What if, before we transfer human awareness into computers, we discover proof of reincarnation. What then?#
If Bluesky really wanted to decentralize and do it quickly, they could build a layer out of RSS and OPML on top of what they have and not only would they be able interop with other Bluesky-like services but they could also interop with Mastodon and it could all be done in a matter of weeks.#
I have been getting warnings on all my Node.js code that uses AWS api's that come September they're all going to break. #
I'm working on my mail list stuff this week, trying to get the HTML to work for a lot more people than it was working for, and it's a very depressing process, but I did the work, but I don't plan on looking at this again for another five years, if then. #
But lurking in the background is the threat by AWS, and I consider a threat, that if I don't rewrite my code in a non-insignificant way, before September, it's all going to just stop working. I took the time the other day to actually look at what's involved, and I see that they changed/broke their API to use promises. Great. Another stupid exercise in fealty. #
I think they're going to regret doing this, because I don't have the time to go so deep in the bowels of pretty much my entire codebase, and potentially break everything, and then have to debug it, when I have so many other things to do, and I'm getting older, and I just don't have the energy to devote to make-work for Amazon. The arrogance of it, and how diseconomic it is. #
They never promised they wouldn't break all their developers, but geez who would've thought they wanted to? #
I don't think they're actually going to be able to flip the switch. #
PS: Amazon APIs are the worst, so over-complicated, you have to understand everything before you can do anything. But once they work, they keep working. That's the only reason people put up with it. I've switched almost everything but S3 and SES to Digital Ocean because their docs and example code are great and they seem about the same price as Amazon, but my time is all I have, and Amazon doesn't use it well and ultimately that's going to hurt their business, and it seems September is when the shit is going to hit the fan for many, definitely for me.#
PPS: This is different from the breakage that came in the Twitter API when Musk took over. No one was paying anything for this. But I pay a lot for AWS, more every month, as my storage costs go up. I think someone in AWS in a position to make big decisions has no clear idea where the costs are for their customers or they wouldn't do this. Imagine a company of gas stations deciding to change the shape of all the nozzles on their gas pumps in September. "We gave you plenty of times to adapt!" they might say. Yes, but -- as long as we have to change why not change to your competitor's service? The strangeness of their APIs is their lockin. I don't think they have factored that into their plans.#
If I was president of Harvard, I'd be thinking about what's next after the Trump government has tried to destroy the university and we said no. If we have to do without the government money, that's okay because we wouldn't be Harvard if we allowed the government to run the university. That goes for any government, but especially for this one. #
No and we're going to get by with less money and in the process do better work, provide more of a service to our students, community and our country. #
We're going to bring the country into Harvard and bring Harvard into the country. How did we get so far apart? #
Let's get by with less money, and in the process do better work.#
It seems that Harvard, along with all the universities in the US, has been tasked with re-establishing the First Amendment, and what it means to all of us. Let's trust that the people of our country know why the First Amendment is so important, regardless of who we voted for. Some of it leaked out when they interviewed random people in real time at the Trump assassination rally last summer. They all sounded like people who could be neighbors of mine, and they largely said what I would have said. It's okay if you don't agree with someone, but for crying out loud, don't shoot them for it. Yeah. That was a real eye-opener for me, when TV didn't have a chance to choose only the most extreme ugly Trump supporters, we found out that they are Americans, like us. A lot of the news is fake, designed to make us angry and depressed, because that's what gets us to come back every night. #
So Harvard, the ultimate elite institution, if it can connect with that, maybe the everyday non-elite American will listen now that the Trumps have done such an outlandish thing in trying to destroy Harvard, maybe we can change the role that Harvard and its peers play in the American politics and culture, and we can get a bit more science into our world, with the approval of the people. #
Maybe this was the way Harvard contributed to the problem, by feeling above the average person. This is very real and inescapable. But many of us came from middle-class or even refugee families (like my own) and we haven't forgotten where we came from. If there's a disconnect, it's not fair to blame one or the other. Each has the power to reconnect. Let's take this chance to get together and help each other, across all the divides.#
The Trump focus on Harvard may be the greatest gift, if Harvard chooses to view it that way.#
PS: I was a research fellow at Harvard for two years in the early 00s. I found the university was very receptive and supportive of these ideas then, esp in regard to the web, where we pioneered many of the things people take for granted now. #
PPS: This is a bit like the Streisand Effect. Let the Trumps pick their fights more carefully.#
PPPS: Think about where Apple was in 1997, the bottom had dropped out. Ten years later they shipped the iPhone. That kind of transition could happen for Harvard and the intellect of America, which seems to (hopefully) be at a bottom.#
Last update: Saturday April 26, 2025; 3:24 PM EDT.
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