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Cake day: April 25th, 2026

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  • Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs is often called “the wizard book.” Not because Abelson et al believed computers were actually magic but rather because there’s a wizard on the cover and they compare the act of programming to spellcasting, giving instructions to the allegorical beings that live in the hardware. It certainly feels like magic.

    The take on the left doesn’t understand reality, and the take in the middle doesn’t understand fun. The take on the right is trying to have fun but is spoken by someone who understands the take in the middle is the literal truth. If the person with the take on the right actually believes computers are magic then they’re actually on the left no matter how much they work with computers.








  • edit: fair warning I’m not doing great so I’m more prone to doomposting. which this is. anyway:

    We Balkanize, the good bits get snatched up by other nation states, and the shit bits get snatched up by private militias. Or, with no conventional munitions left to defend ourselves we start a nuclear war. Or, slim chance here, people vote against this despite Democrats sabotaging the process and then hold them accountable for consistently fucking this up for the last forever, and we reach a kind of degraded equilibrium, american empire declines, chinese empire rises, and MLs tie themselves in knots trying to justify China doing the kinds of things necessary for maintaining a global empire

    Oh, and the Enlightenment dies. Like you think its dead now, just wait.

    edit again: do not take this comment to be “usa good.” this comment is more along the lines of “geopolitics is a delicate balance of influence distributed amongst several world powers, all of which are bad, and the sudden decline of the biggest player creates a vacuum that is sure to amplify human suffering worldwide”







  • please donate to “teaching cats to read.” Every day, thousands of our four legged friends take unnecessary tumbles that could be avoided if they could understand human signs. Join us in creating a world free of feline slip-and-fall injuries. And also a world where Garfield finally learns “who that’s for”