• 2 Posts
  • 563 Comments
Joined 3 years ago
cake
Cake day: July 1st, 2023

help-circle
  • If you do a quick look at the terrain option on Google maps. I think it’s very obvious that there were advantages places for larger populations to settle around. That particular section of the west coast is fairly inhospitable. Look at the coastal sea floor as well. It paints a fairly clear picture on its own, especially when comparing it to the east coast. Secondly find a timelapse of the how north American was settled as colonies. Stuff mostly came from the east and eventually made it’s way to the west. Railroads are big big part of how the west was colonized and there wasn’t much use for north south railways as things progressed as there was to get things to and from the east.

    That locks in or at least reinforces the locations of where major populations can establish themselves.

    It’s only been about 135 years since trans Pacific trade started(quick google info please be kind if that’s wrong) in the year 2000 it was still inside the lifespan of a single living human that international trade across the Pacific was really anything at all

    And it was with people’s that had absolutely no relation with the European colonists. And they were also very xenophobic culturally and didn’t develop very advanced in deep ocean sailing due to lack of interest.

    The old world was east of the Americas, mystery and the unknown was the Pacific. There be monsters there!

    So all in all it seem to make a lot of sense that there wasnt much economic pressures requiring big coastal economies until well after established communities and regions developed.

    I think Astoria is one of the older major coastal trade cities, but it faltered as Seattle and Portland developed.

    And to your point about being inland a ways, they are in much most hospitable regions for farming and agriculture to support a large population


  • Why do you think almost no one lives there just because you don’t know of a major city in the area?

    It’s simple logistics, there’s no reason for a major city to be there.

    You have Seattle, Vancouver, Victoria in the same region. And if anything is coming to the area it’s going to that region already, and if it’s going farther south you have better ports in Oregon.

    Genuinely curious what made you interested in this idea or where it came from








  • I don’t consider the ARPANET stuff the internet.

    It’s the precursor. TCP/IP adoption isn’t a bad place to consider what is the internet. I think adoption/invention of WorldwideWeb is too late though I could agree to use it as the beginning of what most people think of what started the internet we see today.

    I think somewhere in the 80s is accurate, however it doesn’t really matter as the internet wasn’t suddenly everywhere. It took a LOT of time to reach a lot of places so one can remember what the world was like without the internet, even if it was already around at that time.

    I remember when most people didn’t have a computer let alone access to a modem of some kind.



  • Yes. I watched my grandmother slide from the strongest person in our family into a barely recognizable shell as she would have me come sit with her and i would have to tell her repeatedly in 5 minute increments that her brain was a asshole and there’s nothing she can do but eat well, take care of herself. It didn’t matter to the dementia she had. When she was sitting in bed crying on my shoulder telling me that all her friends are dead, she can’t remember simple things and so many other batshit crazy things I can’t even remember, and all the while, everyday for about 10 years I woke up to check and see if she was a corpse that day.

    I’m well well well aware of what 90 can look like.



  • “I don’t like it, but now we rely on it”

    Look I’m not saying you didn’t use it responsibly, the tech can be used well. But it’s just better not to incorporate it and normalize it. We are already having problem with kids of all ages losing the ability to think critically and if we push this tech into every corner of our lives and never take an intentional stand against it, or we draw no lines in the sand and say here but no further, we are headed in the same direction that has billionaires and other oligarchs choosing for us what is even available to us.

    Even what you said, without forcing people to wade through some journalists attempt at literature, well that’s a symptom of forcing journalists to turn every thing of interest they want to write on, into some opinion piece with a tasty juicy story that can be used for clicks and more traffic.

    Maybe I’m just a grumpy old man now, but I’m also someone who doesn’t understand why people can’t sit through a good movie, if it’s more than 90 minutes. Like do you not enjoy the things you do?

    It’s the constant pressure to turn everything into a headline, and just looking at headlines, that has helped put us in such a sorry state.

    I’m not arguing that it is or isn’t a benign use of AI that’s really not part of why I replied, at least to my way of thinking.

    It’s a stand against laziness. We have to hold ourselves accountable for the things we choose because they are convenient. Especially when they actually are because we as a whole can’t be trusted to use convenient things as if they arent a worse choice almost every time