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i.grok
@igrok@hachyderm.io
mastodon
4.6.6
I'm not much of a poster, but I boost a bunch. Mostly political, with a dash of technology content, and a sprinkle of lighter fare as I find it.
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Joined January 07, 2023
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Replying to
@pascaline@mastodon.nl
@pascaline @bit101 it's the contrast. If you have a hard time distinguishing yellow from white on your screen, yellow will appear to barely move while the front overlaps white and then as soon as it overlaps black, it'll appear to snap forward. Conversely with blue.
But it's also the differential between light and dark side by side. If you cover the yellow or the blue block and only look at the other, the effect disappears
I guess the eyes don't have enough dynamic range to accurately process both brightnesses at the same time?
Replying to
@courtcan@mastodon.social
@courtcan I feel like this is an indictment of our public education system somehow
We have a method that works to educate some people well and other people not so much, and a disturbing number barely at all
We've gone from a population that highly valued education nearly universally to one where a significant fraction distrusts education
I don't pretend to have studied this enough to know for certain what caused what, but this desperately needs to change for things to improve
The meddling of politicians with dubious motives isn't helping, but I'm pretty sure they had to take advantage of weaknesses in the system before they were able to insert more
Replying to
@zdl@gamerplus.org
@ZDL to emphasize your point: according to one of my history classes, I hazily recall that we passed the point where it was possible for one person to read all the still existing books around when the printing press came to the western world, maybe earlier
Even if you discount the crap out there, we're still orders of magnitude over that threshold by now
But I agree with you that knowing the bare basics of WWII seems like it should be common knowledge
@anilmc @NicolaElle @courtcan
Replying to
@Schouten_B@mastodon.social
@Schouten_B the labor market is already very short of jobs that pay enough for reasonable working conditions, and yet the politicians appear unwilling to even discuss a hypothetical UBI. Current conditions gave us MAGA. An added 5%? I'm not convinced we'll successfully absorb that
I think UBI is not only inevitable but arguably what we should be striving for, but the timescale is a serious question
@everything
Replying to
@Schouten_B@mastodon.social
@Schouten_B only because they are failing to achieve their goals…so far
But the various organizations and businesses rushing to replace humans at the first hint of possibility no matter how premature is a strong signal of what is to come—and of intentions
I know people already convinced that their new degrees may be useless because of AI, and the evidence they're looking at is quite real. I think they'll be wrong if they keep at it, but they don't have a job lined up yet…
I know people who have struggled for nearly a year to find a job, and that's only been possible because of having a nest egg. I know others that are on the edge of poverty despite decades of work. This is why MAGA has resonated with people. They're currently quite deluded in thinking their politicians care about them, but when that bubble pops, the reaction may be quite violent—think French Revolution. After all, they have most of the guns.
So, sure, we may still be a bit far from the conditions needed for the Butlerian jihad to happen, but whereas before it looked impossible, now not so much. OpenAI and such are working really hard to try to make it happen (given an Accelerationist is at the helm, that might be quite literal)
@everything
Replying to
@Schouten_B@mastodon.social
@Schouten_B in theory you're correct
In practice we're watching the opposite happen in the US right now. Tax cuts, cuts to programs that would lift all boats, etc. And continued propaganda that those things are bad bad bad. And a population that continues to defend those decisions (or appears to—they could just be bots and agents provocateur). Meanwhile, to resist efforts to elect any other parties, they're rigging the game with the help of the courts to maintain their power. (And who knows what else they'll attempt as we get closer to the elections)
There are signs this could still turn around, yes, but it's not certain (Russia appears to be successfully pacified, so victory is far from certain)
And if it does flip around, it could be quite violent and irrational. To the extent of the Butlerian jihad? I think that depends on how bad things get before it happens
The point @everything was making is that it has become conceivable (hopefully not likely or inevitable—but conceivable) and compared to how it seemed decades ago, that is notable
Replying to
@Schouten_B@mastodon.social
@Schouten_B is it though?
First, let's remember that Dune is fiction, written to justify an asthetic concept at a time when AI was just a dream. So the fact that it's portrayed as irrational zealotry is irrelevant. As the OP said, it also felt ridiculous to them (and me) then
Before now, a lot of the effort has been trying to create robots to replace the menial jobs so humans can just have fun being human (i.e., the arts, engineering, and other creative aspirations)
Now, capitalists have made clear they just want the rest of us to die. Eliminate drivers (huge chunk of the economy). Eliminate human arts. Eliminate engineering (starting with entry level but that's just the beginning, and also kills the industry from the root). But they're still against any UBI. So how is opposition to that vision irrational?
Not to mention that many of the people making these things have shown total disregard for the safety issues surrounding them, from embedded bias all the way to existential threats
I think destroying everything down to calculators and beyond goes too far, ofc, but I completely understand the sentiment of drawing a hard line and punishing severely any crossing of it. And I could totally believe after a few iterations getting to the point where the sentiment is "we try to draw a reasonable line but it's too easy to get from there to a bad place before we can stop it" and thus landing at the Butlerian line
And looking at MAGA, I have no trouble seeing popular desperation and ignorance sweeping away any semblance of rational nuance about which subset of electronic technologies are ok and which are not
@everything
Replying to
@WestCoastCliche@beige.party
@WestCoastCliche even if Russia did attack, I have zero confidence Trump would do anything about it (other than maybe pull US troops out of the way) @smn @BillMcGuire @Nonilex
Replying to
@argentini@nonsequiturs.social
@argentini @arstechnica it's a local exploit, so that doesn't follow
Replying to
@urbanfoxe@mastodon.ie
@urbanfoxe @mattsheffield so… AI(t) = artificial intrusive thoughts
Wait, so does this suggest that billionaires that surround themselves with yes men are doing the same thing?!
Yikes!
Replying to
@gleick@mas.to
@gleick@mas.to though I've noticed that #BBC is usually just as "credulous" as the domestic press but with a smattering of explanation about how the US is different from the UK and a dash of misunderstanding
Replying to
@count_01@mastodon.social
@count_01 "we're just police officers, not legal experts!" Of course it's an abuse of power, but QI generally protects them so why not try?
Both she and her lawyer hinted at a countersuit, so we'll see what happens. Maybe they'll learn the hard way. We can hope.
@KydiaMusic
Replying to
@count_01@mastodon.social
@count_01 because they understand that as long as they keep expectations low, qualified immunity works in their favor
@KydiaMusic
Replying to
@dalias@hachyderm.io
@dalias correct for openai.com at least
Looking online, I think I know what it's for now. I think. I thought I knew English, but I'm questioning that now
Replying to
@dalias@hachyderm.io
Replying to
@georgetakei@universeodon.com
@georgetakei@universeodon.com draft children and the problem is solved!
Replying to
@aboutsignal@mastodon.social
@aboutsignal@mastodon.social can we get old group events to disappear when the messages do?
Replying to
@Condorito@mindly.social
@Condorito @newsgroup either way, there will be no landing. That's not until Artemis IV (assuming the plans don't change again)
Replying to
@herhandsmyhands@romancelandia.club
@herhandsmyhands until you wrote that, my interpretation was that its user was working around its inability to lie by telling it to go to an alternative universe where the lie is true and then fulfill the prompt. (Bonus humor points if it was an accident of the phrasing.) But your point renders that unnecessary, so now I'm confused as to why it's here
@MicroSFF
Replying to
@MisterStars72@sfba.social
@MisterStars72@sfba.social @itisiboller@infosec.exchange that's not very helpful to the cause, since they already equate an insistence on privacy with intent to hide wrongdoing...