IMO they already won. The amount of stupid things you see people do here while driving is astonishing, so many people are not paying attention and looking at their phones.

I used an Uber on the way here and the car was dirtier while the service was identical (silent ride, got me where I needed to go.)

I’ve also been stuck in a Waymo that couldn’t figure out its way around parked buses, so they have edge cases to improve. But man does it feel like I’m living in the future…

To be fair, the fact that Waymos are fancy clean Jaguars is kind of ancillary to the main technology. The tech is currently expensive, so they are targeting the luxury market, which you can also get on Uber if you select a black car or whatever. The people willing to pay for that are less likely to make messes, and the drivers put more effort into frequent cleanings.

Once the tech becomes cheap, expect the car quality and cleanliness to go down. Robocars do have some intrinsic advantages in that it's easier to set up a standard daily cleaning process, but they will still accumulate more garbage and stains when they are used by a broader cross section of the population and only cleaned during charging to reduce costs. (Of course, cheaper and more widely accessible tech is good for everyone; if you want a immaculate leather seats cleaned three times a day, you'll generally be able to pay for it.)

Cleanliness doesn't seem that related to how expensive the tech is either - if anything it would only go down if it ceased to affect willingness to pay. As it stands, clean cars are important to their customers. If usage increases, cleaning can ostensibly increase too, no?

If a service is necessarily expensive, it will more by wealthy people, who have a higher willingness to pay for cleanliness.

> As it stands, clean cars are important to their customers.

This varies depending on the customer.

> If usage increases, cleaning can ostensibly increase too, no?

Greater usage can lead to economies of scale that push down the cost of cleaning, but I think we're already at the scale (hundreds of cars) where most of the economies of scale have been reached. I expect it's close to linear from now on.

Regular taxis around here are also liveried fleet vehicles. Especially the very large providers: if I summon a taxi cab, I know for sure its make and model, and its paint job will clearly indicate it's on-duty as a taxi cab. You don't understand how incredibly important this is sometimes.

For the simple yet panic-inducing task of strapping on my seat belt: I can do it in seconds with a liveried vehicle, because I know exactly what to expect. In a rideshare like an Uber, every time a car arrives, it is a new make, new model (I swear to god what the fuck is a "Polestar"???) and the owner might have wrapped on some crazy aftermarket seat covers, and finding the seat belt and its mating latch is a huge drama. I've taken to leaving the passenger seat open, until I can get the belt safely latched, because otherwise the driver will promptly take off, and panic will increase 3x as the vehicle is moving and I can't find the seat belt.

Other than that, the liveried vehicles are easier to maintain; they're easier to keep clean; they're much better for brand recognition. Hallelujah for Waymo!

If any of this is (arguably) normal we should tear down the systems that support these norms. They are bad norms. The solution is never, “Welp, people are corrupt, what can you do?” You start making changes in the legal system. Because if you don’t you’re giving the country away as though there were no other course of action.

So, from the employer's perspective, it feels like fraud. But they've effectively been defrauding you for the past 100 years, by making you work salary when your job isn't a salary job. So, it's even. Well... not really. Still absurdly skewed in the employer's favor of course, but a little more even.

They aren't stopping, or even trying to stop, Anduril from using it, though.

If you operated a forum, is there no company on earth, such that you wouldn't want them advertising on your forum?

> The moderation team brought this thread to our attention as the latest example in an ongoing controversy in the community and they escalated the decision to us so that we can provide them clearer guidance for how to proceed going forward. Our moderation team has done an admirable job, but this controversy has escalated beyond the point where moderation actions alone can resolve this.

> To that end, the Steering Committee is banning Anduril from recruiting on Discourse.

Isn't this saying that the ban is because Anduril's job posts causes the community to respond in inappropriate or off-topic ways - an exemplified by the linked thread's comments on Greenland - and that the forum moderators can't clean it all up?

Do they spread hate? Have they cast harm on members of the forum? Otherwise, I don't see the issue. Unless this is a blanket ban on defend contractors.

If it isn't, I simply see it as hypocritical. Especially since all the big FAANGs also all operate with the military in some capacity.

this is morally very shortsighted and selective and is in opposition to most people's value systems.

I don’t know if it’s exactly Occam’s Razor that “hacks” would originate from within the institutions compromised, but in crypto world the incentives are nuts and the ability to obfuscate bad behavior is extreme.

If you can’t understand that difference, you’re missing something very critical.

One is serious because a foreign adversary is compromising us; the other is serious because we are apparently designing the compromise ourselves via the whims of a demagogue.

The issue of having four players is that it makes the coordination problem of colluding relatively easier, but they are price fixing via giant data warehouse which is algorithmically suggesting how to price.

It’s like Real Pages for potatoes, or at least this is what the article claims and what is interesting.

In an era where you can have a computer churn through a trillion datapoints to arrive at an optimal price, is it even possible to have competitive pricing as was once conceived of? The elements of uncertainty and risk have been so thoroughly eliminated that inflation seems almost unstoppable as you have such a strong signal for what the market will bear.

It’s an interesting question for the nature of free markets but few seem to have caught on to this dynamic…

Strawmanning like this may make you think you’re clever but it signals to the “average person” that your mind is made up.

I don’t read articles here because my mind is made up but because I like considering different points of view and data. Maybe start with that spirit next time?

People inherently need meaning to function and if a postmodern society insists that there is none, life is a tabula rasa, and religion is basically the projection of the mind, then people will begin building new religions and even “a-religious” religions to substitute for this lack.

Personally, I disagree with the overall tack that leftism is always and inherently religious but the elements which are come from exactly the void you’ve described, just blown up to the level of society.

Business leaders would be wise to set a vision for their companies that creates meaning and even, yes, acknowledges the transcendent in how they do that. People seem wired to want this and pretending we are all too reasonable to need meaning isn’t getting us anywhere.

An H1B program that addresses these power dynamics and stops undermining the rights of worker will reach equilibrium and show what American workers can do and what should be hired for externally.

This issue is about capital vs labor, don’t miss the forest for the trees.

But what I fear is the belief that it is better to have a poorly educated populace plus imported talent than it is to have a well educated populace. That seems to be the real policy issue here and it’s kind of terrifying.

I’m not anti H1B at all, I more think it’s a shame how limited they are to just tech. Please oh please bring us more doctors. Our stupid arbitrary caps on annual doctors produced is part of the healthcare cost problem. Even if we dropped that, we’ve already brainwashed ourselves to believe med school is a 6+ figure expense

Control. They are easier to control and bully than people working remotely.

It’s cheaper to transport Indian services than transport Indian goods.

If you want the best and brightest, it shouldn’t be a problem to pay for the damages towards citizens.

It’s the same reason the government never really cracks down on illegal immigration. Illegal immigration could be cut by an order of magnitude by strictly enforcing the laws against employing them. This is never done, or even proposed. Why? Because large business interests benefit from the way things are. The purpose of the system isn’t to prevent illegal immigration, it’s to provide a underclass of cheap, powerless labor.

Until this government capture is reversed, we’ll never have rules that are beneficial for the average American or the average immigrant, except possibly by accident.

In a free market, businesses are supposed to use regulations to their advantage. If the regulations don't achieve their goals, legislators are supposed to change them. The latter part often doesn't happen in the US. Not because the Congress is captured by business interests, but because it's dysfunctional.

And the society as a whole is somehow unwilling to admit that the US needs large-scale immigration to function. Just like almost every other developed country. At the high end, every developed country is a net importer of talent in industries where it's above the average (relative to the size of its economy). And at the low end, there are essential jobs that are inherently too bad for most citizens and too demanding for most of those who can't find better jobs.

The best practice these days is making temporary work permits industry-specific. If there is labor shortage in an industry, just let in anyone with the skills and no obvious red flags. And if there is labor surplus, only let actual talent in. If an immigrant loses their job, they can try to find another in the same industry without excess bureaucracy. And then give a straightforward path to permanent residency for those who have been in the country for N years without causing too much trouble.

Illegal immigrants largely work in fields such as agriculture, construction, and maintenance. The pay is inherently low, because the fields are labor-intensive the outputs are expected to be affordable to most citizens. Many jobs are seasonal, and many require you to live near the worksite (instead of with your family). Most are physically demanding and require a good work ethic. Once a country gets rich enough, it usually discovers that citizens who can't find better jobs often don't have what it takes to do these jobs.

On the other hand the 1965 Hart-Celler Act started the importation of asians under the guise of abolishing "racist" policies that restricted immigration and mostly let in people from the west. Frankly it should have never been passed and the country and labor market would be MUCH better off.

Bush Sr sealed the deal by bringing in the H1B. Between the Bushes, Clintons and Obamas we've been systematically screwed over and debased.

In retrospect, Pat Buchanan and Ross Perot were spot-on correct about practically everything.

- make it mandatory for H1-B visa holders who came to the US directly (i.e., didn't go to college here) to leave the US within 5 years.

- enforce equal pay: "if you hire an H1-B, you should pay them the same amount as you would a domestic worker."

- allow H1-B visa holders to move between jobs; don't tie it to one company.

- Obviously, put a cap on #H1-B approvals per year and make sure this number doesn't exceed the number who are leaving (see #1).

This kinda already exists. H1-B is is 3 years and can be extended to 6, but after that you can only get an extension for specific reasons (such as pending naturalization actions like a green card.)

> enforce equal pay: "if you hire an H1-B, you should pay them the same amount as you would a domestic worker."

That's how it's 'supposed' to work, that said I think that's part of why we see 'junior' software engineering roles wanting a decade of experience (since the H1-B will take the lower title/pay.)

> allow H1-B visa holders to move between jobs; don't tie it to one company.

IMO this is a big one and contributes a lot to H1-Bs getting abused by employers.

I'm not super familiar with the rules, but there is a way to transfer to a new company, and IIUC, that's not part of the cap, and I think you're allowed to start at the new company while the application is pending rather than needing to wait for it to be processed.

I don't know if this is current, but I had heard that pending permanent residency applications would reset if you switched companies. That's a huge deal if your birth country has a long backlog on greencards because of the per country limit.

The issue is about how a nation serves its people, and whether it protects American people and their culture.

America is not an economic zone but a nation with a responsibility to its citizens not random foreigners handed visas.

"Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,

With conquering limbs astride from land to land;

Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand

A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame

Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name

Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand

Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command

The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she

With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

The United States was built on welcoming immigrants and achieved its greatness in no small part on the efforts of immigrants.

Woefully out of date. We don't even politically understand the concept of freedom anymore. Hell, just look at how much of our jurisprudence is pinned on the "Interstate Commerce" clause, which somehow applies to purely Intrastate commerce.

Furthermore, the vaunted "freedom" provided nowadays is the freedom to die for refusal to accept the current yoke of the "captains of industry" who ran off with the reins of our legislative, executive, and judicial branches.

The United States is post any ideal expressed on that plaque, and too afraid of the people already here to even live up to it's founding ideals as written. The only way anyone wants to get anything done is to ship in people who ultimately won't suffer the consequences of the work they're doing, then weaponizing the output of that work against the group of people here who refused to enable them in the first place.

The poem was written one year after the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882. In the Immigration Act of 1917, the US excluded people from British India.

Hardly an example of "welcoming [all] immigrants."

Everyone understood the necessity to properly assimilate foreigners, and therefore there were periods of moratoriums to preserve American culture.