Oh, look. Polk County being themselves out-loud again.

For anyone else wondering what the Open Arm maze was: https://maze.conductscience.com/elevated-plus-maze-basics/

It's how they hook into the matrix.

Most major audio companies like JBL, Bose, etc, are putting out linkable speakers. I've got a Bose sound bar which integrates pretty flawlessly with the Google speakers I haven't brought myself to get rid of yet. I've found that, if the logic exists to sync it with other speakers in its ecosystem and an integration for HA exists, you can probably add it to a whole-house setup via music assistant. And you can probably use multiple ecosystems, too (though I'm not certain you can adjust delays across ecosystems... I've never tried that myself, and it's going to be the most vital part of your whole-house setup. My living room, dining room, and kitchen all have to have their delay adjusted by several milliseconds so it doesn't sound like auditory torture when you turn on multiple speakers in the same area. My bedroom doesn't have to be synced, though, since it's far enough away from the other speakers that you don't hear both at the same time.

...okay, yes, just checked and it is, indeed, quite challenging to sync delays across different ecosystems. I'd recommend keeping all your speakers in a single area (e.g. kitchen, dining, and living rooms) all in the same ecosystem and you can change manufacturers as you change rooms. https://music-assistant.io/faq/tech-info/ )

I think you'd be well-positioned to buy a few speakers according to your budget, and add more over time of any manufacturer you like (as long as it integrates with HA/MA) if you so choose. Any of the well-known brands are generally good. I personally prefer systems that don't require an external amp, but that's personal preference. I've been very happy with my Bose stuff, but lots of people love JBL, Genelec, and even our pals at Sonos re: audio quality. I think the world kind of is your oyster here, friend. Do what your heart (and ear) leads you to.

I've been actively trying to extricate myself from their ecosystem. I hate how incredibly challenging it is.

Agreed. I think we're in the, "fuck around and find out," era of tech company unionization, and I'm fortunate enough to work for a company whose legal team is smart enough to know that a reasonably happy, fulfilled, and compensated workforce is significantly less likely to even start discussing unionization, and so I don't think that my company will see it anytime soon, if ever (which I also think is fine, for the record). But to your point, with the way that the vast majority of the video game industry treats their employees, I hope that every single one of those large game companies ends up joining a union, because the employees deserve better.

Seeing the rebirth of unions in tech companies might be one of my favorite things about this timeline.

Yep! For all the psych nerds, it's pretty much a direct lift of the Milgram Shock Experiment

That and, their action for low-risk is all wrong. The stakes are too high to not give someone help, regardless of the risk level.

Yep. The ones who manage to slip notes to their veterinarian to help them get away are the exception.

That is absolutely fascinating, kinda disappointing, and a really good find.

Could a human have judged it better? Maybe not. I think a better question to ask is, "Should anyone be sent back into a violent domestic situation with no additional protection, no matter the calculated risk?" And as someone who has been on the receiving end of that conversation and later narrowly escaped a total-family-annihilation situation, I would say no...no one should be told that, even though they were in a terrifying, life-threatening situation, they will not be provided protection, and no further steps will be taken to keep them from being injured again, or from being killed next time. But even without algorithms, that happens constantly...the only thing the algorithm accomplishes is that the investigator / social worker / etc doesn't have to have any kind of personal connection with the victim, so they don't have to feel some kind of way for giving an innocent person a death sentence because they were just doing what the computer told them to.

Final thought: When you pair this practice with the ongoing conversation around the legality of women seeking divorce without their husband's consent, you have a terrifying and consistently deadly situation.