asciilifeform: this works great when there is something to take
asciilifeform: mircea_popescu: you might not need '$1 computer redditard could buy', but if your only shot at computer was to bake own vlsi in the kitchen, you'd prolly use vernam pad and be done with it.
asciilifeform: phf: fpga. is the only reasonable definition.
asciilifeform: which is why all machines made before, e.g., 1995, are 'general purpose'
asciilifeform: and yes, some of it also runs under 'linux' - see the excellent example of the samsung chromebook, which i bought some years ago and tried to civilize
asciilifeform: consider all of the crud hardware that only really fully works under winblowz or crapple's os.
asciilifeform: ^ posted here for the record, apologies for the ~2kb.
asciilifeform: rmans really got to England my acquaintance of the Cafe Royal would soon have found his painting deteriorating, even if the Gestapo had let him alone. And when the lid is taken off Europe, I believe one of the things that will surprise us will be to find how little worthwhile writing of any kind -- even such things as diaries, for instance -- has been produced in secret under the dictators.'☟︎
asciilifeform: because your thoughts are never entirely your own. Philosophers, writers, artists, even scientists, not only need encouragement and an audience, they need constant stimulation from other people. It is almost impossible to think without talking. If Defoe had really lived on a desert island, he could not have written Robinson Crusoe, nor would he have wanted to. Take away freedom of speech, and the creative faculties dry up. Had the Ge
asciilifeform: Why is this idea false? I pass over the fact that modern dictatorships don't, in fact, leave the loopholes that the old-fashioned despotisms did; and also the probable weakening of the desire for intellectual liberty owing to totalitarian methods of education. The greatest mistake is to imagine that the human being is an autonomous individual. The secret freedom which you can supposedly enjoy under a despotic government is nonsense,
asciilifeform: very hoarding; but up in the attics the secret enemies of the regime can record their thoughts in perfect freedom -- that is the idea, more or less. And many people are under the impression that this is going on now in Germany and other dictatorial countries.
asciilifeform: 'The fallacy is to believe that under a dictatorial government you can be free inside. Quite a number of people console themselves with this thought, now that totalitarianism in one form or another is visibly on the up-grade in every part of the world. Out in the street the loudspeakers bellow, the flags flutter from the rooftops, the police with their tommy-guns prowl to and fro, the face of the Leader, four feet wide, glares from e
asciilifeform: ference. Short of being dead, it is the final, unsurpassable stage of irresponsibility.'
asciilifeform: reality, able to keep up an attitude of the completest indifference, no matter what happens. A storm that would sink all the battleships in the world would hardly reach you as an echo. Even the whale's own movements would probably be imperceptible to you. He might be wallowing among the surface waves or shooting down into the blackness of the middle seas (a mile deep, according to Herman Melville), but you would never notice the dif
asciilifeform: 'For the fact is that being inside a whale is a very comfortable, cosy, homelike thought. The historical Jonah, if he can be so called, was glad enough to escape, but in imagination, in day-dream, countless people have envied him. It is, of course, quite obvious why. The whale's belly is simply a womb big enough for an adult. There you are, in the dark, cushioned space that exactly fits you, with yards of blubber between yourself and
asciilifeform: mircea_popescu: this brings to mind tales of african throwbacks who tried to use condom ~after the fact~ and genuinely believed, i'm told, that it will save them from syphilis/aids/etc
