I was going to say Auron. He’s my favorite.

That’s the thing. Being just as fair doesn’t necessarily imply it’s equally travelled. Even being worn the same doesn’t necessarily mean equally traveled, although it strongly implies it. I think the final line is so certain that it overrides the earlier lines and implies to the unwary reader that these similar paths actually were differently travelled.

I don’t expect self contradiction in a story / poem. So that certainty of there being a difference overrides all.

It’s only after reading the author’s intentions that I know for sure that the contradiction was intended and that was actually the point of the poem.

As I said before, this makes me like the poem even more now.

Even after rereading the poem I had to read the Wikipedia analysis section to be convinced you are right. It’s a very subtle poem, which, honestly, just makes it better.

From the article:

“Our technology can be thought of as ‘indirect air capture’ because the ocean will take more carbon dioxide out of the air above it to replace the carbon dioxide that we’re removing.” Hornbostel said.

It is absolutely ai. The experience of talking with chatgpt is so human like that it just blows my mind. What I’ve learned so far is that human brains aren’t nearly as magical as they seem.

I thought the main obstacle was the computing power to update 175 billion neurons with large datasets. You probably could generate a good llm just using Wikipedia, but I think it requires a room full of expensive video cards to do.

The Google response seems to agree with you, but this Berkeley study says the opposite:

https://www.stat.berkeley.edu/~aldous/157/Papers/kaplan.pdf

(Fixed link.)

So, the train just plows into the water and keeps on going?

Wait, is this a good genie wish or an evil genie wish? I feel like the spirit of the wish would make me forget sequels to any movie I specify or that’d just make it impossible to properly forget.

Meh. Disagree. It holds up in my opinion. But, we all have our opinions.

The Matrix. Blew my fucking mind the first time I saw it. It’s awesome on repeat viewings, but that first watch is magical.

Can you not just visit with him outside on some lawn chairs? Or does the outside smell as well?

Is this really a painting? It looks so real!

Uplifting news that isn’t boring (Bob did well in school his whole life.) and doesn’t imply bad things happening (the community came together to save Jill from a life in the slave pits of Hoth) is actually a challenge.

What would be an example that was interesting with no negative connotations? Maybe news of scientific and engineering breakthroughs? Children who rise above a good but boring life?

I play Switch games while on my treadmill. The split controller works perfectly for that and makes it easy to forget I’m walking.

Everything in this thread so far is normal stuff I could have guessed. Guns, metric, tipping, etc. Most of it has large groups of people in the country that agree, or at least know.

What are some non-obvious things? Culture shock isn’t about major political issues. It’s about universal things that turn out to not be universal.

For example, US people have a strong culture of how standing in line works. It’s basically a moral sin to butt in line unless you have someone holding your place. This is universal in the country. My understanding is that other countries differ. Is that true?

I assumed it was intentional.

The trick is to just respond with “Hi” then look away. Conversation over.

No, it’s a lie. They wouldn’t say yes, so saying that they would say yes is a lie.

Playing Switch games while walking on a treadmill. I always found exercise boring before, but the split controller of the Switch makes it easy to play while walking.

I have found I don’t even notice I’m walking and look forward to it since I’m actually looking forward to gaming.

Dark Souls while walking is the best. I’ve walked about 140 miles in the last month.