Oh? I really liked Xbox 360's "blades" dashboard UI. It was quite fast, and was quite simple. On every screen, there's a clear indication of what your controller buttons do, making it really quick to get around in. Some video of the dashboard in use: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1P5gTvXct30
The blades UI was quick, but I remember so many slow loads when pressing the Xbox button and pulling up the system menu.
But I do agree, the blades UI design-wise was pretty good and achieved far more information density than the crossbar PlayStation UI. But when in-game I wouldn't describe any of the UI as speedy.
The 360 dashboard went through many variations and it generally got worse over time. The blades, which is what the console launched with, were excellent if not a bit simplistic.
Hell yeah, I still chat regularly with a couple friends I met online in like 1999. One of them I talk with almost daily. Surprisingly the whole "extremely online" approach has meant some really solid long-lasting connections. :)
I guess I could say I found ogrish or liveleaks traumatizing but it wasn't the site, it was human beings. I felt I had a responsibility to understand what humanity was capable of, because I only had vanishingly-minor hints of it growing up in a nice conflict-free region of the world. Honestly, being exposed to the stuff on those sites gave me a better understanding of what people might do to each other (or to other life forms). It was rough to see some stuff, but I am actually thankful I was able to access that kind of stuff at that age and learn more about what humans are. I don't know if many people relate to that mindset, but I never once had a sense of "I wish I didn't watch that". Each was a learning experience.
By the time I was old enough to work, I had recorded dozens of my own songs and made countless websites for fun. I made computer graphics and learned tons about computers and could fix them for all my friends and family. These were all forms of "work", valuable to others (to varying degrees), and I received zero payment for any of that. People like to do things, particularly things that benefit those they care about. Not everyone is like that, but we don't actually really need everyone to be like that, IMO.
Aside from the strong selection bias, you've also been raised in a culture that both works and values work.
Now imagine you're a third generation UBI recipient. Your parents never worked, and you're surrounded by people who don't even "work" in the way which you describe it.
At that point, I have very little hope, even for people predisposed to it like you.
>Your parents never worked, and you're surrounded by people who don't even "work"
I'm not sure that's a guaranteed future. Even today we offer subsistence living with welfare and food stamps, and nobody ever brags about not working because they're on the dole. Even if UBI is better than the current welfare system, it's not likely to be enough to support a middle class lifestyle. People will still work because they want to get ahead in life.
I've imagined this future, and I did think of one possible workaround that may or may not be feasible: morse code. One of my motives for learning it is, you can "copy" morse code by any of your senses except taste. I've imagined where I may be blind, or deaf, or even both. As long as I have the sense of touch somewhere about my body at the bare minimum, and can move a finger, I could communicate via morse code. I know it sounds kinda stupid, but it's comforting to know I have that "last resort option" in my back pocket.
You would need someone who understands Morse to notice and interpret. The same dexterity can also operate a pen, and this is the option I have more often seen used.
Neither is likely to be a much richer channel than the other, I think.
I think you probably need more dexterity (and grip strength) for minimal successful communication with a pen than with Morse code, especially if you wind up trying to do both without visual feedback.
The odds of those around you noticing is something you have some power over, if you're thinking about it ahead of time.
All true, but a pen still can be legibly used in at least some such situations. I've seen it done.
I'm not saying not to plan around Morse, just that it's a little early to assume there must be no other hope - and always too early to place much faith in being able to exert control over circumstances where, more or less definitionally, this is not a reasonable thing to expect.
That probably sounds scary. I can't help that. Dying is a scary topic, I imagine likely much more so for actually doing it, which I as yet have not. But I do know some things about how to handle fear, and one is that it helps a lot when that doesn't come by surprise - when you don't have to start totally from scratch to build what equanimity is available.
Less so than any one specific response, what I'd focus on trying to prepare for is that. You can't really know what tools you will have available in such a moment. You can't really know you will have any. Whatever there is, though, you'll have an easier time to recognize and use for being able to better see past that fear.
Probably my loved ones, or a subset thereof, would make the effort to learn. Otherwise there's software that can parse it (so people can read what I send) and software that can produce it (so people can type words and generate morse code I can receive via whatever means). :)
Yeah, this is why I still wear a KN95 mask everywhere. Losing my sharpness or ability to code and work deeply with computers would not only trash my career but utterly shatter a huge piece of my life. I'm acutely aware that one day the depthful involvement in tech (among other things I enjoy) may end, so I absolutely try to make the most of it and mitigate threats to it.
same year for me. I have such fond memories of those few years where you could just scour through university FTPs and websites for hours, finding so much cool (and informative) stuff. It felt like getting a peek into so many worlds I knew nothing about, and it felt limitless (especially as I was a kid at the time). Indeed, the openness and "generosity" of people online in those days set such a good example for me, that I try to "pay forward" in my daily actions and work.
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