this post was submitted on 07 Sep 2025
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TechTakes

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Big brain tech dude got yet another clueless take over at HackerNews etc? Here's the place to vent. Orange site, VC foolishness, all welcome.

This is not debate club. Unless it’s amusing debate.

For actually-good tech, you want our NotAwfulTech community

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Need to let loose a primal scream without collecting footnotes first? Have a sneer percolating in your system but not enough time/energy to make a whole post about it? Go forth and be mid: Welcome to the Stubsack, your first port of call for learning fresh Awful you’ll near-instantly regret.

Any awful.systems sub may be subsneered in this subthread, techtakes or no.

If your sneer seems higher quality than you thought, feel free to cut’n’paste it into its own post — there’s no quota for posting and the bar really isn’t that high.

The post Xitter web has spawned soo many “esoteric” right wing freaks, but there’s no appropriate sneer-space for them. I’m talking redscare-ish, reality challenged “culture critics” who write about everything but understand nothing. I’m talking about reply-guys who make the same 6 tweets about the same 3 subjects. They’re inescapable at this point, yet I don’t see them mocked (as much as they should be)

Like, there was one dude a while back who insisted that women couldn’t be surgeons because they didn’t believe in the moon or in stars? I think each and every one of these guys is uniquely fucked up and if I can’t escape them, I would love to sneer at them.

(Credit and/or blame to David Gerard for starting this.)

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[–] saucerwizard@awful.systems 10 points 3 days ago (1 children)
[–] saucerwizard@awful.systems 6 points 3 days ago (1 children)

(I’m a massive astrobio/SETI nerd)

[–] nightsky@awful.systems 3 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Can you recommend any resources on those topics?

[–] saucerwizard@awful.systems 3 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I can drop some books when I get off work! The SETI subreddit is pretty good about posting the latest studies too.

[–] saucerwizard@awful.systems 4 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

https://www.amazon.ca/Elusive-Wow-Searching-Extraterrestrial-Intelligence/dp/0983958440 https://www.amazon.ca/Astrobiology-Understanding-Universe-Charles-Cockell/dp/1119550351 https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262548649/extraterrestrial-languages/

These are all good. Elusive Wow might be harder to find, but its worth looking up the authors career (it was his hobby).

I’ve noticed Rationalists otoh tend to repeat whatever Anders Sandberg says and are ideologically wedded to a dead universe view of things.

[–] Soyweiser@awful.systems 5 points 2 days ago (3 children)

Re dead universe.

That fixes the great filter problem for them.

[–] nightsky@awful.systems 4 points 2 days ago

Considering other life might also be unattractive as it could reduce the feeling of their own importance.

[–] blakestacey@awful.systems 5 points 2 days ago (1 children)

(massive bong rip) the aliens already came here and put us all in the Matrix, dude

[–] Soyweiser@awful.systems 4 points 2 days ago

exhales not sure this is weed dude.

[–] saucerwizard@awful.systems 4 points 2 days ago

These people are no fun at all.