I took AI courses in college and it was fun to learn about then when it was a bunch of toy examples that showed the potential of these systems, but it was clear enough to anyone in those classes or doing that research how not ready they were for real applications because of all the known flaws with how model training worked. And then some ceos just ignored all that and started blowing up the bubble.

So my answer is the research models that could play video games kinda good. Everything after that was getting ahead of ourselves.

have you been to a psychiatrist, ideally more than one? Done any research yourself beyond just the depression?

Yes. Quite a few at this point. A few that just diagnosed and managed medications, but then there was also a clinic that did a brain scan to try to help figure things out, this is where I learned I was also autistic, but that didn’t really lead to anything useful. I also went to try TMS and Ketamine. Lately I thought that I might have ADHD, so I went to go get tested for that, but they decided that wasn’t it even if I did have some attention problems, they were just more related to the depression symptoms. After that, I’ve started doing ECT. I’m still in the early stages, but I’m starting to get to the number of treatments where people supposedly start feeling it helping and they of course ask me every time I go and I just never know what to say. I can’t really tell if I feel any different. At some point if it’s not helping I’m gonna have to stop because this is easily the most painful, disruptive treatment I’ve had so far. At least with the Ketamine I was basically just zonked out listening to music for like an hour. The ECT involves going to a hospital that’s like a half an hour away, not eating for 8 hours, not drinking for 2 hours, getting a needle stuck in my arm for anesthesia, then getting my brain zapped. I feel like shit the rest of the day. So if it’s not working, more than any other medication or treatment I’ve had, I need to end it. But I don’t want to miss my chance at what feels like the last thing that might help.

I think the interesting thing about the US is that its propaganda sews the seeds for eventual dissent. It runs on ideals about freedom, democracy, equality, individualism, progress, prosperity, etc. The national mythology isn’t “fuck all the poor people.” The trouble is, the US isn’t any of these things. It just makes it hard to recognize that or what the alternatives are. So I wouldn’t say I moved along the political spectrum as much as I slowly started to notice that I wasn’t where I thought I was. You grow up seeing Obama go from “Hope and Change” to continuing to do all the wars, torture, and spying… it makes you realize “hey I don’t think these people were being honest about sharing my values.” And it’s just a long, slow trip from there to figuring out what movements actually represent your politics.

Some good answers already here, but I can only answer for myself: I used to be that kind of leftist that was “Well I want socialism, but not like those scary foreign authoritarian countries. They’re doing it wrong! Or that’s not really socialism!” At some point after learning more history and talking with others online, I’ve softened my view on these places. Some of that is learning that some of what I knew about them was straight up misinformation, but some of it comes from a shift in perspective: These aren’t abstract ideals of countries. They’re real countries. With real people, real histories, real material conditions, real geopolitical relationships to deal with, etc. They’re doing something really difficult and it’s really easy to be an armchair quarterback while sitting cozy in the US where I don’t have to deal with any of their tough decisions or the consequences of them. Am I happy with them doing some authoritarian policies? No. But maybe they’re necessary to deal with the interference of the US? I don’t know for sure if that’s the best approach, but I don’t have to imagine the counterexample of what it looks like if you don’t take defensive measures, the US has helpfully provided a bunch in the form of all of the countries they’ve backed coups in for the crime of electing even a slightly leftist government. We could squabble about better ways to deal with this, but neither of us has the full context to have an educated discussion on the matter. Also for the genuinely bad stuff, I wouldn’t go as far as specifically supporting those things, but it’s worth putting them in perspective. You can’t talk about China online without someone bringing up Tienanmen Square, meanwhile the US has been a never-ending avalanche of evil in it’s short history, but you can talk about any number of things not related to politics in the US without a random leftist wandering into the discussion about the latest hollywood movie shouting the entire lyrics to “We Didn’t Start the Fire.” I mean we’re happy to bring all that stuff up if it’s in the right context, but people are so deranged about communist countries that the ONLY thing they can think to bring up in relation to them is their less savory moments that may or may not even be true/exaggerated.

It’s really hard to sort good information from bad about these places because there’s so much propaganda. I get that those other countries have an incentive to put out their own propaganda, but it’s hard for me to know what their reach is or what their motivations are or how much they are lying vs countering US misinfo. Meanwhile I KNOW the US has a fairly sophisticated system of propaganda spanning government agencies, media companies, NGOs, etc. I KNOW the US is motivated to prop up the interests of capitalists and try to stop other countries from pushing back against them. A lot of the bad shit and lies the US has done is just straight up declassified history. So I’m sorry if I’m a little skeptical about what the empire that’s made it it’s business to deny self-determination to countries around the world has to say about those countries.

As for Russia, I’m not specifically a supporter. Ever since the USSR collapsed they’ve been another capitalist, imperialist country. But in terms of scale they’re just not even remotely comparable to the US. They are at worst a regional power and outside of nukes can’t really threaten the US on the global stage. So when the US war machine starts saber rattling about them, I know what it’s for because I’ve seen it a million times before. We always need an external enemy to justify the massive amount of money we spend on the military and all of the capitalists who profit from it. Even if I think it would be good if someone in the region pushed back against Russian aggression, I think feeding the beast that is the US military industrial complex is a net negative for the world. Not that I really have any say in it. I can’t remember the last time my congressperson or senator asked if I wanted to give another couple billion dollars to their friends in the “defense” industry. And then of course there was all the hysteria about Russian interference in our elections from the Democrats. I don’t even care if they’re right or wrong. That’s besides the point. The function of the claims is what is more valuable to look at: The implication of “Russia is subverting our democracy by interfering in our elections.” is “We had a previously uncorrupted democracy before the Russians got involved. Please ignore how our own billionaires have bought out all of our elections.” It’s a way to shore up support for a failing system by externalizing it’s problems.

I just want to live in a world where we can all live dignified lives. US capitalists are the current greatest obstacle to that dream. I’d rather have imperfect allies against that than throw my lot in with the “Endless war, exploitation, and ecological collapse” team.

The Halo warthog run music.

“Duh nuh nuh naaaaaah! Dun nuh nuh naaaaah! Dun nuh nuh naaaah!….”

Sugoi! This is the kind of thing I was looking for. Thank you.

It’s been really bewildering and concerning seeing all the crazy consumer crazes online. Maybe this was unfounded, but there was a while where I thought we were starting to wane on consumerism but I guess I was just wrong about that. The internet has just supercharged it. We now have turbo consumerism. Forget about keeping up with the Joneses, you now scroll past 100 of them in your feed and half of them are human billboards influencers.

I can appreciate people enjoying fashion even if it’s not for me. What I don’t understand are the things that are just regular ass items like a tee shirt, but they printed the name of a brand on it and charged a crazy price for it. Nothing else. No actual design or special manufacturing quality. Just the name of a fashion brand that’s famous for… being the name of a fashion brand that sells clothes that… have their name on it. IS EVERYONE PULLING A PRANK ON ME? WHAT IS EVEN GOING ON?

I’ve seen some variant of this advice in a few places, but I don’t really understand how it’s meant to work at the start. If I don’t understand anything being said, how do I begin to start translating and learning? I’ve been watching anime for years and while I know a handful of really common words or phrases that tend to get said in isolation, I don’t know anything about the grammar or most vocabulary that isn’t neatly isolated from the rest of a sentence. If you asked me to try to say even a basic sentence or listen and understand one, I’d be lost. Thinking about it now, I don’t think I even know some of the basic touristy phrases like how to order food or ask for directions. Most of the things I do know seem quite useless in real life. (SUGOI!)

I suppose technically this is how we all learn our first language as a child but… that kind of just happened at a time I can’t really remember. I have no idea how to replicate that as an adult.

So do you have any insight on how to do this?

Right, but I do need some teaching material to start, and I don’t know what are good sources vs scammy subscription services.

Thanks. Bookmarking this.

It might be nice to try traveling there, but I’m not sure how much I can gather from that as a tourist. Like when I went to Japan on vacation it seemed like a nice place, but that’s because I wasn’t exactly going to check out the salary men/women working themselves to death in an office.

Thanks though. You’ve given me some things to think about.

I suppose it would be the employment stuff and how to learn more about the culture/meet people before I go. I suppose for the latter there’s not much to be done before I can learn the language though.

Without knowing more, I think the place I’ve been most interested in has been Vietnam. There are some youtube channels I’ve watched that talked a lot about life there. But obviously there’s only so much that can be gleamed from that.

how would you fare teaching in a classroom of students young, or older at high school age?

I’m not sure. I think I’d probably do better around children than adults. I’m pretty ok with my younger cousins at least. I have had someone suggest that I might be a decent teacher, but I’ve never looked into it. I’ve got some CS skills from taking various classes in college and I did well at them although I didn’t end up managing to get a degree. I do sometimes wonder if I’d ever go back to finish that if I sort out my health issues. But perhaps teaching could also be a route to look into.

What are some good ways to learn about this kind of stuff?

Yeah I figure that would be a big hurdle for a lot of places.

It was in labor relations and I briefly went to grad school for CS, although I didn’t finish it because that’s around when the psych issues really got to me.

I’m sort of on the edge of this. I grew up going to older forums, but those were still moderated and I can’t really remember a time without google. Honestly I don’t even remember how I found the sites that I used. I guess some were just forums for games I played, but less sure about other places.

Politically, I’m pretty firm in my anti-capitalist stance and I think I’ve learned enough to be justifiably confident about that. But I’m relatively a lot less educated about the specifics of future socialist alternatives. There’s a bunch of reading out there, but it’s hard to keep my attention focused long enough to do that kind of reading without more structure behind it like I had when I was in school.