GoatOnPony's recent activity
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Comment on Should C be mandatory learning for career developers? in ~comp
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Comment on Perplexity AI is using stealth, undeclared crawlers to evade website no-crawl directives in ~tech
GoatOnPony Link ParentWell, turns out your analysis was correct! Perplexity's blog post response claims it was indeed tool use initiated in response to the user request. Left an edit on my original reply as well. I...Well, turns out your analysis was correct! Perplexity's blog post response claims it was indeed tool use initiated in response to the user request. Left an edit on my original reply as well. I think Cloudflare (and myself for defending their analysis) have some egg on face :)
I think a world where the majority of AI agents are local models (and locally trained or at least tuned) would be a significant improvement. Probably would still have some not great consequences and the point about relationship management still applies, so I'm not sure which way my personal opinions would ultimately fall on them, but I'd probably not advocate against them like I do with centrally controlled models.
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Comment on Perplexity AI is using stealth, undeclared crawlers to evade website no-crawl directives in ~tech
GoatOnPony Link ParentI'll agree that the blog post could use some more evidence that tool use is not happening, but I don't think the article is conflating? My read is that they are pretty sure that crawling is...I'll agree that the blog post could use some more evidence that tool use is not happening, but I don't think the article is conflating? My read is that they are pretty sure that crawling is happening as part of an indexing stage to feed data into the model. That indexing happens regardless of whether any particular user has asked about the site or it would be extremely obvious - they can check if they got requests to access the site from the bad behaving crawler before they issue any queries to the LLM or that they continue to get queries after the LLM request. The lack of any evidence that they checked is concerning but I'd still be quite surprised to hear that they didn't look in to that possibility.
I too like the open web and semantic data, but I think user agents need to play a fine balancing act between respecting the autonomy of the user and the relationship that the website wants to have with that user. That relationship could be one of artistic intent, whimsy, user access controls, money (ads), etc. Most forms of user autonomy I have no problems with (accessibility, script blocking, javascript on/off, esoteric browsers, reader mode, etc) and in general I come down on the side of more user autonomy where the two sides come in to conflict. However, I think AI agents are offering a very different point on the autonomy vs relationship spectrum. They are currently heading down the path of their own form of siloing and large corporate interest - they want to intermediate all interactions between users and the current web in a way which obliterates any relationship a website can have with their users. I don't think AI agents or the companies creating them are neutral actors like browsers (which at least have a historical status quo, inertia, and arguable lower barriers to entry) and that non-neutral power of intermediation is terrifying. I think it will be very destabilizing to the web ecosystem (particularly when it comes to monetization) and dis-incentivizes the creation of small web content (I want people to read and interact with me, not an AI summary of what I made). AI agents may end up forcing more content into silos than before, so I support websites who don't want to partake in this particular experiment.
TLDR, I like the semantic web but I think it should be opt in rather than being effectively forced on the web by big tech in ways which could ultimately remove user autonomy.
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Comment on Perplexity AI is using stealth, undeclared crawlers to evade website no-crawl directives in ~tech
GoatOnPony (edited )Link ParentEdit: I just read Perplexity's response which indicates that this is tool use! I'll leave the rest of my comment in place for reference purposes, but the first paragraph is inaccurate. Obviously...Edit: I just read Perplexity's response which indicates that this is tool use! I'll leave the rest of my comment in place for reference purposes, but the first paragraph is inaccurate. Obviously put too much trust in to Cloudflare to have addressed that as an option.
I expect that if the answer were as simple as 'perplexity makes a request to the website as part of some tool use in the immediate response to a query about the site' then Cloudflare would have said as much - it would be both obvious to them (timing and number of requests) and easy for perplexity to say as much as a defense. Cloudflare claims that blocking the undisclosed crawler caused a reduction in answer quality in perplexity answers about their honeypot sites, so that seems like causal link I'd not just hand wave away. Their estimates that the undisclosed, bad behaving crawler is making about 1/10 as many requests as the well behaved crawler (3-6 million queries per day) - that seems like enough traffic to complain about too. While Cloudflare is attempting to sell a product I also think they've presented a reasonable theory that perplexity is indeed running a badly behaving crawler and not just doing normal user agent things.
Separately, I don't personally think that all user agents are fine/should have equal access to sites. I think websites should be respected in their choice to filter and block AI based user agents, regardless of whether from crawlers or tool use. Given that, using robots.txt as a weak signposting seems reasonable even if the RFC only talks about crawlers (it does reference user agents as how crawlers declare themselves though FWIW). So even if this does turn out to be tool use in response to a user query I think perplexity should still respect robots.txt given that's currently the easiest way for website operators to express intent about whether AI access is acceptable or not. If a new specification comes along which supplants robots.txt for the purpose of informing user agents about acceptable behavior, the perhaps perplexity can ignore robots.txt and only look at the new spec during tool use, but in the meanwhile AFAIK robots.txt is the best operators have.
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Comment on I’m going to calculate π on the Moon. Literally. in ~science
GoatOnPony (edited )Link ParentI don't buy that there's a meaningful marginal cost to this code on the data transmission side. In my head the mission was probably spec'ed with some amount of required bandwidth for the mission...I don't buy that there's a meaningful marginal cost to this code on the data transmission side. In my head the mission was probably spec'ed with some amount of required bandwidth for the mission and then some overhead. They'd be offering to let stand up maths make use of some small part of that overhead or other slack in transmissions. The data needed for sending (number of iterations and current pi value since last upload) is tens of bytes. Even sent hundreds of times it's probably a fraction of one image being sent back.
Also, space missions definitely get patches? The voyager 1 mission launched in 1977 got a code patch recently and it has left the solar system.
The integration testing is indeed the costly part and the bit I have little experience with, so from that respect perhaps the 150k is reasonable. Still feel like a well designed system shouldn't need that much additional review for 'take two random numbers, compute the distance, then store it' but I recognize that is engineering hubris on my part.
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Comment on I’m going to calculate π on the Moon. Literally. in ~science
GoatOnPony LinkI was surprised that the company doing the launch is charging $150k for it. Cool idea but a private company charging for promotional content seems a little rude. I'm just a regular software...I was surprised that the company doing the launch is charging $150k for it. Cool idea but a private company charging for promotional content seems a little rude. I'm just a regular software person, not an aerospace engineer, but this seems like a lot of money to have an engineer review and integrate and test what I'd imagine are a few hundred lines of C code.
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Comment on The issue of indie game discoverability on distribution platforms in ~games
GoatOnPony (edited )LinkSomething I think about is that distribution platforms are incentivized to deliver only the 'best' and consumers have largely been trained to hunt out the 'best'. To a platform if 90% of sales go...Something I think about is that distribution platforms are incentivized to deliver only the 'best' and consumers have largely been trained to hunt out the 'best'. To a platform if 90% of sales go to .01% of the content that's the same profits as if sales were more evenly spread. As a consumer if it only takes a few extra seconds to look at ratings or the ordering of content in a 'by highest rating' list, why wouldn't you pick the better rated game even if it's only incredibly marginal additional 'goodness'. Niches and preferences smooth that out but most consumers probably only look at the top few games in a category because why wouldn't they?
The internet and digital content has smoothed out most natural barriers (besides language and innate niche preferences) to become highly winner takes all. If we want to spread out the number of people who are able to get an audience then either new barriers need to be found or consumers need more incentives to explore. I think it'd be interesting to build a platform which intentionally partition users (new barriers) while connecting them to specific creators who then provide special deals/direct interactions/sneak previews (new incentives). A sort of specialized stumble upon made up of social cohorts to make it more like a book club.
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Comment on Uber to introduce fixed-route shuttles in major US cities designed for commuters in ~transport
GoatOnPony Link ParentA concern I have with Uber doing this is that in as much as public transit is funded by rider fares, relatively wealthier commuters are likely the base for funds that subsidize the rest of the...A concern I have with Uber doing this is that in as much as public transit is funded by rider fares, relatively wealthier commuters are likely the base for funds that subsidize the rest of the system - stuff like late night routes, lower fares for kids/seniors, routes to underserved/poorer areas, para transit options. A private company can scoop out just the high ROI portion of traffic and not offer anything to serve those other needs and areas. That's a potential death spiral for the whole system. Especially given that class divisions will make funding the public options much harder as wealthier people opt out. So I think there's some reasons why (similar to health insurance) having private companies compete with public entities is not always desirable since the private companies can leave a lot of people behind that public entities can't.
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Comment on Announcing the Tildes Short Story Exchange! in ~creative
GoatOnPony Link ParentI'd also like to be pinged on these topics! Thanks for running thisI'd also like to be pinged on these topics! Thanks for running this
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Comment on Mycopunk | Reveal trailer in ~games
GoatOnPony Link ParentI haven't played the demo yet, just watched the trailer and looked at the store page - but it looks like it's filling a unique niche. It looks like a blend of Deep Rock Galactic, Risk of Rain 2,...I haven't played the demo yet, just watched the trailer and looked at the store page - but it looks like it's filling a unique niche. It looks like a blend of Deep Rock Galactic, Risk of Rain 2, and Borderlands. That personally seems like an interesting mix and outside of deep rock galactic doesn't seem to have too many active competitors.
I'm also curious what makes you say this looks like streamer bait? To me streamer bait are social games with horror/silly interactions. Mycopunk doesn't look to have any of those properties.
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Comment on Tildes Monthly Writing Prompts! (April 2025) in ~creative
GoatOnPony Link ParentThank you for reading it! "Not quite hopeful or uplifting, but it has a conviction and resolve" is exactly how I wanted it to come across, so that makes me very happy. Re the side note: some...Thank you for reading it! "Not quite hopeful or uplifting, but it has a conviction and resolve" is exactly how I wanted it to come across, so that makes me very happy.
Re the side note: some herbivores will eat meat if needed or the occasion arises, including rabbits and deer: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10344-015-0980-y. Some day I'll write a scifi story where a bunch of juiced up domesticated herbivores suddenly experience some latent urge for protein...
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Comment on Tildes Monthly Writing Prompts! (April 2025) in ~creative
GoatOnPony LinkLength: ~1200 words CW: environmental destruction License: All rights reserved but feel free to leave a comment/direct message me if you'd like to use it for something and I'll consider updating...Length: ~1200 words
CW: environmental destruction
License: All rights reserved but feel free to leave a comment/direct message me if you'd like to use it for something and I'll consider updating to a CC style licenseA Tale-ing Pond
It was something out of a World War One battlefield, all thick gray mud and dead bodies. The sun was out now to dry and harden the top layer -- entombing everything below. My boots broke through the top layer and sank into the muck and slurry; my nose slowly sinking closer to the rankling of heavy metals and foul muck and decomposing meals for the crows. I cursed as the viscous sludge began to top the inadequate rubber boots supplied by the company, a microcosm of the catastrophe that had unfolded and no less personal. Around me a backhoe and truck scooped at the slop, disturbing the crows come to eat at the corpses strewn nearby. I picked up one of the slimy fish bodies from around my knees and tossed it to the birds, black as the mud around them. I shouldn't have been here."My name is Martin Malone. I'm a tailings engineer -- former tailings engineer at Appalachia Energy."
"Thank you for coming today, Mr. Malone. Can you describe for the committee what a tailings engineer does?"
"Well, we're supposed to prevent what happened! Keep people and wildlife safe from our prior greed and hubris and stupid-"
"Mr. Malone, this hearing is for fact finding. Please just lay out the basics for us for now."
"Sure. You know what strip mining is?"The top of the mountain was gone, scooped and shoveled and broken down to scrape out the coal. The trucks and heavy equipment were long gone but the land was still barren, still too full of heavy metals, coal processing slurry, and exposed rock to keep much alive. The worst though were the ponds. Lifeless places where all the leftover mining material, the tailings, collected like poisonous offal that no carrion bird or fungus could break down. Ponds are a misnomer though, over the years since the mines closure hundreds of millions of gallons of rainwater collected in them, became polluted by the coal slurry, and needed to be withheld from the valleys below. Retaining walls were built up out of the same shit that poisoned it, growing larger year over year. 1000 Olympic sized swimming pools worth of death that needed tending for who knows how long, until the lead and arsenic and mercury would do something other than exist.
"That's my job, making sure the offal doesn't run off downhill and wind up in someone's tap water or kill all the frogs."
"A very evocative description Mr. Malone. I'm sure the committee members have many /questions/ but before we open for questions from the Representatives, can you describe what happened on March 28?"When the mine closed and the water began to collect we'd made predictions about total required capacity for the ponds. Climate change has made a mockery of that-
"Are you one of those so called climate scientists? I thought you were a glorified landscaper, so we don't need-"
"Representative Massay, the floor has not been yielded to you! Mr. Malone, please, keep to the facts and events of the day in question."The storm was relentless. Not in intensity, but duration - a steady patter coming down day after day. The forecast of more rain was a dangerous prognosis, so I woke up early to drive my truck to the former mine and keep tabs on it. The remote monitoring dashboard slapped together by the lowest common bidder which never, ever gave a warning started to flash a vague error while I was on my way there. The road to the gate was flooded but navigable, the truck only briefly hydroplaning. The storm culverts under the road had been backed up since the day before. I didn't even stop to unlock the rusted up chain link gate. Nature has a way of being more of a hindrance though and I had to abandon the truck halfway to the ponds as it bogged into the mud. I could tell immediately that the situation was FUBAR, the retaining wall - a solid thousand tons of compacted soil - was bulging, sliding, and contorting. Cattywampus as all hell. Little rivers traced down its back like sweat trickling down a sick man's face. Then it all went. An avalanche, a mudslide, a flood rolled out down into the valley below.
"Each Representative will now get a few minutes for questions. Representative Massay, your question time starts now."
"Martin, I may call you Martin, right?"
"N-"
"Martin, one thing missing from your account is - bring in the timeline board - is what you did to inform your former employer of the danger. As you can see from this timeline, these are calls you made on your corporate phone and emails you sent. I don't see any calls to Appalachia Energy on the day of this act of God."
"It wasn't an act of-"
"Martin, my question - yes or no only - is that correct."
"Yes. But only because-"
"I'm shocked - you did not feel like your employer, surely the most capable to help in this scenario, warranted being informed. Surely you've read this, your employment contract, I have it here and it states in no uncertain terms your sole responsibility to inform. Yes or no, you have read this?"
"All hundred pages?"
"Yes or no."
"No."
"Lapses in judgement like that are fatal Martin. A dereliction of one's duty, the oath you took as an engineer. Do you not feel any personal culpability in this event - yes or no only?"The little church, a double wide with plywood cross wilted in the rain, was filled to bursting. I stood there in a corner and knew they hated me. Surely they knew it wasn't my fault, that the whole load of shit dumped in their backyards had been foregone the moment the mining permit's ink had dried. The site survey results waived by a relative of the governor. The ramshackle, slipshod work required endless change requests which piled up over the years. The emails with dire warnings about the rate of water accumulation ignored. The crowd was rightly pissed at the company and life in general since the mine had closed. They knew what the dead fish for dozens of miles around meant - that they'd be left drinking out of bottled water they couldn't afford for years to come. I let the fear and rage wash over me. I resigned from my job later that day.
"Representative Sangeetha, your question and answer time starts now."
"Just one question for you Mr. Malone. You've quit and set the work behind you. So why are you here? Why come to testify despite not being subpoenaed?"Behind the backhoe fitfully attacking the mud, there was a little hill which survived unscathed. Among the dead fish and island which had survived the immediate catastrophe and now stood surrounded by months and yet also decades of cleanup. On that hill was a trailer of someone who now needed help. And when I trudged over to it I saw that someone had laid planks over the mud to span between the island and the road. Someone else had stacked bottles of water near the door. Even as I stood in the muck someone hauled groceries across the planks and handed them to the person who lived there. As they turned to walk back across the treacherous path they waved to me. And so I climbed up out of the mess and got to work.
"I’m here to do the work"
Thanks again to CannibalisticApple for running this! And if anyone is on the fence there's still a few days to write something :)
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Comment on A 2025 survey of Rust GUI libraries in ~comp
GoatOnPony Link ParentMy conjecture is that writing a new imperative UI framework just isn't worth the effort vs creating bindings to an existing framework. New frameworks need some hook especially when competing...My conjecture is that writing a new imperative UI framework just isn't worth the effort vs creating bindings to an existing framework. New frameworks need some hook especially when competing against well established systems.
Separately rust's reference rules probably push towards avoiding shared state or at least obscuring it from developers. Imperative UI code often has a lot of mutable references being accessed from a wide variety of locations
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Comment on Is it possible to completely hide one’s activity on the Internet from one’s ISP? in ~tech
GoatOnPony Link ParentDNS over https is pretty common now afaik. I think it's on by default in chrome and Android so I'd assume it's also on for most OSes and browsers. It's often called secure DNS or private DNS in...DNS over https is pretty common now afaik. I think it's on by default in chrome and Android so I'd assume it's also on for most OSes and browsers. It's often called secure DNS or private DNS in the settings. I'd choose Google or Cloudflare with secure DNS than an ISP's DNS if it's not encrypted.
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Comment on Tildes Monthly Writing Prompts! (April 2025) in ~creative
GoatOnPony Link ParentThank you for the ping and for picking up the writing prompt mantel!Thank you for the ping and for picking up the writing prompt mantel!
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Comment on Creative short story writing contest—prize for winner! (2025-03-07) in ~creative
GoatOnPony Link ParentUnfortunate that there wasn't continued traction, but thank you for running it! I enjoyed each of the months and think it's been really helpful to get me to write outside my normal stuff!Unfortunate that there wasn't continued traction, but thank you for running it! I enjoyed each of the months and think it's been really helpful to get me to write outside my normal stuff!
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Comment on Creative short story writing contest—prize for winner! (2025-03-07) in ~creative
GoatOnPony LinkCreepy fantasy about the worst kind of parent. Length: About 1500 words CW: death, corpses, License: All rights reserved but feel free to leave a comment/direct message me if you'd like to use it...Creepy fantasy about the worst kind of parent.
Length: About 1500 words
CW: death, corpses,
License: All rights reserved but feel free to leave a comment/direct message me if you'd like to use it for something and I'll consider updating to a CC style licenseCuckoo's Nest
The fire is set at the base of the cottage's walls. Torches nibbling and biting at its ankles, angry little toddlers with bright arms reaching upwards towards the wooden eaves like they want up onto a parent's shoulders. I had watched the mob stay at a fearful distance and throw the torches, their frailty causing them to miss the roof. It will take some time for the fire to climb the walls which gives me some time to think. But perhaps not long enough - the little wisps of smoke start the countdown to conflagration as they infiltrate cracks in the earthen bricks. From between the slats in the window's shutters I can see the light of more torches flickering a cautious distance away while they run to fetch the priest. I wonder which parent will succeed first, me or their priest. They are uncouth and clumsy critics of my parenting and they dare to strangle my children while they are still in their crib. I turn my back to the window and focus on my soon to be newborns. Crouching, I stroke the long hair on the beautiful corpse at my feet. Nothing yet. Damn.I sweep my eyes across the single room cottage, truly taking it all in for the first time. It's a meager affair; the little table with shelves, the hearth with smoldering fire, and mud brick walls with simple adornments. So meagre and austere. I chuckle at my parental compunction to judge how my children choose to live and my heart warms with how much better I will provide for them. How they have struggled and persisted against the forces of the world that I will conquer.
On the wall there's a rough sketch - drawn quickly with loose hatch marks but a fine attention to detail. It is a homely scene of the cottage and my soon to be daughter as she tends to the garden. Amazing that a few marks can trick the eye into seeing neat rows of herbs. I remember seeing them on the way in, but now the garden is almost certainly trampled to death by the mob. It is truly a shameful display of neighborly love to ruin someone's tenderly cared for plants. Long years of effort wasted in an instant. Thankfully there's no need for it now or ever after. My children will instead only need my purest love to sustain them.
The fire's heat is rising up the wall and beginning to seep through; it curls the edge of the page. I can't have my child's drawing burned, so I pry the nail holding it from the wall and stuff the art into the inner pocket of my great coat. I turn to my boy, who is suspended across the single room, pinned to the wall where I impaled him. I'm across the room in a flash. His cold fingers are rough but I know the hands of a fellow artist, delicacy and dexterity in the muscle fibers despite the calluses of peasant life. I'm so proud of him. I entwine my fingers with his and then I adjust the pitchfork stuck through his chest to make sure that it won't be easy to remove. How long will the birth take? The mob's patience is finite and I can't protect my children forever, they'll need to face the world themselves.
A smell reaches me. Not the blood, though there's a lot of it; not the fire, though smoke is now pooling about the rafters; it's the odor of stew rich in fat. I'd not noticed it in the earlier frenzy but on the hearth near my pretty girl is a pot beginning to bubble over. Spatters of fatty broth burp over the edge and slosh onto the floor. I can't have my child scarred now! It would ruin her beauty forever. I dart to it and snatch the pot off from over the hearth. I stick a finger into the boiling stew and lick the sizzling stock from it. Delicious. Cooking, that's an underappreciated skill - least of all by me. Along the top of the stew is an unctuous and thick layer of fat from what must have been some freshly hunted rabbit. Arguably a tad overcooked, but that may just be my palate's preferences. I croon at her that she'll learn my tastes soon enough. Her lifeless face stares back. Slinging the hot pot under my arm I carry it to the wooden table that dominates the room. A mirthful mood is capturing me so I mutter to myself that I should set the table, maybe invite the mob in for supper. They surely would appreciate some warm stew after standing in the cold night. I begin to do it, the thought is so captivating. A bit of hospitality to show such crude and impudent people that they should just embrace my patronage and parentage.
As I pull the bowls and spoons from the shelves my fingers run over the rough whittled implements. The little crags and nooks speak to the hours of work to produce just one simple spoon; the countless knife strokes gouging little chips out long into the night. The final imperfections showing the hand of the artisan, the grain the history of the tree branch it came from, the stains the humble life of stew and lips. I feel the sublime nature of God in it. He has guided these peasants to make something so imperfect to remind me, his most perfect servant, of the humility one must possess to carry out his will. From the ultimate Father I've learned all that I will pass onto my children. God made me in his image and so my children are made in mine. I make the sign of the cross and his presence warms my skin with fiery prickles. It is the only heat I still feel.
I notice the fire has reached the rafters. Or perhaps the mob expedited the process with more accurately placed torches hefted onto the roof. This is a disaster! My children will burn up and no one will be able to appreciate my efforts. They have already taken my other children from me and chased me from my home. I must rebuild. I will start again with this two children here, that God caused me to stumble upon in my darkest hour. Why has God not released their souls back to me yet? I pace as doubt and panic encroach like the flames surrounding me, but no, I cannot waver. Tests of faith require resolve and it is through such perils we come to understand our true nature. The mob at the door cannot best me in matters of faith even as their priest begins his preparations. They cannot best me in matters of patience; as a parent of hundreds, my patience is infinite.
I pull a chair from the table over to my daughter on the floor and sit down; the smoke is beginning to cloud my vision and close off the world. It's just myself and my stillborn children now. A rafter collapses down and strikes my shoulder. I toss it aside and stir a whirl of ash and sparks. Some falls down on her pallid face so I stoop down to protect her and brush it off. My fingers graze her face. Please don't leave your parent alone in this angry world. The fire and mob I can withstand, but those damnable priests need more than what I can muster alone. I pray and kiss her forehead. There's a little flutter of the eyelids, nearly imperceptible through the smoke, and I smile. There's just enough time remaining before the priest's work will complete. I pull the drawing from my pocket and a finely gilded fountain pen along with it. It takes just a few quick marks. I add myself to the drawing. There I am, joining in on the pastoral life of farm tending, there with my children. My youthful boy twitches and then thrashes, perhaps an automatic, vestigial reaction to the fire engulfing him, fire which won't harm him anymore. Joyous births!
It's important to deal with newborns one at a time so I ignore his violent thrashing and crouch down to my lass. Parental love fills me as I see my eyes reflected in hers. Beastly eyes, the eyes of a predator, of one who will hunt the night peer up at me. They are calculating and sharp. With a practiced flick I cut myself on the pen's quill and offer her my blood. My daughter rises and bows to me. My son, rebellious in youth, requires some convincing so I twist the pitchfork until it presses like a stake against their heart. I show him the drawing which confuses him long enough to force the blood onto his lips. He calms and smiles, so I remove the pitchfork and the wound closes quickly. The cottage is ablaze as we leave it, finally strong enough to fight back. The priest's shout of "Begone vampi-" is cut short by my children as they have their first feast.
I struggled a bit with the prompt, so I don't know that I really met the intent of it. Hopefully it's still in bounds enough :)
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Comment on Professional writer endorses short story written by OpenAI's new creative writing model in ~books
GoatOnPony LinkSetting aside the ethical and philosophical issues for a moment, I liked it? It's not the best thing I've ever read, but I didn't regret reading it either. It had some thought provoking imagery...Setting aside the ethical and philosophical issues for a moment, I liked it? It's not the best thing I've ever read, but I didn't regret reading it either. It had some thought provoking imagery and poetic phrases that stuck with me for a few minutes.
Setting back the ethical and philosophical issues, I hated it? This was time and attention taken away from reading works by other people to have some alien intelligence attempt to pull on my feelings. I'm not ready to be bombarded on all sides by this content with all value and political ideology likely directly controlled by some oligarchs.
As someone still struggling to get better at writing (thanks to TheMeerkat's monthly writing competition threads!) I have very mixed feelings...
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Comment on An appeal to the community for non-algorithmic recommendations in ~talk
GoatOnPony Link ParentI mean, my personal favorite Greg Egan books are actually permutation city and diaspora, soooo... Permutation city is an interesting thought experiment about consciousness, free will, and the...I mean, my personal favorite Greg Egan books are actually permutation city and diaspora, soooo...
Permutation city is an interesting thought experiment about consciousness, free will, and the nature of time. Basically, if your mind is just one state moving to another, why must those states be sequential or in order? Then take that premise to the extreme.
Diaspora is relatively tame in comparison but it's a great examination of post humanism and what the purpose of humanity is.
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Comment on An appeal to the community for non-algorithmic recommendations in ~talk
GoatOnPony Link ParentAnother Greg Egan book focusing on non-Euclidean space is Dichronauts. As with any Greg Egan book its an absolutely wild premise done by someone who actually did the math behind it to know that it...Another Greg Egan book focusing on non-Euclidean space is Dichronauts. As with any Greg Egan book its an absolutely wild premise done by someone who actually did the math behind it to know that it works. I can't really explain the physics behind it that well, but the gist is that certain directions convey light and orthogonal directions convey sound because the curvature of the universe is a 'saddle' shape with a world positioned right on the saddle point.
My 2c as a software engineer: for school curriculum I think it's good to experience a breadth of tools in the context where they are most useful. I don't think mandating any one tool is the right approach. Instead we should have students learn OS design, application development, compilers, graphics, etc and let those choices dictate what languages get used. For many of them that might be C but it might instead be assembly or C++ or rust or some other language. We shouldn't hold up one language or one tool as the be all end all, instead teach students to pick the right tool for each task and build a well rounded tool box.