Well, yes. Of course you’re right that “metaverse” predates Facebook. They’ve successfully co-opted it by now, though; Meta is what the average person thinks of when you say “metaverse.” Stephenson’s was also fictional, unless you’re really generous and use “metaverse” as a synonym for “the internet.”

I’m hoping that, in our hubris, we’ll re-create the environment that allows dinosaurs to rise again.

Only, NFTs and Crypto are relatively accessible; anyone can get in on the game. The Metaverse is a monopoly.

The bubbles are still going, BTW. Bitcoin prices are currently higher than they have ever been, thanks to America re-electing the Fascist Orangutan.

What? I had to uninstall Factorio to install Space Age on my machine (Linux) - I’m pretty sure I see new stuff in the tree, although I’m still building from scratch in the rare time I get to play.

I sure hope I don’t have to install mods! I’m trying to keep this play clean.

Don’t worry; a bailout is coming in January.

They’re going to be leery of that because of Munich. Yes, it was ages ago, but it cost the state so much money, they’re going to be very cautious about any such endeavors.

My wife has an irrational fear of frogs. She’d agree with the frog part.

Yeah, I kinda figured when the truck convoy started out there you guys had your own problems.

Oh, man. That’d be a book. Or maybe a chapter in an alternate version of Hitchhiker’s.

It always turns out to be the equivalent of a reality show host.

<sigh> In a country with a barely functioning (for the non-wealthy) medical system, it can still get worse.

There’s a good chance for another major pandemic, and we’re passing the global warming point of no return.

For better or worse, the US was the biggest player on the planet; now that we’ve fumbled, I think the world is done for. Maybe China could have risen to take the US’s place, but they’re stumbling toward an economic catastrophe, India has their own problems, and Russia is exposed as a bit player. The EU could have been a shining beacon, but they’re struggling with their own rise in fascism. Who else is there? A South American country? They’re barely holding on to their own economies. Canada? Too small - I mean, big country, but not very big population (1/10th of the US). And the US is big enough that when we go down, we’re going to drag a lot of the planet with us. Shit, thanks to Russia and Israel, we’ve been edging into WWIII. Trump’s senile enough to press the button, I have no doubt, and he’ll be completely surrounded by moronic Yes-men this time, with no one to try to talk sense into him. Maybe a relatively quick, fiery end would be better than a painful spiral.

We’re done as a planet. Some creatures will survive, but humans have used up all the readily available low-tech surface resources - oils, coals, metals - so anything that evolves intelligence after us won’t make it past the stone age. And then, the sun will die.

At least we have more solid evidence to the answer to Fermi’s paradox. It’d be a bigger question if we weren’t rushing toward our own extinction.

If you figure it out, let me know. I’m flabbergasted, myself, and I’m here.

You should be. We should all be concerned about our futures. I’m a white, CIS guy, and I’m concerned. We’re completely off the rails now.

If Smell-o-Vision was a thing, everyone would think Trump smelled like pine trees and ocean spray, because that’s what he’d pay them to broadcast, or else refuse to allow himself to be broadcast on their networks.

The guy slathers on so much fake tan, he looks like he’s wearing black-face. His only genuine characteristic is his inability to stop the senility from coming out of his mouth.

Good thing Joe isn’t running, huh?

That’s composing quite an edifice of unprovable postulation to reverse engineer faith. “A” for effort!

He’s wearing, like, 4 layers in that one photo.

Yup. The requirement of “faith” is a sure sign of charlatanism.

It’s a funny thing, when you think about it. If you were truly God, you wouldn’t need to prove it; you could just make it so everyone believes you.

Nicely put!

Reddit at least allowed blocking of trolls, whereas if we want that here, we will need to expend the effort to make that happen.

I don’t so much mind this, at least. It’s just curation, and I’d far rather have it in our hands than the hands of moderators or platform owners. Not that moderation isn’t useful, and hosting admins can still defederate - but giving users the ability to manage their own block lists, at the user, group, and instance levels, makes it less critical to have moderation, and makes moderation a little less prone to abuse.

Completely agree, except that I’d amend that no real conservative politicians exist. I think there are a lot of real conservatives - you named several - but that simply can’t get elected with our current election mechanisms. Primaries need to be eliminated. Progress like adoption of RCV needs to expand. The electoral college needs to be eliminated. If we can make progress in these areas, it’ll let moderate conservatives to regain control of their party. And it’d let people stop arguing and being frustrated with having to vote for the lesser of two evils.