Two Lines of Squirrel

 

Every critical diagnosis a doctor makes is a singular triumph for medicine.

For the patient, it's a multiverse shitshow.

***

As for the braces for the teen...I'm not feeling confident that we'll ever have a good solution. I was hoping custom medical grade stuff would overcome the issues we've had with the off-the-shelf braces we've been using, but no. We were told the problems with digging, breaking skin, and sliding will persist because they are not yet able to overcome the biomechanics and physics.

Sooooo I'm guessing we're going to spend $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ for things that end up in a corner in the teen's room. Sigh.

For that one person saying...'well, then she doesn't need it,' I invite you to wear something that will break and bruise your skin and slide, requiring constant adjustment for 8+ hours a day, all with the maturity of the average teenager, and see how long you last. Also...you can suck a bag of moldy lemons. 

Data: The orthotics person we worked with has similar problem knees and uses the same braces the teen will have, but even they don't wear them all the time.

For that other person saying...'well, don't buy them then.' Other parents may chose differently, but we feel our duty is to provide every option we can. It's tough on stuff like this that's expensive and that we won't know how well it will work until after the fact. But anything that might help, we feel we have a duty to provide if we are able to do so.

And I will say, on a more positive note, albeit in a completely different vein...despite all the health chaos, I released 5 projects (which were already done so probably this isn't as amazing as it sounds but still...progress is progress) and continued to work on others. I've kept up my momentum pretty well this latest cycle of WTF now. 

I seem to be adjusting to the constant interruptions and developing a work flow around it. Which is great. I hope it keeps up. I tend to be sensitive to disruption (which I hate! I loathe my working process! I would love to be one of those people who can sleep and work anywhere instead of the Snowflake Princess and the Pea that I am but no). Going places in the middle of the day often derails my productivity, but lately, not so much. So...winning???

In terms of AI being nowhere near ready to take over the world, here's an anecdote from the front lines for you...

I found a new audio AI company that had excellent quality, far and above anything else I'd seen. I got really excited and spent a week using it to generate a project.

All the exported files have glitches that were not in the original content generated in the interface. The whole thing is unusable and I wasted a week making it.

So the AI might be great, but you can still have major problems with other pieces of the AI supply chain. I notified the company and they've been ignoring me which suggests to me that they don't have a fix.

I was also looking into the ChatGPT guy and looking at his educational background wondering what the fuck kind of ethics these universities are teaching. Of course he's a college drop out (read: never got to ethics class) and affiliated with Elon Musk whose brain and personality are decomposing long before his soul leaves his body. I dug up an interview and this genius is quoted as saying (paraphrasing here) that he and Elon want to make sure that AI doesn't destroy humanity.

So apparently that means...

1. Release an AI system that doesn't fact check or provide a bibliography to a population on the cusp of fascism and where a large % can't figure out that masks work.

2. Monetize it.

3. Get sued non-stop for training AI on other people's IP without their permission.

Humanity is saved! Huzzah!

And you know, none of the 'journalists' push back. No one calls out the bullshit. What ethics did their universities teach?

The longer this polycrisis era grinds on, the more I can see the media as it exists now must be replaced and it's the one power center we have a shot at undermining effectively. The problem is, the outlets that could be utilized, their algorithms heavily favor all the anti science alt right nuts*. It's clear that's not a mistake. It's an intentional information blockade to protect the triad of corporate interests, media power, and corrupt politicians. 

And at this point, pretty much everyone is seeing the problems with the media, which actually has a tricky downside. Yes, it's a unifier but will we unify behind the right solution? Fascist strategies leverage this energy better than most, and history shows us angry crowds aren't particularly discerning.

We're in very dangerous waters here. We can't rely on the courts. Or the politicians. Or the media. Or the corporations. Online outlets are manipulated both by algorithms and bots and foreign interests. Which gives populists a lot of power.

When you know you can't trust your institutions, it creates an opening for one iconic figure who understands the zeitgeist to grab power.

We're in a new Dark Ages. A time where truth is going to be hard to see because it's purposely obscured by various agendas and autocrats. 

Science isn't too bad because so long as your education didn't suck or you're fast to pick up things, you can parse it out for the most part. But large scale dynamics (for example, all these droughts and the war and bird flu and the impact on food supply or the manic hype campaign online for AI to where it's difficult to suss out reality) and politics or situations that are infused with a lot of rhetoric and spin...forget it. 

Good luck out there. Try not to feed the fascists.

PS: Ha. Well this was a wild ride. I didn't know when I started this was going to all come out. Welcome to my squirrel brain. Yes, the gray matter really does go in a million directions inside my skull. 24/7/365. Sometimes it's useful because I spot something. The rest of the time it's chaos.

*YouTube is currently the best example of algorithm alt right bias. You can 'weed' the other algorithms fairly effectively (so long as you understand you have to curate it yourself) BUT YouTube will continuously dump alt right BS into your feed no matter what. Or you'll have good sources in your feed, but the ads are all alt right dipshits.

I keep interacting with outlets like PBS and Democracy Now and blocking the alt right channels I see to try and fix my feed. Nope. Still getting fed alt right bullshit.