9
votes
Grzmot's recent activity
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Comment on What’s wrong with America? I debate Ben Shapiro. in ~misc
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Comment on What Happened After My 13-Year-Old Son Joined the Alt-Right in ~life
Grzmot Link Parent I'm afraid very few people could be that rational if they were in such a position. Humans value social position higher than being rational. That's especially important for teenagers. The...I'm afraid very few people could be that rational if they were in such a position. Humans value social position higher than being rational.
That's especially important for teenagers. The rationality comes later in life, at that point it's all about fitting in, or not, and finding yourself.
3 votes -
Comment on Disney announces dates for new Star Wars movies, MCU Phase 4, and more in ~movies
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Comment on Disney announces dates for new Star Wars movies, MCU Phase 4, and more in ~movies
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Comment on What Happened After My 13-Year-Old Son Joined the Alt-Right in ~life
Grzmot Link Parent For me it was less about being taken seriously by adults and more about having a social circle to fit in at all. In school I was the Omega animal and when talking to my family we talked a lot...For me it was less about being taken seriously by adults and more about having a social circle to fit in at all. In school I was the Omega animal and when talking to my family we talked a lot about other stuff. By brother was big into conspiracy theories then so his topics often dominated family evenings. I often got ignored (even though my family is otherwise very loving and my relationship with them are great today) so I think it was definitely more about attention, often saying outragous shit to get attention. After I found my balance in real life (see my other reply thread in this post) that fixed itself.
However, I absolutely agree with you that telling your children you know best because "I say so" is harmful, especially in the young teenager phase. Generally one should try to explain things to their kids and most importantly, not get angry when they screw up, or they'll end up not trusting you and not coming to you when they should later, when their fuck ups become more serious.
6 votes -
Comment on What Happened After My 13-Year-Old Son Joined the Alt-Right in ~life
Grzmot Link Parent A girl from my parallel class (I was in class B, she in A, if that makes sense) had been into me secretely for some time. After a few teenage shenanigans we ended up together and still are 3 years...A girl from my parallel class (I was in class B, she in A, if that makes sense) had been into me secretely for some time. After a few teenage shenanigans we ended up together and still are 3 years later.
She literally saved me.
Because honestly all I wanted to have was a social circle, my views changed fairly quickly. I continued to frequent right-wing subs for quite some time but I stopped eventually because I realized that the entire reactionary bubble on reddit is tiny. You can literally ignore it completely and not miss anything, because it's just people from KiA getting mad about some game bullshit, then the people from ShitRedditSays making fun of them and the in turn SRS getting laughed at in subs like subredditcancer, etc. and then again from the start. It's like a living beings digestive track, news goes in at one end, and then everyone chimes in, often making fun of another group on Reddit or something.
Ironically enough, we didn't talk about much of what was actually going on on KiA, but because I stopped spending so much time in echochambers I changed my views. So literally going outside solved things for me. Later in uni I had a more robust footing in life so I managed to find some friends and now I am a normal human being! Feel free to ask any more questions :)
11 votes -
Comment on Why the World’s Best Mathematicians Are Hoarding Chalk in ~misc
Grzmot Link Parent I personally use the Lamy AL-STAR every day and it's fantastic. The writing experience is incredibly smooth and it comes in lots of colours to choose from!I personally use the Lamy AL-STAR every day and it's fantastic. The writing experience is incredibly smooth and it comes in lots of colours to choose from!
1 vote -
Comment on What Happened After My 13-Year-Old Son Joined the Alt-Right in ~life
Grzmot Link Parent The truth is, I don't know if you can properly explain the world to your child. All you can do is give them the right tools and let them experience it on their own. This is of course dangerous,...The truth is, I don't know if you can properly explain the world to your child. All you can do is give them the right tools and let them experience it on their own. This is of course dangerous, but eventually the parents have to let go and hope for the best, acting like a bastion the child can return to (even as an adult) if they ever need help.
I'm very empathetic to Sam and this article, because his journey mirrors my own in a fantastical way. But unlike Sam, I didn't really have an starting point, I just never really had friends in school, and as such found welcome refugee in places like r/KotakuInAction, r/mensrights etc. I don't think I ever adopted quite as extreme attitudes, but I too was saved by meeting someone in real life and gaining more perspective.
Like Sam, I wasn't ever really conviced of those views, I was simply looking for a place to belong to. I found that in university, with a circle of friends and a girlfriend, I can say I'm finally properly living life.
18 votes -
Comment on Game of Thrones Season 8 Episode 4 discussion in ~tv
Grzmot Link Parent GRRM at least gave a shit about battle tactics. It's clear D&D either don't, or didn't have enough time to write all this stuff out properly after the show surpassed the books. What makes the fall...GRRM at least gave a shit about battle tactics. It's clear D&D either don't, or didn't have enough time to write all this stuff out properly after the show surpassed the books. What makes the fall of GoT so frustrating is that Seasons 1-5 were all very good. S6 was where we first saw writing without any real guidance from GRRM. It's clear that D&D either lack the interest or the ability to write for TV on such a level. Euron is a poor cop-out to level the playing field for the two sides, and every time he does something it's infuriating. Rhaegal's death even more so. It didn't make any physical sense. Sure, the ballistas are powerful enough to pierce dragon scales. But the positioning... THEY WERE HIT HEAD ON. ARE YOU TELLING ME NO ONE SAW THAT HUGE ASS FLEET JUST CHILLING THERE. FROM THE AIR?!
Honestly the only way this episode could've saved itself was if Missandei just grabbed Cersei and had murder-suicided the both of them off that high wall. Why Cersei didn't give the command to just shoot the dragon standing there in plain sight I don't fucking understand. Everyone's stupid. There isn't a single smart choice made by any of the characters in this episode, save for maybe Podrick scooping up that second lady that the hound scowled (you can see that happen in the background during the Sansa-Hound conversation).
11 votes -
Comment on AIs should have the same ethical protections as animals in ~tech
Grzmot Link Parent That comparison is a bit of a stretch don't you think? A house burning down vs. the invention of aritificial intelligence? If we work out a definition of consciousness, and we do in fact invent a...I can't talk about what to do if my house burns down tomorrow because predicting things is just a fruitless thought exercise.
That comparison is a bit of a stretch don't you think? A house burning down vs. the invention of aritificial intelligence?
If we work out a definition of consciousness, and we do in fact invent a system in the future to which it applies, it would deserve some sort of protection. If we even somehow manage for it to achieve human-level intellect, we might as well just draft up the title Rights of Artifical Lifeforms and copypaste the human rights in there.
A hypothetical discussion can also provide useful insights into reality.
I agree, but perhaps it's just differences in character, but I'd still prefer approaching a problem directly instead of discussing something else entirely and accidentally stumbling into a possible solution.
And... if we ever do happen to create a sentient artificial intelligence... wouldn't it be better to have worked out in advance whether we will accord it ethical treatment, now, while we have the time to discuss this in full at our leisure, rather than having to rush the discussion at the last minute when the sentient AI is already here, and we may already being doing harm?
I mean, we have human rights, and those still get ignored on a daily basis around the world. I'd be good, but I don't think it would help a lot. Perhaps first world countries (whichever countries that would be at that point) could become more egalitarian towards robots.
You seem to fall into the camp that sentience can not arise through deliberate action, but only by accident. The only way for an entity to become sentient is through an unknown accidental method, rather than by a deliberate process. That seems quite illogical - that something which can happen accidentally can not also happen through deliberate action.
My point was there that the achieving sentience through accident is impossible, as evolution doesn't apply here, and designing it is currently deemed a worthless endeavour by both academics, corporations and governments (the only real powers in play here that could achieve this). I don't think accidents and design exclude each other. An accident can be designed to happen again, and design can lead to accidents and thus, new discoveries.
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Comment on A homeless Oakland couple moved into a $4 million Piedmont home. Then came the calls to police in ~life
Grzmot Link Perhaps if the upper-class would stop living in walled, guarded gardens they'd do more to fix the problems our society faces. I can understand the desire to live away from those problems, but the...Perhaps if the upper-class would stop living in walled, guarded gardens they'd do more to fix the problems our society faces. I can understand the desire to live away from those problems, but the only reason they found themselves confronted with those problems is because McGrath himself grew up in a poor family and managed to keep his head out of the clouds while becoming wealthy. Instead of following his (amazing, might I say) example, they chose to call the police. Repeatedly. Or the neighborhood association.
There are probably better ways to fix societies' issues with the homeless, but giving them a stable home is a step in the right direction. Next would be turning them into (or back into) productive members of society.
7 votes -
Comment on Supergiant Games is now on Itch.io (Except Hades) in ~games
Grzmot Link Parent I certainly hope so. Apparently indie developers especially have begun declining Epic's offers in fear of damage to their PR status. Supergiant going on itch.io hopefully means they won't be doing...I certainly hope so. Apparently indie developers especially have begun declining Epic's offers in fear of damage to their PR status. Supergiant going on itch.io hopefully means they won't be doing such deals in the future. I'm still interested in Hades once it leaves the Epic Games Store.
6 votes -
Comment on My Childhood in a Cult in ~life
Grzmot Link A nice article. To be honest, the Lyman cult seems rather tame than some others. Doesn't mean that it's good, it's not, but I expected worse. Perhaps the author was just lucky with her experience....A nice article. To be honest, the Lyman cult seems rather tame than some others. Doesn't mean that it's good, it's not, but I expected worse. Perhaps the author was just lucky with her experience. I can imagine the girl chosen by the leader had a terrible time, though he at least had the sense of waiting for an appropriate age (removing the child from child rapist, ... yaay /s.)
It's also interesting how the author's exposure to the outside world was the only thing that kept her from rejoining in the end, showing how important it is to keep an open mind and try an experience as many different things as possible. If she had stayed, she wouldn't have questioned the patriarchal gender roles that the cult had established. Surprisingly enough, everyone had the possibility of leaving, as shown by her mother. Though that's often easier said than done, because cults isolate, and leaving a support network, even an abusive one, is always hard. Especially so if it is your only support network.
2 votes -
Comment on Markdown preview is now available when writing topics/comments/etc. in ~tildes.official
Grzmot Link Parent As someone familiar with tech (4th semester computer science student) but completely unfamiliar with web dev, do you have a good point to start?As someone familiar with tech (4th semester computer science student) but completely unfamiliar with web dev, do you have a good point to start?
5 votes -
Comment on World of Goo Update, 10 Years Later in ~games
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Comment on Minecraft creator Notch excluded from 10-year anniversary plans for the game because of his "comments and opinions" in ~games
Grzmot (edited ) Link Parent In short: there's a dude on 4chan claiming to be some high horse in the Whitehouse, calling himself Q. He's put some wild shit out there, at some point claiming that Trump is playing 4D chess...In short: there's a dude on 4chan claiming to be some high horse in the Whitehouse, calling himself Q. He's put some wild shit out there, at some point claiming that Trump is playing 4D chess working to uncover some secret democrat pedophile ring and that's why he's doing such dumb shit in public.
Basically, trumpet voters in denial that they voted a fucking idiot into office.
22 votes -
Comment on AIs should have the same ethical protections as animals in ~tech
Grzmot Link Parent Here referred to Tildes in general, not this thread specifically. Predicting things that are going to happen in the far future is almost always a fruitless thought exercise. I was not implying...What comments?
Here referred to Tildes in general, not this thread specifically.
Are you implying that there is no possibility of sentience in robots ever? That seems unlikely. It might not happen soon, but it probably will happen. If a bunch of carbon-based cells can achieve self-awareness and sentience, why not a bunch of silicon-based cells?
Predicting things that are going to happen in the far future is almost always a fruitless thought exercise. I was not implying anything. A discussion of wherever it will happen or not is a senseless one, the same way a discussion about the possibility (or more likely, the high probability) of alien life is.
My point is, "AI" today has little to do with sentient intelligence in the way you're probably thinking of it. Even more so, our carbon-based cells achieved sentience through evolution, while the "silicone-based cells" aren't part of evolution, because
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They are not alive
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They were designed by us, and so aren't part of the natural order
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Computers haven't been around for a very long time, AI even less so, and evolution works at a glacial pace
Research dealing with actual digital sentience is barely moving forward, because no one is actually interested in it. An AI today is in most cases just a neural network trained to do a very specific task, like recognizing images or playing a strategy game really well. While the AI might become more precise (or not, if you train it badly), which is what people refer to as the learning part of AI.
Part of growing up is setting your own goals in life. As a baby, you begin with simple goals put objects into your mouth to get to know their shape, because your hands aren't precise enough. You crawl around, learn to walk and eventually you start setting your own, more complex goals, like the desire to learn a certain profession, go to a certain place or meet certain people. AI can't set it's own goals, there's no part in the image detection algorithm that starts pondering on the meaning of life after you stop using it. There's also no way for it to branch out in that direction, because the learning part of AI is really just optimizing a mathematical function. It's not writing code, or even modifying it's own code. It's making numbers more precise. Or not, if you train it badly.
And barely anyone is doing research in that direction, because businesses want a highly specialized AI, not a general purpose one. And as long as there isn't any research done into that area, it won't happen. We could try and answer why a person wants to become a pilot. But we can't answer the how. And if we don't know how something works, we can't turn it into an algorithm. In this case, the how? is an incredibly loaded question with an incredibly complex answer, if there even is one. Even with "big" research done into general purpose AI, I'm not confident we could make it work. There are major hurdles we'd have to overcome.
Even more so, that the non-existant feelings of the robots were the first thing people jumped to, not the implications sex bots might have for society and how it could change if our most primal urge is always taken care of, just shows how detached from reality such discussions become.
And, then, having created an artificial intelligence with sentience, do you believe we would not then download that AI into a robot for a human's pleasure? Have you met the human race? Of course we would! There would be artificial sentient sex slaves if we don't prevent it somehow.
If it were to exist, I agree with you there, this would definitely happen. It'd be the civil rights movement all over again, which is why sentient AI is often used in sci-fi stories as a parallel for this exact thing.
Why do you assume that Reddit users are tech-knowledgeable?
Probably because I only browse tech-centric subs. But yes, I concede, my point was stupid. I've seen some... bold claims even in tech subs.
From redditors? Seriously? This is a website where the biggest and most popular sub-forums are based around memes and other shallow jokes. Also, the stereotype that redditors don't read articles exists for a reason.
Not from redditors, from tildians, i.e redditors who joined this site in search for proper, deeper discussions, I'd expect a certain baseline of engagement on here because the standard is higher. Read the article (if there is one), do some research, write a comment. A basic search query often does the job. I've not seen this here (and I hope it never comes to that), but I've seen things asked in reddit comments that would be answered in literally the first result of a search on your favourite search engine
But, even so, we on Tildes are still human beings, with all the flaws pertaining thereto. Some of us, therefore, are not going to know everything about all things. Some of us will be opinionated. Some of us will spout off without deep thought. We're just ordinary flesh and blood beings, and we're not perfect.
To this community's credit, most people follow the higher standard and I hope this will only improve with time. I just wish that that the quick internet search after reading the article would become standard as well. This of course doesn't always work if the article/post isn't interesting enough to you personally, but if you're already writing a comment, you might as well just go the extra mile. As the barrier to putting your thoughts up on this sight is higher than just saying them out loud, I'd hope that people put a bit more work into it, because that's how you keep those high standards alive. It isn't perfect, nor would I want it to be, because perfection isn't an achievable goal, but it'd be very close to it.
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Comment on AIs should have the same ethical protections as animals in ~tech
Grzmot Link Parent I agree with you here, and that statement of mine might have come off as a bit arrogant to be honest. The thing with AI is, that it's a very complex piece of software engineering. I only...I agree with you here, and that statement of mine might have come off as a bit arrogant to be honest. The thing with AI is, that it's a very complex piece of software engineering. I only understand the basic principles of neural networks and I can't fathom how complex a real AI quickly becomes. And you're right, just reading up on it isn't as simple as I made it seem. Most of the knowledge on the subject is either hidden in PhD papers, university lectures or overly complex books.
Perhaps I'm just jaded by all the recent news about how AI will either fix everything, destroy everything or just help you make your photos look better. And while the point of Tildes is discussion and learning from each other through this, sometimes posts come off fairly ignorant. "AI" is far away from any intelligence we posess, it's really just a complex piece of software designed ot handle a specialized task like image detection. Most people only know "AI" from sci-fi media and associate something entirely different with it.
3 votes -
Comment on AIs should have the same ethical protections as animals in ~tech
Grzmot Link Parent Thanks for this take. Some of the comments here remind me of when that article about making sex robots illegal was posted and people supported the idea based on the fact that the robots could...Thanks for this take. Some of the comments here remind me of when that article about making sex robots illegal was posted and people supported the idea based on the fact that the robots could become sentient and then we'd have sex slaves.
...It was weird. Considering most of Tildes userbase is derived from reddit, I thought we'd have a more tech-knowledgeable crowd, or at least people who'd try to read up on something before talking about it.
4 votes
Why do people still bother with Shapiro? He's a twat who never argues in good faith and who's ultimate tactic in every debate he has been in was drowning their opponent in so much bullshit that they can't refute it in time and he looks like the winner by the end of it. If you actually ask him hard-hitting questions, he avoids them or makes another ridicolous point. A
quotefrom the recent BBC interview with him (please watch, the ending especially is highly entertaining):EDIT: This isn't a quote, but an example of a non-sequitur, a rhetoric Shapiro loves to use.
Interviewer: How do you feel about the fact that Donald Trump's campaign shared polling data with Russian operatives in the Ukraine.
Shapiro: Blacks commit a disproportionate amount of crime in this country, and that's a fact.
Interviewer: What? That's not the subject we're currently on.
Shapiro: You didn't dispute my point.
Neil had Shapiro by the balls here, and instead of showing an actual spine and maybe some brain, Shapiro wiggled out of it by making a statement that (at least in the US) would require some sort of rebuttal. I'd love it if Neil had just repeated his question over and over again, but that would've mean that Shapiro would've just stormed out earlier.
Surprisingly enough, a man that made a living by "debating" (i.e. screaming into their faces) college kids on the road and editing it together in a way that made him look good) can't actually debate for shit. Except the thing is, the college kids have stayed the same age and Shapiro is steadily walking towards 40. He's soon going to be a middle-aged dude known primarily for yelling at college kids. And this shows, because he ends the BBC interview by storming out and accusing Andrew fucking Neil of being a nobody and bragging about how popular he is. He's an actual man-child.
What a fucking legacy.