DeepThought's recent activity

  1. Comment on NYT Quiz: Who’s a better writer: AI or humans? in ~tech

    DeepThought
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    I think this is an unfair comparison. These are all isolated passages from books. They have stripped the entire mental model that a reader has built up before reaching them. So it is silly to...

    I think this is an unfair comparison. These are all isolated passages from books. They have stripped the entire mental model that a reader has built up before reaching them. So it is silly to compare their comprehensibility to passages which I imagine were generated with a prompt meant to optimize it.

    13 votes

  2. Comment on NYT Quiz: Who’s a better writer: AI or humans? in ~tech

    DeepThought
    (edited )
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    I found it quite easy to distinguish the human ones from AI. The AI ones were bland and felt like reading a corporate pamphlet. It is just beige prose. The human ones, I could feel the personality...

    I found it quite easy to distinguish the human ones from AI. The AI ones were bland and felt like reading a corporate pamphlet. It is just beige prose. The human ones, I could feel the personality of the writer while reading it. Even in the Sagan one which is kind of mundane, the choice of imagery of the penultimate phrase was a dead giveaway that it was human.

    10 votes

  3. Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games

    DeepThought
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    Finally got around to Mario Odyssey. What a game. The music, the homages to past games, the attention to detail in everything. There are so many things to do. 10/10.

    Finally got around to Mario Odyssey. What a game. The music, the homages to past games, the attention to detail in everything. There are so many things to do. 10/10.

    4 votes

  4. 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

    DeepThought
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    Educated left leaning people tend to think that if only we frame an argument the right way or show people the right piece of evidence we will be able to change people's minds. A lot of that...

    Educated left leaning people tend to think that if only we frame an argument the right way or show people the right piece of evidence we will be able to change people's minds. A lot of that probably comes from having had a challenging college education when after tons of reading many of us did change our minds on many topics. Be it by seeing a point of view we hadn't considered before or by understanding the complexities of an issue we previously thought simple. But we often don't realize that only people who want to learn can be persuaded with arguments. And friends and family, especially older ones, are very unlikely to have any interest in changing their minds. So it will be easy to rationalize or dismiss whatever you throw at them.

    I found the book Don't Talk About Politics to be very informative on this topic. It is a good exploration into why our instinctive approach doesn't work as well as proposing approaches that can actually work in changing minds. But those take a lot more work than just writing or researching.

    45 votes

  5. Comment on Communities, relationships, and navigating the enshittification of absolutely everything in ~talk

    DeepThought
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    That was an fun and engaging read. Thanks for sharing. You voiced many thoughts that have been running through my head for the last 5 years. A little bit after the COVID restrictions lifted I had...

    That was an fun and engaging read. Thanks for sharing. You voiced many thoughts that have been running through my head for the last 5 years. A little bit after the COVID restrictions lifted I had an epiphany. I don't know what it was about the transition from isolation back to normal life, but a switch in my brain flipped and the sight of any advertising triggered a visceral reaction against being manipulated. I felt violated any time someone tried to sell me something. As if they were trying to reprogram melt brain against my will just to get me to give them money for a product I don't actually want. When that happened I did a similar social media/privacy purge as you did. Although I did keep yt premium as it actually aids in avoiding ads. Watching long for video essays with ads is absolute torture. I also kept windows as my main OS. I enjoy my video games too much to give it up and my LAN pinhole ad blocking makes it tolerable. In some ways this has made me happier. But I do feel a bit ostracized by not really knowing about any instagram or tiktok trend when friends and family talk about them.

    As a fellow programmer, I've been dealing with similar feelings about AI. Especially the feeling of becoming an outcast when everyone around me seems to be joining a cult.
    I'm slightly more tentative about AI usage than you though. I do use it extensively for rubber ducking and finding out about alternative ways to do things. But using it for writing important code beyond toy projects or scaffolding is almost non existent in my workflow. I used to use it a lot more in the past but noticed two effects that made me stop. First, even with reviewing all the generated code, my long term understanding of my code bases was lacking. I supper at least for my brain, writing something imprints itself much more strongly than just reading. While writing a new feature was sometimes a bit faster, fixing a bug on code no human on my team wrote took a lot longer than it did before. The second one is I felt my skills atrophying. Having to look up how a library worked or names of methods became much more commonplace.

    13 votes

  6. Comment on Control Resonant | Official gameplay reveal in ~games

    DeepThought
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    My reaction was the complete opposite. I absolutely loved control because it wasn't a combat heavy game. It was more about the mystery and the world building. I'm a bit disappointed seeing that...

    My reaction was the complete opposite. I absolutely loved control because it wasn't a combat heavy game. It was more about the mystery and the world building. I'm a bit disappointed seeing that the sequel seems to be so combat heavy. It just doesn't feel like Control.

    11 votes

  7. Comment on Why America is slipping in the Olympics in ~sports

    DeepThought
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    This was a great video about how the American model of privatization and consolidation of youth sports has led to not just less access to the non rich but also fewer elite athletes.

    This was a great video about how the American model of privatization and consolidation of youth sports has led to not just less access to the non rich but also fewer elite athletes.

    11 votes

  9. Comment on My relationship feels like it's collapsing and I don't know what to do in ~life

    DeepThought
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    That's a tough situation to be in. The only advice I can give you is to seek out couples therapy. It seems like they have a difficult time accepting any criticism from you as it makes them feel...

    That's a tough situation to be in. The only advice I can give you is to seek out couples therapy. It seems like they have a difficult time accepting any criticism from you as it makes them feel judged and they become defensive and shut down. I think having an objective third party might help with this. If your observations are validated by a third party they might be more responsive to actually engaging with them and also some self reflection. You might learn some things about your behavior that you have been unconsciously unwilling to see.

    4 votes

  10. Comment on Youtube channel recommendations 2026 in ~tech

    DeepThought
    (edited )
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    Angela Collier https://m.youtube.com/@acollierastro A grumpy physicist lady who makes great long form videos about physics, physics history, books, dumb things billionaires believe, knitting,...

    Angela Collier https://m.youtube.com/@acollierastro

    A grumpy physicist lady who makes great long form videos about physics, physics history, books, dumb things billionaires believe, knitting, etc... She has just been so great at voicing a lot of the ways this stupid world has been making me feel over the last year. And she does it with the perfect amount of cynicism.

    20 votes

  11. Comment on What have you been watching / reading this week? (Anime/Manga) in ~anime

    DeepThought
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    I watched 100 meters this week. What a great film. The animation is great. Highlights for me were the crazy rotoscoped rain scene and the animation style changes during the races. I loved the...

    I watched 100 meters this week. What a great film. The animation is great. Highlights for me were the crazy rotoscoped rain scene and the animation style changes during the races. I loved the exploration of the depression, anxiety and and the search for meaning that come with intense competition.

    2 votes

  12. Comment on What private companies are you happy doing business with? in ~talk

    DeepThought
    Link Parent
    Bob's Red Mill has a similar ownership structure. And great products as well.

    Bob's Red Mill has a similar ownership structure. And great products as well.

    10 votes

  13. Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games

    DeepThought
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    I finally picked up Blue Prince a couple of weeks ago and it has been great so far. I love how open ended it feels at the beginning and most of the puzzles are really clever, although a few are...

    I finally picked up Blue Prince a couple of weeks ago and it has been great so far. I love how open ended it feels at the beginning and most of the puzzles are really clever, although a few are very farfetched cough cough Drawing Room. I've gotten to a very frustrating point with the RNG though. I have so many things I want to try to do but it feels like the stars must align for me to be able to do any of them. So now I have tons of days where nothing productive happens.

    3 votes

  14. Comment on Grok AI generates images of ‘minors in minimal clothing’ in ~tech

    DeepThought
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    The problem i see with this argument is that it assumes that an abundant supply of fake CSAM will lead to lower demand for real CSAM. I think this is unfounded and may actually act as a gateway...

    The problem i see with this argument is that it assumes that an abundant supply of fake CSAM will lead to lower demand for real CSAM. I think this is unfounded and may actually act as a gateway drug and increase it.

    3 votes

  15. Comment on What are your predictions for 2026? in ~talk

    DeepThought
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    Ecuador reaches the WC semifinals.

    Ecuador reaches the WC semifinals.

    4 votes

  16. Comment on Libertarianism is dead in ~humanities

    DeepThought
    (edited )
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    I found this to be a very interesting read. The author makes some compelling points about how the devolution of American libertarian movements into fascism was probably inevitable and a direct...

    I found this to be a very interesting read. The author makes some compelling points about how the devolution of American libertarian movements into fascism was probably inevitable and a direct consequence of libertarianism's core belief in inalienable private property rights.

    27 votes

  18. Comment on Two signs that Democrats flipped Donald Trump supporters on Tuesday in ~society

    DeepThought
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    Such a candidate wouldn't be able to drive turnout among the base. They wouldn't even get past the primary.

    Such a candidate wouldn't be able to drive turnout among the base. They wouldn't even get past the primary.

  19. Comment on I like America in ~society

    DeepThought
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    It would be nice if you could say what you like about it. Or why the good things about it more than the bad. What kind of discussion are you wanting to have if you don't give anything of substance?

    It would be nice if you could say what you like about it. Or why the good things about it more than the bad. What kind of discussion are you wanting to have if you don't give anything of substance?

    18 votes

  20. Comment on What's a quantum computer? in ~tech

    DeepThought
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    Well you absolutely need to have at least a grasp on a couple of concepts from quantum mechanics. Namely, superposition and entanglement. 3blue1brown's videos on grover's algorithm are great...

    Well you absolutely need to have at least a grasp on a couple of concepts from quantum mechanics. Namely, superposition and entanglement. 3blue1brown's videos on grover's algorithm are great introductions to this and if you want to dive deeper the book https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_Computation_and_Quantum_Information is the canonical starting point.

    6 votes