I've given up personally. I don't know if it's life circumstances or me not being as good at heart as I'd hope, but I've resigned myself and I'm just trying to learn to cope with the loneliness. At some point it's fair to call it quits and start being realistic.
That's just me ranting though, this isn't directed at you, and I wish you the best of luck.
Many people in here arguing things "have never been better". It's true to an extent; things are pretty good in terms of poverty, liberties or world peace (for now). It's not great, it's never been great, but it's a decent bit better than it's been in the past. Overall.
We are, however, in an era of unstability and unrest, where it feels like things are constantly on the cusp of changing for the worse (and in some cases, are indeed already changing for the worse, like abortion or LGBT rights in the US, for example). Violence and discrimination are on the rise, global peace is being threatened, democracy is in jeopardy (not just in the US mind you), the 1% are getting WAY richer way faster than ever... To top it all off, climate change is objectively, unarguably as bad as it's ever been, and it's getting much much worse, much faster than even experts can keep up with. Like, we're headed straight for extinction and we keep accelerating toward it.
You have every right to be worried. Yes, it's easy to forget and take for granted the things we have now that we didn't even a mere 60 years ago, but many of them are very much under attack at the moment. Just because shit maybe hasn't quite yet hit the fan doesn't mean everything is fine.
And to answer your question, I've found some refuge in art, both experiencing and creating it. Reading books, watching movies, playing games, etc, especially those that echo that sentiment of fear and uncertainty for the future (or present). Trying to use all that as inspiration for my own work, I think it'd help to express my feelings this way. I am indeed doing very poorly still though, it's a lot to deal with, on top of my own personal problems.
Upvoting for OneShot
Not sure what part of the message you're responding to, what do you mean?
Oh I know all about that podcast trust me, it doesn't change my opinion about Rowling in the slightest, and it's far from being a good way to "understand this affair".
If you're genuinely curious, I highly recommend ContraPoint's video about that very podcast, as well as her other video about Rowling.
Yeah I'm not gonna waste more time trying to change a transphobe's mind, peace
"there are squillions of simulated universe."
Huge assumption there lol, but I guess I see your point. If you assume simulations of this scope and quality are possible (again HUGE assumption), then your odds of being in one go up a lot, obviously.
Again though, at some point you have to hit actual, non simulated reality, and when everything seems to point towards that being the case for us, and absolutely nothing hints at a simulation, I don't see why we couldn't just be in that actual reality. I can't help but see that thought experiment as just an attempt to answer "the big question" in some way, even though in actuality it just moves it out of view.
It's Russell's teapot, impossible to disprove and theorically possible, but there's nothing backing it up besides fantastical assumptions. In that regard yeah, I think the comparison with God is warranted. The creators of our simulation, and especially the ones up above that are actually real would need such absurd levels of technology so far beyond our comprehension that it would be magic to us, and they would absolutely be our Gods.
I don't see much of a difference, it's kind of just a tech themed spin on it, with the same fallacies plaguing the whole concept, IMO. It's cool to think and write scifi about, but that's about it.
It's never been about proving trans and cis folks of the same gender are "identical", no one is arguing that, obviously there are some physical, biological differences. Differences that trans folks are painfully aware of, and that take a lot of time and effort to mitigate for many them to feel like themselves.
It's just about being accepted as, being seen, and talked to as the gender of your choosing.
People like Rowling who argue against the existence or the rights of trans folks overwhelmingly do so out of ignorance, fear, or simply malice. It's not a philosophical question, it's not up for debate whether trans people "exist", if you don't believe in them then you're just objectively, provably, scientifically wrong.
And if you agree they exist and still want to make their lives miserable, then you're just an asshole.
Idk what's the exact purpose of this meme but I really do see a lot of similarities between God creating the world and simulation theory. Obviously ST and religion are wildly different in their impact on society and how many people genuinely believe in them, but ST is pretty silly too.
It's just a "what if" scenario, one that's potentially possible but wouldn't change or explain anything if it was true. All you're doing is moving the existential problems up a layer and forgetting about it, it's the same as saying God made us: at the end of the day both the beings in charge of the simulation AND God have to come from somewhere, they live in a "real" universe, and you're not explaining that.
Why can't it be that we simply live in a real universe? That's the simplest answer, the one that requires the fewest assumptions. It doesn't have a convenient, satisfying reason as to why we're here, or how reality came to be, but it's easily the most plausible.
Very boring answer but JK Rowling.
Her books already had some questionable shit in them but witnessing that shockingly venomous transphobia really recontextualizes everything. I used to re read the Harry Potter saga every few years, but never again now, this whole, very nostalgic for me franchise is forever ruined now.
Ça me semble vraiment réussi, bravo !
I feel like the solution is pretty simple: if you want to AI copy someone's voice and put it in your project, you have to hire them and pay them as normal, and they have to give consent to let the AI use their likeness.
Otherwise it's theft.