The transition

We Americans sure screwed up the transition. Outside of my tractor and hedge trimmer I have given up on ICE, though I await a suitable electric vehicle to be sold in the USA.

That suitable electric vehicle for me would be a capable pickup at a reasonable price. The electric pickup trucks American carmakers have produced were overpriced showboats. Now it looks like two potential PUs, one from Slate and one from Ford, are to hit the market later this year, and I might finally get what I want.
 
We Americans sure screwed up the transition. Outside of my tractor and hedge trimmer I have given up on ICE, though I await a suitable electric vehicle to be sold in the USA.

That suitable electric vehicle for me would be a capable pickup at a reasonable price. The electric pickup trucks American carmakers have produced were overpriced showboats. Now it looks like two potential PUs, one from Slate and one from Ford, are to hit the market later this year, and I might finally get what I want.
It is important to remember that most pickups in the Untied States don't work for a living. The reality is that most of them are about lifestyle and cultural branding. Which when you think about it is bizarre. Kind of like those primitive cultures that elongate their lips, earlobes, or necks.
 
The Chinese are methodically playing the long game and the a_hole we have in charge is serving up instant gratification to the ignorant
We deserve everything that's going to happen.
The "sudden rise of Chinese tech" took them 30 or more years of hard work, government investment, and narrow focus... while the west slacked off on everything except finance.
The Chinese people deserve more credit than they get, and their leaders, although probably better than ours (a low bar Indeed), deserve a lot less credit than they claim.
 
It is important to remember that most pickups in the Untied States don't work for a living. The reality is that most of them are about lifestyle and cultural branding. Which when you think about it is bizarre. Kind of like those primitive cultures that elongate their lips, earlobes, or necks.
This is from AI but I needed to ask the right question with the correct details: Oh, Mike was low status then...

Jane Goodall famously wrote about a clever chimpanzee named Mike from Gombe, who rose to become the alpha male by integrating empty kerosene cans into his dominance displays. By clashing the metal tins together, Mike created a deafening, intimidating racket that frightened higher-ranking rivals and secured his top rank for years. [1, 2, 3]

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The Story of Mike the Chimp
  • The Underdog: Mike was a low-ranking male in the Gombe group with two broken canines. He had eleven other males ahead of him in the dominance hierarchy.
  • The Discovery: Mike found empty 4-gallon kerosene cans left at the research camp and realized the incredible noise they produced when banged together.
  • The Display: Mike would charge straight at the dominant males (including the previous alpha, Goliath) while dragging and hitting the tin cans.
  • The Result: The booming metal sound terrified the other chimps. This intimidation tactic allowed Mike to assert his superiority without fighting, pushing him to alpha male status. [1, 2, 3]
This is not from AI. The reason animals such as male peacocks have things that you would be a hindrance to survival is that females want to see who best surves with that burden/hinderance. Just like some suburban guy who drives a Cyber truck.


Here is one final one: Human females tend to be sexually attracted to confident males. But the thing is, confidence has an inverse relationship to competence. It is called Dunning/Kruger and proven.
 
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That AI shite is the worlds greatest ponzi scheme and they're all diggin' in. Greed baby greed.
It's indeed a huge bubble and if you're an insider you'll make a killing. Just like all the insiders from the EV bubble. The average man in the street still hasn't twigged that that industry has collapsed because the media is hiding the sales collapse behind the rebranding of hybrid cars as EVs. But you only have to look at all the collapsed companies, like a trillion dollars worth that have vanished from the stock market.

For example Canoo was $9000 a share at the beginning of 2021. Prior to the 2025 reverse stock split, the number of outstanding shares was roughly 289.7 million. Today it's worth nothing so whoever still held the shares as it went down was the bag hodlers, pension funds probably as they are in on these rackets. Fisker was another, it's worth Zero a share today but it's 1.5 Billion shares were once worth $42 Billion. Come in sucker. Tesla will be the last to fall, either with the merger currently under consideration or not. Something has to be done there as the Dream has died and along with it the *Robot* in every house dream. That was so patently stupid I can't believe anyone would fall for it, but they'd seen the movie iRobot and that would be enough "science" to convince them 😄
 
Indeed a huuuge bubble...but one of those many attempts will actually mature... into something we the people don't want...
 
Kind of interesting how someone can argue that EVs are a scam when 98 percent of new vehicles in some countries are EVs. You all need to remember that the Untied States is not the whole world and at this point not even the most advanced part of the world.

There were a long list of personal computer companies that failed before they finally caught on and got enough traction. I don't suppose many people here remember Processor Technology, Exidy, Kaypro, or Osborne,

Similarly, even though there is currently a bubble in AI investment doesn't mean that at least some of the underlying science and technology isn't sound. I have my doubts we can create a superintelligent computer with existing technology but there are a pile of non-creepy world-changing applications that would be at least worthwhile and wouldn't cause mass unemployment either. There are a lot of enormously labor-intensive tasks that just don't get done or don't get done adequately and that existing AI tech can do well enough and at reasonable cost.
 
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The new Electric Ferrari designed to be polarising..
The Guardian being the Guardian by claiming right wingers dont like it.
Which is of course a subtle warning to the liberals who dare raise an eyebrow.

I havent worked out their approach yet.
Is it the classic make it ugly because we dont want to make them or a company befuddled by the modern world and letting the genzzz design it for them.
 
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