papasquat's recent activity
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Comment on Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor arrested and in custody on suspicion of misconduct in public office in UK in ~news
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Comment on I hacked ChatGPT and Google's AI – and it only took twenty minutes in ~tech
papasquat Link ParentIt gets ignored regularly every day. Every god damned day I have to spend time researching and refuting AI slop from people I work with. It's a never ending battle, because it's a lot quicker to...It gets ignored regularly every day. Every god damned day I have to spend time researching and refuting AI slop from people I work with.
It's a never ending battle, because it's a lot quicker to generate slop than it is to validate it, so if the trend continues, it will eventually be what I spend all of my time doing.
Somehow, people have internalized an idea that because it's a computer, it's never wrong. Like they have access to a crystal ball that knows everything, but no one else has figured out that it exists yet. It's become a little insulting, because the subtext is that I somehow haven't thought about using AI to answer this question we have. I've thought of it, obviously, and don't use it because it's mostly bad at answering complex questions accurately.
I don't need it for simple questions either, because I already know the answers to those.
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Comment on I hacked ChatGPT and Google's AI – and it only took twenty minutes in ~tech
papasquat Link ParentEvery site on the internet is cached by so many different services in so many places that an LLM scraping a site may not result in a 1:1 web request. In the case of Gemini, they already run a...Every site on the internet is cached by so many different services in so many places that an LLM scraping a site may not result in a 1:1 web request. In the case of Gemini, they already run a massive web crawler, so it would make sense to not make an additional web request each time AI prompted for it.
Aside from them I'd imagine all of the large AI companies run their own caching services for that purpose. At a certain scale it becomes more cost effective to cache the whole internet every day rather than paying for the extra bandwidth and other considerations that come from trillions of web requests per hour.
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Comment on I hacked ChatGPT and Google's AI – and it only took twenty minutes in ~tech
papasquat Link ParentThat probably has more to do with search engine crawling than the AI model. After all, the model is executing a web search exactly in the same way that a user would. So if you write an article and...That probably has more to do with search engine crawling than the AI model. After all, the model is executing a web search exactly in the same way that a user would. So if you write an article and you can't find that article with a very specific web search in the first few results, neither will an LLM. If you are able to find it in the first few results, so will an LLM.
The success of the attack depends on the success of traditional SEO techniques.
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Comment on Some of my family members aren't convinced that ICE isn't overstepping and that they are just deporting people that broke the law, can you help me share unbiased links that proves they are? in ~society
papasquat Link ParentYou will need to figure it out at some point soon though. It's kind of like if someone were to ask me why I don't start remodeling my house. Like I know that picking out the plans and starting the...You will need to figure it out at some point soon though. It's kind of like if someone were to ask me why I don't start remodeling my house.
Like I know that picking out the plans and starting the demo isn't hard, but it implies things that are hard later. Theres a lot of labor involved, which is why I don't do it.
Same goes for people's beliefs. They may not have to take on the mental load now, but they will have to take it on.
In your example, if you were convinced that there was extraterrestrial life on earth, you'd have to reevaluate most major events and think "wait... did the aliens have a hand in this?". Your whole understanding of the world would change and have to be rebuilt based on this new belief. If you didn't have rock solid evidence of it staring you in the face, this might cause you to subconsciously reject that belief just in the face of that sheer effort.
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Comment on Against the state – a primer on terrorism, insurgency and protest in ~humanities.history
papasquat LinkAwesome article. I was in the military for virtually the entire time of OIF and OEF, and something that's interesting is that the US Military is extremely aware of all of this. David Gallula's...Awesome article.
I was in the military for virtually the entire time of OIF and OEF, and something that's interesting is that the US Military is extremely aware of all of this. David Gallula's book, Counter Insurgency: Warfare and Practice was required reading for officers, and is sort of the Bible when it comes to the inner mechanisms of how insurgencies function. COIN operations were studied in excruciating detail and very smart people spent a lot of time breaking down the strength and weaknesses of insurgency, and the Taliban and Al-Quaida in particular. It's extremely interesting stuff.
It turns out that knowing how they function doesn't actually mean you'll win though. It was a very frustrating time for the military because they knew very well that this was not a conventional war where you can just prepare the battlefield with artillery and ground attack air power, then advance your way to victory.
They knew that political will was the only true currency when it came to who won in Afghanistan in particular. It didn't help actually win though. The US has trillions upon trillions of military hardware and highly trained forces, and they could apply almost none of it.
The Taliban were simply too good at controlling the message, keeping the locals under their thumb, and spreading the idea that one day, sooner or later, they would win, and you'd have to answer to them.
So none of this is new. The US government has known all of these lessons for decades. That doesn't necessarily mean they'll be victorious though.
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Comment on Some of my family members aren't convinced that ICE isn't overstepping and that they are just deporting people that broke the law, can you help me share unbiased links that proves they are? in ~society
papasquat (edited )Link ParentMaybe it's fear, but honestly I think it boils down to the fact that changing your mind is a lot of work. We intuitively try to be consistent in an attempt to combat cognitive dissonance, which is...Maybe it's fear, but honestly I think it boils down to the fact that changing your mind is a lot of work.
We intuitively try to be consistent in an attempt to combat cognitive dissonance, which is a deeply uncomfortable place to be in.
Changing someone's mind about something fundemental then requires re-thinjing about a lot of things that that person has already settled on. That takes effort. It's easy for me to say that abortion is morally ok, but that's because I've thought about it for a long time and came up with the reasons why I think it's ok. If I were to be convicted of some fundemental fact contrary to what I already believe that would challenge that position, it would mean doing intellectual labor to reconcile that new belief. Most people just aren't interested in doing that sort of labor.
It's easier to just continue believing what you believe and dismiss any challenge to those beliefs as wrong than it is to individually evaluate them each and every time. This isn't a conservative thing. This is a human thing.
If someone came up to me and said "wow, actually the Nazis were the good guys". I would immediately just dismiss that idea. I'm not interested in hearing their arguments or engaging with the idea intellectually, even if they had fundemental arguments to back it up.
If I had unlimited time and energy, maybe I would, but I have other things to worry about, and I'm very confident in my belief that the Nazis were in fact bad.
We have these cognitive shortcuts we use so that we don't need to spend mental energy thinking about these things all the time. Changing those shortcuts is only possible if someone is willing to put in the labor to do so. Most adults aren't, and the longer you've lived, the more shortcuts you've made, so changing your mind requires a whole lot more effort.
It's also the reason why a lot of people believe what they believe because it's what they were taught as kids. Kids don't really need things to make much sense, because they don't have a lot of these shortcuts and preconceptions already built. Once it becomes a belief though and mental connections start being constructed and that belief gets internalized on a deep level. It becomes a lot of labor to change it.
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Comment on Elon Musk says SpaceX will prioritize a city on the moon instead of a colony on Mars in ~space
papasquat Link ParentWhat's the likelihood that something like that happens, but it somehow doesn't also impact the self sustaining moon city though? It wouldn't be a secret, everyone would know about it, and in order...What's the likelihood that something like that happens, but it somehow doesn't also impact the self sustaining moon city though? It wouldn't be a secret, everyone would know about it, and in order to get to self sufficiency, space travel would have to be way more accessible than it is now.
At a minimum, people would try to get there in hordes. More realistically, it would just become another front in the massive war that destroyed earth society.
Either way, it would be way easier to just create a hermetically sealed super bunker underground somewhere on earth. Just as secure, but way cheaper, way more feasible, and you have the advantage of 1g gravity, an atmosphere, a magnetosphere, an active mantle that can be used for heating and abundant energy, and plenty of water. You could also build a super bunker secretly so that it doesn't become a massive target.
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Comment on The mega-rich are turning their mansions into impenetrable fortresses in ~finance
papasquat Link ParentI think that's painting with an extremely broad brush. Reasonable for someone in New York City is not the same as reasonable to someone living in rural Kansas. Someone who's main hobbies involve...I think that's painting with an extremely broad brush. Reasonable for someone in New York City is not the same as reasonable to someone living in rural Kansas. Someone who's main hobbies involve going out and checking out new restaurants or museums may not want or need a lot of space, but someone into woodworking would.
A 6000 sq foot house is big, but it's not uncommon at all in the area where buffet lives. He also bought the place in the mid 50s for 31,500, which was completely attainable on a upper middle class income.
I get the point you're making, but Buffet is a particularly bad example. He's donated 60,000,000,000 to charity over his lifetime, continues to be the world's biggest philanthropist, and has set up a trust to donate virtually all of the rest of his wealth upon his death.
He's said he lives meagerly (compared to other well off people) because he doesn't feel that spending more money on himself would make him any happier, and he's probably right. I think there's a certain type of person that views attaining wealth as a challenge that gives them satisfaction, rather than hoarding wealth as a goal in it of itself as something that gives you status. Warren Buffett definitely seems like the former.
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Comment on The mega-rich are turning their mansions into impenetrable fortresses in ~finance
papasquat Link ParentThey do. Warren Buffet pretty famously lives in a 6,000 sq foot house in a suburb of Omaha worth a million or so. He's been living in that same house since the 50s. I think there are a lot of very...They do. Warren Buffet pretty famously lives in a 6,000 sq foot house in a suburb of Omaha worth a million or so. He's been living in that same house since the 50s.
I think there are a lot of very wealthy people who don't like to show off their wealth. You just don't hear about them too much because it's not as juicy as the ones blowing 80 million dollars on ridiculous mansions.
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Comment on Joy of sharing a creation replaced by a longing sadness in ~talk
papasquat Link ParentYeah, but this isn't exactly uncommon. Bots, spam, and other malicious traffic absolutely infest public internet services. Blocking VPNs is one way to help cut it down.Yeah, but this isn't exactly uncommon. Bots, spam, and other malicious traffic absolutely infest public internet services. Blocking VPNs is one way to help cut it down.
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Comment on What's good in modern flashlights/headlamps? in ~hobbies
papasquat Link ParentHonestly I think it would be way easier to start a fire with a lion battery versus a AAA. For one, they have a higher nominal voltage, 3.8 versus 1.5, which means it's easier to make sparks with...Honestly I think it would be way easier to start a fire with a lion battery versus a AAA. For one, they have a higher nominal voltage, 3.8 versus 1.5, which means it's easier to make sparks with them. They also have way higher energy density.
Safety isn't really a concern unless you're shorting them with a thick wire for a long period of time. To make a fire you're generally looking at a tiny little spark for a fraction of a second.
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Comment on Something big is happening in ~tech
papasquat Link ParentIn real life, yes, that third realm exists, but in the context of the world the article that he posted paints, it doesn't. He makes the case that no knowledge work is safe from AI. "Rolling your...In real life, yes, that third realm exists, but in the context of the world the article that he posted paints, it doesn't.
He makes the case that no knowledge work is safe from AI. "Rolling your sleeves up" and actually setting up the infrastructure for these agents to produce software is knowledge work.
It's not as if Matt is physically installing server racks and building the data centers this stuff runs on by hand. He's not a carpenter or plumber or something, the few areas that he says are safe for now because they require robots to replicate. He's sitting in front of a computer doing the exact type of work he's trying to convince us that a computer can do better.
The fact that I can't open up Claude, say "become a writing assistant", and it automatically designs, codes, installs, and integrates a product with superior functionality to Matt's is why I say he's a liar, rather than a grifter. If AI has truly made knowledge work obsolete, then the people doing knowledge work wouldn't be the ones constantly trying to convince us of that.
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Comment on Russian general shot several times in Moscow in ~society
papasquat LinkMan, we've really stretched the definition of terrorist past its breaking point. Attacking a high ranking uniformed combatant in a war that you didn't start is somehow terrorism now? If that's the...Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was quick to accuse Ukraine.
He said "this terrorist act" was aimed at "disrupting the negotiation process".
Man, we've really stretched the definition of terrorist past its breaking point. Attacking a high ranking uniformed combatant in a war that you didn't start is somehow terrorism now?
If that's the standard, is any wartime action not terrorism?
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Comment on Something big is happening in ~tech
papasquat Link ParentYeah. I touched on this in another post, but their actions don't make sense in the context the world they're describing. If software development is a solved task by AI, and human coders are...If it’s as good as they claim, proponents should not be building more AI tools, or even more software.
Yeah. I touched on this in another post, but their actions don't make sense in the context the world they're describing. If software development is a solved task by AI, and human coders are obsolete...
Why does everyone that writes these articles own a software development company? They make their money doing something that they're trying very hard to convince people has no value.
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Comment on Something big is happening in ~tech
papasquat Link ParentHere's what I don't get. If the AI revolution is truly here, and human work in the area of software development is fundementaly already obsolete, and AI is now so capable that it can effectively...Here's what I don't get.
If the AI revolution is truly here, and human work in the area of software development is fundementaly already obsolete, and AI is now so capable that it can effectively replace most human tasks then...
Why the FUCK would I pay Matt Schumer, the author of this article, 16 dollars a month for his AI writing assistant https://www.hyperwriteai.com/.
He just spent many pages breathlessly telling me that AI is more capable at complex tasks than humans. Why would I pay a human money that he then just skims off of and spends on openAI or anthropic tokens without providing me any value?
There are only two options I can see here are:
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Matt is a liar. He's blatantly inflating the capabilities of these tools that he somehow has unique insight into in order to generate hype like legions of liars before him. Maybe he doesn't know he's lying and has actually convinced himself of what he's saying while also maintaining the cognitive dissonance required to also believe that his product is valuable, or
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Matt is a grifter. He's selling a product that he very well knows is less capable than an GPT or Claude subscription, and which can do everything his product can do, and more, far better, and that the labor he's put into his product is just straight up inferior to what these tools can do natively.
There's no other options. He's painted himself into a corner.
That's what I don't get about these AI hype beasts. They're fundementaly arguing for their own lack of value. If they're to be believed, the idea of an "ai startup" is laughable. The only companies worth giving money to are the ones large enough to hire the world's best AI researchers and run the worlds most powerful compute clusters. So openAI, Google, anthropic, and meta. Anyone else with an AI startup, in their hype is to be believed, is just a parasite, grifting people who don't know better.
I don't believe that's actually true though. I just think they're liars.
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Comment on What are you working through? in ~life
papasquat Link ParentI work in technology, not a software developer, but work with a lot of them. I used to feel that way too, because I used to work for an extremely big bank, and I knew all of my rushed, frantic...I work in technology, not a software developer, but work with a lot of them. I used to feel that way too, because I used to work for an extremely big bank, and I knew all of my rushed, frantic efforts only existed to make some rich fucks a few more dollars, and I wasn't given enough time or resources to do it because they wanted a few more dollars.
I work for a local government now, and the pay isn't as good, but I actually feel like I'm doing things that makes people's lives at least marginally better.
I'm still rushed and frantic, but at least I'm rushed and frantic because we have a limited budget that I can fully inspect every aspect of. I can see that fire trucks, new park equipment, fixing potholes, and renovating community centers are competing with the resources that I use, and all of those things are objectively important too. I'm not slaving away to make a handful of people rich.
I didn't think that doing the same thing but for a different purpose would matter that much, but it turns out, for me at least, it matters a lot.
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Comment on Diablo | Warlock class cinematic trailer - New class for Diablo II, Immortal, and IV in ~games
papasquat Link ParentYou can respec in PoE2, but it's expensive. If I remember correctly there are aspects of your character that are locked in once you choose in the course of gameplay and can't be changed without...You can respec in PoE2, but it's expensive. If I remember correctly there are aspects of your character that are locked in once you choose in the course of gameplay and can't be changed without making a new character though.
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Comment on Discord will require a face scan or ID for full access next month in ~tech
papasquat Link ParentHonestly it's pretty irritating to me the amount of technology, open source, and security focused communities that have embraced discord with open arms. The platforms model flies in the face of...Honestly it's pretty irritating to me the amount of technology, open source, and security focused communities that have embraced discord with open arms.
The platforms model flies in the face of everything those communities stand for, and hopefully this is a wakeup call that we should have been advocating for and investing in open source, standard protocols instead.
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Comment on Diablo | Warlock class cinematic trailer - New class for Diablo II, Immortal, and IV in ~games
papasquat Link ParentI'm a big roguelike fan. One of the things I love about them is after a long day at work, I can just do a run, and even if I'm not googling the most optimal build or starts, I can just hop in,...I'm a big roguelike fan. One of the things I love about them is after a long day at work, I can just do a run, and even if I'm not googling the most optimal build or starts, I can just hop in, die, maybe try again with something new a couple times and then I'm good.
Despite playing arpgs since the first diablo, I never really got into them. I played through the campaigns once, had some fun, then dropped them. I didn't do the ARPG fan thing where I run bosses over and over and try to optimize my gear.
I tried with PoE2, but in the end, it just felt like I still had to do so much research to not permanently fuck my character up, or at least fuck it up badly enough that it would take a significant amount of time for me to fix it.
Even though it sorta feels similar to the roguelike experience, it really misses the non permeance and low stakes of roguelikes. The older I get, the less I want to play games with "stakes". So even though I know lots of people absolutely love the genre and PoE 2 specifically, I just decided that it wasn't for me.
Your milage may vary though of course.
People are very good at rationalizing the horrible things they do. No one sees themselves as the villain of their story, so they tell themselves stories to make themselves the good guy.
In the case of these pieces of shit, it's usually something like "she's so into me" or "I'm giving her financial opportunities beyond her wildest dreams" or "this is way better than the alternative she'd face in <developing country I lured her from>" it doesn't matter that they're all obvious nonsense. They don't have to be convincing, they just have to be repeated to oneself over and over to soothe the psyche.