Russian invasion of Ukraine

Summerbuzz said:
There's some estimates that AI could be responsible for as much as 50% of the content on the internet.

You can just make the neural net read hundreds of pages of posts and tweets in favour of a subject, then press play. And people won't know the difference.

I think I found one on reddit around the time of Charlottesville. I had a fairly detailed argument and rebuttal to their rebuttal. Then it went all wierd and noticably very vague, like it suddenly shifted into another persona / context. And that's a tell-tale sign of AI - it can make the right noises in one context, pick out the right words to talk about, but at some point, it can get out the bounds of it's area of expertise, the situations where it works very well. Then you become an 'edge case' and it gives you very mediocre responses, it's using words and phrases which come from a very different motivation or state of mind. The character falls apart in our eyes. But until that point, I was convinced I was talking to a human.

And that's because - at least on the internet - 99.9% of what we write is us saying the same thing as someone else, very slightly differently. And people have replied to and argued against our posts. They are the same, saying the same thing as someone else who has made that argumment.

We're all on autopilot. The trick is - very genuinely - to get to a personal level. Bring the individual humanity into it, the sort of thing that emerges in close physical situations, the ways of thinking and responding that are routinely left by the wayside when we are on t'internet.

It's actually very troubling to see how autopiloty we all are. People point at the other side and say that's what they are. But it's rubbish, we're all at it. All the time. It stems from being on a side in the first place. And it stems from our relationship to language.
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I’d like to see an AI come up with twatbanana.
 
BlueMoonAcrossThePond said:
Russia will float numerous justifications, hoping that some one of which meet with agreement.

In the USA we have a saying for this. Throw a bunch of shit at the wall and see what sticks.

The "NATO-aligned Ukraine is an existential threat" shit seems to have stuck on portions of the addle-minded Right.
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Going off on a tangent here. I was watching a new report on some of the GOPs admiration of Putin and they came to conclusion they see him as the perfect leader for their ideal red state.
 
I have not seen much discussed about this topic but it was widely touted last year that Brussels and especially Macron wanted to push forward with an EU army so lets call it NATO light - but in my opinion significantly large enough to take on the Russians and will have French nuclear capability deterrents and lets not forget that this EU army will probably be backed up by a huge defence budget from Germany alone (Thanks Vlad).

1) How does this significantly differ in Russia's eyes from the NATO threat that is always being touted as the cause for this war?

2) Other than Turkey's Black sea access, the borders with Russia are identical, except you can now add an additional 1,340 km border with Russia via Finland so an even worse predicament?

3) I suspect the remit of this army will be similar to NATO in terms of an attack against one etc but suspect will have additional powers to intervene in a case similar to what we are seeing here

The events of the last month will fast track this EU army I have no doubt as previous EU countries who had shown reservation I am sure will be all for it (Thanks Vlad), so where does this leave us in the future or is this war just good old fashioned Russian hatred of the U.S and the Russians will suddenly drop their objections to a militarised border on its Western flank just because it has EU stars on it?
 
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BlueMoonAcrossThePond said:
This sort of thinking - is, IMO, completely unfounded.

Where did such ideas originate. And do such ideas play to Russia's advantage?

As for the first - who knows.

As for the second - absolutely. Here we have justification for Russia's aggression.
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Let's step back for a moment. How likely is it that a European nation or indeed the USA will attack Russia? This borders on absolutely impossible. Why? Because Russia has nuclear weapons and ICBM capability. Any attack on Russia would bring devastating consequences to the west.

WIth this in mind - and also keeping in mind that proximate Poland for example are western leaning - the argument that a NATO Ukraine somehow poses an existential threat to Russia - so far beyond that which already exists (which is frankly nill) - is ridiculous. Patently so.

But the narrative that this is true and factual - which it obviously is not - builds a pretext for Russia's invasion of its neighbors.
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I didnt say I agree with Russias security concerns, in fact I called Putin deranged for having them if you read my post. I agree Russia dont have any risk of a potential attack from USA (through Nato) in the foreseeable future, not matter if Ukraine joins Nato or not. What I did say is that I do think Russia have these concerns regardless, no matter if we believe they should have or not. Which have been quite obvious since 2008 and still is today considering what their demands are to withdraw their troops.

This is just how I see the situation from the information that is in front of me. I'm not dead certain this is 100% the case (since I'm not Putin), just like you cant be certain its not. But the way I see it, pretty much everything points to this being the case.
Like I said (several times), I dont think Russia has any right to invade Ukraine regardless if they have security concerns or not. Its just that, for me, this is about Nato, not Putin being on some kind of crusade to restore the Soviet Union. Every action Russia has made has been a direct (and/or immediate) response to Ukraines (and Georgias before that) Nato politic. At the same time there is almost nothing that suggests it would have to do with anything else than that.

Not trying to get into an argument here, none of us really know and are just speculating. What we can all agree on is that Russia have no right to invade Ukraine, and that the war is horrible. Hopefully Russia lose and we wont see them back in Europe for the foreseeable future.
 
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BlueMoonAcrossThePond said:
Russia will float numerous justifications, hoping that some one or more of which meet with agreement among its foes.

In the USA we have a saying for this. Throw a bunch of shit at the wall and see what sticks.

Russia's "NATO-aligned Ukraine is an existential threat" shit seems to have stuck on portions of the addle-minded Right.
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If my neighbour piled a load of manure next to my back fence, which incidentally he did once, I would call that an uncomfortable threat and deal with it appropriately. If I was unhinged and paranoid I might get a gun out. Just a thought, I am not on the Right or in any way an apologist. This is a delicate situation which needs clear thinking diplomacy he is now a monster.
 
SWP's back said:
Everyone talking about Roman but I do believe Everton may very well be in the shit.

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I said in the Everton thread their bolloxed, where are they gonna get the funds to complete the new stadium, looks like they might be staying at woodison.
 
kaz7 said:
They would all be dead in minutes though and they are needed to protect the cities
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But by neutralising the threat by getting troops up to the column somehow, the cities may or may not need the same protection. Attack being the best defence. It's so annoying just seeing certain awaiting death just sitting there.

P.S. I'm just a normal bloke trying to get his head around it all.
 
Jimmieblue said:
If my neighbour piled a load of manure next to my back fence, which incidentally he did once, I would call that an uncomfortable threat and deal with it appropriately. If I was unhinged and paranoid I might get a gun out. Just a thought, I am not on the Right or in any way an apologist. This is a delicate situation which needs clear thinking diplomacy he is now a monster.
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If your analogy were apt I'd agree; whereas your analogy is not at all apt.

There's no risk that a western-aligned Ukraine poses any threat - let alone an existential threat - to Russia. Zero. Nada. Nil.

Yet you've bought into this narrative.

So - go on. Outline how, precisely, is it, that a western-aligned Ukraine posses an existential threat to Russia. This idea is so ridiculously stupid that words fail me... but go on, explain how this is possibly so.

For whatever reason, some portion of the western populace such as yourself seem to think that Russia has a point here. Whereas no, they do not.

Russia is led by an ex-KGB man. A man who personally saw to it that Russian apartments were bombed and innocent Russian civilians were killed simply to promote his cause. A man who deploys KGB agents to poison Russian detractors on foreign soil - and to poison them in such a manner that it's clear for all to see that Russia was behind the poisonings.

Putin is a monster. As you've said.

The only restraint against Putin is concerted action to the extent that it's clearly not to his advantage to persue his aggressive policies. Unfortunately, that ship has sailed with regard to The Ukraine.

The best hope now is that the war is so costly that Putin falls far out of favor and is displaced. And I think that this is a distinct possibility. Putin's invasion of the Ukraine is, I think, a huge mistake which might well lead to the end of Putin's reign.
 
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Bazzmand Show said:
China and India are backing Russia here, or not open to criticising them - that's nearly half the worlds population.

'Your opinion is that Russia should turn to crypto (despite being unaware they caused the major price drop through efforts to ban it in December of last year)'

I've been involved in crypto for years and crypto is proving why it's a valuable resource right now.

Go have a glass of water and calm down pal.
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Actually it’s the leaders of 2 countries not their population. You know actual people who can see the damage being done to innocents. Don’t even try to claim half the fucking planet is not criticising them.

Anyone who isn’t critical of Russia is a Teutonic twat and those Posting shite on here are not far behind.
 
SWP's back said:
I know it’s 2022 and people shouldn’t be ashamed to come out as gay or trans or even that they identify as cats and need a litter tray… BUT I don’t get why people think it’s ok to out themselves in public as watchers of Russel Cunting Brand.

I’d rather people thought I fingered geese down the local park, it would be a great deal less embarrassing and I’d more that likely learn more. He’s the idiot’s idea of a smart person the scruffy ****.
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Brave words, but have you tried fingering a goose? Not as easy as it sounds.
 
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