How the hell does one write science fiction in this environment? 

I have had the Daylight Tablet for a couple months. I really like it. It is very overpriced but the screen is great and the battery life good. People who read a lot of pdfs or manga, in particular, might like it. 

At risk of sharing slop, Suno 4.5 Beta is amazing: https://suno.com/song/6b6ffd85-9cd2-4792-b234-40db368f6d6c?sh=utBip8t6wKsYiUE7

I appreciate this post by the way. I have always been impressed by your intelligence and writing ability, so you being into this stuff updates me slightly towards it being real.

Regarding the bumbling, I agree you depict some capture and incompetence but also the executive branch has a degree of foresight that seems implausible to me. I am so angry about the stupidity of the tariffs against my country, however, that possibly this is clouding my judgement. 

I find it most compelling in the second half. I agree with the author that the order of skill acquisition seems strange, humans seem useful for far too long after programming is automated, the government behaves in ways I don't expect it to, it is weirdly flattering to Trump and JD Vance in a manner that doesn't match my estimate of their competence, things are too normal in ways that make me feel like the end game of the scenario is optimized for respectability over accuracy, and the more general point that it feels more fanficy the closer it gets to the singularity.

I finally got around to reading AI 2027 more closely a couple weeks ago. I have been thinking about it a lot and scenario based planning in general (which I had a mild interest in years ago) and this particular form of highly-specific, highly-salient media-blitzed single scenario. I appreciate that the author actually read it while attempting to keep track of state and coherence. 

I am less allergic to conflict theorists than I used to be, as I often find some signal. There are many things I disagree with in the post but I consider it worth reading.

Inadequate Equilibria lists the example of bright lights to cure SAD. I have a similar idea, though I have no clue if it would work. Can we treat blindness in children by just creating a device that gives children sonar? I think it would be a worthy experiment to create device that makes inaudible cherps and then translates their echos into the audible range and transmits them to some headphones the child wears. Maybe their brains will just figure it out? Alternatively, an audio interface to a lidar or a depth estimation model might do, too. 

It is a "disfigurement" by the literal definition, but I see your point. Given it is now treatable, we should be honest about it being a significant hit to attractiveness. I just think people should be informed about what is now possible.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.2164/jandrol.108.005025