Well, this isn't limited to indoor spaces, then.

Sadly, a conclusion I'm leaning towards as well. In theory this system should allow an even greater mixing of ideas than Reddit and its ilk, there's no central authority determining which subjects are forbidden. But it seems we just do that to ourselves anyway, and since each instance and each community are so much smaller than Reddit it's much more effective. The same "single giant impersonal central authority" thing that's a downside of Reddit also means that it's easier to seamlessly encounter everything that is allowed under it.

I don't really know how to fix this since it seems like most people literally want it to be this way. We don't like having our views challenged, it's comforting to look around and see that everyone agree with you.

And yet I still can't buy a mosquito laser. Very frustrating.

I like that the Ivory Coast is not only in the wrong spot, it's not actually on any coast. It's right in the name.

No, mostly just the US.

Gerrymandering can push the needle but it can't hold back the tide. It can actually backfire if the projections that the gerrymanderers were working with turn out to be inaccurate, since it's specifically "betting" on a particular arrangement of votes.

Pretty specific cutoff date there. Look at the full history of elections in Alberta, there was a run of PC governments in that specific window that you've conveniently specified but before that the political landscape was completely different. And in recent history too, it's unstable.

But if you want to write the province off and permanently leave it to conservatives, that's a choice I guess.

Here's an unboxing video, this timestamp skips straight to Moxie coming online. Moxie is a real product. And the video is from three years ago, before convincing video generation AI was a thing, in case that was a concern.

Moxie does pose as well, its various joints are motorized. The arms exist entirely to point and gesticulate, they don't have grippers.

We don't have people walking around trying to put human faces on cats and dogs, but we can understand them well enough all the same.

They do have faces, though. Dogs literally developed additional facial muscles compared to wolves apparently as a means of improving their communication with human companions. Moxie's face isn't a human face, it's highly stylized.

Yup. IIRC they paid the movie's producers for the product placement, and then the company went under before the movie's release date. So it ended up advertising a defunct product. But at least it fit perfectly into the movie's plot.

Only just now? Better late than never, I guess.

"I ordered you to win. Why haven't you won yet? And note that I won't accept any answer you give."

Right before the AI boom really started to take off there was a robot "companion" named Moxie that I thought struck exactly the right balance - it was nowhere near the uncanny valley, staying firmly on the cute robot side, and it used a projected cartoon face that was simple but expressive. Unfortunately the company's timing was rather poor, they went out of business right before the AI back end would have been able to make full use of an avatar like this. I'd love to see another version of this approach.