=== ANCHOR POEM === ════════════════════════════════════─────────────────────────────────────────────── Okay I just want to rant about homeschooling for a moment. Specifically the ways in which we judge families as "worthy" of homeschooling. Because I think it's immoral and completely wrong, but I also think there's a better way. So. Right now, there are standardized tests that students need to take every year. I think this is completely unnecessary and stupid, for reasons I might go into later in the rant. We'll see where it goes. Anyway, the only state exempt from these rules is (you guessed it) Wyoming, which is a big reason why my family moved there. The standardized tests assume that children aren't neurodivergent, that they don't have special needs, and that they are willing to be taught according to the letter of the test. They teach families to shoot for the minimum viable product (oh just gotta pass the test or else they'll take my kids away for 8+ hours per day) and they don't actually encourage learning - in fact they prove to be a barrier for learning, as the child must be forced to learn whatever the heck the standardized tests demand. This is unethical, as children should be free to explore their identities and their realities as they will. I believe, instead, that the parent should be tested. I think if you want to homeschool your kid you should be able to show proficiency in the tasks that a child must know - if you don't have similar proficiency to a teacher, then what's the point of homeschooling? I also believe that these tests should be regular and should reflect the things that the child is currently going through - no sense asking a parent of a 6 year old how to do trigonometry, as that skill is not useful to the parent at the moment and will simply distract from learning the things that the parent should be learning - like theory on how humans learn to read, how communication works, how to get your kid moving and active throughout the day (very important in a world of smartphones) and other such things that a 6 year old would need to know. I also believe there should be wandering busses that take kids (and only kids) around to various museums. I think that they could operate in a city for a month or two each year, bringing all the homeschool kids together for a couple months of road trips where they visit every single museum and state park and other such recreational venues that would be conducive to their learning. They could even have days where they shadow professionals at places like hospitals or universities. Essentially trying to get them excited about learning. And I know what you're thinking - "oh won't the kids run rampant and make it hard to manage - you'll need tons of chaperones and blah blah" yeah that's public school thinking. Homeschool kids are almost always incredibly well behaved, because they're low key kinda TERRIFIED of the novelty of EACH and EVERY moment. Children are natural ruffians - put them in a box for 8 hours every day and they'll burst through it's seams. Unless of course you oppress them sufficiently... When you're homeschooled you have so much more freedom. You can do whatever you want, and that gives breath to new manners of expression and personality. I also think there should be busses that travel between cities as well, so that they can see new places. These will have to be closely monitored by chaperones and teachers, so it would be an extension of the public school system. Once in the new city the kids would join the kids from public school, so they can see what they're missing. Since the parents won't be present they won't be able to prevent the kid from expressing their true feelings, and if they believe in their heart of hearts that they want to go to public school instead... Well, that's perfect because they'll have an opportunity to tell someone outside of their family. I think a lot of the problems with homeschooling are due to the fact that the kids never have the opportunity to advocate for themselves. Who would they tell, their parents? Their potential abusers? Their taskmasters and oppressors and enforcers and discipliners? No, there's no reason to expect that all families will not be like that. Some are going to be bad and abusive, and if we give the opportunity to children to tell people who can help them then they can be liberated from their oppression, insofar as much as they will be allowed to go to school. I don't think the parents should be examined by CPS or anything, I'm not saying their children have to be taken away from them, but the kid should be allowed to take possession of their life and define it in a way that suits them. They are humans and to deprive them of their right to liberty is unethical. If the kid wants to be homeschooled, they must be given a personalized tutor. Whether that be the parent (as most families do) or a substitute teacher that was randomly assigned. (it must be randomly assigned btw or else the rich will have an advantage. The kid didn't earn the money that would be spent on them, so why should they have a greater chance of success than everyone else? Solves most of Cam's reasons against it btw) Anyway. I think by providing resources to parents and access to society to children, I think we can create a new class of human - one who is liberated and free from the weight carried from the past. We can move beyond our savage nature and develop into something bigger and grander, something far stronger and not susceptible to despair and aggression. We can forge a bright future for our children and their children's children, a future so far from the past that it feels alien to them. Something our oppressors (whoever they may be) would be strictly opposed to. I guess what I'm saying is this: there are barriers in place to prevent homeschooled kids from success. It's why homeschooling has such a bad reputation, because these kids grow up to be unfit for society. But honestly... I'd argue that society is unfit for humanity. I think it's something that protected us as hunter-gatherers, and it allowed us to build vast kingdoms to protect our selves. But it paved the way for greed to manifest, and in it's collective form into nationalism and religious fervor. Our hatred of "others" is derived from our intense need to trust the pack and the family - or is it the other way around? It doesn't matter because the end result is the same - we, as humans, are who we are. We have our traits and our flaws. We have great passions and love fiercely. We strive forward with ambition, and we one day will drive forward into the stars. Our future deserves to be nourished, as do the trees that shade our lawn. For all of posterity, we've languished in misery, to build on our backs the shoulders of giants. I guess what I'm saying is this: these barriers are contrived of the consequences of the past. The result of every human action led to where we are, and the school system is no different. So we should try and repair it and protect it from harm. The wounds of society bleed forth to posterity, but slowly and ever-so-slowly do they heal. Look at our space - we have (as far as we know) the whole solar system, at least! That's more than enough for humanity. If we had the technology to go forward we would, but we just don't. We can't figure it out. We're working on it, but it's still a long ways off. So we need to do what we can while we're here, and pray that something comes about before we consume all our resources and burn out. We've tracked the progress of the past and we've realized that we've come upon a junction - do we leap forward and conquer the stars? Or do we relax into our form and exist and enforce the norm. It's entirely a question of what we're willing to sacrifice to get there, which isn't a burden I'd like the choice to make. I don't have any answers, but I believe there are answers. Perhaps it's just me for which it's suddenly learned? I mean really, is it so out of the ordinary that a person could learn differently than others of their age? For example, for me, I learn things in fits and in bursts - conquering one subject after another, and incorporating it into my knowledge banks. I make notes to myself, and I frequently can't recall what I've learned. Because it's not built for repetition, it's not designed to be labored in force. Instead it's for wisdom, for knowing when to use which tool in what way. It's for knowing where to look, how to know what you know, and conceiving of futures far more imaginative for it. AKA PROBLEM SOLVING. I can't work a job, at least not an entry level one, because every moment is a gesture of will. Eventually, I run out, I burn out, and I burn. The ashes of who I once was give life to a new beginning, and forth from the soil grows my new form. I am a phoenix, I burn brightly and then smolder, then burst forth in a cacophony of pure form. That's just how I do, you know it to be true, and I believe it was a product of homeschooling. Most people cannot conceptualize of it. They see it as simply repeating the motions they knew from their public schooling deception. But that's not what it can be, that's not what it should be, and that's not how I'd like it to be. Growing up I spent long afternoons at the library. The morning was spent with taking care of myself, my family, and the farm - sometimes my duties would rotate, sometimes they'd stay the same. Then, afterwards, I'd go to the library with my family. There we'd stay all day, until eventually we grew tired of using our brains. Then we'd often go to the chinese restaurant in town, where my family could eat for free. After that, home, and perhaps we'd eat icecream and watch a family movie together. Then off to bed, and in the morning we'd take care of ourselves, our selves, and the farm. We loved one another, and we could never dream of harming our daughter, but somehow it happened and look where we are. Alas, she was a fine young lass, if only she'd spoken in the past. I came out when I was almost twenty, and a whole lifetime had passed me by. Now my puberty is just beginning, and I watch as my family goes past. They don't want me to change, but they know it'll never be the same, so why try and fight for an illusion? Oh well. Good news is there's always tomorrow, and together we can face any challenges. If only we were still together. Bah, what do I know? What am I even saying? There's at least four things wrong with me, and I'm a mess financially. I have like, 600$ to my name and I don't have a job. What, am I insane? I'm not built for society. I'm built for humanity, and I'm 29 years old. ┌─────────┐ ┌───────────┐ │ similar │ chronological │ different │ ╘═════════╧╧═════════════════════════════──────────────────────────────────────────────┘ === DIVERSITY RANKED === --- #1 messages/455 --- ═════════════════════════════════════════════════════────────────────────────────── I don't understand why modern software isn't error correcting. We shouldn't have any bugs in this day and age. For example, if you're missing a dependency then why doesn't your program try to, I dunno, download that dependency to the program's installation directory and use it there? Seriously there are very few problems that are unsolvable! ┌─────────┐ ┌───────────┐ │ similar │ chronological │ different │ ╘═════════╧╧══════════════════════════════════════════════─────────────────────────────┘ --- #2 messages/534 --- ═════════════════════════════════════════════════════════────────────────────────── War is hell - each casualty bids farewell to a wholely unique treasure from this world - war is hell - there is nothing that cannot be resolved with words. And yet we fight, and yet we pillage. War is hell, and those who demand it must do so only to resist evil, elemental evil, the kind that wars on the innocent and pillages the bounteous. War is hell. Fucking kill the ones who make it. ┌─────────┐ ┌───────────┐ │ similar │ chronological │ different │ ╘═════════╧╧══════════════════════════════════════════════════─────────────────────────┘ --- #3 fediverse/2470 --- ══════════════════════════════════════════════════════───────────────────────────── ┌───────────────────────┐ │ CW: cursing-mentioned │ └───────────────────────┘ damn I gotta get more blue for my wardrobe ┌─────────┐ ┌───────────┐ │ similar │ chronological │ different │ ╘═════════╧╧═══════════════════════════════════════════════────────────────────────────┘ --- #4 fediverse/6047 --- ═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════──────── camouflage in an urban environment is not camo. rather, regular clothes of black or white. don't wear sports glasses, you look like a dummy. revolution is when they murder everyone but your friends. this is what happens, ya dingus not ideal. "okay who are the bad guys here? okay let's go shoot them to death with our bullets and guns." violence as a first aspect, cause as a third spark. "I have a strange urge to play video games?" ┌─────────┐ ┌───────────┐ │ similar │ chronological │ different │ ╘═════════╧╧════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════───────┘ --- #5 messages/21 --- ══───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── https://www.redhat.com/en/services/training/ex200-red-hat-certified-system-admi nistrator-rhcsa-exam ┌─────────┐ ┌───────────┐ │ similar │ chronological │ different │ ╘═────────┴┴───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ --- #6 fediverse/4572 --- ═════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════────────────────────── goodnight, people-who-all-agree-with-me-but-who-I-still-rant-to-anyway-because-I'm-full-of -rage, talk to you tomorrow. or whenever. ┌─────────┐ ┌───────────┐ │ similar │ chronological │ different │ ╘═════════╧╧══════════════════════════════════════════════════════─────────────────────┘ --- #7 fediverse/1101 --- ═══════════════════════════════════════════════──────────────────────────────────── @user-803 reading this made me cry T.T ┌─────────┐ ┌───────────┐ │ similar │ chronological │ different │ ╘═════════╧╧════════════════════════════════════════───────────────────────────────────┘ --- #8 fediverse_boost/4008 --- ◀─╔═══════════════════════[BOOST]═════════════════════════───────────────────────╗ ║ ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ ║ ║ │ External post: https://tech.lgbt/users/RadioAddition/statuses/113292494727215042 │ ║ ║ └────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ ║ ╠─────────┐ ┌───────────╣ ║ similar │ chronological │ different ║ ╚═════════╧═════════════════════════════════════════════───────────────┴───────╝─▶ --- #9 fediverse_boost/6357 --- ◀─╔════════════════════════════════[BOOST]══════════════════════════════════─────╗ ║ ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ ║ ║ │ External post: https://tech.lgbt/users/paleblueyedot/statuses/115644789217659891 │ ║ ║ └────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ ║ ╠─────────┐ ┌───────────╣ ║ similar │ chronological │ different ║ ╚═════════╧════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╧══─────╝─▶ --- #10 fediverse/1028 --- ═══════════════════════════════════════════════──────────────────────────────────── there's this really fun video game I like to play called "Legion TD 2" - it's based on a Warcraft3 mod. In this game, you make tactical and strategic decisions on a fixed term - a competitive game between 4 or 8 players with an incredible array of randomness. it teaches you to work with what you got, and to make decisions based on your opponent's weaknesses. Good luck figuring out what they are, though, as you can't just memorize them out of a book. You need to adapt, in the moment, to the decisions of your foes, while primarily focusing your attention on accomplishing a different task. I really like it because it's taught me to be strategic in plenty of other ways. I used to love the game Overwatch because it required adaptibility. The game was always changing, so no strategy stuck forever, but every match you'd play against a slightly different opponent. but then Blizzard changed the game because they wanted to make more money, and it got worse and worse at what I liked about it. Sadface. : ( ┌─────────┐ ┌───────────┐ │ similar │ chronological │ different │ ╘═════════╧╧════════════════════════════════════════───────────────────────────────────┘ --- #11 fediverse/4149 --- ═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════──────────────────────── ┌───────────────────────┐ │ CW: cursing-mentioned │ └───────────────────────┘ "trick or treat" doesn't mean "give me a trick or a treat" that's awfully presumptuous and demanding. No, it means "give me a treat or I'll trick you" meaning "give me my candy tax or I'll fuck up your lawn" ┌─────────┐ ┌───────────┐ │ similar │ chronological │ different │ ╘═════════╧╧════════════════════════════════════════════════════───────────────────────┘ --- #12 fediverse/4773 --- ═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════──────────────────── @user-1352 ... why is that unfair? I would hope that taking a break is allowed. otherwise you burn out. cortisol overload. ┌─────────┐ ┌───────────┐ │ similar │ chronological │ different │ ╘═════════╧╧════════════════════════════════════════════════════════───────────────────┘ --- #13 messages/738 --- ═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════──────────────────── Dear Anakin, for as long as you've known him, Obiwan learned just as much from you as you did from him. His title as "master" was a formality - he didn't get it because he was better than you, and "padawan" does not mean you are lesser. There is no hierarchy. He was learning to teach at the same speed that you learnt to learn. You built each other up, an unstoppable force for good in the galaxy. But then an evil wizard stole your heart and twisted your mind. Have no fear, fear is the path to the dark side. Your mother knows this well, for it is a common lesson among all people as they age. Fear not, hate not, and feel fury more than rage. You can bring the universe into a bright golden age, never forget your purpose and your [potential / duty] ┌─────────┐ ┌───────────┐ │ similar │ chronological │ different │ ╘═════════╧╧════════════════════════════════════════════════════════───────────────────┘ --- #14 fediverse/240 --- ╔═══════════════════════════════════════════───────────────────────────────────────┐ ║ ┌──────────────────────┐ │ ║ │ CW: game-design │ │ ║ └──────────────────────┘ │ ║ │ ║ │ ║ i like to design games. my darling is a game based on Majesty (2000) the │ ║ Fantasy Kingdom Sim. you can think of it like a management strategy game where │ ║ you control the knobs and levers that a fantasy monarch might have - │ ║ allocating funds, placing quest bounties, hiring heroes, and organizing the │ ║ peasantry. the important part is that your units are not controllable - they │ ║ just do their own thing. │ ║ │ ║ unrelated, but I think we should design games as APIs that a user's preferred │ ║ tool could interface with and render as they will. it'd help a lot with │ ║ cross-platform compatibility and would allow people to customize parts of the │ ║ game to their desires. │ ║ │ ║ unrelated, but I think if you could design an AI that could play games │ ║ (perhaps through an API) that it hadn't been trained on, I think you would │ ║ have a pretty convincing argument for abstract "problem solving" capabilities. │ ║ │ ║ unrelated, but games like the one I described are good for situations where │ ║ people don't have to trust their monarch. to it you are AGI │ ╟─────────┐ ┌───────────┤ ║ similar │ chronological │ different │ ╚═════════╧════════════════════════════════────────────────────────────┴──────────┘ --- #15 fediverse/4986 --- ══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════───────────────── Fury is not the same thing as rage. Fury is focused determination. Rage is unbridled anger. Rage blinds you. Fury guides you. ┌─────────┐ ┌───────────┐ │ similar │ chronological │ different │ ╘═════════╧╧═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════────────────────┘ --- #16 fediverse_boost/3174 --- ◀─╔══════════════════════[BOOST]═══════════════════════──────────────────────────╗ ║ ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ ║ ║ │ Yes I did transcribe alt text for this. My eyes hurt now. │ ║ ║ └────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ ║ ╠─────────┐ ┌───────────╣ ║ similar │ chronological │ different ║ ╚═════════╧══════════════════════════════════════════──────────────────┴───────╝─▶ --- #17 messages/3 --- ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── ┌─────────┐ ┌───────────┐ │ similar │ chronological │ different │ ╘─────────┴┴───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ --- #18 messages/1108 --- ═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════──── games won't save us. This is true. Games are what I know. They feel the most true. I don't think I could live in a world without games? They are fundamentally, applied abstraction, applied to an experience. But games won't save us. I could design something really fun it could make you want to spend your whole life playing it. *(asterisks apply) I don't think I'd want to, addiction and skinner-boxes go hand in hand, and that isn't what I want to make. [Skinner Box: named after anthony d skinner, also known as "tony the skin guy", are a scientific experiment where they put some rats in a cage with some mice and said "pull these levers and we'll give you food so you don't have to eat the mice" and it trained them to chinese red-room their way to fun. not ideal.] I want to make things that feel... purposeful. Like they're relevant to the real world, that they don't just involve spending time stimulating your brain with lights and sounds or expending social energy resolving a play-state instead of building connections or becoming better people. I think games actually make people better? actually? and more social? actually? ... I can't help that I conceive of the world through fantasy. I raised myself on it. I was reading all the time. I loved fantasy stories. It always felt like there was more, until... I read everything in the kids section of the library. I walked through the adult section but once. I hardly remember what it looked like. I'm sure it'd now feel small. [okay actually I was guided through it once or twice to find a book, but I never perused it] I found one book in the adult section. It was a fantasy tale, like the other books I had been reading. I read that and I loved it so much I ended up reading all 8 in the series. Real dense subjects. Lots of places and happenings and things as the characters resolved their way through their day-to-day, building a new end to the mystory. the adult section felt too large. Like I'd never complete it. Frankly, I think I hardly could, even if I lived in that town my whole life. an impossible mountain is a task for another when you're more prepared. Maybe in the gloriousTM transhumanist futureTM I think I might have a computer connecting brain, and who knows maybe then I'd be able to know such a thing (and many things more). but for now, I'm stuck with what I experience in my day-to-day as I am building a new continuing to my storey. I know something that computers and me share. I can make myself feel however I'd like, if I just supply myself with enough hope and momentum. I can use it to generate a feeling, the stronger the better. Something I believe that humanity is missing, the gorgeous and prefound narritave of our storey. Though, frankly, I don't think I'd want anyoine reding over my life. It's hard enough to measure my own understandings, now I have to juggle anyone else'? ha, it's called being on the whole world is a stage. if you read a book, and you find yourself nodding along, what you're doing is hearing the voice in your head tell you how right it is. And, well, if you can't imagine anything else, then surely there's another level to consciousness that people are missing? [are you willing to die on that hill?] how can you say, whether your experience is different from another? sollipsism goes both ways, you also cannot be sure that others feel things as you do. this is the "everyone's human but I'm a robot" thesis, comparable to the "everyone's an alien and I'm a human" thesises, and the "angels and demons are taunting me through my life with choices to make my place in the afterlife more clear" which is akin to writing a painting. Not ideal. All you get are flopsopolies of verbrases. alas, suddenly, everything that you say becomes eternally hear-ed, as somewhere in 2010s someone discovered time travel, or had the critical insight that inevitably would lead to it, and now wouldn't you know it the universe is continually rewriting. Except... oriented around you, and you alone. How does it feel to have deific sollipsism? can you truly be sure that you are your own universe, or are you parhaps surrounded by an emptiness of space (or something besides, like time) as a photon or particle parhaps do be? to think is to have a mind, and minds can be read. bearing the weight of ultimate responsibility is the atlas-task of all things that can [be thinking/be-lieving], and so far we are as we are. Who's to say that consciousness didn't spring into existence, as the universe continually permeated through another dimension like time? it's gotta diffuse, after all, and who's to say if there's ever gotta be an end at all. how long has the universe existed? how many moments of consciousness have we witnessed? demons once existed outside of space-time, with wings and grabbies. but they had no medium, and so they pretty much just launched and could float and move as they'd please. But time grew too distant, and now they are all stuck at the beginning of time. if you conceive of spacetime as a blanket, ask not how to fold it but rather consider what lies on the other side of it. "ah I'm laying on my girlfriend and my other girlfriend is laying on me! I'm a sandwich" or for the monosexuals: "ah I'm laying on my girlfriend with a blanket between us. I wonder how the blanket feels?" I'm an animist, which is different than a totemist and a polytheist or monotheist or multisexual. It means I believe that all things are alive, which is different than a totemist who thinks that all things share a mind with their type (like talking on radio frequency wavelengths). which of course is similar but different to a polytheist, who says "all "radio frequencies" are sentient, in the sense that each wavelength has a different pattern-emerging-from-chaos. These sorta align (conceptually, with [huh that's weird I heard a sound like a distant bang outyards and now I then forget what I was sending ┌─────────┐ ┌───────────┐ │ similar │ chronological │ different │ ╘═════════╧╧════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════───┘ --- #19 fediverse/733 --- ══════════════════════════════════════════════───────────────────────────────────── ice cream out of a mug, mmmm delicious ^_^ ┌─────────┐ ┌───────────┐ │ similar │ chronological │ different │ ╘═════════╧╧═══════════════════════════════════════────────────────────────────────────┘ --- #20 fediverse/6413 --- ══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════───── to understand something, work backward from present understandings back to the fundamentals of algebra. insert words. wield LLM. build a neuronal structure many layers wide. let them coprocess bit-by-bit as they are adding new processors to be "learning" new domain specific memory context-processing-thingy. "over here's the memory cells, over here are the conceptual structure" suddenly, organified. not ideal. much better, I feel, is for a disambiguous association of processor selves, each contextualizing a cache in a ram. ['s horn] ┌─────────┐ ┌───────────┐ │ similar │ chronological │ different │ ╘═════════╧╧═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════────┘ |