• 7 days

    Quantum computing.

    It’s dead you just weren’t advised.

    • is it? i haven’t seen post quantum cryptography (?) alert when connecting to some machines in openssh until pretty recently, i assumed there’s been steady development in that area

      • 7 days

        Yeah it’s toast. All the movers and shakers left the field in the last year or two because they’ve acknowledged that it’s a giant shell game and it’s hopeless.

        • The speed gains were all an illusion. Quantum computing was still hypothetical and the algorithms used to make these predictions were essentially preloading all the data needed to make the gains into the hypothetical computer drastically cutting down compute time. This wasn’t a real reflection of how quantum computers could work, having a data lake of ALL the info ALL instantly accessible, and when you took that away, or rather gave classical computers that same massive hypothetical advantage the speed of classical computing was just as good as the hypothetical quantum computing.

  • I think part of it was the drill your brain with an auger kids shows were designed to be addictive to kids; baby shart, poop patrol, peppered pig, and the list goes on. I butchered the names but if you have kids or nieces and nephews then you know of these torture devices. I mean blues clues was at least tolerable, my sister loved that show. And there’s the tellitubbies, I would make fun of that to myself, stinky winky, but at least it wasn’t as bad as what my sisters kids watch now. My sister did watch the rescuers down under until the cassette broke sigh, so I’m surprised she didn’t have them watch that.

  • 8 days

    Climate change. It’s an existential threat which no one seems to actually care about enough to do anything. In many cases leaders are intentionally doing all they can to make it worse. The world has gone insane.

    • Agree, it’s a daily thought for me but no one cares. I’ve made my home as stable against it as I can, but I see everyone else just not giving a fuck. Honestly I’m not having kids because of climate change, all experts point to death and destruction and I see no need to bring children into that. The people who downplay it have no scientific experience and a lot of backers who want to keep the status quo.

    • 7 days

      I think there’s two issues. First, it’s that people are so drained, because there’s been next to no progress (negative progress recently) because the elites can keep themselves from being regulated.

      Second, the media has stopped covering it to the same degree because more and more are purchased by those same elites. They want to bury it, so they give it minimal space.

      Basically, we’re fucked, but there’s also almost nothing an individual can do about it. The only hope is for an absolutely massive movement that would need to overturn society as a whole pretty much at this point.

      • But there’s been tons of progress, renewables are growing way beyond predicted rates and their price is dropping like a rock also way below predicted rates

        • 6 days

          CO2 emissions are growing as fast as ever though. Yeah, we’ve gotten better at creating energy from renewables, which is great, but the dirty energy sector keeps coming up with reasons to consume their products, at increasing rates. I thought the crypto crash would bring it down, but AI came in to save it.

          (My theory is the AI bubble is by design. Crypto was failing, so they decided AI would be the new datacenters to increase consumption. I don’t think the product was ever the goal. It’s just an excuse. The energy consumption is the goal.)

    • The world has gone insane.

      I used to care a lot about it. then the scientists were silenced. then discredited. then the protestors were targeted. then the government said it’s all a hoax.

      now? now I collect information. information about where specific people plan to go. how long they expect to be there and what kind of personnel they will have with them. then? then, I wait. I wait for the opportunity after all the chaos.

      you see, we don’t have to survive global climate change. we just have to survive long enough.

  • COVID.

    It’s not gone anywhere. People are still dying. Others are still getting long covid, and probably for life.

    • During the pandemic, it felt like life would never be the same again. Now it feels like the pandemic never happened

  • AIDS.

    I came of age during the crisis and it would be hard to exaggerate how big a deal that was. Sex could kill you, not just ruin your life. Sex ed in 7th grade was more like a haunted house than a classroom.

    EDIT:

    I took sex ed in 7th grade in one of the former Slave Holding States. Due to a quirk in the reconstruction State Constitution, many cabinet positions were voted on instead of appointed. (this point was to weaken the Governorship should a black man gain the office).

    Anyway, at that time, Democrats had controlled the Secretary of Education for decades and the sex ed course was surprisingly comprehensive. They taught us about contraception, STIs, consent, as well as the anatomy of human reproduction. Abstinence was emphasized.

    We kinda had two sex eds. One in Elementary school that was segregated by sex; taught in a single day; and was basically “you may notice changes in your body” type lecture. Obviously, sex wasn’t mentioned at all.

        • Probably what it is given rural Nebraska. I’ve asked my daughter because she’s in 7th grade and she says no we haven’t had any class.

          I mean we’ve had the talk with her and she’s had some questions but I know there’s other questions that I think she would be more comfortable answering in front of peers instead of her own parents

  • 3D TV sets. There was one year where they were the definitive future of TV, and then everyone just never mentioned them again.

    • 3D is one of those cyclic hype things that comes around periodically, once people have forgotten the previous cycle. This isn’t the last time.

      • VR is the same. pops up once every generation. is massively hyped about revolutionizing entertainment and the world, and then is totally forgotten.

        and a small batch of enthusiasts keep it alive in computer labs.

        • I’d say VR is very much out of the lab now. Yeah its not as common as normal pcs but still quite common and available. I got vr myself and love it, the experience is its own thing. And there is quite a few games and programs for it. So I don’t see it as just temporary thing, it was just getting better and better for the past 10 years.

        • It’s just… such a novelty. Like, I don’t know if I’d want everything to be 3D or VR all the time. It’s the kind of fun that’s only fun in moderation

  • Blockchain. Although I’m not surprised it’s not talked about anymore, people have moved on to the next grift.

    • Yeah, Blockchain was the Hot Thing (grift) pre-covid. Around the fidget spinner era. Idk what the grift was before that, perhaps smart homes

    • 7 days

      I’d genuinely be interested to know whether the technology is being used anywhere successfully nowadays besides cryptocurrencies, but it really isnt talked about anymore

  • Nothing surprises me about this.

    People can’t afford food. Many are living in their cars. I can’t reasonably expect people to care about a damn thing over than surviving another day.

  • The hole in the ozone layer.

    That was going to kill us all and was Earth’s Big Bad. Then they just kinda fixed it and forgot to tell us and we just sorta forgot about it.

    • We didn’t fix it, we just stopped making it worse. It’s still the reason you don’t step outside in the summertime in New Zealand without sunscreen.

      Another 300 years and it should be right as rain, though.

    • Finding out the hole was fixed in, like, my late 20s was wild.

      “What about the hole in the ozone layer?”

      “They fixed that like 10 years ago, dude.”

      “THEY TOLD ME IT WAS THERE WHEN I WAS STILL IN HIGH SCHOOL 10 YEARS AGO! 😬 Those bastards lied to me!”

      • Technically the hole is still there, it’s just not as big of an issue nowadays. Then again the bad chemicals are still used and leaked in especially China so it could make a comeback.

    • it’s because we got a lot better at finding oil and found out we have way more of it than we thought.

      • He should, it’s a lot of fun! They have a huge cookout, hamburgers, hotdogs. But you can’t have any of it. You have to sit in a lawn chair and watch as the neighbors come over and eat your plate.