FermiEstimate

See also Brigador: apart from the various lasers, exotic ballistics, and nightmarish chemical weapons it includes, there's also the prosaic "Mãe Dois." The tech entry leaves no doubt about what it is:

My understanding is that this weapon not only predates the colonies, but space travel entirely. If that is the case then it's a truly venerable design, and one I'm told will continue to serve for the foreseeable future.

I love the idea of an art gallery management game, but the devs' description of how they use AI is sending me:

The artists in our game who sell you their artwork are themselves a form of artificial intelligence. To stay true to these artists, the artwork they offer to sell you was generated using our novel artwork combined with ethically sourced generative AI.

They follow that up by disclosing they used AI to create Steam marketing materials. I wonder if they also consider those a form of artificial intelligence?

Good catch! Thanks, I didn't even see that.

This sounds really good. I've never seen Sichuan peppercorn bitters, but that sounds really interesting. Do you have a recipe?

No, there's an actual paper where that term originated that goes into great deal explaining what it means and what it applies to. It answers those questions and addresses potential objections people might respond with.

There's no need for--and, frankly, nothing interesting about--"but, what is truth, really?" vibes-based takes on the term.

He's decided you're not on his level, but he thinks you're cool all the same.

Of course, in this case, the older folks are talking with AI characters who are not real.

Pitching talking to nonexistent people as a fix for dementia, as opposed to the problem you're trying to solve, is, uh, innovative. Among other things.

As a complimentary service, it is accessible to anyone with a landline or mobile phone and bridges the technological divide by not requiring an internet connection or even a computer. Critically, this promotes equitable access to cutting-edge technology that can benefit older Americans.

Kind of seems like actually providing the things people can't readily access would be more valuable than lotus-eating-as-a-service, but I guess that's why I'm not pulling down big VC bucks.

For concerned family members and friends, the service can call individuals on certain days and times to check in on them and provide telephone-based companionship.

"concerned"

The company has 60 people.

Who could actually talk to the older Americans in question, but are instead tasked with simulating conversations for them instead.

Look, I'm not going to pretend I call my relatives as often as I ought to. But I truly cannot imagine being one of those 60 people. I can't put myself in the mindset of someone who would want this job, who would want this effort to have been a part of their life and career.

I laughed at first, but then I realized I'd have found Starfield vastly more interesting if weird stuff like this happened all the time on purpose and they leaned into it with small quests. This one bug delighted me more than any of the actual quests I can remember at this point.

It almost feels like Starfield was ambitious in the wrong ways. Bethesda trying to aim for Disco Elysium-ish oddness might not have turned out great, but I think it would have made more of a lasting impression.

Biblically-accurate Ace Combat aircraft.

A turret toss does seem like it would be effective as reactive armor. Is this how tanks evolve to survive drone predation? Main turret autotomy to give the smaller turret buds a chance to flee?

Some ships do have emergency antimatter generators per the TNG Technical Manual, but they're hideously energy-intensive to run--something like a 10:1 ratio of deuterium used for each unit of antimatter. They only make sense to run in the rare situation you absolutely need to warp to safety when you somehow have deuterium and a warp core but no antimatter.

But holodecks apparently have their own infinite power supply incompatible with any other Starfleet technology, so perhaps Voyager used the holodeck replicators to generate deuterium to run their antimatter generator whenever the Doctor isn't practicing his sermons.

Efficiency would be abysmal even by the normal standards of this process, but it beats walking back to the Alpha Quadrant.

The microwave thing? I couldn't even guess, though I personally wouldn't want to stand next to it even if it works. A big microwave emitter on the battlefield is just asking to catch a HARM.

It really doesn't seem like anyone knows for sure what to do about drones right now.