Wait. So you are telling me my pterodactyl collection is now irrelevant? After all these years? All the scrimping and saving, and breaking into museums for elusive pterodactyl-related items? I've been collecting the wrong items ENTIRELY?! I need to rethink my life...

Bite Them! You need no reason. Just Bite TEHM!

I am quite sorry that you ordered a soul-fullfilling vast amount of tasty tacos, which you now must challenge yourself to consume in a decadent crazed state, possibly over a period of several self-indulgent days. Best of luck!

The good news: approaches have already been developed to mostly allow this. The bad news: incompetent or lazy or corrupt people try to NOT implement these, and doomers always show up to loudly say that everything sucks and we should all just live in despair.

Nothing is perfect, but implementing the stuff mentioned below would be a big improvement to balancing privacy and security compared to virtually all previous human history. It involves the government implementing a few things and citizens having new ID-type-things that are not like photo IDs.

If these systems are set up correctly, a person can digitally prove that they are 18 years or older, but without providing ANY other information. Not there name or photo or anything other than 'yup. I'm 18+. Let me do my thing.'

Here are three critical tools to leverage, and do a bit of research on:

Verifiable Credential (VC)

• What it is: A digitally signed attestation about you, issued by a trusted entity (e.g. a country government).
  Example: a university issues you a credential saying “PositiveNoise earned a Master’s degree in 2008.”

• Structure: Typically uses the W3C Verifiable Credentials standard — it’s a JSON document signed cryptographically by the issuer.

• Key idea: You hold it (not them). You can present it later to anyone (“verifier”) to prove something about yourself, and the verifier can confirm the signature without calling the issuer.

Analogy: A digital version of a stamped diploma or driver’s license, but one that lives in your own encrypted wallet rather than a government database.

Zero-Knowledge Proof (ZKP)

• What it is: A cryptographic technique that lets you prove a statement is true without revealing the underlying data.
  Example: Prove “I am over 18” without showing your exact birthdate.

• In relation to VCs: VCs can include data that can be selectively revealed or proven via ZKPs, so you never have to expose full documents.

Analogy: Showing only the needed part of your ID through a frosted window, but mathematically guaranteed.

Digital ID Wallet

• What it is: The software or hardware container where you store and manage your Verifiable Credentials.
  Think of it like a crypto wallet, but instead of coins, it holds identity proofs (e.g., driver’s license, student ID, health certificate).

• In relation to the others:

  • It stores your VCs (the signed attestations).

  • It lets you create ZK proofs on demand when sharing data.

  • It maintains control and consent: you decide when and what to share.

Analogy: A private digital passport holder that can generate “proof slips” without handing over the whole passport.

Yesterday I was on my morning walk through a lovely meadow on a cement walking/bike path. I noticed that a somewhat large old dead tree had fallen down, a few hours earlier probably, and it was blocking the path. A moment later two guys on bikes rode up and were blocked. The three of us managed to move the tree out of the path and picked up the bigger branches that were lying on the trail. We congratulated each other and continued on our separate ways, full of 'did our good deed for the day' vibes. It was quick and awesome. Go Team Civics!

I watched the video, and it's pretty impressive so far, though for specific use cases i.e. not in all rivers at all spots, AT ALL. But for Fast moving spots in rivers that have the required depth (which is not a ton of depth), These seem to have a lot of potential for very low impact power harvesting with few drawbacks. They slow down the flow of water a bit but for areas that are somewhat steep that is probably more of a benefit than a drawback. They are clearly way way less impactful than for example building a dam. And so far they seem to be fairly thoughtfully designed to avoid contaminating the area or harming the existing fish and so forth.

I think that if people get to have Universal Basic Income, and society can be arranged to provide it without causing big problems to society, then it doesn't need to be tied to Automation in any way, and instead can simply be viewed as a core benefit of being a member of society. That seems like a more elegant approach.

People would not want to be told 'oh, it seems like we are going to scale back automation some, so everyone is going to only get 50% of the UBI they have been receiving previously'.

Florals, indeed! The shirts I always wear when I'm ready to attract some bees.

Sure, but practice makes perfect. It's probably best to run thru this maybe 10-20 times for best results.

Yes, but the best example is currently being implemented. The EU has already decided to implement this stuff, essentially. It should be working around 2027 or so. The good potential of this is that since the EU is a gigantic example, if it works well in the EU, it could cause a tipping point for much of the world to follow. I don't have an exhaustive list of places implementing parts of this, but looking at what Scandinavian countries and Estonia have done is a great place to research. Estonia kind of 'solved' digital governance THIRTY years ago, in particular, but is such a tiny country that no one cares, and most people consider talking about Estonia the same as talking about Narnia. The EU doing good privacy stuff can not be ignored, though. If these things help out there, it's a very big deal.

That expression: "YES! This is IT! I've achieved it!" good kitty

You are going to accidentally burn your place down, aren't you?

rule 1 of bathroom club : do NOT talk about Final Step

Vote! Then find something else to think about, since apart from voting for sane politicians, there is not much directly you can do to prevent nuclear war.

Yeah. Lovecraft was one of the popular authors the creators of D&D had read. Sci-fi, fantasy, horror etc genres did not have tons of superstars in the 70s, so a lot of people were reading the same books/authors. It's similar to how everyone had seen movies like Jason and the Argonauts.

Lovecraft was writing back in the 30's, the same era of early Conan etc, but had become much more popular by the 70s.

Damn it, Susan! Can't you just be satisfied by hunting mice, like normal people?

Jesus Christ Superstar

You can tell by the way the photo looks that The Doggie ran up and shoved half a hot dog into Innocent Nice Kitty 's mouth.

mmm..unconscious nonsense...that hits the spot. Its like coffee for the soul!

I have the same hopes. There is no good reason to have to upload IDs for this sort of stuff. It's a matter of getting the regulators to craft good laws that implement these new approaches (easier said than done, often).