nightsky

joined 9 months ago
[–] nightsky@awful.systems 17 points 1 day ago

Wait, they're still drinking coffee, and it takes 58 minutes? Jeez, my genai quantum robot does that in 58 seconds and summarizes the gustatory experience into 3 bullet points for me. Get with the times.

[–] nightsky@awful.systems 9 points 1 day ago

The resolution to all this depends on psychic luck produced by evolutionary processes over the course of a handful of generations on Earth.

Oh and don't forget the cat people that used to be more aggressive but now they are nicer because of all the long wars in which the aggressive ones killed each other. I liked Ringworld overall, but indeed there is an awful lot of eugenics thinking in there.

[–] nightsky@awful.systems 11 points 3 days ago (6 children)

Can you imagine selling something like a firewall appliance with a setting called "Yolo Mode", or even a tax software or a photo organizer or anything that handles any data, even if only of middling importance, and then still expect to be taken seriously at all?

[–] nightsky@awful.systems 19 points 5 days ago (6 children)

Ok, maybe someone can help me here figure something out.

I've wondered for a long time about a strange adjacency which I sometimes observe between what I call (due to lack of a better term) "unix conservativism" and fascism. It's the strange phenomenon where ideas about "classic" and "pure" unix systems coincide with the worst politics. For example the "suckless" stuff. Or the ramblings of people like ESR. Criticism of systemd is sometimes infused with it (yes, there is plenty of valid criticism as well. But there's this other kind of criticism I've often seen, which is icky and weirdly personal). And I've also seen traces of this in discussions of programming languages newer than C, especially when topics like memory safety come up.

This is distinguished from retro computing and nostalgia and such, those are unrelated. If someone e.g. just likes old unix stuff, that's not what I mean.

You may already notice, I struggle a bit to come up with a clear definition and whether there really is a connection or just a loose set of examples that are not part of a definable set. So, is there really something there or am I seeing a connection that doesn't exist?

I've also so far not figured out what might create the connection. Ideas I have come up with are: appeal to times that are gone (going back to an idealized computing past that never existed), elitism (computers must not become user friendly), ideas of purity (an imaginary pure "unix philosophy").

Anyway, now with this new xlibre project, there's another one that fits into it...

[–] nightsky@awful.systems 8 points 6 days ago

Yes, thank you, I'm also annoyed about this. Even classic "AI" approaches for simple pattern detection (what used to be called "ML" a few hype waves ago, although it's much older than that even) are now conflated with capabilities of LLMs. People are led to believe that ChatGPT is the latest and best and greatest evolution of "AI" in general, with all capabilities that have ever been in anything. And it's difficult to explain how wrong this is without getting too technical.

Related, this fun article: ChatGPT "Absolutely Wrecked" at Chess by Atari 2600 Console From 1977

[–] nightsky@awful.systems 14 points 1 week ago
  • You will understand how to use AI tools for real-time employee engagement analysis
  • You will create personalized employee development plans using AI-driven analytics
  • You will learn to enhance employee well-being programs with AI-driven insights and recommendations

You will learn to create the torment nexus

  • You will prepare your career for your future work in a world with robots and AI

You will learn to live in the torment nexus

  • You will gain expertise in ethical considerations when implementing AI in HR practices

I assume it's a single slide that says "LOL who cares"

[–] nightsky@awful.systems 13 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Maybe someone has put into their heads that they have to "go with the times", because AI is "inevitable" and "here to stay". And if they don't adapt, AI would obsolete them. That Wikipedia would become irrelevant because their leadership was hostile to "progress" and rejected "emerging technology", just like Wikipedia obsoleted most of the old print encyclopedia vendors. And one day they would be blamed for it, because they were stuck in the past at a crucial moment. But if they adopt AI now, they might imagine, one day they will be praised as the visionaries who carried Wikipedia over to the next golden age of technology.

Of course all of that is complete bullshit. But instilling those fears ("use it now, or you will be left behind!") is a big part of the AI marketing messaging which is blasted everywhere non-stop. So I wouldn't be surprised if those are the brainworms in their heads.

[–] nightsky@awful.systems 13 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Legal anime streaming services herald the end times.

Yes, if it's not a fansub which randomly retains some Japanese words while overlaying half the picture with text to explain why it can't be translated due to finely nuanced meanings, then what are you even watching, the ASI (anime superintelligence) disapproves.

[–] nightsky@awful.systems 12 points 2 weeks ago (5 children)

But wait, the best(*) animes came out in the 90s, early 00s. What does that mean? Is the simulation running out of juice?

(*) details of my anime evaluation function are confidential and proprietary

[–] nightsky@awful.systems 18 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

Also, happy Pride :3

Yes, happy pride month everyone!

I've decided that this year I'm going to be more open about this and wear a pride bracelet whenever I go in public this month. Including for (remote) work meetings where nobody knows... wonder if anyone will notice.

[–] nightsky@awful.systems 4 points 2 weeks ago

That's it, I'm ordering a copy.

[–] nightsky@awful.systems 1 points 2 weeks ago

Ah, thanks, well my sarcasm detector isn't that good.

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