The thing is, cooperativism has always existed and still does, and is quite successful in some places (Corporación Mondragón in Spain and the cooperatives in Emilia Romagna in Italy, who own everything from farms to factories and banks and supermarkets). The issue with participation is something we’ll have to sort sooner or later, because every system where only the motivated participate risks devolving into a hierarchy where “I did it” turns into “so now you can’t A, but you must B”. People love being herded so they can spend times in their interests and not the boring realities of keeping the collective functioning, so maybe the solution would be to herding them into the boring stuff? Like jury duty but on steroids?
However, it is important to be aware that capitalism is an authoritarian system (why owning something should allow you to dictate over my life and take the fruits of my work?) and that the goodness of the pursuit of Growth is a belief, not a fact. And a belief that is crashing in slow motion against the unmovable obstacle of physical reality.
Meanwhile, in the long tail of our statistical past…
1808 CE (Industrial Era)
Badami, Deccan Plateau (India)
a girl
was born and died at 6 months of an undetermined illness
Photograph: Boot & Co. Mercantile, 1880s in Henson, Colorado, a mining town near Lake City in the San Juan Mountains
And…
834 CE (post-classical era)
the Andean Altiplano (wow, a first!)
a girl
she was born and died at 3 years old of pneumonia or other lung infection (the hard road to 5 and 15 takes its toll again)
A stone-and-adobe house, AI-generated as an illustration — the kind of dwelling recorded for the Andean Altiplano in 834 CE
In 834 CE, Chaska was born in the countryside near Quito. She lived in a village of about 550 people. She was the first of the family’s two children. The household that would have raised her followed an indigenous religion. Halley’s Comet crossed the sky when she was 3 in 837. At 3, Chaska died of pneumonia or another lung infection.
You’re a dad, Chad? News to me. But if you’re looking for a kid to fill the role, I’m officially volunteering. Just a heads-up: I am incredibly high-maintenance, I expect my allowance paid on time, and I will be a complete nightmare. Hope your wallet is ready!
Yesterday, the American Red Cross Tri-State Chapter completed the Sound the Alarm Home Fire Safety Campaign in Carter County, KY, making 47 homes safer, installing 121 smoke alarms, and serving 117 people. We’d like to thank the Grayson Fire Department, Grayson Emergency Management, [redacted] with Pike County, OH EMA, and our amazing Red Cross volunteers for helping make this important work possible!
Male Guinea pigs are higher maintenance than females, either whole or neutered, and also have behaviour issues that might arise unexpectedly when paired, which often end with the newly aggressive one rehomed alone.
So every multimilionner now says how AI is dangerous, and that we have to slow the development of it, else it will kill us all or make us into slaves.
It would be over for them first I think, they would be stripped of all the excess money and power and put in shoes of every human being, on the same level as everybody else.
Well, that’s kind of creepy but can’t stop watching… but also is depressing.
First, they’re small. Like, 12 years old small. Yikes.
Second, they’re made in China. This means low quality silicone that will seep oil, dry and quarter even if the doll isn’t somehow… damaged… in ordinary use. High end dolls require proper upkeep, usually with custom stands, even though they’re made with highly stable platinum-cured silicone.
Third, these dolls are like, crude. High end silicone sex dolls are anatomically accurate and have a customizable and often detachable/swapable crotch area (and I still regret wondering WTF could that ever mean because… you don’t want to check that. Sometimes I’m too curious for my own good)
Fourth, despite all, they’re beautiful objects. The hairwork is quite impressive (nothing new, since even Barbies in the 1960s had actual eyelashes) but the hair looks very nice; might be acrylic hair, but it’s well done, with different shades and brightness in every batch.
It’s a crazy business, but in a country that managed to unexist 1 in 16 women that should have occurred naturally, cheap silicone sex dolls are one of the least harmful ways to address the drives of lonely men. Because they’re things, not people.
And now I’m off to sleep. I’ve managed to misplace one of my books, I group them by authors and one of my Ray Bradburys is AWOL from beside the rest… and of course it had to be the one I want to re-read. Night night lovelies!
Photograph: Rich Merchants Dining With Sing-Song Girls, Beijing, ca 1901.
Sing-song girls were meant to be entertainers and a pleasant company, but as with anything mixing men in high social positions with women in lower social positions, it wasn’t an easy job for the girls.
And…
566 BCE (Bronze/Iron age)
the Ethiopian Highlands
a boy
was born and died at 9 months old from pneumonia or other lung infection
I just watched this vid which got me thinking why I don’t pull over to help anymore.
So I had to ask him even though I think he has me blocked! A smart move on his part if he does!
While I’m not a caregiver, I work with mostly elderly and have watched them go from really mean people to really nice when they lose their marbles and sometimes have had a hard time being nice back when they need it most as to remembering their past sins.
A smart move on his part if he does!