So, terrible at robo-taxis (despite a head start) & now pivoted to being a $1.44 trillion humanoid robotics start-up? That can only end well.

Why isn’t the fediverse more popular? At futurology.today we have the benefit of also moderating r/futurology on reddit, which has 21.6 million subscribers. Out of the tens of thousands of people who’ve read our posts about the fediverse site, only a few hundred have signed up. Most of our subscribers are from elsewhere in the fediverse.

The amount of precise manipulation needed to do something as simple as repair the feeder mechanism on a welder,

If robots can build cars, I’d guess they can manage that.

They day will come when robots can do all the maintenance they need on each other.

Western countries rejected the state having a large role in their economies in the 1980s and ushered in the era of neoliberal economics, where everything would be left to the market. That logic dictated it was cheaper to manufacture things where wages were low, and so tens of millions of manufacturing jobs disappeared in the West.

Fast-forward to the 2020s and the flaws in neoliberal economics seem all too apparent. Deindustrialization has made the Western working class poorer than their parents’ generation. But another flaw has become increasingly apparent - by making China the world’s manufacturing superpower, we seem to be making them the world’s technological superpower too.

Furthermore, this seems to be setting up a self-reinforcing virtuous cycle. EVs, batteries, lidar, drones, robotics, smartphones, AI - China seems to be becoming the leader in them all, and the development of each is reinforcing the development of all the others.

Where does this leave the Western economic model - is it time it copies China’s style of capitalism?

If only there was an oompa-loompa failed businessman, aided by Russia to weaken his own country from within, who could take on such a mission - where could we find such an extraordinary person?

China is the global leader now when it comes to the energy transition, America is just going to become more irrelevant on the world stage.

By the end of Trump’s term, the world of huge gas guzzling fossil fuel cars is just going to look sad and out of date. Meanwhile the Green Energy transition it’s the largest industrial project in human history. The failed orange businessman who bankrupted a casino, is just handing all the trillions of dollars of future revenue to China.

Just of top of your head, can you list three reasons they want to join the Fediverse for a “normal” Reddit user?

I agree, there is no reason for most of them to. Why leave a place full of conversation to join somewhere where there is hardly any?

That said, many people want to to abandon traditional social media sites like Twitter/X and Facebook - Bluesky has been a huge beneficiary.

If it did things differently, there is every reason to think the fediverse could benefit from that transition. This trend of turning against the old social media , especially as it has aligned itself with the far right, is only going to accelerate.

It’s still very early on, but a theme discussed in the video is worth repeating here: if the Fediverse is so great (ethical, devoid of advertising or toxic, addictive algorithms, with the goal of genuinely connecting people) why is it that the general public has not heard of it?

The futurology.today instance I’m an admin/mod of has the added benefit of being a direct sibling of r/futurology on Reddit which has 21 million users (I, and the other Mods also mod it).

Despite over a year promoting it on the subreddit, 3/4 of the instances users are from the fediverse, not Reddit.

Maybe the fediverse needs some breakthrough with usability, discovery and appeal?

Its bizarre that finding and subscribing to other instances is still so painful and backwards.

Why can’t we have new account types already subscribed to a ‘top 100 instances’ ? Instant improvement.

So the same people who have no problem about using other people’s copyrighted work, are now crying when the Chinese do the same to them? Find me a nano-scale violin so I can play a really sad song.

Thanks for the reply.

Naive question probably - which of these platforms would get a new creator the biggest audience?

At least this should finally put the ‘Chinese can’t innovate, they can only copy’ meme into retirement.

I’m glad this means AI’s power will become more decentralized internationally. Who would have thought it was China responsible for that?

Asteroid ejecta from Mars has reached Earth so many times, we can assume the opposite has happened too. So if Mars was warm and wet, it seems likely it was seeded with life from Earth. This suggests another question, did life on Earth arrive from elsewhere via this method?

While laboratory testing like this is important, I’m really keen to know what effect the microplastics in our everyday environment are actually having. It’s one thing to inject laboratory mice and observe results. But we all know microplastics are absolutely everywhere, what are they doing to humans now ?

You know why Trump really hates her?

Because as a bishop, she can move diagonally anywhere on the board, but as a Russian pawn, he can only move one square at a time.

Trumpism will pass, and gasoline cars go the way of the horse and buggy. The US will just take longer to catch up with the rest of the world’s progress.

I don’t know if its what you are looking for but futurology.today is the fediverse sibling (same Mods) as r/futurology on Reddit.

(Disclaimer I’m a Mod on it & the subreddit)

The report highlighted a continued decline in fossil fuel dependency, with gas generation falling for the fifth consecutive year and overall fossil-fueled power dropping to a historic low of 29%.

Even when Russia makes it back to international markets with their natural gas, no one in Europe is going to want it.