Agreed, good catch.

For me it’s the text (too regular and perfectly-ruled to be hand lettered, but too much variance between the letterforms to be a font) and the little AI artifact on the random doohickey directly under the bottom left corner of the AI computer monitor:

Aside from that, it’s just the weight of unmotivated choices. Why is the “good” side of the image grayscale while the “bad” side is in color (a human probably would’ve done it the other way)? Why are the desks drawn slightly differently while the person, chair, and computer are drawn the same (a human would’ve probably made everything identical to better illustrate their point)? Why all the random clutter on one but not the other (if the point was to make the AI computing experience look scattered and cluttered, surely they would’ve made it more overwhelmingly cluttered, but if it was for verisimilitude they’d have put clutter on both desks)? Also, subjectively, the “AI” logo on the screen suggests a pleasant experience, not an oppressive one.

An unmotivated choice on its own isn’t necessarily an AI calling card, but enough of them together alongside one or two smoking guns can definitely make the case pretty strongly.

It’s called Live Plus.

If you’ve never heard of Live Plus before, it’s a feature on LG smart TVs that uses ACR (automatic content recognition) to analyze what’s displayed on your screen (via The Markup). LG then uses that data to offer “personalized services,” including content recommendations and advertisements.

[…]

On Samsung smart TVs, for example, you can disable targeted ads by going to Privacy Choices, selecting Terms and Conditions, and toggling off Viewing Information Services and Internet-Based Advertisement Services. On Roku TVs, ACR can be turned off by disabling Use info from TV inputs, which is tucked away in the settings menu under Smart TV Experience.

Saved you a click.

He went back in time but never got his parents together, so he’s disappearing. Poor guy.

That man wasn’t on DASGBBAA. I was on DASGBBAA and there’s no way that guy was anywhere near it. This is stolen valor.

This news is about lobsters, specifically.

But how would it slow their metabolism down? Unless they’re just eating non-stop at room temperature, that colder weather is what they’re adapted to.

I’m totally unfamiliar with how to cook a lobster, but “chilling them” doesn’t seem to make much sense to me. They live in the North Atlantic, where water temperatures tend to hover in the “refrigerator” range most of the year, and with salinity lowering the freezing point, probably goes even lower over the winter. Seems like chilling a lobster would just make it feel at home.

I’m frankly not particularly convinced this isn’t already the case.

Oh hey! The first human whose job I’m fine with AI taking!

Love the star lights!

That’s a really plausible reason. It also goes a long way toward explaining why they’re always using a tricorder to scan their body when they have a scratch on their face: gotta make sure you’re not, like, fighting off Antarean Supermeasles or something before they use the magic flashlight.

Thanks, I’ve promoted it to headcanon.

Just looked on Memory Alpha. Turns out that inaprovaline is indeed the most-used medication in the franchise, being used fourteen times across four series (TNG, DS9, VOY and ENT). Four of those were administered by Dr. Crusher, but actually the EMH has her beat, ordering it six times. That makes sense, since TNG and VOY are definitely the series I’ve watched the most.

But cordrazine is a close second, with thirteen mentions across four series (TOS, TNG, DS9, VOY). The EMH is actually the one who prescribes that one the most, too, using it four times. McCoy used it three times (though one of those was less than intentional), Bashir used it three times, Crusher twice. The weirdest mention of cordrazine (though it wasn’t actually used) was when Neelix suggested Tom Paris use it on a lizard baby. Cordrazine’s derivative, tricordrazine, was used seven times across two series (TNG and Discovery), including by Pulaski, Crusher, and Culber.

Incidentally, Retinax V is only mentioned once, in Wrath of Khan. We never see it used on screen.

As Dr. Crusher is to Hypospray…

My wife and I joked about Crusher’s use of inaprovaline during our TNG watchthrough. She uses it for a lot of pretty dramatically different afflictions. Aside from Retinax V and Cordrazine, it’s the only medication name in the Trek universe that I can remember off the top of my head.

Someone did a study on various means of welfare support, and figured out that doing away with all other forms of poverty easement and replacing it with an equivalent amount of UBI would actually save taxpayers a significant amount of money. And further, it actually costs way more to try to identify and prosecute fraud than the system actually loses to said fraud.

I think the easiest way to accomplish UBI, without dealing with a lot of rigamarole and nonsense, would be to figure out what amount “basic” should mean—you suggested $2000/mo, but for some cities that would barely cover rent, so maybe let’s say $3000/mo—and then have anyone who wants any form of government financial assistance register with the UBI office, indicating the compensation they receive at their highest-earning job. The UBI office would then simply pay them the difference between $3000 and their monthly paycheck. UBI office automatically cross-references with the IRS every year, so you can’t hide income without getting audited.

I generally agree, but rather than making it a specific number, I think we should tie it to some multiple of the poverty line or the average income of the lowest 10% or something like that. That way, if the rich want to earn more, they have to make things materially better for the poorest people in society; and if they don’t do enough, the government takes that money to do it for them.

That whole thing has blown my mind this entire time about how this is going to be covered in the history books. “So yeah, Jimmy Kimmel got elected to the presidency—yeah, the ‘girls jumping on trampolines’ guy, him—and then two years later, the country was invaded. …Oh, by who? Sorry, uh, it was…Satan, yeah.”

We’ve gone pretty deep into Anime plot territory at this point. The asymmetry of Zelenskyy leading a nation that Putin is invading, and then going on to hold his own for five years, is just astounding.

I’ve been ad-free for long enough at this point that I feel physically assaulted when I see one (at a friend’s house or whatever). It’s insane that we ever thought that was ok, and it’s become worse.

At this point, adblock is a survival measure. Piracy is self-defense. The first presidential candidate who campaigns on legalizing graffiti on billboards and mandating their eventual removal gets my vote. Burn it all.

Electron (and Tauri, and Neutralino) also offers some deeper OS integration stuff that browsers don’t do or actively block; direct file management, USB peripheral control, that sort of thing.

But for something like Discord, you’re totally right. You just need the browser.

Incredibly bleak to think that the files might still not be released in 345 years.

Making it ironically the most photorealistic thing on the Metaverse.