Try eff. Follow their advice, test your browser, see if there are priorities to act on https://coveryourtracks.eff.org/

there’s been little progress toward creating the unfathomably long carbon fiber tether

When space elevators were first discussed, there were no materials that could possibly be used. Now we have carbon nanotubes that may be strong enough. That’s huge progress.

But yeah, the political issues will prevail. If we can’t even agree enough to build California high speed rail, think of the impossibility of a major infrastructure project several orders of magnitude bigger and more complex, several orders of magnitude more costly, and where a failure is essentially a weapon of mass destruction affecting hundreds of millions of people.

Just like every other manufacturing industry where China has come to dominate, a big part of their strength is also developing the supply chain, suppliers and to foster competition. There’s an entire web of industry to support car building and scaling demand to make it work.

Or you know, the government could just match Chinese industry subsidies

The problem is we did. The last 2-3 decades had billions in subsidies toward battery technology and battery electric vehicles. Then they got canceled. Then reinstated. Then canceled. At this point Chinas biggest advantage is being able to stay the course

“How long until you’ll be able to compete?”

Seems like the approach we’re trying is to prevent people from not having kids they can’t care for, and prevent underage people from having the knowledge or medical support to not have kids when they are still kids

I’m more concerned about people wanting to use that to raise the retirement age.

1. They don’t understand averages. Reducing childhood deaths significantly raises average life expectancy by increasing the number of people who reach retirement ages, not by making them more able to work
2. Nothing forces people to retire at a specific age. I’m more concerned about being able to work long enough to afford retiring. “Retirement age” is 67 and I don’t expect to be able to work that long
3. Ageism is a thing. As I’m approaching 60, I understand I may never be able to get hired again in my field. This may be my last job, whether I want that or not, and regardless of what retirement age is
4. There is no such thing as retirement age in the us. There is only the age range at which social security will start paying out. That has nothing to do with how old you need to keep working, how old you can keep working, or how old you’re allowed to keep working

Until recently in the US the fertility rate was almost 2 and we made it up with immigration. Now we’re trying to be isolationist and the fertility rate is no longer almost 2

• https://theworlddata.com/female-fertility-rate-statistics-in-us/

On the surface, this could be entirely legit, not worth the outrage.

I can easily believe

• regulations are not ready for self-driving vehicles
• a manufacturer decided some required equipment is not suited for a car meant to be self-driving only
• the manufacturer self-certified, with exemptions where there is no regulatory framework yet.
• government agency sees that and starts an investigation to see if they agree

Even before you get into what you think of this specific manufacturer and whether they’re really ready for self-driving, this is a “normal” process

I’m more worried about regulations defining what self driving needs to be capable of and tests to qualify it

Whether a cyberCab is capable of safely self-driving is a different question from whether a self-driving vehicle is required to have a steering wheel

I have to admit liking those ai slop sci fi videos where they get persistence hunting right as a reason humans are an unexpected apex predator

Plus being upright. Most of our weight is supported by skeleton, rather than muscles that get tired, and walking is mostly a matter of falling forward in a controlled manner

Maybe hail. At least one of the times I saw hail. It was a clear and sunny day without a cloud in the sky

Or a wall of rain. Once when I was a kid it was a race to get home: a wall of rain was coming through and I tried to make it back in time to stay dry

Dust devil maybe? I’ve seen those several times, never strong enough to damage anything.

I don’t know if this counts but I found a courtyard between buildings on Manhattan where there was always a swirl of wind at a specific spot from prevailing winds being funneled between buildings. A bunch of time I went back there I’d see a swirl of leaves and trash like a mini-tornado, always in the same spot

While I generally like the argument there was also generally sidewalk room. If you watch the video, I was struck there were cycle/scooter people walking their vehicle on the sidewalk, past the obstructions in the bike lane. No reason those obstructions couldn’t have been on the sidewalk.

But the OP is also wrong. You do have to deal with the reality you face and there were too many pedestrians in the way. Like it or not he should have been walking his bike past those assholes

Yes, I remember when I was a kid and my family built their house, it was a big deal that we were the first we knew with the new style phone jacks instead of those

Yeah that’s mighty frightening. Last time I was in that situation, I had no dependencies and it was bad enough. Now I have a mortgage, 2 kids in college, and am wondering if ageism would let me get another job of if I had to

My 401k is up, especially compared to the Trump crash in March but in general as well. Not enough to retire though. I still have a job but it’s looking precarious: lots of layoffs

Just got back from moving the second kid into his dorm room. College expenses for two kids are mighty frightening

Thanks

But aren’t Waymos all BYD? If it meets all safety standards for Waymo to register it, it should meet them for the rest of us …… in a sane world

It’s not just that, but yeah, some changes aren’t incentivized by quarterly profits. The Chinese government did help with planning and incentives to help manufacturers transition to new technology and to build out the supply chains they would need.

Now they’ve made the transition to new technology, established supply chains, scaled up, and have strong competition to keep progressing rapidly.

US government tried at various points, only to have progress thrown away by the next administration. So now we have protectionism. Consumers pay more while legacy manufacturers milk obsolete technology for a few more quarters of profit……. While losing any hope of competing globally