Tetra

US weapons Trump would provide, most likely.

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.

Not sure what part of the message you’re responding to, what do you mean?

“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.

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.

I knew a Mexican girl who I don’t think considered it fully “mexican” but liked it quite a lot still.

It’s not gonna last you 20 hours, but last I checked the official Sonic 1, 2 and CD ports are all free on mobile (and they’re really good).

See, that right there is true horror.

Given all my adblockers, getting ads at all is what scares me

I mean isn’t that what OP is trying to figure out? A way for people to hear how you sound inside your skull.

The USA is very interested in aliens*

Well, that’s just prime…

Beyond autism, that /s has become all the more necessary these days in the wake of this huge wave of anti-intellectualism. Outside of private circles, it’s so hard now to tell the difference between absurd sarcasm and the genuinely ignorant takes some people proudly share, there’s too much of an overlap between the two lol

Ah right, I forgot Vivian isn’t trans in the US version, she is in French, which is what I’m most familiar with.

As evil as Disney is as a company, it’s been awesome to see them stick to their guns and unapologetically keep including LGBT+ characters in their movies and shows. You can be cynical and argue they’re doing it for money and PR, but we really need more big companies to follow their lead and plant their feet. I’d love for Nintendo to do the same, though I’m not sure I’ll even live to see that, sadly.

Japan is overall making good progress in that regard these past few years, but Nintendo is another story. I can’t think of a single company more paranoid about protecting their IP, and that’s really the root for a lot of their shortcomings.

Can you educate me on what the differences were with the Japanese version that made it push the limits?