SparroHawc

An "instance" is a server that talks to all the other Lemmy servers, where your account info and login are stored. There's a lot of benefits to decentralization - even if one instance goes down, like lemm.ee, it doesn't really impact the whole of Lemmy too severely. The cost of running an instance isn't super high, which means that if an instance is being annoying about advertising or something, you can ditch it with little cost to yourself and even run your own instance if you want. A single cabal of admins can't ruin it like Reddit (cough cough Spez) and it can be easier to curate your own experience by choosing what instances you want to ignore completely.

Any given instance is not necessarily a safe harbor, but as long as Lemmy is around, there will probably be multiple instances to choose from. The only thing you really lose is your post history - and you can link to your old account info in your new account for continuity's sake.

Tylenol is interesting - it's a psychoactive drug. It reduces your brain's ability to experience pain, or even understand the possibility of pain, rather than reducing the amount of pain you're feeling. That means different people's brain chemistry will result in very different results with Tylenol.

Studies were done that show people are slightly more likely to take risks when they're on Tylenol. Wild stuff.

Rationalists are (supposedly) smart enough to figure out that Roko's Basilisk wouldn't waste cycles torturing someone in effigy if they decided they're going to ignore the threat of Roko's Basilisk. It's the opposite of a catch-22.

Oh, I'm sure there are bots on Lemmy too. The general userbase, however - of people who are sick of Reddit's BS - are also going to have very little tolerance for bot BS, so the instances are incentivized to try to keep bot activity down lest they be de-federated.

Ostensibly it's to protect things like credit card information. In reality it's to make sure Microsoft has more control over your computer than you do.

and don't sweat.

I'm staying, not because I want to - but because I have a lot of friends and family who can't afford to, and if push comes to shove, my savings are going towards helping them get out too.

except that the government run land registry can deal with disputes in a flexible and fair manner. A blockchain with smart contracts cannot.

at the same rate of time change

Not true! The faster you're moving through space, the slower you're moving through time.

it’s the parties with the majority of the “proof of XYZ” creation hardware. Which are not normal people.

Originally the idea was that it WOULD be normal people using their own CPU cycle time to secure the chain and mint new blocks. Even then, as long as no one party holds the majority of hash power, the incentive is to support the security of the coin rather than subvert it. The moment that changes is the moment that Bitcoin dies, because no one will be able to trust it any more - which also means there is an incentive to make sure there are enough competing BTC farms.

there’s the possibility of developers of a blockchain choosing to rewrite the ledger, causing splits.

The blockchain is upheld by the combination of the developers and the miners. If the developers aren't acting in good faith and the miners don't like it, they don't move to the new chain. Sure, you get a split, but odds are one of them is going to die.

This is why I use Open-Shell. Ever since MS decided that the entire program list should be in a tiny little scroll window I've been giving it the middle finger.

The main difference is that it requires TPM 2.0, which allows applications to run in a fully encrypted mode and prevent user tampering.