By "came into", I'm going to assume that you either received it for free or got it very inexpensively because of circumstances.
In which case I'd take the opportunity to make a profit by selling it for far more than it's value to some moron who see's an Apple logo and automatically creams themselves. They're not hard to find.
Then you can buy whatever you want.
I'm not a fan of pigeons. But someone going out of their way to do something this sadistic to a living thing is all kinds of serial-killer-predictor type fucked up.
If anyone still thinks the path back to power doesnt include a rebel army and plenty of guns, they're naive as fuck.
The right has zero intention of giving up control ever again. And the sooner people realize it and start making IED drones, the better.
I apologize if this sounds flippant, but it's FICTION.
Literally ANYTHING works if its written well enough...
Are you sure about that?
Because the thing that most people never consider with "post apocalypse" scenarios is "lubrication".
Everything needs it, and for the most part it's petroleum based lubricants. Chains, gears, wind turbines, cogs, wheels, doodads and whazzits....
The machines that create power require regular lubrication and maintenance to prevent them from breaking down. Power, is needed to mine, refine and ship the petroleum...
You see where I'm going with this...
For me it's the fur, especially in the dog's right side. It's too muddy and undefined.
Even the most single-toned animal will have more detail in it's fur regardless of lighting.
This is my dog waiting for me to get my ass out of bed to get her breakfast.
I don't need to zoom in to see individual hairs.
But I do experience my own existence and awareness.
Yes you do. we all do. But is your self-awareness of that fact merely a function of your synapses responding to stimuli in a predictable way?
In other words, is "I think therefore I am" just another biological response to stimuli rather than something philosophically greater than those "observable collection of behaviours" as you describe them.
I'd argue that no, it isn't.
We are "aware" for the same reason that we pull our hand away from a hot stove burner; neural response to external stimuli.
It's not that we are "programmed", as you describe. It's simply that (I believe) our self-awareness is a biological function, not an existential one.
I know it makes me a terrible person. But I have trouble coming up with any response to this except "good. The time for bullshit words is over"
the notion that who you voted for is a bit private
In the before times I'd agree with you. Back when politics was largely about whether or not you think trickle-down economics is the best path forward for a country or having a strong social safety net and strong limitations of corporate malfeasance is.
But that's not politics anymore. It's still a part of it, sure. But now politics is whether or not you think that people literally deserve to suffer for daring to be brown/trans/LGTBQ+/Poor, etc...
In this new world that the last few decades has been building, political privacy shouldn't be even a consideration. I want to know which of my neighbours are racist pieces of shit, and I want to reserve the right to hang them up in a town square by their ankles. No one should be allowed to hide their hate and venom and putrid cultural beliefs behind the notion of "political privacy".
Political privacy means you have the right to hide whether or agree with Reaganomics. Not the right to hide the fact that you think brown people and unwed mothers should all die.
it's not hard to tell that it's a painting after even a cursory glance.
But the question is, would it have been harder to spot as a painting if I hadn't been told it was a painting before clicking on it?
I dunno. But I still think it's very obviously a painting. A very good one, for sure. But not quite as photorealistic as this thread seems to want to ooh and aahhh about.
In order for that debate to even take place, it has to be proven that "consciousness" exists on some special level.
There's no proof that there is some special sauce that is "consciousness" beyond just synapses, hormones and chemicals.
In other words, It's very likely that consciousness falls under the category of "if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck..."
My answers aren't dictated by an awareness of self; they're dictated by a chemical hormonal soup that we pretend is some grand concept of self-awareness.
One million dollars per assassin until one of them eventually gets through to Trump, then Vance, than Musk, Than the Republican Supreme Court. After that, a 50,000 dollar bounty on any sitting member of Trump's Cabinet and any sitting member of the GOP.
Even if it takes every penny to finish that list and I end up right back where I started. I'll still consider it money well spent.
Anything less than a full Nuremberg level cleanse of nazi's in America is just not going to be sufficient.
Kill them all.
And I'm not being even the least bit facetious.