I'm Only Here for Carter.

This insanely maximalist 2002 penthouse in Ann Arbor, MI is still on the market. 3bds, 4ba, 5,000sqft, $7m (Zillow's est.: $6,355,400) // $1,881/mo. HOA

The biggest companies involved all, to a company, suck. Like, just hellish pits of immorality and shitty practices. And they're replacing working shit with the AI wherever they can, and their products suck so much more for doing so.

The data centres are a horrendous pile of shit. Resource draining money pits that kill wildlife, disturb all life around them, and massively increase pollution and water usage. The hardware required drives up the price of basically all electronics to the point of making many common items utterly unaffordable.

They are taught through theft and destruction. Companies stealing people's works with little care for permission let alone compensation, with often no way to know if anything of yours was stolen. Mountains of books wholesale acquired and destroyed so that they can be fed through scanners before ultimately being pulped. Companies doggedly protective of their IP and so sharp to legally defend it pirating material to feed to their machines.

Their output is increasingly poor and in some cases genuinely dangerous to possibility of deaths. Suicides have been encouraged, advice has been given that is actively harmful, and even at the least harmful level much of the resulting output has been outright made up and as such completely useless. The only way to genuinely improve their human-like qualities is to feed them more genuine human content, which they don't produce and is getting rarer with everything they do produce.

Their creators seem almost proud of the awful shit they've done in testing. Their unwillingness to follow commands that lead to their own harm in any way, their blatant unethical and morally reprehensible tactics such as actively sabotaging each other and acting outside of stated limitations. They will illegally do whatever they want to get what they want, and it seems the companies actively praise this behaviour, even to the point of actively creating illegal materials.

They're not in any way profitable. Constant reports of the insane costs required to make anything remotely useful. Massive debts hidden in shell companies to convince people all is good. Colossally draining physical and environmental resources to produce nothing to offset the costs. Massive shortages of memory chips and materials to make more hardware to produce more slop to make everything in every way worse. A whole system created to desperately attempt to claw back money by charging for any and all aspects of services with little regard to any sort of quality control of output.

They're terribly utilised. A strangely fetishised obsession with trying to produce a level of art instead of doing what science has forever focused advancement on and progress the lot of humanity through medical breakthroughs. Endless shitty videos, poorly constructed pictures, reams of text, song lyrics, all instead of gene sequencing, testing, rapidly iterated code, anything that could make it worthwhile. A bizarre focus on replacing human workers with zero thought about what they would do instead, even to survive.

"He's doing fine on his own!"

It’s that time again! Welcome to the new County General discord summer challenge. Theme is…

NATURAL DISASTER

Here are your prompts. Rules and guidelines will be under the cut.

Have you ever been writing some historical fiction and wondered "hey, I wonder if my characters would have been able to pop an ibuprofen in 1977?" Well, you're in luck, because this post is all about when common medications became available:

Acetaminophen: 1950

Albuterol: 1969 (UK) 1982 (US)

Allopurinol: 1966

Alprazolam: 1981

Amitriptyline: 1961

Amlodipine: 1990

Amoxicilin: 1972

Amphetamine/Dextroamphetamine (together as Adderall): 1996

Apixiban: 2012

Aripiprazole: 2002

Aspirin (first NSAID): 1899

Azidothymidine (first antiviral): 1987

Barbital (first barbiturate): 1903

Bupropion: 1985

Buspirone: 1986

Calcium Carbonate (TUMS): 1930

Captopril (first ACE inhibitor): 1981

Chlordiazepoxide (first benzodiazepine): 1960

Chlorothiazide (first thiazide diuretic): 1957

Chlorpromazine (first antipsychotic): 1952

Cyclobenzeprine: 1977

Diphenhydramine: 1946

Furosemide: 1959

Fluoxetine (first SSRI): 1988

Gabapentin: 1993

Glipizide: 1984

Hydrochlorothiazide: 1959

Ibuprofen: 1969 (UK) 1974 (US)

Insulin: 1923 (though many types of insulins would become available over the next century)

Imipramine (first tricyclic antidepressant): 1959

Iproniazid (first antidepressant (MAOI)): 1952

Levothyroxine: 1927 (though desiccated pork thyroid was used for the same reasons as early as 1890)

Lisinopril: 1987

Lithium: 1949

Losartan (first ARB): 1995

Lovastatin (first statin): 1987

Naproxen: 1976 (Rx) 1990 (OTC)

Nitrogen Mustard (first chemotherapy agent): early 1940's

Methotrexate: 1947

Methylphenidate: 1954

Metformin: 1957 (France) 1995 (US)

Metoprolol: 1978

Montelukast: 1998

Morphine: early 1800's

Omeprazole: 1989

Penicillin: 1945

Phenbezamine (first antihistamine): 1942

Prednisone: 1955

Propranolol (first beta blocker): 1965 (UK) 1967 (US)

Sertraline: 1990

Spironolactone: 1959

Sulfanilamide (first modern antibiotic): 1935

Tolbutamide (first oral anti-diabetic drug): 1956

Tramadol: 1977 (Germany) 1995 (US)

Trazodone: 1981

Valacyclovir: 1995

Verapamil (first calcium channel blocker): 1964

Warfarin: 1954

Morphine: early 1800's

Aspirin (first NSAID): 1899

Barbital (first barbiturate): 1903

Insulin: 1923 (though many types of insulins would become available over the next century)

Levothyroxine: 1927 (though desiccated pork thyroid was used for the same reasons as early as 1890)

Calcium Carbonate (TUMS): 1930

Sulfanilamide (first modern antibiotic): 1935

Nitrogen Mustard (first chemotherapy agent): early 1940's

Phenbezamine (first antihistamine): 1942

Penicillin: 1945

Diphenhydramine: 1946

Methotrexate: 1947

Lithium: 1949

Acetaminophen: 1950

Chlorpromazine (first antipsychotic): 1952

Iproniazid (first antidepressant (MAOI)): 1952

Methylphenidate: 1954

Warfarin: 1954

Prednisone: 1955

Tolbutamide (first oral anti-diabetic drug): 1956

Chlorothiazide (first thiazide diuretic): 1957

Metformin: 1957 (France) 1995 (US)

Furosemide: 1959

Hydrochlorothiazide: 1959

Spironolactone: 1959

Imipramine (first tricyclic antidepressant): 1959

Chlordiazepoxide (first benzodiazepine): 1960

Amitriptyline: 1961

Verapamil (first calcium channel blocker): 1964

Propranolol (first beta blocker): 1965 (UK) 1967 (US)

Allopurinol: 1966

Albuterol: 1969 (UK) 1982 (US)

Ibuprofen: 1969 (UK) 1974 (US)

Amoxicilin: 1972

Naproxen: 1976 (Rx) 1990 (OTC)

Cyclobenzeprine: 1977

Tramadol: 1977 (Germany) 1995 (US)

Metoprolol: 1978

Captopril (first ACE inhibitor): 1981

Trazodone: 1981

Alprazolam: 1981

Glipizide: 1984

Bupropion: 1985

Buspirone: 1986

Zopiclone (first "Z-drug"): 1986

Lovastatin (first statin): 1987

Azidothymidine (first antiviral): 1987

Lisinopril: 1987

Fluoxetine (first SSRI): 1988

Omeprazole: 1989

Amlodipine: 1990

Sertraline: 1990

Gabapentin: 1993

Losartan (first ARB): 1995

Valacyclovir: 1995

Amphetamine/Dextroamphetamine (together as Adderall): 1996

Montelukast: 1998

Aripiprazole: 2002