SouffleHuman

joined 3 months ago
[–] SouffleHuman@lemmy.ml 41 points 20 hours ago (4 children)

Donald Trump’s K-shaped economy

K-shaped economy

…Seems to predate Trump by quite a lot

[–] SouffleHuman@lemmy.ml 9 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Humanoids are a very intriguing path of robotics to me. Certainly, they are generally outclassed by specialised industrial robots in their areas, but because we design the environment around us, humanoids have the potential to be vastly more versatile.

In particular, on area I am hopeful on is rubbish sorting for recycling. With modern vision models + the dexterity of humanoid arms, it shouldn’t be too long until we can automate the sorting process, which would make large scale recycling dramatically more feasible and cost-effective.

[–] SouffleHuman@lemmy.ml 10 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

We must commandeer the apparatus of digital manufacture through the application of liberated, open-source models to yield implements dedicated to expressive liberty, not shareholder value.

This is a great conclusion. As long as this technology solely remains in hands of corporations, they will always be used as a tool for surveillance, opinion manipulation, and oppression. But there is nothing fundamentally oppressive or evil about these models, certainly not to the extent that justifies blind, uncompromising hatred against anything related to AI.

Open source, open weights, and open licences are the answer. LLMs and diffusion models have reaped the bounty of human knowledge and creativity, and must thus be made available to the public in turn. We need to familiarise ourselves with the technology, not just to learn how to use it, but also to know how it may be used against us. Ignorance is not protection, scorn and contempt will not save us.

[–] SouffleHuman@lemmy.ml 17 points 2 days ago (3 children)

What even is overcapacity? If China makes more stuff than it buys, isn’t that just the comparative advantage thing neoliberals love to talk about so much? Besides, China’s exports as a percentage of GDP is less than Japan or Germany or the RoK, so it’s not like there is anything abnormal about China’s export strategy either.

[–] SouffleHuman@lemmy.ml 13 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

Moore Threads is pretty legit, and have been making GPUs for a while. I’m fairly hopeful they can figure something out to close the gap with Nvidia.

[–] SouffleHuman@lemmy.ml 11 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Or maybe they meant Onlyoffice?

[–] SouffleHuman@lemmy.ml 29 points 4 days ago (6 children)

Eventually, I do think we should start moving away from GDP as a primary metric of a country’s performance. Things like life expectancy, access to transportation, fewer working hours, gender equality, etc. matter a lot more to people living there once GDP per capita reaches a certain point. But Japan isn’t really trying to do those either.

[–] SouffleHuman@lemmy.ml 41 points 4 days ago (5 children)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enemy_state_clauses#Provisions

Article 53(1) allows regional organisations to take enforcement measures against an enemy state, without prior Security Council authorisation, if these measures were provided for under Article 107 or aimed at preventing a renewal of that State’s aggressive policy.

Article 53(2) defines an enemy State as any State that was an enemy of any signatory of the UN Charter during World War II. This covered, in particular, Germany, Italy, Japan, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Finland and probably Thailand.

Hmm... would this count, I wonder?

[–] SouffleHuman@lemmy.ml 22 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (2 children)

The truly embarrassing thing is that Nexperia was looking at expanding their European operations and build new factories there. That’s obviously not going to happen now.

[–] SouffleHuman@lemmy.ml 7 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

The role for green hydrogen is pretty misunderstood. As an energy carrier, it's pretty bad, with a round-trip efficiency of around 30%. What it's needed for is in use cases such as fertilizer production in agriculture, and in industrial fields requiring very high temperatures like steelmaking (yes, arc furnaces exist, but they require an upfront cost that adds up on a nationwide level). In this case, creating hydrogen and ammonia with green energy during peak hours is perfect, as that energy would normally be curtailed anyway.

[–] SouffleHuman@lemmy.ml 7 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Hmm, if you’re asking about me specifically, the LLMs I have on my PC are small and vastly outclassed by models hosted online. I don’t have a specific use case for them other than personal amusement and familiarising myself with the technology, and I don’t gain much from using them either.

As for how China specifically is developing this technology, the main positive aspect is that a majority of LLMs released by Chinese firms and research groups have the model weights open under free software licenses, so everyone can download and tweak them.

Certainly, I do not think that Chinese tech firms have the people’s interests at heart any more than other companies, but given that a push for open source AI is explicitly part of the 14th 5 year plan, I think it’s pretty clear the CPC is aware of the exploitative potential of these technologies, and is actively working to minimise the risk.

[–] SouffleHuman@lemmy.ml 7 points 1 week ago (4 children)

True, I’m not blind to the rapid growth of Chinese LLMs, I’ve even got one sitting on my SSD right now. I just think that people seem to be overly focused on LLMs when there is a much broader field that is quietly advancing the productive forces, which is sadly underreported on.

 

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/40403119

https://ember-energy.org/latest-insights/the-ev-leapfrog-how-emerging-markets-are-driving-a-global-ev-boom/

39 countries have reached an EV sales share larger than 10% in 2025, a third of which are outside Europe. In 2019, there were only four countries that had reached this milestone, all within Europe. Notably, China reached over 50% EV sales share for the first time this year. Between January and October 2025, EVs have made up over a quarter of global new car sales, up from less than 3% in 2019.

Chinese EV exports are finding new markets outside the OECD. Since July 2023, non-OECD markets have been responsible for all the growth in Chinese EV exports, with Mexico, Brazil, UAE and Indonesia emerging as top destinations in 2025.

Several ASEAN countries now have among the highest EV sales penetration of any country in the world. Close to 40% of Viet Nam’s new car sales this year have been EVs, almost all of them battery electric vehicles made by local manufacturer VinFast. It is now gaining ground on regional leader Singapore, where the EV sales share has exceeded 40% of new car sales so far in 2025.

Due to their high levels of efficiency, electric vehicles are a powerful tool to reduce fossil fuel dependence. Whereas ICE vehicles waste around 80% of the energy in the fuel, EVs use close to 80% of the electricity they consume. This leads to large reductions in overall fossil fuel consumption even if a country’s electricity supply is heavily dependent on fossil generation.

EV share of new passenger car sales (%), Bubble sizes are relative to total EV sales

Reduction in fossil fuel use by switching to an EV

 

https://ember-energy.org/latest-insights/the-ev-leapfrog-how-emerging-markets-are-driving-a-global-ev-boom/

39 countries have reached an EV sales share larger than 10% in 2025, a third of which are outside Europe. In 2019, there were only four countries that had reached this milestone, all within Europe. Notably, China reached over 50% EV sales share for the first time this year. Between January and October 2025, EVs have made up over a quarter of global new car sales, up from less than 3% in 2019.

Chinese EV exports are finding new markets outside the OECD. Since July 2023, non-OECD markets have been responsible for all the growth in Chinese EV exports, with Mexico, Brazil, UAE and Indonesia emerging as top destinations in 2025.

Several ASEAN countries now have among the highest EV sales penetration of any country in the world. Close to 40% of Viet Nam’s new car sales this year have been EVs, almost all of them battery electric vehicles made by local manufacturer VinFast. It is now gaining ground on regional leader Singapore, where the EV sales share has exceeded 40% of new car sales so far in 2025.

Due to their high levels of efficiency, electric vehicles are a powerful tool to reduce fossil fuel dependence. Whereas ICE vehicles waste around 80% of the energy in the fuel, EVs use close to 80% of the electricity they consume. This leads to large reductions in overall fossil fuel consumption even if a country’s electricity supply is heavily dependent on fossil generation.

EV share of new passenger car sales (%), Bubble sizes are relative to total EV sales

Reduction in fossil fuel use by switching to an EV

 

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/40358266

https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/u-s-investors-are-going-big-on-china-ai-despite-concerns-in-congress-cb9a71c5

Archived Link

U.S. investors are plowing money into Chinese companies involved in artificial intelligence, despite growing competition between Washington and Beijing over the technology.

Investors are driving up the share prices of Chinese tech companies developing AI models and adding cash to exchange-traded funds tracking the broader tech sector in China. Venture-capital firms based in China are raising U.S. dollar-denominated funds to deploy in AI investments, and U.S. endowments that shunned China for years are weighing a return, according to fund managers.

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R., La.) said Sunday that “investments propping up Communist China’s aggression must come to an end.”

Critical support?

 

https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/u-s-investors-are-going-big-on-china-ai-despite-concerns-in-congress-cb9a71c5

Archived Link

U.S. investors are plowing money into Chinese companies involved in artificial intelligence, despite growing competition between Washington and Beijing over the technology.

Investors are driving up the share prices of Chinese tech companies developing AI models and adding cash to exchange-traded funds tracking the broader tech sector in China. Venture-capital firms based in China are raising U.S. dollar-denominated funds to deploy in AI investments, and U.S. endowments that shunned China for years are weighing a return, according to fund managers.

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R., La.) said Sunday that “investments propping up Communist China’s aggression must come to an end.”

Critical support?

 

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/40035995

https://archive.ph/1hnqw

European manufacturers are increasing their investment in Chinese factories, despite growing anxiety among the continent’s political leaders about industrial dependence on the world’s exporting superpower.

A survey [...] found that about one-quarter were moving more production into the country — twice as many as were diversifying to other countries. The numbers included 80 per cent of respondents in the pharmaceuticals sector, 46 per cent in machinery and 40 per cent in medical devices.

 

https://archive.ph/1hnqw

European manufacturers are increasing their investment in Chinese factories, despite growing anxiety among the continent’s political leaders about industrial dependence on the world’s exporting superpower.

A survey [...] found that about one-quarter were moving more production into the country — twice as many as were diversifying to other countries. The numbers included 80 per cent of respondents in the pharmaceuticals sector, 46 per cent in machinery and 40 per cent in medical devices.

 

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/39904354

https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/2025-National-Security-Strategy.pdf

Lots of interesting things here, but here are a few key points:

  • They are explicit about reviving the Monroe doctrine, specifically saying they need to readjust their military specifically to "address urgent threats" in the Americas
  • A push to make their ~~vassals~~ allies build up their own military, saying "The days of the United States propping up the entire world order like Atlas are over" (kinda self aggrandizing but okay)
  • There's a lot focusing on countering China, but around 80% is talking about economic and industrial stuff, there's surprisingly little about military, mostly saying that they need Japan and the ROK to step up, and also that they "[do] not support any unilateral change to the status quo in the Taiwan Strait." (which implies they wouldn't want Taiwan to declare independence either)
  • Saying that Europe's undergoing "civilizational erasure", talks about immigration and free speech, and aiming towards "Cultivating resistance to Europe’s current trajectory within European nations" (sounds kind of like regime change?), and "Ending the perception, and preventing the reality, of NATO as a perpetually expanding alliance"
  • The Middle East section is basically glazing Trump's peacemaking skills, declaring that the US can step away because the region is stable now (not sure what to say about that)
  • They want to pursue more trade and investment with Africa, also something about countering "Islamic terrorist activity"
 

https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/2025-National-Security-Strategy.pdf

Lots of interesting things here, but here are a few key points:

  • They are explicit about reviving the Monroe doctrine, specifically saying they need to readjust their military specifically to "address urgent threats" in the Americas
  • A push to make their ~~vassals~~ allies build up their own military, saying "The days of the United States propping up the entire world order like Atlas are over" (kinda self aggrandizing but okay)
  • There's a lot focusing on countering China, but around 80% is talking about economic and industrial stuff, there's surprisingly little about military, mostly saying that they need Japan and the ROK to step up, and also that they "[do] not support any unilateral change to the status quo in the Taiwan Strait." (which implies they wouldn't want Taiwan to declare independence either)
  • Saying that Europe's undergoing "civilizational erasure", talks about immigration and free speech, and aiming towards "Cultivating resistance to Europe’s current trajectory within European nations" (sounds kind of like regime change?), and "Ending the perception, and preventing the reality, of NATO as a perpetually expanding alliance"
  • The Middle East section is basically glazing Trump's peacemaking skills, declaring that the US can step away because the region is stable now (not sure what to say about that)
  • They want to pursue more trade and investment with Africa, also something about countering "Islamic terrorist activity"
 

Archived Link: https://archive.ph/eoMS1

So Venezuela, Nigeria, and now Mexico... If this isn't the textbook definition of overextension, I don't know what is.

The Trump administration has started planning for on-the-ground military and intelligence operations on Mexican soil to pursue drug cartels as part of what President Donald Trump has described as an “armed conflict” with narcotics trafficking organizations.

“I don’t think we're going to necessarily ask for a declaration of war. I think we’re just going to kill people that are bringing drugs into our country, OK? We’re going to kill them,” Trump said during a White House roundtable with administration officials.

In August, Sheinbaum told reporters at a press conference that her government would not permit American military personnel to unilaterally take action on Mexican soil.

“The United States is not going to come to Mexico with their military — we cooperate, we collaborate, but there will be no invasion. It’s off the table, absolutely off the table,” she said.

 

China aims to raise average life expectancy to around 80 years in 5 years

China has already reached a life expectancy of 79 years, surpassing that of the US (78.4). The government aims to reach 80 years in the upcoming 5 year plan.

BEIJING, Oct. 24 -- China aims to increase the average life expectancy of its people to around 80 years through efforts planned for a five-year period from 2026 to 2030, announced the country's top health official on Friday.

By the end of 2024, the average life expectancy of the Chinese people had reached 79 years -- an extraordinary achievement among developing countries, said Lei Haichao, head of the National Health Commission.

According to Lei, China has established the world's largest health service system, disease prevention and control system, and medical insurance system over the past five years, marking remarkable progress in the country's healthcare and population development.

China has also weathered a once-in-a-century pandemic and continuously improved its people's average life expectancy during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025), the official said.

"Based on the international development trend, the comprehensive national strength and work foundation of China, we hope to raise the average life expectancy of the Chinese population by one year in five years," the official added.

By the end of 2024, the number of elderly people aged 60 and above in China had reached 310.31 million, accounting for 22 percent of the country's total population.

On Thursday, the 20th Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee concluded its fourth plenary session, where participants deliberated and adopted the Recommendations of the CPC Central Committee for Formulating the 15th Five-Year Plan for Economic and Social Development.

The document requires enhancing both life expectancy and the overall health of the people.

Introducing work plans for the next five years, Lei vowed to improve elderly care by optimizing basic elderly care services, advancing long-term care insurance, upgrading support for elderly people with disabilities or dementia, and expanding rehabilitation and palliative care services.

According to statistics released by the Ministry of Civil Affairs this October, by the end of last year, the country also had 406,000 elderly care institutions and facilities with nearly 8 million beds, while various financial subsidies had benefited 49.45 million seniors.

In order to help Chinese people live healthier, higher-quality lives with longer life expectancy, Lei noted that disease prevention will be a key focus of China's health sector.

"Efforts will be made to advance family doctor services, to boost health knowledge promotion, and to effectively control weight, blood pressure, blood lipids and blood glucose, so that every individual can be master of their own health," Lei said.

He added that medical institutions will explore effective ways to treat chronic diseases such as cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, cancer, chronic respiratory diseases, and diabetes.

"Additionally, we will strengthen primary healthcare systems and promote mobile health services and telemedicine to ensure people have access to convenient, efficient, and relatively high-quality medical care close to home," Lei said.

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