M Ely

Sorry to be the downer because this is an impressive story in some senses. But it is ~trivially easy to make a single mRNA vaccine. It's not hard. I cure mice of various cancers with various therapeutics all the time. I've made mice lose more weight in a month than tirzepatide does in a year. What is hard and expensive is proving its BOTH safe AND effective **in a randomized and controlled study in humans** while ALSO manufacturing it at clinical scale and grade. I am happy for this man and his dog. It is impressive. But y'all are overhyping it.

At some level society at large should make sure that all it's children grow up properly. The only problem with age verification on the web frankly is the fact that it's not really designed with privacy in mind(and it absoluteky can be) Age verificiation in OSes is pointless. But the web is distinctly "other people's computers" Frankly the biggest issue right now is that laws like this are being passed with almost no research behind them on how to do this right. The california law for example is frankly distincly designed for iphones but applies on all operating systems. Boomer parliaments around the world don't even take a moment to think about secure and private solutions. This is the one part where the EU is at least right because with ZKPs proving your age is private.

App stores should be held to the same standards as their brick-and-mortar counterparts. Age verification measures for app purchases are common sense solutions to give parents oversight of their kids' online experience. The App Store Accountability Act does just that, helping put parents in charge and protecting kids' privacy online.

AOC: We don’t have to talk about this as if it’s a hypothetical issue. Just a couple of months ago, Discord tried to roll out “age verification.” They contracted with a third party to conduct facial scanning — not just of kids, but also of adults. They decided to launch a teen default setting where they would lock users into a teen-appropriate experience. Which, mind you, if you are an adult who does not opt in, you then get cordoned off into the teen experience. Explain to me how that has anything to do with children’s safety. The only way to get out of that censored version is by scanning your face. What’s more shocking is that Discord made the decision to move forward with this after they had been hacked and 70,000 users had their data stolen.