unkz's recent activity
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Comment on Nine dead after shooter opens fire at Canadian high school in ~news
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Comment on Nine dead after shooter opens fire at Canadian high school in ~news
unkz (edited )Link ParentHaving lived in extremely rural BC for almost half my life, let me assure you there's a ton of weird violence out there. A lot of people are living in those places specifically because they don't...Having lived in extremely rural BC for almost half my life, let me assure you there's a ton of weird violence out there. A lot of people are living in those places specifically because they don't get along with people and do not fit in cities. My parents were there for exactly that reason, for instance.
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Comment on Nine dead after shooter opens fire at Canadian high school in ~news
unkz (edited )Link ParentIt's fair to be skeptical, but I posted it because while they are biased they cited three human sources, one of whom was a family member. It's now official though:...It's fair to be skeptical, but I posted it because while they are biased they cited three human sources, one of whom was a family member. It's now official though:
https://www.princegeorgecitizen.com/local-news/breaking-rcmp-identify-tumbler-ridge-shooter-11868070
Police had originally reported 10 deaths, but corrected that to nine on Wednesday, Feb. 11.
After a question about Van Rootselaar's gender, [RCMP Deputy Commissioner] McDonald confirmed that Van Rootselaar would be referred to as female by investigators.
“We’re not hiding it,” said McDonald. “I will say this — we identified the suspect as they chose to be identified in public and on social media. I can say that Jesse was born a biological male who, approximately six years ago, began to transition to female and identified as female, both socially and publicly.”
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Comment on Nine dead after shooter opens fire at Canadian high school in ~news
unkz (edited )LinkIt sounds like this is going to be a political firestorm. More credible source, https://www.princegeorgecitizen.com/local-news/breaking-rcmp-identify-tumbler-ridge-shooter-11868070...It sounds like this is going to be a political firestorm.
More credible source,
https://www.princegeorgecitizen.com/local-news/breaking-rcmp-identify-tumbler-ridge-shooter-11868070
Police had originally reported 10 deaths, but corrected that to nine on Wednesday, Feb. 11.
After a question about Van Rootselaar's gender, McDonald confirmed that Van Rootselaar would be referred to as female by investigators.
“We’re not hiding it,” said McDonald. “I will say this — we identified the suspect as they chose to be identified in public and on social media. I can say that Jesse was born a biological male who, approximately six years ago, began to transition to female and identified as female, both socially and publicly.”
https://www.junonews.com/p/exclusive-family-confirms-identity
The individual alleged to be the shooter in the deadly attack at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School in British Columbia has been identified by a close family member as Jesse Strang, according to information obtained by Juno News.
Juno News spoke directly with Russell G. Strang, Jesse Strang’s uncle, who confirmed Jesse was transgender and responsible for the shooting that left 10 people dead, including the suspect. A public YouTube account believed to be owned by Jesse features the transgender flag and uses “she/her” pronouns.
At least ten people are dead and upwards of 25 injured following a mass shooting in Tumbler Ridge, a small community located 300 km northeast of Prince George.
The suspect, who was also found dead with what appeared to be "self-inflicted" wounds, has been identified by residents as 18-year-old Jesse Strang.
Among those who confirmed to the Western Standard that Strang was the shooter were Liam Irving and Juan van Heerden, both of whom grew up seeing him at school. They'd spoken with eight different people who were at Tumbler Ridge Secondary when the massacre took place.
"He was a couple of years younger than us grades wise," Irving explained. "He was a chill kid, he was alright, but he definitely gave off that, you know, quiet one out kind of kid ... Like, he wasn't, you know, destructive or obnoxious."
Van Heerden echoed his sentiments, labelling Strang "a quiet kid."
"We always seen him by himself," he said, "sitting by himself in the corner, always quiet."
The pair confirmed that Strang identified as transgender.
Before heading to the school, Strang allegedly murdered his mother and younger brother, both of whom were well known in the community.
"My mom was pretty good friends with the mother, Jennifer, and my little brother, who's also on the spectrum, was pretty close to Emmett, the younger boy," Irving said. "There's not one person in this town right now that's not affected by this."
Despite this being a rare anomaly:
According to the Gun Violence Archive (GVA), there were 5,748 mass shootings between Jan 1, 2013 and September 15, 2025 in the U.S. Of that number, there have been five confirmed transgender shooters, GVA told FactCheck.org. That means that transgender individuals were responsible for less than 0.1% of incidents over that time period.
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Comment on The right in the US is coming for same-sex marriage with an insidious new campaign in ~society
unkz Link ParentThat seems to be addressing something unrelated to what I said. I’m not suggesting that queer people are predisposed to being predators. I’m suggesting that claiming that someone’s political...That seems to be addressing something unrelated to what I said. I’m not suggesting that queer people are predisposed to being predators. I’m suggesting that claiming that someone’s political leanings predispose someone to being a predator sounds like a claim that should have some sources.
That was a really weird way to ask the question you seem to think you're asking.
What question do you think I’m asking?
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Comment on The right in the US is coming for same-sex marriage with an insidious new campaign in ~society
unkz Link ParentSo is there evidence that the right wing has more propensity for being abusers than LGBT people, or for that matter, more than liberals, or any other group? As for the Epstein files, I don’t see...So is there evidence that the right wing has more propensity for being abusers than LGBT people, or for that matter, more than liberals, or any other group?
As for the Epstein files, I don’t see how observing that a club of straight male abusers of girls is full of straight males is useful.
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Comment on The right in the US is coming for same-sex marriage with an insidious new campaign in ~society
unkz Link ParentThere are some interesting questions there. Does the distribution of power create or empower latent abusers, or do those predisposed to abuse tend to seek out the power actively in order to...There are some interesting questions there. Does the distribution of power create or empower latent abusers, or do those predisposed to abuse tend to seek out the power actively in order to acquire victims?
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Comment on The right in the US is coming for same-sex marriage with an insidious new campaign in ~society
unkz (edited )Link ParentWhat I’m taking the quoted comment to mean is that the LGBT community is not composed of predators, and that “they” are in fact composed of predators. I’m not totally sure who “they” are but it...What I’m taking the quoted comment to mean is that the LGBT community is not composed of predators, and that “they” are in fact composed of predators. I’m not totally sure who “they” are but it could be non-LGBT people? Christians maybe? Conservatives? In any case, I’m a bit skeptical of this rhetorical turnaround.
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Comment on The right in the US is coming for same-sex marriage with an insidious new campaign in ~society
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Comment on The right in the US is coming for same-sex marriage with an insidious new campaign in ~society
unkz (edited )Link ParentIs there in fact evidence that predators aren’t uniformly distributed through the population and are biased towards any particular orientation?it's them and not the lgbt+ community that is the predators
Is there in fact evidence that predators aren’t uniformly distributed through the population and are biased towards any particular orientation?
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Comment on What do dreams mean? in ~science
unkz Link ParentI really do think that a lot of what we perceive in dreams is spurious connections that are getting activated in our audiovisual systems more or less accidentally while our brain is doing...I've sometimes wondered if these dreams might be side effects of processing more "low level" information, if that makes sense.
I really do think that a lot of what we perceive in dreams is spurious connections that are getting activated in our audiovisual systems more or less accidentally while our brain is doing janitorial stuff. I’m skeptical that there is a lot we can directly interpret with any kind of accuracy.
I think it’s kind of related to how when we sleep we have REM sleep atonia where our brain turns down our spinal motor output so we don’t accidentally move during sleep, but our audiovisual system a) is above our spine so it is hard to turn off, and b) isn’t very dangerous to leave connected while we dream anyway.
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Comment on What do dreams mean? in ~science
unkz LinkSome of the most interesting evidence is of mice and cats. https://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/25/us/rats-may-dream-it-seems-of-their-days-at-the-mazes.html...Some of the most interesting evidence is of mice and cats.
https://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/25/us/rats-may-dream-it-seems-of-their-days-at-the-mazes.html
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/animals-dream-too-heres-what-we-know
There are lots of studies about this. You teach a mouse a maze and in its dreams the same pathways get worked that were going when it was doing the maze. Cats plan out hunts that have not yet happened. Some of what we are doing is probably consolidating memories, some of it seems to be like running a simulator where we generate synthetic memories to learn while we sleep.
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Comment on Passing question about LLMs and the Tech Singularity in ~tech
unkz (edited )Link ParentTurning consciousness off with anesthesia shows consciousness depends on certain brain functions continuing. It doesn’t tell you which substrate generates consciousness. Even if microtubules were...That means we know where it is hiding in the biology for the first time.
Turning consciousness off with anesthesia shows consciousness depends on certain brain functions continuing. It doesn’t tell you which substrate generates consciousness. Even if microtubules were affected, that would at most show they’re a necessary part of brain function - like electricity is necessary for a computer - but it wouldn’t prove microtubules are where consciousness “lives,” let alone that quantum microtubule effects are required.
Put another way, I can take a computer and stop it from working by removing any number of different parts. I could remove the wire connecting the power supply to the wall. I could remove the power supply. I could remove the CPU. I could remove the memory. I could remove the bus. I could remove the connection from the motherboard to the video card. I could remove the connection from the video card to the display. I could go and blow up the power grid. These would all have the same effect on my perception of whether the computer is working.
You can wave hands and quote platitudes about the impossibility of flight (which we could see happening with our own eyes even if we couldn't duplicate it)
This is my point though, we can see consciousness happening too, and the way we made human flight happen was through a totally different mechanism than we saw with birds.
Also, and importantly, the mechanism birds use is not how we got to moving several times faster than the speed of sound. Likewise I suspect the mechanism we use for superhuman intelligence will be possibly biologically inspired, but not identical.
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Comment on Passing question about LLMs and the Tech Singularity in ~tech
unkz Link ParentThis reminds me of when people thought that flying could only ever be accomplished by birds and insects because only birds and insects could fly. The fact is, we have relatively little idea what...This reminds me of when people thought that flying could only ever be accomplished by birds and insects because only birds and insects could fly.
The fact is, we have relatively little idea what consciousness is or what its necessary preconditions are.
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Comment on Passing question about LLMs and the Tech Singularity in ~tech
unkz Link ParentI would say the same about people. The Mechanical Turk was literally true intelligence though? I’m not sure you are thinking of the right analogy. The mechanical Turk was a chess playing...LLMs are fancy probability engines.
I would say the same about people.
They are to me closer to the Mechanical Turk than to true intelligence.
The Mechanical Turk was literally true intelligence though? I’m not sure you are thinking of the right analogy.
The mechanical Turk was a chess playing “computer” that had an actual human hiding inside it generating the moves.
My prediction is that LLMs will ultimately be a significant part of true AGI but the secret sauce is going to be a novel formulation of reinforcement learning.
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Comment on Passing question about LLMs and the Tech Singularity in ~tech
unkz Link ParentStrong words. In what sense are you using the word “proof” here?Further there is also no stand-in present for the quantum effects these micro-tubules generate, which is provably required to be present for consciousness.
Strong words. In what sense are you using the word “proof” here?
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Comment on Passing question about LLMs and the Tech Singularity in ~tech
unkz Link ParentAlthough LLMs are definitely being used to further curate data and to generate synthetic training data which does directly influence the matrices that underpin their “intelligence”.Although LLMs are definitely being used to further curate data and to generate synthetic training data which does directly influence the matrices that underpin their “intelligence”.
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Comment on Hair loss open discussion in ~talk
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Comment on Hair loss open discussion in ~talk
unkz LinkMy hair is fine but I’m of the age when many/most of my friends are losing hair. Shaving it off seems like a great option, and it’s what pretty much all of my friends in that situation have done....My hair is fine but I’m of the age when many/most of my friends are losing hair. Shaving it off seems like a great option, and it’s what pretty much all of my friends in that situation have done. One friend of mine shaved and got tattoos that simulate hair follicles and it’s actually indistinguishable. Personally, I’m going to just shave and accept it if/when it comes.
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Comment on Supporting Markdown search for LLMs in ~tech
unkz Link ParentFirefox has reader mode available for many pages. https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/firefox-reader-view-clutter-free-web-pagesFirefox has reader mode available for many pages.
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/firefox-reader-view-clutter-free-web-pages
The National Post was pretty clear about getting the facts correct.
https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/the-tumbler-ridge-shooter-was-a-trans-female-how-rare-is-that