Hacker News: alphawhisky

New comment by alphawhisky in "Knitting bullshit"

alphawhisky — Wed, 06 May 2026 13:50:58 +0000

One of the real costs of the end game attention economy is that when your "car" crashes, noone is going to stop to help. When the market you engage in gets swallowed up, everyone will buy the swill that outcompetes you on perceived surface level value. Communities get fractured. Organizations that used to be community pillars (church) become self serving. All these things create a positive feedback loop of intellectual degradation.

New comment by alphawhisky in "Knitting bullshit"

alphawhisky — Wed, 06 May 2026 13:43:22 +0000

Their dialogue on "substituting truth and validity with a register of emotional validation" is pretty prevalent across the entirety of US culture right now. The first thing that comes to mind for me are Christian groups that do a lot of celebrating during services or events with absolutely no goodwill, volunteering, or donating at all. They're real good at making you feel righteous, but awful at actualizing it. Hate the hollowing out of traditions that used to make communities and people great.

New comment by alphawhisky in "AI uses less water than the public thinks"

alphawhisky — Fri, 01 May 2026 21:28:27 +0000

A third perspective here, but maybe small ownership of these things allows for best practices (i.e. small farmers are greener and care about passing arable land to the next generation, small server owners care more about total system ownership which necessitates alternative energy production and making use of hardware that would otherwise be trashed). I think you're both onto something, now kiss!

New comment by alphawhisky in "Maladaptive Frugality"

alphawhisky — Fri, 01 May 2026 14:14:20 +0000

> You either have to be a medical professional/media person now to live without worry.

Civil Engineer here. Used to get clowned on by other STEM students for going into one of the "lowest paying" engineering majors. Post grad, I can't imagine a more stable job, and my generational cohort is having a hard time. Boy do I feel smart. And the bonuses after construction season? Forget about it.

New comment by alphawhisky in "Show HN: Site Mogging"

alphawhisky — Fri, 01 May 2026 13:27:12 +0000

My theory is that these people are the stewards of internet culture. Moderators, meme creators, leaders of niche online communities. Therefore the jokes they make spread a lot more easily due to exposure.

New comment by alphawhisky in "Show HN: Site Mogging"

alphawhisky — Fri, 01 May 2026 13:25:15 +0000

Nah it kept it's meaning, just spread more. If anything, the level of abstraction grew. "Mogged' used to be a standalone phrase, but now it's always "___mogged".

New comment by alphawhisky in "Court Rules 2nd Amendment Covers Firearms Parts Good News Those Who Build Guns"

alphawhisky — Thu, 30 Apr 2026 14:12:06 +0000

No because if you grew up on mars you'd deport yourself. Go eat one.

New comment by alphawhisky in "U.S. war in Iran has cost $25B so far, says Pentagon official"

alphawhisky — Wed, 29 Apr 2026 16:42:53 +0000

If you want to keep Unis honest, why not make them all public and financially regulated? Seems like the free market incentives should be removed from this essential service...

New comment by alphawhisky in "U.S. war in Iran has cost $25B so far, says Pentagon official"

alphawhisky — Wed, 29 Apr 2026 16:38:55 +0000

Domestic terrorism is up though. The American public wants nothing to do with being world police.

New comment by alphawhisky in "U.S. war in Iran has cost $25B so far, says Pentagon official"

alphawhisky — Wed, 29 Apr 2026 16:37:15 +0000

That means they're passing the cost onto the whole world. The US is making this war everyone else's problem and it's ruining foreign affairs and good standing with the world.

New comment by alphawhisky in "U.S. war in Iran has cost $25B so far, says Pentagon official"

alphawhisky — Wed, 29 Apr 2026 16:34:41 +0000

Call me crazy, but maybe allowing privatization of public transportation, security, healthcare, etc is where this all started. The incentives need to stop.

New comment by alphawhisky in "If America's so rich, how'd it get so sad?"

alphawhisky — Tue, 28 Apr 2026 20:47:04 +0000

Nuance has left the chat. As long as we're here:

The resurgence of religion is happening in lockstep with the rise of Nationalism in the US. The rich and powerful are using it like a tool to manufacture compliance, which is literally the reason religion was invented. A multi cultural society cannot be a religious society. A society that values everyone equally cannot be a religious society. This has been proven again and again.

New comment by alphawhisky in "If America's so rich, how'd it get so sad?"

alphawhisky — Tue, 28 Apr 2026 20:37:12 +0000

Evangelism just achieves their violence societally and incentivizes via positive reinforcement vs negative. It's more like telling a starving person "Come to the dark side, we have cake" when the reason they're starving is because you only do equitable business with your in-group.

New comment by alphawhisky in "Waymo in Portland"

alphawhisky — Tue, 28 Apr 2026 20:33:09 +0000

Two Santas but it's federa/state vs on a cyclic basis. Disgusting.

New comment by alphawhisky in "Waymo in Portland"

alphawhisky — Tue, 28 Apr 2026 20:26:31 +0000

I'm sure that they'll just dodge regulations like every other Service as a Software company. Literally taking the money out of the City's hands and providing a slower, less safe, less equitable service. While taking profit too. Sheesh.

New comment by alphawhisky in "Healthcare is driving America's economy"

alphawhisky — Mon, 27 Apr 2026 19:32:15 +0000

"Technology adoption will be a huge part of managing the cost curve"

Just tell people they're getting robot nurses before single payer healthcare.

New comment by alphawhisky in "The Rich and Powerful Want to Live Forever. What If They Could?"

alphawhisky — Fri, 24 Apr 2026 13:18:56 +0000

Hey now, don't crush my dreams of biological immortality! That being said, if the average lifespan continues to increase then we will have to consider rethinking the current social order. Right now we place seniority/experience at the top of what we consider socially useful in a person, but it's already clear that the effects of gerontocracy are hurting the average person in the US and other countries. Should these people automatically be considered the wisest and most socially responsible? Is your 60s really the time to be leading, or should it be when you're younger? Lower neuroplasticity, snowballing wealth, more dependents are all inhibitions to solid decision making that get worse as people grow older. We will have to address this as our lifespans continue to grow.

New comment by alphawhisky in "If America's so rich, how'd it get so sad?"

alphawhisky — Thu, 23 Apr 2026 19:55:19 +0000

Turing, Higgs, Curie. All atheists. Religion has no bearing on whether or not someone achieves greatness in their life. In the past, people often were "religious" simply just to get the public to listen to them. They almost threw out Newton's life work just because he didn't believe in the "trinity" of the christian god (note: he was very deeply religious/spiritual and believed his work was proof of intelligent design.) Bottom line, we're moving away from religion in our world because it provides increasingly less social value and causes more and more issues. The way I see it, religion is a terrible curse on our world that only brings war and distrust. If you can't keep it in your chapel then you're an evangelist and your morals are fundamentally no different than the colonizers of old.

New comment by alphawhisky in "If America's so rich, how'd it get so sad?"

alphawhisky — Thu, 23 Apr 2026 19:42:54 +0000

That's crazy, because as a 25 year old in the US with religious family, I can promise you that churchgoing folks are the least generous people out there. I don't know what organized religion is like in other countries, but in the US churches are abused as tax havens, religious private schools are sucking up funding meant for disadvantaged children (in public schools), and the president is claiming the mandate of god as he spends tax money blowing up foreign children.

New comment by alphawhisky in "Congressman Introduces Bill to Ban AI Chatbots in Children's Toys"

alphawhisky — Thu, 23 Apr 2026 13:02:50 +0000

Something something broken clock. Still hate these folks.