You decode the signals, and stumble: ... They contain no usable intelligence, yet they are structured intelligently; there is no chance they could have arisen by chance.

The only explanation is that something has coded nonsense in a way that poses as a useful message; only after wasting time and effort does the deception becomes apparent. The signal functions to consume the resources of a recipient for zero payoff and reduced fitness. The signal is a virus.

Viruses do not arise from kin, symbionts, or other allies.

The signal is an attack.

And it's coming from right about there.”

the grey area/meat fucker was a small, uncrewed, and demilitarized(?) ship/Mind that, while morally repugnant to the culture's sensibilities (or at least most other Minds'), no one considered significant/dangerous enough to give the same treatment

i'll never trust apple to provide a simple alarm clock again for anything important

did it pop up a warning? no

did it default to a built-in alarm sound? no

did it just stop sounding the alarm, but still show it as active and selected in the config screen? yes

in the study both the visual cues (possibly misleading) and targets were purportedly presented within the subject's "blind spot". the subject did better than chance at correctly signaling whether a target was presented or not and, additionally, was faster at signaling when the cue was helpful than when it was misleading indicating that attention was being directed to the probable location of the target subconsciously.

in short, it appears that some neurological mechanisms were processing visual cues and directing attention accordingly without any (reported) conscious awareness of the the cues or the targets.

when you get this fundamental assertion wrong why would anyone bother reading anything else you have to say on the subject?

i recommend reading the 13th amendment again.

now (more) americans get to experience to misery, terror, and death that the u.s. has exported to to rest of the world in order to fuel its economic "growth"

probably the same ghouls upvoting the "price gouging is actually good" story and flagging this one, hiding their sociopathy behind shitty economics 101 scenarios and loudly advocating for the free market while the government pumps over a trillion dollars into it in an effort to keep it from imploding under its own contradictions.

america is a sham, and an exogenous shock like covid-19 is likely to lay it all bare. the only question is how we respond to the ugly truths revealed; do we acknowledge and strive to fix the issues facing the country, or do we avert our eyes and hope all this just blows over.

for that matter there is no (federal level) law or regulation requiring a public vote for the president at all. the constitution establishes the electoral college but the methods by which electors are chosen and vote are left to the state themselves.