down? What can I even say in the meantime? When will these trials end? My tears won’t stop.”

Hearing this story, anyone would be rightfully furious (with this unscrupulous merchant). How could one possibly stay composed? But how could one possibly find (the silk)?

Alas! There’s no trace of him, how can this person be found? Alas! I am a worthless scoundrel, how could I bear to see her beaten?

While the story here is straightforward, the commentary is ambiguous as to who is thinking what, and who it’s directed at, especially the last sentence exclaiming about a worthless scoundrel/rogue, and asking how one could bear to strike (or witness someone being hit. I’ve added an interpretation that logically aligns with the story above, but may not be the author’s intention.

(四)解債脫法 Borrowing to Repay a Debt

瞷得你是個雏家，石板上就去裁花。說我家中空乏，將我抵當李媽。負他銀子幾兩，約至如今還他。坐此逼討，百般打罵。若無銀，交我隨他。我與你，怎生丟下。明日那借湊合，倘以望兄招駕。

晋得青山常在，何愁草木無花。你要奪趣，好不鷹他。咨嗟！李媽還過幾遍，借劵還在他家。

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(四)解債脫法

“I can tell you’re a hopeless romantic - someone who’d try to carve flowers on a stone slab.

So I tell you: "My family is destitute. I was sold to Madam Li to repay a debt. I owe her several taels of silver, and by now the time has come to repay her. She presses me for payment constantly, tormenting with beatings and abuse. If I have no silver, she’ll sell me to someone else. What am I to do? Please don’t abandon me! Tomorrow, try to borrow and scrape together the sum. I look to you, my benefactor, to come to my rescue.”

But as long as the green hills remain, one need not worry that flowers will disappear. If you want to seize the moment and please her, well, go ahead, but why go to such lengths? Alas! Madam Li has already been repaid several times over - yet the promissory note remains in her desk.

This one is almost play-by-play the same one in the White Lotus, where Lucia begs for the 50,000 euros to pay off her old boyfriend/pimp. Of course, she ghosts the tourist after she gets the money, but that would be more difficult for a Ming courtesan to pull off. Likely she explains this afterwards by her continued presence: “see? she didn’t sell me off to someone else, I’m still here but independent!” or some other variation.

The language in this one is also a bit more flowery than the previous ones, with the narrator almost wistful: “well, you can do it if you really want to, but why spend so much money here?” - and the last sentence could be a closing scene of a movie, Madam Li putting the (unpaid) promissory note back into her drawer.

(五)生辰脫法 The Monthly Birthday

知你惛迷。假說媽媽生日，眾姊妹各其賀禮。我將何以為題交遊未必相休。伏乞維持，替我買䏈首帕。替我打對盖指，兄禮折乾。厚薄隨你一則足下風光。二則賤妾㣲意思知。

這話儿个个都知。思知。論生辰月月有的。

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(五)生辰脫法

“Knowing that you are easily fooled, I will falsely say that it is the madam’s birthday. All the sisters are preparing congratulatory gifts for her. What excuse shall I use if I have nothing to give? My companions will surely not let the matter rest. I humbly beg you to help me, buy me a pair of embroidered handkerchiefs, and have a pair of ring-shaped ornaments made for me. As for your gift, you may give cash instead, whether generous or modest: it’s up to you. On one hand, it will show you off; on the other, it will be a small token of my affection.”

Everyone has heard these words. Think it over. These birthdays come every single month.

This should be a familiar one because micro versions of this are still present in modern life. Who hasn’t told their restaurant that it’s actually their birthday for a free dessert and perhaps an awkward rendition of Happy Birthday by the staff?

The key thing to note here is that this is known to both courtesan and patron - the madam’s birthday is the excuse, but it really is just about the willingness of the patron to give, and to pretend to not remember the birthday already happened next month when asked again.

(六)上頭脫法 An Ever-Blooming Flower

見你撒漫。故意就要上頭。你既與他交好，怎做得個白客。打簪字，抽鬏髻，備首餙，做衣服。粧扮得十分迤逗。稍刷得百樣風流純是內家粧束。

只怕的不長久。思知。到一處上一次頭。思知。離一䖏, 梳一次鬏。

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(六)上頭脫法

Seeing that you spend money wantonly, I entice you into arranging a deflowering ceremony. Since you have good feelings towards me, how can you be just a “free guest”?

Engrave new hairpins. Style her hair into a bun. Prepare her headdress. Sew new clothes. Adorn her until she is full of charm and allure. When she is finished she will look a hundred times more captivating, in the style of a proper lady from a good family.

The only fear is that the feeling will not last long. Think it over, each time you go to a new place, she will style her hair again once more. Think it over, each time you leave this place, she will bloom once again.

This section references a common brothel ceremony, 梳笼, or deflowering, for new and young courtesans. The cost to the patron is high, and includes paying for all of the new jewelry, adornments, and clothes, as described above. It is likely that many brothels of the time would host such a ceremony for a young courtesan multiple times over with different patrons - in fact, this exact circumstance is a plot point in The Plum in the Golden Vase 金瓶梅. In Chapter 11, the main character Ximen Qing is enamored with a courtesan Li Guijie, and sends lavish gifts for the deflowering ceremony. In Chapter 20, while visiting the same brothel, he happens to observe the madam hosting the same ceremony with Li Guijie for an out-of-towner and crashes out, starting to overturn tables and smash vases.

(七)贖身脫法 Paying a Ransom

因你着意，做個順水遊魚。說我在他家。賽過搖錢樹。忒交好討便宜。我欲別做道理。起初過继，能有幾許。兄可替我措處。將我贖出身取掙了還你。你道何如？

思知。渡人橋，過即折因。思知。意蓬風，那裡尋你。

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(七)贖身脫法

“Because I can see how devoted you are to me, I shall go along with the current like a fish. I say that in this brothel, I am a money-tree, but the madam has only eyes for short-term and cheap gains. I want to find another way. When I was taken in, they only paid a small amount for me, but now it will cost much more to redeem me. My benefactor, can you arrange to raise the money for me? Ransom me, and buy me out of this life! Once I am free, I will earn it back and repay you. What say you?”

Think it over: a temporary bridge - once crossed, it gets torn down.
Think it over: a woman who drifts with the wind - once gone, will you ever find her again?

This one is a big one and I was surprised that it wasn’t last on the list. Unlike many of the others, which may tacitly have support from the madam, this one may not have the madam’s support (case by case basis I suppose). Con someone into paying for your freedom, and then ghost. While it’s not to say that some courtesans didn’t end up staying with whoever paid their redemption fee, the commentary definitely makes clear that some of them quickly disappeared with their new freedom.

(八)人手脫法 Extrication via the help of others

視你容易。做個節外生枝，說我獨樹無林。難以撐持，欲尋接脚。替我奔驰，我得偷空。專身陪你，典當只好一半。其餘望兄周之照月定加利息。生死决不負你。

思知。借與他，就是他的。思知。復其齒，難為起齒。

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(八)人手脫法

“Seeing that you are easy to manipulate, I create some unexpected complications. I say: ‘I am like a single tree without a forest—hard to support myself. I want to find a someone who can help take my place and run around on my behalf. Then I can steal some free time to be with you, both body and soul.’

‘If I pawn things, I can only get half the money I need. For the rest, I look to you, benefactor, to help me out. At the end of the month I will add interest. In life or death, I will never let you down.’”

Think it over: Lend it to her, and it becomes hers.
Think it over: Once a tooth is lost, it’s hard to grow another.

This one likely should be read as a similar one to the previous entry - seeking a large sum of money for a major purpose. Here I speculate that it may be about finding a replacement as the courtesan may be aging. While other sections talked about repayment, this one explicitly frames the transaction as a loan, to be repaid “with interest”. However, as the narrator notes, once the money is given over, it’s no longer yours and you likely won’t see it back.

My thought is that these “hustles” end up accounting for a significant chunk of all spending done through the brothel during this period. Specific ones like the “deflowering ceremony” were lavish and must have cost significant sums, especially as described in Plum in the Golden Vase. As it likely was seen as a party foul to bring out a bill or an invoice in the middle of festivities, payment was done afterwards, and sometimes became difficult and had to involve debt collectors; thus, “gifts” were even more sought after due to their immediacy and cohesion with the happy atmosphere the brothel sought to create.

Welcome again to everybody. Make yourself at home. In the time-honoured tradition of our group, here is the weekly discussion thread.

☭ Matrix homeserver and space
☭ Theory discussion group on /c/theory@lemmygrad.ml
☭ Find theory on ProleWiki, marxists.org, Anna's Archive

Pathfinding is often associated with AI, because the A* algorithm and many other pathfinding algorithms were developed by AI researchers.

https://theory.stanford.edu/~amitp/GameProgramming/AITechniques.html

Is this AI?

Dijkstra's algorithm, one of the most well-known, foundational pathfinding algorithms in computation, was conceived in 1956. In practice, "AI" algorithms have been powering computer programs, commonly as part of video games, for decades.

Sometimes in glitchy ways too. Like Oblivion: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrlzlaHEaB0

And people can find this charming and entertaining.

What about generative AI? Generative AI, or gen AI for short, is often what people mean nowadays when they talk about the rise of AI. Gen AI is a classification of AI that is, generally speaking, based on feeding a model a prompt and getting back its best guess. This can go badly wrong at times, sometimes to a comical degree. So why aren't people laughing more when it goes wrong? Why is the mood so grim?

The western internet met the western capitalist AI hype machine sometime around the attempt at pushing NFTs. NFTs were a truly disgusting capitalist development, nothing more than a means of money-changing hands, soulless and cynical profit-making that helps no one. People pushed back hard, mocked relentlessly, and NFTs seemed to recede. I won't claim this is an exact historical timeline of the events, but I'm trying to get at a rough picture here. Similar hyping going on, similar response from the internet, but then... two different outcomes.

Gen AI did not recede and has had a much more bumpy path of gains and losses along the way. The path of it, in other words, does not reflect internet reaction alone, but rather reflects material struggles. The competitive nature of capitalism put gen AI in a race toward dominance. Earlier on, it was more chaotic. People hardly knew what to try. Output quality was easily mocked as incredibly bad, rarely decent. Gradual breakthroughs changed that (quantitative to qualitative). Turning points like the Chinchilla paper led researchers toward longer training times on smaller models, to get a lot more out of less size.

The big corps took this and ran with it. Using their bottomless budgets, they could throw obscene amounts of GPU power at model training and inference. They don't have to be efficient, so they aren't. They don't have to think long-term about the environmental cost or the disruption of communities when throwing up data centers, so they don't. Make no mistake, this is capitalism in action.

The form of AI, as pointed at earlier, is not singular. It includes such things as pathfinding. Even the form of gen AI is not singular. Was it reckless when gen AI was a few researchers working on diffusion technology that eventually became StableDiffusion? Was that small-scale research costly to the environment and taking people's jobs? I don't think so. So is gen AI bad or is capitalism bad? Is gen AI bad or is imperialism bad? Is gen AI bad or is colonialism bad?

Is low quality output from an AI algorithm inherently annoying or is it annoying by association? Are people wrong to get joy from laughing about Oblivion instead of getting angry and calling it "AI slop"? Or is the difference because Oblivion isn't taking jobs and it isn't requiring massive data centers to power it?

Keep in mind, an unstable jobs economy is a trait of capitalism. Cavalier behavior with ecology is another trait of capitalism. These things were happening before gen AI came into the picture. Have we forgotten how fossil fuel companies paid money to bury and slander research on climate change? Did history begin yesterday?

This is not to say these things don't matter, of course. Of course they do matter and it's a significant part of why communism is the answer, why AES states are more going green while the imperialist west drags its feet for the nth time, why you can read about China ruling in favor of a worker over an employer trying to excuse replacing them with AI.

This is a long-term marathon fight. We can't afford to languish in the short-term capitalist point of view. It is our task to make distinctions, even when it's annoying and plodding to do and gets us called nerds. It is our task to work out how to navigate the overwhelming complexity being thrown at us and use the tools available to dismantle the exploiting system.

AI is a powerful tool. It was when it was considered pathfinding and it is when it's considered text generation. AI is a subset of automation and automation as a field isn't going anywhere. People are scared and stressed and struggling, I don't expect people to always be calm.

But try to remember to zoom out. Remember what the struggle is about and who it's for. And remember that communism will win. But we can't be afraid of tools if we're going to do it. Instead, we must return to who controls them and the form that they take.

Author's Note: This is my one allotted clickbait title for the year, you can hold me to that. :P

I think it would be a nice tool to have, not so much to post anime stuff but to store data, graphs, information, images, etc. With some proper tagging it could be really useful to access these files easily and use them in discussion, plus it would take away some of the weight of the images being hosted on Lemmygrad (which are probably posted a lot of times).

What do you think?