@bryce@mastodon.brycedixon.dev

Bryce Dixon @bryce@mastodon.brycedixon.dev · 6d ago

Replying to @mnl@hachyderm.io

@mnl@hachyderm.io @zzt@mas.to @bms@mastodon.bsd.cafe What are your opinions on the ethical concerns around generative AI use? I feel like any conversation around what they can or cannot do ignores the base question of "should we use them at all in the first place?" If there was a hypothetical machine that made the most delicious food in the world at the cost of sacrificing a human child, I feel like any chef saying "but it's so capable and makes us so much more efficient!" is blatantly missing the point of concern.

13

0

4

0

Bryce Dixon @bryce@mastodon.brycedixon.dev · 6d ago

Replying to @bryce@mastodon.brycedixon.dev

@zzt@mas.to @davidgerard@circumstances.run Not once have I *ever* talked to someone who likes gen AI to have them open with "it's interesting you have a different opinion than me, let's talk about it and maybe we'll both walk away with something new." It's *always* "haven't you read our pamphlet of 16 reasons why AI is amazing, yet?!" and they're *always* the same claims which were easily refuted like 4 years ago. I'm legit so tired of arguing against the same "AI learns like people" points from 2021...

44

2

13

0

Bryce Dixon @bryce@mastodon.brycedixon.dev · 6d ago

Replying to @zzt@mas.to

@zzt@mas.to @davidgerard@circumstances.run Honestly one of the biggest annoyances to me with AI people and also one of the huge "you're in a religious cult" red flags is that literally *every* time it becomes relevant that I don't like generative AI the conversation *immediately* turns to "oh, you poor, unenlightened soul, let me show you the light and convert you!"

43

3

8

0

Bryce Dixon @bryce@mastodon.brycedixon.dev · Jul 30, 2026

Replying to @bryce@mastodon.brycedixon.dev

@lianna@micro.webgarden.click I think @acegikmo@mastodon.social said it best in a comparison between technologies like writing, radio, and television vs genAI: the fundamental difference is that these other tools are about helping humans communicate while genAI is about trying to deceive people.

0

Bryce Dixon @bryce@mastodon.brycedixon.dev · Jul 30, 2026

Replying to @lianna@micro.webgarden.click

@lianna@micro.webgarden.click I've started looking at @Codeberg@social.anoxinon.de specifically for software instead of GitHub or even general internet searches because they've shown with their recent banning of vibe code that they're *the* trustworthy platform. I don't think it's contradictory to say "the underlying math and tech is cool, but there are no good current implementations of it." Neural networks are cool, but no one invested in genAI cares about anything other than scamming people.

0

1

0

Bryce Dixon @bryce@mastodon.brycedixon.dev · Jul 28, 2026

Replying to @jocelyn_etienne@scicomm.xyz

@jocelyn_etienne@scicomm.xyz @hywan@floss.social I forget where I heard it first, but:

Code does not itself provide value. Instead, we must see code as a liability and the functionality it produces as having value.

Through this lens, we should be trying to minimize code production, not maximize it.

0

Bryce Dixon @bryce@mastodon.brycedixon.dev · Jul 13, 2026

Replying to @mttaggart@infosec.exchange

@mttaggart@infosec.exchange it's incredibly disappointing for the field of tech entirely revolving around "build your knowledge and understanding of everything as much as possible" pivot so hard to the point that "CTFs should allow LLMs and agents" is seemingly a given. The whole appeal of CTFs was that they were tests of your skill and knowledge. How does running a generic program and waiting for *it* to figure things out do anything for you?

4

0

Bryce Dixon @bryce@mastodon.brycedixon.dev · Jul 05, 2026

https://n0thanky0u.neocities.org/Anubis_is_malware/

> Anubis is malware. I asked the server to serve me a webpage and instead it ran code on my machine without my permission. That is malware. It uses the exact same method as a crypto miner, that being running a javascript "proof-of-work" solver in your browser.

n0thanky0u.neocities.org

n0thanky0u

0

Bryce Dixon @bryce@mastodon.brycedixon.dev · Jun 10, 2026

Replying to @mttaggart@infosec.exchange

@mttaggart@infosec.exchange It seriously reads like:

Programming was only fun because I could exert my superiority over other people, so now that it's been infected by the traits of capitalism I don't like that other people can use their financial advantage to exert superiority over me instead. The problem is clearly not the capitalism part or that my motivation has always been tainted.

0

Bryce Dixon @bryce@mastodon.brycedixon.dev · Jun 10, 2026

Replying to @mttaggart@infosec.exchange

@mttaggart@infosec.exchange Just saw this today.

1

2

0

Bryce Dixon @bryce@mastodon.brycedixon.dev · May 12, 2026

Replying to @bryce@mastodon.brycedixon.dev

@teodorsandu@mastodon.online "No code" is funny to me because it's just flat out impossible 😅 "No you don't understand you can encode behavior by just picking options from drop downs!" You're doing what with behavior? 😀

0

Bryce Dixon @bryce@mastodon.brycedixon.dev · May 12, 2026

Replying to @teodorsandu@mastodon.online

@teodorsandu@mastodon.online It's crazy because visual programming still has a place - shaders use it all the time and so do behavior trees. At the end of the day, though, that's possible because visual programming is just another way to specify predictable behavior and algorithms. Vibe coding is the opposite of predictable lol

0

1

0

Bryce Dixon @bryce@mastodon.brycedixon.dev · May 11, 2026

Replying to @yurisizov@mastodon.gamedev.place

@yurisizov@mastodon.gamedev.place @memoriesin8bit@mastodon.gamedev.place @tracefree@mastodon.gamedev.place Excellent insights! I'll have to spend some time digesting this so I can properly use and relay that information in the future 😀

1

0

Bryce Dixon @bryce@mastodon.brycedixon.dev · May 11, 2026

Replying to @yurisizov@mastodon.gamedev.place

@yurisizov@mastodon.gamedev.place @memoriesin8bit@mastodon.gamedev.place @tracefree@mastodon.gamedev.place Really? I'm pretty sure I've seen this exact thing done by the G.U.I.D.E. plugin for their button prompts, but I may be mistaken

0

1

0

Bryce Dixon @bryce@mastodon.brycedixon.dev · May 11, 2026

Replying to @memoriesin8bit@mastodon.gamedev.place

@memoriesin8bit@mastodon.gamedev.place @tracefree@mastodon.gamedev.place You'd have to externally render the images, though honestly that's not that hard to do in engine: create a SubViewport that contains a Panel for your StyleBox and Label for the contained text, then grab it's texture and use get_image() to store a PNG.

0

12

0

Bryce Dixon @bryce@mastodon.brycedixon.dev · May 09, 2026

Replying to @bryce@mastodon.brycedixon.dev

I realized I was being kinda silly and there's a very simple way to simplify the dynamically generated scripts: inheritance 😅

If I move all the shared behavior into a base class, it makes everything simpler, gives me syntax highlighting and auto complete, and lets me use the base class as a static type in any code referencing it. Lots of gains for a very simple change :)

I also changed it to extends RefCounted because I was memory leaking (oops)

0

Bryce Dixon @bryce@mastodon.brycedixon.dev · May 06, 2026

Replying to @syntaxseed@phpc.social

@syntaxseed@phpc.social I feel so bad for people (kids especially) thinking it's unacceptable to not look like you're good at things. And that really is the issue: AI doesn't make you good at things, it just might make you *look* like you are - it's a lying tool that encourages dependence.

2

0

Bryce Dixon @bryce@mastodon.brycedixon.dev · May 06, 2026

Replying to @syntaxseed@phpc.social

@syntaxseed@phpc.social that's actually disgusting and any teacher telling children their work isn't good enough next to AI should feel eternally ashamed.

5

2

1

0

Bryce Dixon @bryce@mastodon.brycedixon.dev · May 06, 2026

Replying to @syntaxseed@phpc.social

@syntaxseed@phpc.social This is the number 1 issue I have with schools adopting AI so quickly. Imagine if in 2009 schools were like "we think social media is going to be very important in the future so we are mandating all classes use Facebook" and how we are still only *now* learning just how negatively social media affects people (and children in particular).

4

0

1

0

Bryce Dixon @bryce@mastodon.brycedixon.dev · May 05, 2026

Replying to @VileLasagna@mastodon.gamedev.place

@VileLasagna@mastodon.gamedev.place Seriously. There are basic limits that can be put in place at least near launch (eg: link your Steam account, it must have at least 10 non-free games, you can only buy 1) it would help a lot, but what would be better is people not feeding the system at all!

1

0

Bryce Dixon @bryce@mastodon.brycedixon.dev · May 05, 2026

Timeline:

2 AM: Steam Controller goes sales open. Komodo (distributor for Asia) website crashes.
2:30 AM: Komodo makes a statement that "we are sorry for the inconvenience that was caused" in the past tense as though the inconvenience is over.
5 AM: website still down. No news. I give up and go to sleep.
12 PM: I wake up. Komodo reports the Steam Controller is sold out. Scalpers are already listing on reselling sites for a markup.

How does this *still* consistently happen?

1

2

0

Bryce Dixon @bryce@mastodon.brycedixon.dev · May 04, 2026

Replying to @bryce@mastodon.brycedixon.dev

Main trick that I'm using to speed up integration of a story (which I plan on making pretty complex) is embedding #GDScript function bodies into my Resources and then generating new script types from them at runtime. This greatly reduces boilerplate of copy-pasted script files which are 99% identical, though I do need to make a cleaner method of building the larger script source that goes *around* that body. #godot #godotengine #godot4 #programming #gamedev

1

0

Bryce Dixon @bryce@mastodon.brycedixon.dev · May 04, 2026

Replying to @bryce@mastodon.brycedixon.dev

Here's a video of my #soundnovel/#visualnovel framework made in #godotengine so far. I'm pretty happy with the progress for only 2 days, though there are a few major things still missing. #godot #gamedev #godot4 #programming

1

2

0

Bryce Dixon @bryce@mastodon.brycedixon.dev · May 04, 2026

Started working on a framework for making a very specific kind of interactive fiction in #Godot called a "sound novel" (compared to "visual novel") which focuses on the audio ambience creating atmosphere over visuals (though it still has visuals).

I started by doing everything by hand, but managing many Resources manually gets tiresome (especially when they can't directly reference each other cyclically in the editor...) so I made a graph editor today.

#godotengine #gamedev #programming

mastodon.brycedixon.dev

Mastodon

1

3

0

Bryce Dixon @bryce@mastodon.brycedixon.dev in zed · May 03, 2026

Replying to @thekerker@mstdn.social

@thekerker@mstdn.social @zed Just for your awareness: they do use vibecoding in that project. I have a policy to not run AI generated code if I can avoid it, so I block AI agent accounts on GitHub so I get a big banner whenever I look at a repository with commits from one of them.

0

1

0

Bryce Dixon @bryce@mastodon.brycedixon.dev · May 02, 2026

Replying to @timkrief@framapiaf.org

@timkrief@framapiaf.org Ah, cool! So you're generating the whole thing in a shader, then? Does that mean you can procedurally set the iris color and such? Does Godot let you do modular shaders yet (eg: split them into multiple files)? If not, I might experiment with rendering to textures in phases since it would probably help reduce the complexity of each shader step, but that's just me :)

0

1

0

Bryce Dixon @bryce@mastodon.brycedixon.dev · May 02, 2026

Replying to @timkrief@framapiaf.org

@timkrief@framapiaf.org Very cool! Are you using UV offsets, translating Nodes, or something else?

1

3

0

Bryce Dixon @bryce@mastodon.brycedixon.dev · May 01, 2026

Replying to @shafik@hachyderm.io

@shafik@hachyderm.io Every time I hear people say "AI isn't going anywhere" I just think about the true cost of it Sure, it seems ubiquitous *now* because everyone is trying their best to give it all out for free. You're telling me everyone is going to pay $60k per year to have imaginary friends and make infinite bad "music," vulnerable code, and the most derivative "art" possible?

0

3

0

Bryce Dixon @bryce@mastodon.brycedixon.dev · Apr 29, 2026

Replying to @richiekhoo@hachyderm.io

@richiekhoo@hachyderm.io I left GitHub ~2 years ago. I moved all my private/personal repositories to a self-hosted @forgejo@floss.social instance and moved all my public stuff to GitLab... Then GitLab drank the AI juice, too, so I moved *all* my stuff to my self-hosted instance, though I need to go around the internet updating all the links...

1

0

Bryce Dixon @bryce@mastodon.brycedixon.dev · Apr 22, 2026

Replying to @0xabad1dea@infosec.exchange

@0xabad1dea This is why I don't agree with the notion that "this is life now, everyone is just going to use genAI for everything forever." That's only true as long as it's accessible - and for most people doing most things, that means completely free. As soon as you have to run the model yourself, 99.99% of people won't bother. As soon as you have to open a command line to run it, 99.99% of the people remaining will drop out, too.

0

Bryce Dixon @bryce@mastodon.brycedixon.dev · Apr 12, 2026

Replying to @bryce@mastodon.brycedixon.dev

@doctormo I've definitely had teachers who only became teachers because they never understood math beyond 5th grade, but they only teach 5th grade math so that's all they need. Then I've also had teachers who were PhD mathematicians and went back to teach undergrad CS and math because they really were that passionate about making sure it was taught right.

0

Bryce Dixon @bryce@mastodon.brycedixon.dev · Apr 12, 2026

Replying to @doctormo@floss.social

@doctormo There's an unfortunate pattern to the gross phrase, though. If you're not good enough to really try to push the field forward, you're probably not getting hired, but you *might* still be good enough to at least repeat what's already well established and infinitum. On the other hand, the people who do make it their goal to teach and improve how we teach (I like to imagine myself here) are the other peak in our distribution of "skill to teaching rate" graph.

1

0

Bryce Dixon @bryce@mastodon.brycedixon.dev · Apr 10, 2026

Replying to @gamingonlinux@mastodon.world

@gamingonlinux@mastodon.world This is truly the irony of open source: when you make something people really appreciate, people will want to support you *far more* than if you force them to, especially so compared to platforms that ensnare users. I know plenty of people who do everything in their power to avoid giving Unity money, but donate to Blender, Godot, Krita, Wikipedia, etc. because they're... Not evil, to put it simply.

0

Bryce Dixon @bryce@mastodon.brycedixon.dev · Apr 10, 2026

Replying to @kittylyst@mastodon.social

@kittylyst The horrible reality is that when the locusts come, there *will* be famine and, as he says, no one will equate the locusts with a lack of sparrows. I legitimately think we have long-jumped 10 meters forward only to stumble and smash the back of our skull open on the pavement, but that's still an injury we'll all have to suffer despite saying "this is a really bad idea" the whole time and rather than saying "wow, you were right!" boosters will claim "this is just a misunderstanding."

0

Bryce Dixon @bryce@mastodon.brycedixon.dev · Apr 08, 2026

Replying to @AndrewRadev@hachyderm.io

@AndrewRadev Exactly. Believe it or not writing 10x as much code when the code is *bad* is not desirable!

1

0

Bryce Dixon @bryce@mastodon.brycedixon.dev · Jan 20, 2026

Replying to @bryce@mastodon.brycedixon.dev

@sawaba @JustinMac84 @pluralistic @iFixit I was able to upgrade an old enterprise server into a personal NAS with 128GB of RAM and 2 of literally the best CPUs available for the socket and I think the whole upgrade cost me $80 (both CPUs were only $20 combined). Granted, that was a few years ago and like I said the hardware is dated, but it's also still insanely overkill for what I use it for.

4

1

0

Bryce Dixon @bryce@mastodon.brycedixon.dev · Jan 20, 2026

Replying to @sawaba@infosec.exchange

@sawaba @JustinMac84 @pluralistic @iFixit Honestly, I also think average users would be completely satisfied with older (aka: uninflated) hardware like DDR3. I don't like giving people the suggestion of "just buy a bunch of old parts and build it yourself," especially for non-enthusiasts, but if you *need* a PC and aren't planning on playing the latest AAA games..?

6

3

0

Bryce Dixon @bryce@mastodon.brycedixon.dev · Jan 20, 2026

Replying to @sawaba@infosec.exchange

@sawaba@infosec.exchange @JustinMac84@mastodon.social @pluralistic@mamot.fr @iFixit@mastodon.social That's what I'm hoping for as well. I've seen people upset that they can't afford 64GB of DDR5 right now, but: 1) I can't imagine how average people are using 64GB of RAM; and 2) if you just wait 6-12 months I'm sure the price is going to tank because we've seen this cycle multiple times already.

7

8

0

Bryce Dixon @bryce@mastodon.brycedixon.dev · Nov 30, 2025

Replying to @redfern@wandering.shop

@redfern@wandering.shop It took me longer than I like to admit to *understand* "trans rights are human rights." I don't read it as "trans people are human," but "any rights specifically for trans people are actually just rights for everyone." Telling a specific group they can't live in a way that fulfills them means we're telling *everyone* they have to conform to a specific standard set by an in-group.

16

2

8

0

Bryce Dixon @bryce@mastodon.brycedixon.dev · Sep 01, 2025

Replying to @Curator@mastodon.art

@Curator@mastodon.art People should be familiar with who runs their servers in general, if only to know who to direct complaints/suggestions and gratitude toward.

1

0

Bryce Dixon @bryce@mastodon.brycedixon.dev · May 26, 2025

Replying to @esdin@peoplemaking.games

@esdin@peoplemaking.games thanks for keeping it going as long as you could and thanks @brook@peoplemaking.games / @brook@sunny.garden for helping keep it alive!

1

0

Bryce Dixon

Posts

n0thanky0u

Mastodon

Remote instance

Media