spectrums_coherence

But on the third hand,

I know an AI comment when I see one /jk

Seems like this one still exists https://github.com/flatpak/xdg-desktop-portal/pull/1922

The good side: I feel it might enables me to better setup parental control in the future. If software read from the age field, then the blocking can be more robust than a simple DNS sink hole by pihole, which is really easy to get around, with mobile data or directly visiting IP address.

I do find this field is fundamentally different from verification using government issued ID (yet). I will definitely fight the next one, but I am kind of okay with this one.

Cons: it is additional fingerprint parameter, I hope the xdg-desktop protocol can be implemented to give out as little information as possible for the age field, instead of just handing the birthday field to every app that ask for it. And I hope all adult who don’t have any age-based content filtering needs will opt to leave the field empty.

I think the law in Brazil have already come into effect at the time of the merge. So it is not really compliance in advance.

• https://reclaimthenet.org/brazil-digital-eca-age-verification-law
• https://github.com/systemd/systemd/pull/40954#pullrequestreview-3971009945

I personally feel it is exactly the sprit of community is designed for, no? This community explicitly welcome potentially stupid question in the hope that good discussions can arise from it.

I agree that this question is indeed werid and perhaps even deserves to be called “stupid question”, but I feel this is what this community is welcoming, no?

Sorry, but why? Are they breaking any rules?

poorer people generally tend to be less attractive than rich people due to lack of access to cosmetic care.

Sorry, but why is every single rich old person I see on TV literally looks like goul. .

It is optional field and can be unset and set to arbitrary value by the administrator. If you can build your own OS, isn’t it easier to just unset this value?

I feel this reply is somewhat misguided and reiterate many of the (frankly, a bit frustrating) AI propaganda talking point.

“It is not AI, it is capitalism”: It is AI in capitalism, which is the reality we live in right now. If you take anything and put it in an utopia, then of course it will be great. But that simply is not the world we are living in.

Some people hate cars, because it is a inefficient, polluting, and unsafe way to travel. But what if cars are all running on renewable energy, is super small, and never collide with pedestrian or cyclist, then noone would hate cars!

Some people hate meat eating because it is inefficient and forces animal to live in inhuman conditions. But what if we can make animal photosynthesis and make them live happy, free, and full lives. Then no one will be against meat eating, but again, that is not our world right now.

Just because there is an alternative utopia where AI is perfect that doesn’t mean it is right now, and its flaws causes the hatred on the internet.

Now, most AI center are polluting, consume large amount of energy, and those AI that people mostly uses are built with stolen knowledge. Finally, society should optimize for the well-being of the people, and artist are people, AI are not. All the AI people use nowadays funnels the money to the richest few, while majority of the population, even AI experts, don’t have the means to train useful AI model as of now.

I have options to go to another country, but I choose to stay in the U.S. It certainly is not an easy decision given the many current and historical problem within the U.S. Like many of you, I believe Trump is the symptom, not the problem. The problem is much more deeply rooted and harder to get rid off.

Admittedly, my wife being in the U.S. is the largest driving force for me to remain in the U.S. Yet, here are some other advantages of the U.S. I have considered:

• EU tried to push chat control repeatedly, the vote is always close; and U.K. already have strict age verification law for porn (and possibly VPN). U.S. is heading there, but at least my state has not attempted any of these ridiculous moves.
• I really really enjoy the community in the U.S. city I live in, there is “real” farmers market, street fairs, local art conventions: there are fun events every weekend. Maybe I didn’t try too hard when I was in London, but I am not able to find as much event in the U.K.: there are “farmers market” in London, but most of them just sell low quality importted plastic decoration/toys instead of actual groceries…
• US is a top funder of scientific research: https://ncses.nsf.gov/pubs/nsb20257/global-r-d-and-international-comparisons-2 . Now even China is out-funding EU and UK, but I am certainly not going to China any time soon. There is way too much politics in Chinese academia, as far as I know.
• I think education is a human right, and U.S. education is way more expensive than it should be. I don’t want to defend it. But I believe U.S. has better educations thanks to the libral art system, where student have much more chance to interact and learn from professors compare to many top UK schools.
• In general, even account for the out of pocket maximum for healthcare, many U.S. job still pays more than their U.K. counterpart. This means saving money in the U.S. and later move to a lower income country is easier than saving money in a lower income country and later move to the U.S. Working in the U.S. when I was young gives me more liberties and assets to move to other countries later in my life, if U.S. eventually collapse.