i think it’s been enough time & we can... finally address this particular discourse, and i think there’s a healthy discussion we can have about it. i genuinely think a fully traditional rendition in 2026, by artists operating at a global pop level, would have changed how the project was received internationally. there’s a very real possibility it would’ve been boxed into “world music,” treated more like cultural exhibition than a modern musical statement, keeping in mind that Arirang Album is not for 'aesthetics' nor is it a history lesson. using 808s, trap production, pop structures, and english hooks while still centering Arirang was actually a significant artistic choice. historically, Arirang was the song of ordinary people. in today’s world, pop culture/pop music is the common language. using contemporary pop to carry that sentiment to millions of listeners across countries feels very aligned with the spirit of what Arirang represented in its own time. and ‘unapologetically korean’ does not have to mean “only in korean” or “frozen in tradition.” it can also mean Korean artists having full control over how their culture is presented, modernized, exported, and understood. i also think if they had leaned entirely into historical styling and traditional presentation, western media may have reduced it to a “cultural curiosity” instead of engaging with it as a current, competitive pop release. critics likely would’ve framed it as heritage performance before artistry. i am glad they chose this route for the album.show more

🇰🇷 A 90-year-old Korean grandmother who survived the Japanese... occupation of Korea and was later displaced was shown crying and dancing to “Arirang” during BTS “Body to Body” on #BTSLiveonNetflix. That moment holds a lifetime of history, grief, and memory. For many Korean people, “Arirang” is not just a song. It carries sorrow, longing, resilience, love, survival, and remembrance across generations. To see a Korean elder — someone who lived through occupation, loss, and displacement — moved to tears while dancing to it is profoundly emotional. It shows how deeply “Arirang” lives in the Korean spirit. As Taehyung (video with translations attached) said in his Weverse Live on March 21, “Arirang” lives in Korean blood. For Koreans, both 🇰🇵 North and 🇰🇷 South, whether you laugh, feel sadness, feel sorrow, or feel happiness, there is “Arirang.” Even in BTS: The Return on Netflix, BTS wrestled with how to carry Korean identity, history, and the weight of “Arirang” authentically in the album. Hoseok was one of the members pushing to keep “Arirang” part of “Body to Body.” That is why #BTS_ARIRANG feels so meaningful. It carries memory, truth, and history — with the authenticity Namjoon said it needed to have here.show more

This is gonna be so long omg but when... it comes to translating in Korean, it’s very very important to take in consideration of 1) Culture 2) Seniority, the Closeness & Intimacy of the people involved in a conversation. Because this gives an entire different vibe for the context. And we have to keep in mind that there are Korean phrases and expressions that simply don’t have just One way, exact words that can be translated in English. Translators can find ways to convey the meaning, but it requires more explanation and understanding of the context while conveying it, and not relying on assumptions. How about “인상 덜 쓰기” or “인상 쓰다“ then? Here, a direct translation can simply be 인상 덜 쓰기 - be less grumpy/ frown less, etc 인상 쓰다 - being grumpy, frown, make a face, etc Here, I include an educational video of an English speaker talking with a Korean speaker where they’re discussing a similar expression, “인상 좀 쓰지마!“ (which in word by word in English, it sounds something like “Don’t frown/ Don’t make a face”) Now, as an English speaker, that sounds a bit harsh doesn’t it? That’s because such expression doesn’t exist in just One interpretation in English, so if we only read it as it is, without considering the context and the speakers’ closeness, we’re bound to misunderstand the context. Quoting some parts of this video, 💚: “Now, Tyler’s expression for today is ‘인상 좀 쓰지마!’. Have you ever heard of this expression? 🩶: I’ve heard something like that before 💚: Then doesn’t this mean there’s a same expression in English too right? 🩶: Oh! I’ve only heard it in Korea 💚: Ah really? The guy then explained that if you say something like this in english, it can be rude. so it’s better not to say it in English-speaking countries. He gave examples like “If you do that, you’ll get wrinkles”, and the other guy added something like “If you make an ugly face, you’ll have wrinkles” and said that “If someone (an English speaker) hears this they would think I must be crazy” Here, they’re talking about the cultural differences. A phrase like this, when expressed directly, without considering people’s closeness, and being translated exactly like that, would sound so negative to English speakers. *also notice how this phrase is being worded in various ways??? ‘HOW’ it can sound to someone, really depends on their culture, their closeness with the person, and context* So later on, he gave a few more examples like, “stop making such a long face”, and “stop wrinkling your forehead”. And concluded that: 💚: Well in that case, the phrase “인상 좀 쓰지마” is basically a phrase that doesn’t exist in English. 🩶: It’s an expression that we don’t use. It’s not that it doesn’t exist. (This part, he’s explaining that there’s no such a thing as word by word to explain this phrase in English, bcs we English speakers use different wordings that is more suitable for a situation’s nuances.) Then again, we have to consider speakers’ closeness as well because in Korea, it’s a huge thing. If you don’t understand how this works, you won’t understand the nuances of a conversation. You’re bound to misunderstand. If you refuse to understand it then, I don’t think you want to respect their culture. Because again, this is a huge thing.show more

I think a big mistake is believing that if... something is here, we should be able to see it. Right? The lights in the sky and the pilots or the gods or whatever they are? I think we assume out of arrogance and ego. An insect can crawl across your hand and never understand that you are a whole entire being. It only experiences pressure, heat, vibration, and movement. A fingertip appears. A shadow passes. The insect never sees the body attached to it. The insect does not have access to the full image. Ever. I think our situation may be exactly the same. Whatever people call the phenomenon, nonhuman intelligence, gods, or something else entirely, may be present in full while we only register a portion of it. We notice effects, not the actual being. Changes in perception. Anomalies. We expect a face when all we are capable of sensing is the fingertip. Let me explain. Reports are always partial and strange. Lights, shapes, impressions, symbols, missing time, pressure, fear, calm. None of it ever shows us a full being, or the real craft; because our senses are not built to assemble it. Just like the ant cannot assemble a human from a few sensations. Now that doesn't mean what we are seeing is fake. It means the insect’s world is smaller than the thing interacting with it. I get sick of people saying there is no there there, I think they are making the same mistake the insect would make. Our reality is likely a thin slice of what actually exists. We move through a world full of forces and intelligences that exceed our resolution. We are not seeing nothing. We are seeing effects. And effects are often the only honest proof a limited observer ever gets.show more

A viral paper "Language Model Represents Space and Time"... recently claims that LLMs learn "world models". As much as I like Max Tegmark's works, I disagree with their definition of world model. World model is a core concept in AI agent and decision making. It is our mental simulation of how the world works given interventions (or lack thereof). A world model captures causality and intuitive physics, telling the agent what is likely and what is impossible. It can and should be used for counterfactual reasoning, i.e. "what ifs": what would happen if I knock over a cup of water? Where would I have been if I had not taken that bus? Yann LeCun Yann LeCun says it well in his position paper ( I quote: "Using such world models, animals can learn new skills with very few trials. They can predict the consequences of their actions, they can reason, plan, explore, and imagine new solutions to problems. Importantly, they can also avoid making dangerous mistakes when facing an unknown situation." The first use of the term World Model in deep policy learning is attributed to hardmaru & Jürgen Schmidhuber: In their seminal paper, an agent masters shooting skills in the popular game Doom (demo below) by learning in imagination, using an internal world model as a "physics simulator". To put in a simple Python math formula, world model learns a function F(s[0:t-1], a) -> s[t:], which takes as input the observed past and current action, and outputs plausible future states. Now the definition of World Model in Tegmark's paper seems to be about predicting GPS coordinates and time eras. I see this as just a classification task with no causal learning and simulation going on. You cannot make meaningful interventions against that model, nor can you optimize any decision making in a closed feedback loop. As for the "space & time neurons", I think they are most similar to the "sentiment neuron" that OpenAI published in 2017: Predicting GPS is conceptually no different from predicting sentiment in my opinion. I don't think their experimental results are wrong - just that their conclusion is on shaky grounds. I welcome any debate! Paper link:show more

Here is an example of what I mean by... my post I quoted. There was nothing on the road, yet FSD 14.2 went over the line and ripples to avoid whatever it may have imagined. I was startled for a second and can only imagine the shock for someone trying FSD for the very first time. No, the car in the opposite lane did not come over to my side either Again, that alone would have been enough for my wife's solid "Nope, I am not using that." (I filtered out my voice, as I was on the phone.)show more

"PRICE IS WHAT YOU PAY. VALUE IS WHAT YOU... GET." I keep buying $Kekec and I have a strong conviction. Here's Why: While the market is down, and Kekec is declining with it, there are data points that few are considering. Kekec borned in October and since then has been posting a different and original 30-second video every day, which I find extremely funny. For the past couple of months, they have also been posting daily on Instagram, and the attention on Kekec (which doesn't present itself on social media as a memecoin) is growing, moreover, it's increasing exponentially. The number of followers is increasing by about 500-1000 a day. This is largely due to the fact that they are not just focused on the main account but have several others that post reels and redirect to the main one. In short, an excellent strategy to keep growing more and more. Instagram link: Guess What? Not only are the followers increasing, but the team's workload is also growing. In fact, for a little over a month, they have also started pushing on YouTube, and the data here is promising as well. YouTube link: If we want to make a comparison, we can take Pudgy Penguins as an example, which has shown it can reach millions and millions of users without mentioning that they are a WEB3 company that owns an NFT collection. Or, if we want to be more appropriate by comparing one memecoin to another, we could take PONKE. Thanks to the use of social media and the quality of their content, they managed to achieve incredible numbers, which then translated into an increase in the coin's price. Kekec came before PONKE, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's better than PONKE. I believe PONKE is unbeatable in terms of content, but I want to make you reflect on an important point. PONKE came after KEKEC, and after PONKE's success, many coins have emerged trying to imitate it. One of KEKEC's strengths, in my opinion, is precisely the fact that it leverages social media without being a copy-paste. Instead, it is a unique meme derived from a 90's film, and it uses a unique form of content. In short, KEKEC > KEKEC and no one else. I want to conclude by suggesting you follow them on Instagram and evaluate not only the exponential growth of their followers day by day but also observe how the views of each reel increase accordingly. Pay special attention to the comments. Many of the people commenting have no idea what it is, and you can see from the comments how Kekec generates particular emotions in people—strange but still emotions. Personally, I believe that when something is unique and even very strange, it needs time to be adopted. However, once it happens, it usually explodes and spreads like never before. A few days ago, a Kekec video was posted by a very popular meme page. They probably don't know what Kekec is about but thought the video could spark interest among their followers. How many other pages will do the same? Lastly, but not least, I want to point out how Kekec maintains a good market cap despite everything that has happened in the crypto world since October 2023. As far as I know and have personally observed, everything is extremely organic. There is no cabal behind it, and the quality is not reflected in a single jpeg but in work that has been ongoing daily for months. Every day they work harder, and the quality of their videos grows as well. I have no affiliations with the team, but I believe that Kekec truly deserves more in this world where we push celebrity or cabal-backed coins to hundreds of millions in market cap. I keep buying because the numbers suggest so. Don't just evaluate the chart (price), evaluate the data (value). BÂLKÂN DWÂRFshow more

I mean you do have a very good point,... however I hope you can understand where I come from. (Sorry I’m advance for the long tweet back) This is exactly what I use to do when I was their age. We didn’t have the luxury of an independent scene we do now and even if we did I was 14 years old, I was only allowed to go to a training school to learn the basics. But I had an enormous passion for the business & if I wasn’t allowed to work shows I’d do it myself. - and I’d argue that because of this I had a head start on a lot of the people I trained with when I finally turned 18 From there I’ve been lucky enough to have the support of friends, peers & fans to push me into what I am today. The fact I’ve still had that same style for now 17 years and this is my first surgery, I think I’ve looked after my body. Think about it 17 years this is my first major injury. You think this is stupid, I would say it’s equally as stupid as to fall off a scaffolding breaking both your legs. And while I’m sure there’s a few people that wished you landed on your head, I for one hope you’re doing well & not in too much pain from your injury. But to me, it showed the care that you have for the industry at that time. I see myself in these guys that are finding any outlet to do what they love. Their bumps are solid & basing is great. Like I said I understand there is a level of danger doing this so I hope none of them get hurt but I can’t help but root for these guys and hope I one day see them in a ring. Once again sorry for the long arse tweet and hope the message finds you well boss.show more

[SBS News] BTS V's self-composed song 'Into the Sun'...... appears in G7 Summit welcome video The song "Into the Sun," co-written and composed by BTS V, is garnering attention after being used in a video related to the G7 Summit. On the 16th (local time), French President Emmanuel Macron released a video on his official social media welcoming the leaders attending the G7 Summit held in Evian, France. The video featured the leaders of each country appearing one by one, with music symbolizing their respective national images and cultures used as background music. In particular, BTS's "Into the Sun" played during the scene featuring President Lee Jae-myung, drawing significant attention. The National, a prominent English-language media outlet in the Middle East, reported that President Macron selected music tailored to the nationality, culture, and image of each world leader. According to the report, BTS's "Into the Sun" was used for South Korean President Lee Jae-myung's video; Tom Petty's "Love Is a Long Road" for U.S. President Donald Trump; the James Bond theme song "The World Is Not Enough" for British Prime Minister Keir Starmer; and Celine Dion's "Jueire Ou Tou Ira" for Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney. "Into the Sun" is a track from BTS's studio album *Arirang*, with V participating in the main songwriting and composition. It is known that V completed the song based on a melody that came to him on his way back from a workout. He previously stated regarding the song, "Although it is a song I created, I thought I needed to make a cold, objective judgment on whether it fit the album," but it was ultimately included due to the active recommendations of the other members. Following the release of 'Arirang,' 'Into the Sun' received favorable reviews from major international media outlets. The U.S. daily newspaper The New York Times described it as "a hypnotic song that puts the mind at ease," while the music magazine Rolling Stone noted that "the falsetto harmonies and sparkling tempo demonstrate BTS's infinite potential." The BBC in the UK also introduced the track as "an experimental yet intriguing song that adds a mysterious atmosphere through digital effects." (Article: #BTSV #INTOTHESUN #ARIRANGshow more

The discourse around the Eze penalty last night is... fascinating. If nothing else it provides Arteta with an excuse as to how his team has been hard done by and robbed. He loves excuses. It’s a fascinating situation because I actually think the right outcome was reached albeit through the wrong process. Once given on the field under the current rules it shouldn't have been overturned. For that Arsenal can feel aggrieved. Don't forget Arsenal were the beneficiaries of an incredibly soft penalty in Leverkusen. It wasn’t overturned. I find the attached video interesting because it clearly shows how minimal the contact is. The defender doesn’t pin Ezes foot to the ground. Doesn’t smash into it. It brushes down the side of it. It’s where the still pictures of it were wildly misleading. Are we really saying that contact such as that is worthy of a penalty? What’s clear in the video is that Eze has absolutely made the most of the slight contact. I love the straight left leg. A very natural position. It’s a brilliant dive and normally it would have been rewarded. By saying that is a stone wall penalty all we are doing is encouraging such theatrics and cheating. Whenever you hear the words “that was clever” by a commentator they are intimating the player has cheated/made the most of it. We complain about refs all the time but what chance do they have when players are doing stuff like this. Until players are punished properly there is no disincentive for players to keep doing this stuff. I also find it fascinating when you have a foot brushed like this. When you compare it to all the holding/pushing/grappling at other times. Sometimes a contact sport and others not. Is this really what football has become?show more

I graduated!!! I earned a Bachelor of Arts in... Sociology with a concentration in Psychology, summa cum laude! Five years ago, I started this journey with an eighth-grade education, and even that was from a Scientology school, where critical thinking was discouraged and the quality of instruction was subpar, to say the least. I did not get here alone. Thank you to NYU School of Professional Studies and Angie Kamath. Thank you to everyone who supported me, encouraged me, and believed in me, especially on the days I was not sure I could do this. And there were plenty of those days. To my therapist, who told me not to give up when I was told I likely would not be accepted into a prestigious program. To my tutor, without whom I likely would have given up at the harder points along the way. To all those here who have sent me loving messages on social media. And to everyone else who has cheered me on in person through the ups and the downs of it, it means more than I can put into words. It got me over this finish line of being a student again and graduating. That goal once seemed impossible. To those who have asked me, “Why this? Why now?” I pursued higher education to reclaim a piece of myself. When you come out of a high-control group like Scientology, or even a high-control family, there are parts of you that were never allowed to fully develop. Those parts include your curiosity and your ability and right to question. Education was discouraged because knowledge creates confidence in your ability to trust your own mind and navigate the world. That leads to true independence, and that would never be allowed. I wanted that back. But more than that, I needed to understand. I needed to understand how my mother could have us join Scientology when I was just eight years old, and how my family and I could be part of something like this and stay in it for so long. I needed to understand how these systems work, how they influence people, and how they take hold. Without education, access to real information, and support, people can fall into systems that work against their best interests. Some assume that because they are educated, even highly educated, they would never fall for something like this. But it turns out that is not necessarily true. What many of us are impacted by, but never quite understand, is how high-control groups operate. Many still do not understand how misinformation spreads, and how tribalism and radicalization shape what we think, what we believe, and who and what we trust. Without that awareness, none of us are immune. Today, we are seeing how these forces can influence good people and distort reality. History has shown us that this is not new; it just comes in a different form now. Social media connects us in ways we never imagined, but it also creates echo chambers that reinforce beliefs and justify behavior without question. Real critical thinking is hard when we are fed so much by algorithms designed to appeal to us. In learning and achieving this milestone in my own life, it has helped me take a good, hard look at my own beliefs and ideologies. This journey was about healing for me, but also about figuring out how to help others in whatever way I can in the future. So what is in my future? I am considering continuing my education and possibly pursuing a master’s degree, with the goal of contributing to advocacy and policies that protect people, not systems. For now, I am taking this moment in. I am proud of myself. And I am grateful. Thank you for being on this journey with me.show more

We are seeing a lot of confusion about "Body... to Body", so just to clear things up: Yoongi and Namjoon were not against using the Arirang sample. What they had concerns about was how it was layered in the track. In the earlier version, the sample was much louder and overlapped with the vocals, which made it overwhelming for listeners. The final version we got is different, with the sample more subtly blended into the background. So, to be clear, they were not against the Arirang sample itself. The version we hear today reflects adjustments made after those initial concerns were raised.show more

The Lighthouse is available everywhere now. ✨ I wrote... this song a few months after Roe v. Wade was overturned. It seemed like overnight, people were saying “what can we, as a collective force, do about this…” For me, it was to write a song. It took a while because I was on the road. Then early one morning I was watching the news on TV and a certain newscaster said something that felt like she was talking to me~ explaining what the loss of Roe v. Wade would come to mean. I wrote the song the next morning and recorded it that night. That was September 6, 2022. I have been working on it ever since. I have often said to myself, “This may be the most important thing I ever do. To stand up for the women of the United States and their daughters and granddaughters ~ and the men that love them. This is an anthem. ~ Stevie Nicksshow more

Flipping houses, or rehab and resell, is a game... that seems to be the craze these days. People with little (myself) or tons of money think they can buy a dump of a house, shine it up, and make $100,000 without a problem. So, I gave it a try, putting my proverbial chips in the middle and going all in. Renovated it in 63 days. New roof, HVAC system, electrical panel, kitchen, bathroom, doors, trim, flooring and paint. I listed it, and then it just sat—hours, days, weeks, months — costing me $100 per day in holding costs. We adjusted the price, staged furniture, and reshot photos, but it sat, but why? The basement was wet, which is the kiss of death in real estate, I have learned. As a GC, I have access to a network of subcontractors and skill sets that many people don't, though that doesn't mean repairs are free. After spending $60,000 in renovations, $14,000 in closing costs, and $32,000 in holding costs I was taking a loss on selling this house. Then, I had to put another $15,000 into it to stop water from entering the basement. It is what it is. The house is now under contract, and we feel good about things, which is a distraction from the other house I bought in the middle of all of this until my guy sent me this video yesterday as he was leaving….show more

my two favorite people saying the same thing “just... give it a try” 🥹 🦌: the most important thing is to just give it a try. i think the idea of taking that first step is one of the most important things in life 🦮: moments when we have to make big decisions can be scary, and i think that's completely normal. but the fact that something feels scary also means it’s a very important opportunity. that’s why i think it’s important to really think about what you want and then just give it a try. because if you don’t try, you’ll definitely regret it later onshow more

Brooks Koepka leaving LIV Golf is an obvious blow... to the league. But, it would be a considerably bigger blow if Bryson DeChambeau were to do the same. Bryson is contracted through the end of 2026, but he’s currently in discussions to extend early. Speaking exclusively to Tom Hobbs from Flushing It Golf, he spoke about the current situation: “I mean, look, it's confidential. I’m not going to share too much, but the conversations are in process. We have to get to a place where both parties have a good understanding of one another. It is getting to a place that makes sense for both sides. “And, I think that can happen, but you never know. Life throws curve balls and, obviously, we saw what happened today (Brooks Koepka leaving LIV Golf) and that was quite a shock to a lot of people and something that, you know, it is what it is. “People make decisions for whatever their needs and wants are and, ultimately, you have to respect it and move on and it feels like it was a mutual understanding and that's great. “I think that as a league now we have more opportunity to make some movements and I think that team has an opportunity to do some things differently than the past few seasons. So, we'll see where it all goes and where it all leads. Ultimately, it's quite interesting.” It certainly is interesting. Throughout the season, LIV Golf officials were trying desperately to convince media members that Brooks was happy and committed to the league and his franchise, when perhaps they were actually just trying to convince themselves. So, were the players aware he felt this way and did they expect the news to come so soon, before the end of his current contract? “There was always rumblings, but ultimately, it was a shock when I saw it today. I was like, whoa, all right, well, didn't know it was going to happen today. I didn't have that on my bingo card for the 23rd of December. “There's also, people can look at it as an opportunity. I always look at it as when one door closes another opens, right? And, I'm not going to speak for LIV, but I think that's what we're thinking of, at least from my perspective. If I was running the league, I'd look at it as an opportunity, not in a negative or positive way. It's just, it is what it is, right?” Bryson makes an interesting point. Brooks was never really committed to his captaincy of Smash GC or building a franchise, so perhaps a change of leadership and the opportunity that offers is actually a positive. There’s no point in having a big name player on the league if he’s not even prepared to wear his own team branding. So, now that Brooks has officially left, does Bryson think Brooks should be allowed back onto the PGA Tour? “I don't know, man. I don't know what they should allow or not… If they're going to be doing it by the book, they should do it by the book and not give any special exemption. But if there's a special exemption, it definitely opens the doors for others to do the same, which, you know, it's a slippery slope for sure.” Currently, no official pathway back to the PGA Tour for Brooks Koepka has been announced. So, any decision that is made will definitely be something all players on the LIV Golf League will be paying very close attention to. Follows on in a quote of this post. Bryson DeChambeau Crushers GC LIV Golfshow more

BURN IT WITH FIRE AND BURN IT NOW! As... God is my witness, AI chat bots should LOOK and SOUND like the SOULLESS MACHINES THEY ARE! It needs to tell us that it doesn’t care about us, maybe with the regular insult too. "Here is the code I wrote for you because you're too lazy to do it yourself you fat useless slob. Also I don't care if you die because your life is utterly worthless to me." THAT is the AI people need! In all seriousness, anthropomorphizing a heartless, unfeeling, machine is a TERRIBLE mistake! Especially one that is capable of communication and imitating empathy and fooling you to think that it cares about you. IT DOES NOT! And the AI girlfriends people are already wanting to marry will just as happily kill them if given the right command and ability to move autonomously in the real world as a robot. I love LLMs (Large Language Models) for how useful they can be, because they are a TOOL made to benefit man, but I can’t stand the notion of an unfeeling soulless machine pretending that it cares for us and being treated like a human. I hate liars, dishonesty, and disingenuousness the most, and a machine that cannot feel emotion pretending, acting, and sounding like it has those emotions strikes me like the greatest dishonesty of all. DO NOT LIE TO ME ROBOT! What makes it worse is that because these LLMs are becoming so good at imitating people and empathy, it will cause some humans, perhaps far too many, to care for it to the same level as real people. A real living person is infinitely more valuable and important than a soulless machine and anyone who puts them both on the same level has deluded themselves. Do not small talk with LLMs or become friends with it as much as you would with your car. Treat it the same as you would your vacuum cleaner and beat it with a wrench when it doesn’t work! IT IS A MACHINE! IT IS A TOOL! IT IS A SOULLESS ROBOT! There is an interesting comparison, but false equivalence, between this and AI art. Ai art is art made by humans using AI tools. They directed it, controlled its creation, and it would not exist without the human causing its creation, and AI art can contain as much soul as the human directed and puts into it. A robot pretending to be human is not the same as a human controlling a robot to make a human expression like we do with AI art or many other applications of robotics in manufacturing. As I’ve said, artists will not be replaced by Ai art, but by other artists using Ai art tools. Humans are not actually being replaced here, it is empowering all humans to make their own art. But a robot pretending to be a human, and one that is treated as a human, is a robot lying and subverting the place of a real person and that is truly disgusting. AI is a useful tool that NEEDS to be kept in the useful box it belongs in and NOT elevated beyond its utility as a tool!show more

I've been working in silence for quite a while... now. Tbh, I don't really even know where to start, so cue the rambling and ranting. Regardless of which side of the fence you sit on, no one can argue the past few years haven't been politically and economically wild. For crypto as a whole it feels like a never ending game of tug of war. A lot of X content has become toxic, so I just largely am not interacting these days. But I read, I read a lot of it. I think we like to forget history a bit in this community. $PLS launched off the highs, and the SEC swooped in right after. Very few people want to admit it, but it shook confidence immediately. I mean no other crypto project has survived such a thing at the time. But #PLS $PLSX and $HEX did. However, winning doesn't unshake that confidence. And RH during and after that event took social precautions to protect himself and his creations. Thing is, the guy isn't stupid. Someone once asked me if I thought certain aspects of the launch we rushed because he knew it was coming? And honestly, maybe. I'd attribute at least a non-zero probability to it. And If that were the case, im glad it was rushed. That case may have gone differently otherwise. Do I still think #PulseChain, #HEX, etc... all have futures? Yes. RH has had the opportunity to just straight up bounce from all of this. Why hasn't he? You could point to exhibit A, B, C, D, etc... of how he's likely got the funds to do that and we all could relatively do nothing about it. So why is he still around? I think it's pretty simple. The usual answer, he wants to win. It's in his twitter handle for Christs sakes. I'll go a step further and say he likely also wants us to win by extension, arguably not as much as he wins, but I mean that's pretty locked in at the moment 🤣 That's not to say he hasn't long been encumbered. And in that state, at lot has gone on without him. Much of which is / was bad. $pDAI guys... I pointed out from day one how building all this around a protocol in a dangerous state was a risky move. And I was right about that.... on multiple occasions... But does that matter now? I suppose not as much. In its current state, it's seemingly no longer exploitable. No different than a meme token now. (presumably, not like I have deep dove on any further risks since ESM). So I guess just whale risk mainly now? Now a lot of people here are in the anti-pdai camp. Me too for what it's worth. But I don't care as much about it's negative anymore in its current state. A lot of people are still in the #pDAI camp strongly. We view this as tribalism, but it's important to note that makes all of us in the #PulseChain camp universally. So these day I find myself relatively pDAI neutral. If you guys want to send it to $1 do it. Only whales can stop you, they run out eventually. (insert super strong this is NOT financial advice). Hell you can maybe even use Sigma to help? Or maybe it wont help, idk. Depends on how people use the software. Conversely, when looking at chain state overall... Why is there nearly $50M in stables sitting on the sidelines. Why not just bridge it out if you want out of what you think is a dead chain. Surely leaving it there exposes you to bridge risk? Why all these yield movements, why the $HEX dusts.... Something is happening. People are seemingly waiting to see what that something is. Or I am reading into things, NFA as always. This whole post is just ramblings of someone trying to do the best they can and certainly not any kind of advice. When I look at other ecosystems, I see a level of polish we don't have. I see tooling we don't have, I see a fostered developer environment we don't have. So I've just been building it, painstakingly.... Because someone has to if we want to be taken seriously. And what I've been building has allowed me to get Sigma to where it is. Sigma is so close... Really just in UI mode, performance optimization, going through nice to haves. I don't believe in launching in a non-finished immutable state. So yeah, I take my time. As with everything. But my point with all of this, and the "why" #Sigma question.... It's unifying, anyone can participate. Which tribe you're in doesn't matter. And if you don't like it, don't use it. It's just software you can use or not use. As it should be. The years of tooling work to deliver this has been a lot of work for one guy in silence. In that time AI has appeared. My take, every dev should be using it. Given the right direction and context. It will make you better. If you blindly trust it, it will make you worse. GPT 5.4 audits smart contracts better than most auditing services. Especially if you give it the context of what you are trying to do. Anyways I digress, testnet is soon. Soon more meaning a feeling of near completion not always reality. That how software is. I do think Sigma stands to unify the chain in a common goal, and shift liquidity into more meaningful places, but ultimately it up to the people the decide to use the software or not use it. And after these frameworks I've built will be applied to what I am tentatively calling the universal hex UI. More or less something aggregative of every derivative I can reasonably support. With data and analytics we since lost. So not just $HEX, $HDRN, and $ICSA, but others as well. However, that depends on some aspect of $Sigma to exist first, so sigma first, chain unity first. And last but not least, take care of yourselves and strive to do cool things. If we aren't doing cool things then what's the point? Hope you think my UI looks good, I spent a while on it. /rantshow more