SloMoMonday's recent activity
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
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Comment on What is your top, unknown, non fiction recommendation ? in ~books
SloMoMonday LinkI'm on a bit of a food-history/stories kick after I read Ritz and Escoffier (Luke Barr) at an AirBnB. Recently flew through: Provence by Luke Barr Spice by Rodger Crowley The Brewers Tale by...I'm on a bit of a food-history/stories kick after I read Ritz and Escoffier (Luke Barr) at an AirBnB. Recently flew through:
Provence by Luke Barr
Spice by Rodger Crowley
The Brewers Tale by William Bostwick
Frostbite by Nicola Twilley -
Comment on Slay the Spire 2 launches into Early Access in ~games
SloMoMonday LinkGames like StS and Balatro only really work as mobile games for me so I'll probably dig into it there. Its either a single run in 5min breaks over a few days or I play near non-stop over an 8 hour...Games like StS and Balatro only really work as mobile games for me so I'll probably dig into it there. Its either a single run in 5min breaks over a few days or I play near non-stop over an 8 hour transit. And I've also been burnt by playing way too much Hades 2 in EA and it sort of ruined the 1.0.
Completely unrelated, my wife has now declared the Steam Deck as her Slay the Spire 2 machine. So from my view over her shoulder, its hitting that same feeling I got from Silksong. Looks like more of the same, until I realized just how small the original was. And i might just be overexposed to the original, but this game is just dripping with detail and color.
Cant speak to gameplay, but she insists Necro and Pimp Hand is the best character.
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Comment on Audible offers Standard membership plan - $8.99 for access to Audible Plus and a book a month that is NOT retained when you're unsubscribed. in ~books
SloMoMonday Link ParentI was trying to think up a clandestine way to express it, but I've not eaten all day and running on fumes. I'm in desperate need of Libation <<.I was trying to think up a clandestine way to express it, but I've not eaten all day and running on fumes. I'm in desperate need of Libation <<.
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Comment on Anthropic drops flagship safety pledge in ~tech
SloMoMonday Link ParentThis is a concept called Jagged Intelligence in AI and it completely breaks the idea of models "reasoning" and "thinking" through problems. Because how do you reason though something without first...This is a concept called Jagged Intelligence in AI and it completely breaks the idea of models "reasoning" and "thinking" through problems.
Because how do you reason though something without first principles and logically sequenced steps.
This is where I think the whole meme of Fancy Autocomplete comes from. Because I believe many of these models are trained to tests and advanced problems, simply to play to the human intuition of accumulating intelligence.
The type of summary you made represents an LLMs ability to rationalize the most prevalent token chains from long string sets and develop summaries. You are a responsible user that acknowledged the limitations and possibly for errors.
I don't think that's how many corporate divers of AI tech use it and put a lot of stock in benchmarks and accolades.
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Comment on Anthropic drops flagship safety pledge in ~tech
SloMoMonday Link ParentIt is not a matter of syntax. It's semantics. If I get the syntax wrong with a programatic system, it throws an error. More likely, a system will have methods to normalize ambiguous data points....It is not a matter of syntax. It's semantics.
If I get the syntax wrong with a programatic system, it throws an error. More likely, a system will have methods to normalize ambiguous data points. Theres a reason why we don't have to group our numbers like this in data entry.
If I make a similar error with a Language Model, it still throws an answer. And I had to reveal the reasoning layer to audit how we got to that answer.
I don't care if a system CAN correctly answer questions. It MUST correctly answer questions. A syntax or user input error has to throw an error and if it can't do that, why is this tech in on the market.
The equation I asked was directly copied from the Samsung calculator app and this was the formatting of the numbers. There are instances where digits are grouped with commas and dots at decimal. Also instances with space groups and commas for decimals. One of my old clients was on the older side and had pipe symbols for groupings and kept the decimal in the next cell.
All of those differences are semantic because it's just the "rendering" of the data. In the background, the data is universally represented. Regardless of the viewers preferred syntax, the meaning should be consistent.
LLMs do not have semantic reasoning and at the same time, does not normalize data points to a standard format. If I'm having an LLM process massive data sets and there are semantic differences between comparative data points, what happenes.
This is not simply a user error situation. It is a strategic vulnerability. Natural language is high noise and high loss and there is massive token overlap across domains. At the same time, models do not have logical or reasoning systems. Its just a large scale rationalization engine that can be subverted with malicious prompt chains and biased training.
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Comment on Anthropic drops flagship safety pledge in ~tech
SloMoMonday LinkUnderlying reasons aside, I really don't trust any of the AI companies as far as I can throw a data center and I was already sceptical on their ideas of AI safety. I don't consider much of their...Underlying reasons aside, I really don't trust any of the AI companies as far as I can throw a data center and I was already sceptical on their ideas of AI safety. I don't consider much of their "research" to be anything more than AI fan fiction and have already had my rants on thier papers about AI introspection and AI blackmail.
I keep seeing pieces about how these companies "can't turn off their AIs" or how "they don't even understand how it works" and even how their LLMs are in the top percentiles of Maths Olympiads and Coders. I literally typed "What is 784×413 698×225 786×2÷15" into Google and the first AI generated answer was:
python
result = 784 * 413 * 698 * 225 * 786 * 2 / 15
print(f"{result=}").
result=5329240721280.0My crappy desk calculator shows 9 764 167 711 513,6. Do I trust the cheap legacy hardware that gives my the same answer over and over and goes into error if I use it incorrectly. Or the multi billion dollar AI that gives me 5,329,240,721,280 the second time and then this whole mess even though the correct answer shows up in the "thinking" as:
res1 = 784 * 413 * 698 * 225 * 786 * 2 / 15
res2 = 784 * 413698 * 225786 * 2 / 15
print(f"{res1=}")
print(f"{res2=}")
Individual parts
part1 = 784 * 413
part2 = 698 * 225
part3 = 786 * 2 / 15
print(f"{part1=}, {part2=}, {part3=}")
res1=5329240721280.0
res2=9764167711513.6
part1=323792, part2=157050, part3=104.8You could argue that I should prompt better or that it's up to me to verify the outputs. But this is an all powerful genius level everything machine that has already cost tens of thousands of people their incomes. It should be able to do basic maths.
What does this have to do with AI Safety?
Everything really.Because I don't think the AI apocalypse will happen because of some major military operation where they turn off the AI safeguards and the machines go crazy. I think it'll happen because the machines are going to misinterpret some critical semantic point and give the wrong person the wrong information at the worst possible time and they make a bad decision with it.
If you can't interrupt a system while it's on bad rationalization pathways, then you have a bad system. If you don't understand how the system is reasoning or reaching outcomes, then you probably have no handle on the inputs and training data. If your system needs audits to identify errors in extended outputs, then maybe it should not be in live environments.
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Comment on What are your architectural hot takes? in ~design
SloMoMonday (edited )Link ParentI would argue that not all brutalist designs are created equally. Contemporary Brutalist design integrates complementary or contrasting elements. Early examples are 70s projects like the Barbican...I would argue that not all brutalist designs are created equally.
Contemporary Brutalist design integrates complementary or contrasting elements. Early examples are 70s projects like the Barbican estates in London by Chamberlin, Powell and Bon with large gardens and water features or the renovated Pharaoh House in Germany, by Karl Helmut Bayer that incorporated a lot of color and plant life into its stepped balconies. The current trend is Eco Brutalist. Examples would be Jungle House by Mk27 in Brazil which represents a structure that's sunken into its environment. Its made of wide horizontal lines but can be opened from end to end so it seems like the the environment can almost pass through the building.
Alternatively there's the Cornwell Gardens House in Singapore by CHENG Architects where creeping greenery is incorporated into the design obscure the hard geometry.I'm a bit of a Brutalist style enjoyer. Did not like the movie though. Not enough buildings.
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Comment on The AI disruption has arrived, and it sure is fun (gifted link) in ~tech
SloMoMonday Link ParentThis is just from the outside looking in and maybe things are going great, but the question of America "falling behind" will not be helped by the current AI strategy in the States. China isn't...- Exemplary
This is just from the outside looking in and maybe things are going great, but the question of America "falling behind" will not be helped by the current AI strategy in the States.
China isn't exactly all rainbows and sunshine either, but they don't have 40% of their economy in the AI basket.In the same way, ByteDance is not putting all its prospects on AI. If the tech proves to be another fad, BytePlus (ByteDance AI division AFAIK) takes a hit and its at most a $200bil investment lost. They still have TikTok global, Douyin (Chinese tiktok), Nuverse is their games division and a few social media and web services in South/East Asia. They can buy from NVidia but also have access to Chineese foundries so are not subject to the inflating hardware costs. But most importantly, Chinese AI labs don't need to be on the bleeding edge of AI research. It is known that ByteDance used western models and data sets to make their own and have delivered tangible results with a distributed, lower cost research structure.
By contrast, Microsoft has cannibalized its developers, multiple divisions and a lot of goodwill in the pursuit of Copilot, and this is on the back of a lot of unpopular decisons. There serious consideration to untangle systems from full MS stacks. Some going as far as client machines, which would have been insane even a year ago.
Mark Zuckerberg is probably over the moon because the AI money furnace has replaced the Metaverse money furnace. Elon Musk has killed Twitter, Tesla EV's and is looking ready to put SpaceX on the line for his dream of humanoid-AI-robot-slave-girlfriends. NVidia is a big winner now but can they really keep burning so hot if every financial report is make-or-break. And Anthropic and openAi are nothing more than acquisition pigs that might just be past their prime and I suspect will soon be bought outright or fizzle out . This is 20% of the US economy. Another 20% is Apple and Google who are probably playing this smarter than the rest, but whats driving growth there if not AI. More google ads? More power for your web clients and text messages?What does this have to do with national security?
Everything is riding on not just the mass adoption of AI, but the exponential returns it promises. Because so much is on the line, rational decisions are not being made. That is not security.Two related examples: If China just started mass exporting fairly priced traditional hardware today, I suspect that's multiple US companies and Taiwan's semiconductor market gone (and all the Geo-political securities with it). Those AI chips are paid for and once you become an unreliable supplier, customers are not changing supply chains again to give you a second chance. And even with the trade war, there is demand for that hardware in the States. Dropping tariffs signals weakness. Keeping it fuels unrest and encourages black market trade and all the security risks that entails.
What if they China starts putting out GPUs at fractions of NVidia prices? Blackwells are not magical. They can be reversed engineered, iterated on, even streamlined and downsized. ByteDance plans to buy 2000. US companies are committed to NVidia supply for at least two years. Canada is looking very cozy with China and have just iced out the US from a Can-Aus-UK-EU deal. China is lowering trade barriers and there are already ships of low cost of dirt cost consumer goods, as well as Solar Panels and Inverters and going everywhere. Whats the play then? Strong arm the entire world into not taking a good deal?
Besides all that, what does an AI national security failure look like? Killer robots, digital/info warfare and instant atomic apocalypse have been facts of life for a while. So what does bad AI superpower do?
I imagine utility grids being vulnerable and hundreds of thousands of people at risk of loosing access to water and power. Mass surveillance as tools for targeting dissent and blackmail. Unreliable information systems leading to ineffective decision making and centralized failure cascades. Seamless social engineering through manipulating online discussion, algorithmic feeds and broadcast media. A military and police state that can act and kill with impunity, beyond oversight or controls. Peoples jobs and incomes being constantly on edge while asset ownership is impossible, even for creatives and inventors. Third parties having complete control of your hardware, storage and tools. An economy constantly on the verge of hyper/stagflation. Intellectual regression through the loss of skills, knowledge centers and education, leading to occult, mythical or magical thinking. Population collapse. Face scanning to access communication channels. Your doorbell spying on you. Society wide existential dread.
If that's the case, it just sounds a lot like the cost of AI progress. You could argue that it's not the fault of AI for most of these social failures but it is well known where the AI oligarchs all stand on these matters.
The whole AI bubble is a chatGPT mash-up of all the social panics: from the Red Scare where the social/moral conformity justified programs like MK Ultra and Standford Prison Projects, to the "stopping another 9/11" mindset that led to the DHS surveillance state and even hints of "fixing 2008" by throwing money at billionaires at the expense of American taxpayers. Constantly leveraging real risks and anxiety to justify rampant abuse and profiteering. And things never seem to get better or go back to normal.
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Comment on Voyager Technologies CEO says space data center cooling problem still needs to be solved in ~space
SloMoMonday Link ParentMy first reaction when hearing tech billionaires talk about sprawling space based infrastructure was "Oh no. They really believe space is cold because of ice." Isn't this high school physics....My first reaction when hearing tech billionaires talk about sprawling space based infrastructure was "Oh no. They really believe space is cold because of ice."
Isn't this high school physics. Matter states are relative to the atmosphere. Remove atmosphere and there is just dense blocks of solid stuff or clouds of gas stuff. Even if they somehow have a convoy of ships ferrying chunks of ice from around the solar system to vaporize against their machines, what then. Unless they plan to pour all that energy, god knows what gasses and moisture right back at earth. That may be ecologically worse than having these things on the ground?
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Comment on Is it possible to live without WhatsApp? in ~tech
SloMoMonday (edited )LinkWhile it is functionally impossible to drop WhatsApp where I am, I think I have a good personal policy for using the service. I've also made sure to properly broadcast that policy over the years....While it is functionally impossible to drop WhatsApp where I am, I think I have a good personal policy for using the service. I've also made sure to properly broadcast that policy over the years. My profile pic is of my WhatsApp icon with the 999+ notification bubble and my bio/status says to call if something is urgent. Family and friends know I never look at group chats and that any activity under my name is most likely from my wife or kid. There's a handfull of pinned chats that take priority and send notifications. Everything else is noise I may or may not attend to.
Professionally on the other hand, is a complete disaster. I work for a pretty shallow company structure and the owners have a thing about making sure everyone is "on the same page".
So every little thing is a WhatsApp group that everyone is a part of. Every customer and supplier is a seperate group chat. There is a staff group and also a group just for managers and then a group for Admin/Office managers and one for Floor Managers and a group for drivers and dispatch and one just for dispatch.
But it makes no difference because a lot of people are in all of them. And while the owners have the time to go through the 88 office groups, no one else does.
I don't like WhatsApp and other IM apps because it comes with expectations that everyone has of each other but no one can agree on what they are. A lot of people expect it to flow back and forth like a conversation leaving part way is rude. Other people treat it like email and get to messages in their own time. A few special people flip flop based on if they are sending or receiving msgs.
Some people see it as a sort of information sharing hub but that becomes less and less useful the longer some chats drag on. For other people its a social space that can very often balloon into a meaningless mass. Its a business platform and sales channel. A hub for short form content. Project management software. An LLM interface for some reason. A marketing space...
Its used for everything, but isn't everything. Its a text and media sharing platform. A part of bigger solutions. But its so ingrained in culture, people are constantly reinventing bad utilities on top of it.
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Comment on Recommendations needed: Favorite “comfort” movies in ~movies
SloMoMonday LinkThe Paddington movies. There is a new third movie that's pretty forgettable, but 1 and 2 are just magical. (Theres also a stage production in the UK and from what I hear it's amazing as well) The...The Paddington movies. There is a new third movie that's pretty forgettable, but 1 and 2 are just magical. (Theres also a stage production in the UK and from what I hear it's amazing as well)
The Speed Racer movie. It's probably the best video game movie for a game that doesn't exist.
I also have a collection of old Jackie Chan and James Bond movies I keep on a second screen during long stretches of work. Mostly movies from the 90s and earlier where they don't take themselves too seriously.
The French Dispatch and The Grand Budapest Hotel. I'm sort of a selective Wes Anderson fan. Hard to believe since I have to watch his works a dozen or so times to decide if I like them. These two are probably my favorites and a joy to experience.
Oceans Eleven. Just a beautifully choreographed heist with a soundtrack to match.
The Hudsucker Proxy is another very stylized film with a goofy and wholesome plot.
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Comment on Far Cry 5 | When gameplay and story fundamentally oppose each other in ~games
SloMoMonday LinkAll of Ubisofts "main" games are series that comes across as "lab grown fun". And Far Cry best illustrates that. I remember in the before times of 2005 where Far Cry 1 was more of a linear...All of Ubisofts "main" games are series that comes across as "lab grown fun". And Far Cry best illustrates that.
I remember in the before times of 2005 where Far Cry 1 was more of a linear immersive sim that was pretty fun... until it got weird and then it lost me with the mutants and the volcano. Interesting ideas that didn't stick the landing.
I like that Far Cry 2 went into a more gritty and realistic direction. Some interesting systems with the gun quality, malaria and messy map. I think it was actually held back by the open world and could have benefited from more focus on the interesting elements and less long, pointless drives.
Far Cry 3, like the first, was interesting for the first half and then just felt pointless. I think this was the game that really started to lean into the Assasins creed tropes and it got very boring after the good villian dies and you have to do it again. Blood dragon was a blast though.
And from there, it's all games I dropped after a few hours.
Far Cry 4 had an annoying environment to traverse and forgettable plot/villain.
I think Far Cry 5 would have played much better if they leaned into supernatural elements and made it a horror game. It was clear that they wanted to do social commentary. But corporate safe commentary that did nothing.
Far Cry 6... Not going to lie, I saw gameplay and a few reviews and didn't feel a thing. This was on the back of AC Valhalla, Watchdogs Legion and The Division 2 all falling flat next to Ghost of Tsushima, Death Stranding and Sekiro. Ubisoft managed to hit the lowest possible point of customer sentiment, complete indifference.
And I had to ask myself, when did I ever enjoy Ubisoft games. I loved the original Prince of Persia trilogy and was very excited about the reboot. Played the entire AC2 saga with my siblings and Black Flag really hit on something special. Beyond Good and Evil was an interesting adventure. Might and Magic strategy games was cool in concept but never seemed to update. Dark Messiah is still my favorite physics game. Anno 1701 and 2070 were cool semi-narrative city builders that paved the way for games like Frostpunk and Ixion. Still love Splinter Cell being the dollar store Solid Snake and the Tom Clancy Universe had some real bright spots before it was all Siege, all the time. South Park Stick of Truth was incredible, even if the second fell short. Trackmania was a lot of fun but the whole Live Service thing killed some of the magic. My favorite "lost" game, Blazing Angles 2 was developed by Ubisoft. The hand drawn Rayman games are gorgeous with incredible soundtracks.
Ubisoft really had a ton going on for a long time. A robust portfolio where a lot of small wins covered big losses and big wins covered small losses. I can't think of anything after 2015 that had me genuinely excited. The same year Vevendi tried to buy them out.
I really want to know who informed Ubisofts strategy after that. It wasn't a perfect company before with all the toxic leadership and institutional bloat. But they had a diverse strategy that allowed them to hit multiple niches and offset risk. Then they adopted the universal big media strategy of putting every egg in a few big name IP baskets and expect the market to reward them with exponential returns.
This was the same sort of resource consolidation that hit every big media company from Disney to Netflix to even YouTube. Over invest in the biggest name or latest trend and expect the market to respond with exponential returns. I'm very curious if this was a natural convergence of ideas or if there was a third party consultanting house driving this narrative across the industry. This was also around the time Embracer started paying top dollar for IP rights and just before platform services like GamePass were offering massive payouts to be on their services. Was the plan to artificially drive up IP value and expect a business client or subscription charges to foot the bill?
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Comment on What’s a point that you think many people missed? in ~talk
SloMoMonday LinkNo one is immune to social engineering. And it's not just scams and security. Marketing, algorithms and bias framing is all around us. Most people are too fatigued and overwhelmed to critically...No one is immune to social engineering. And it's not just scams and security. Marketing, algorithms and bias framing is all around us. Most people are too fatigued and overwhelmed to critically filter everything.
Something important to keep in mind is false equivalencies, especially in advertising.
Cheap is not always economical. Fast is not always efficient. Easy is not always simple. Impressive is not always useful. Likely is not ever guaranteed. Possible is not always ready. Popular is not always good. Newer/bigger/expensive is not always better.
There's so many times I've had someone intentionally twist their words to affect peoples judgement while covering their own ass.
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Comment on US withdraws from sixty-six international organisations in ~society
SloMoMonday Link ParentIts pretty much the textbook example of "a stupid weak mans idea of an intelligent strong man". It seems like the people in power are not content with status and influence if it doesn't look and...Its pretty much the textbook example of "a stupid weak mans idea of an intelligent strong man". It seems like the people in power are not content with status and influence if it doesn't look and feel like their ideals of status and influence. The schoolyard bully idea of power.
Oversight, controls and alliances are beneficial because it incentivizes everyone to play nice. And the US already carved out exceptions for themselves. Nations would willingly fall in line because doing so gave them access to NATO protection, UN networks, US products/western markets and the IMF.
Walking away from the table now leaves room for others to make new deals at your expense.
America was also able to keep conflict far away from their borders and shield the population from the realities of war. Now they threaten Mexico, Greenland and Canada because they can.
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Comment on I am kinda curious about the demographics of Tildes in ~talk
SloMoMonday Link ParentI know it's not the smartest time to do it with the current economy, but in November this office went from just another shit office to an actual concern for my safety. The hostile response to my...I know it's not the smartest time to do it with the current economy, but in November this office went from just another shit office to an actual concern for my safety. The hostile response to my resignation letter pretty much sealed the deal and I'm keeping a low profile until I'm out on the 21st.
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Comment on I am kinda curious about the demographics of Tildes in ~talk
SloMoMonday LinkMid 30s, Indian male. Currently in South Africa. Don't think I can call myself a developer anymore and in a few days I'll be a former "administrative manager".Mid 30s, Indian male. Currently in South Africa.
Don't think I can call myself a developer anymore and in a few days I'll be a former "administrative manager". -
Comment on What are some stories of progressivism gone wrong in implementation? in ~society
SloMoMonday (edited )Link ParentHoly crap. I was drafting this out and life got very hectic, very quickly. Must have hit post on my phone by mistake. Its a bit longer because theres a lot of context that most people won't know....- Exemplary
Holy crap. I was drafting this out and life got very hectic, very quickly. Must have hit post on my phone by mistake.
Its a bit longer because theres a lot of context that most people won't know.
So the project I wanted to pay attention to was BBBEE (Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment). This was the big step up from the placeholder BEE initiative set in 1994.
This was a project that had the best of intentions. Primary one being that formerly disadvantaged people would be the priority recipients of government business support. At the same time the country did not want to chase off the existing white businesses so they were also given a pathway to equity and could be eligible for the same benefits. They just needed to demonstrate meaningful proportional representation in the companies structures.
The problem is that on a national scale, its very difficult to fairly assess each and every business and needed metrics. They developed a scorecard and rating system.
Now we only got to see the worst form of this project because of our esteemed former president, Jacob Fucking Zuma. Nalson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki were disappointing in that they were unable to meet the high expectations while preserving monied interests and still skimming a little off the top. But there was at least an attempt to keep things going. Not with our boy Jacob.
We moved from general BEE to the far more involved BBBEE around 2005 and it only come into effect around 2007/8. Zuma brute forced his way into the presidency in 2009. And let's just politely say that he was not acting in the national interest.
Jcob (curses upon his name) Zuma is very much a parallel to Trump and there is so much to tackle there. Right down rallying youth movements behind bullshit causes, to being under the influence of foreign business and stripping government departments and infrastructure for parts. Its a whole series of essays on its own and its been partially documented by the Zodo Commission of Enquiry into State Capture. This is a dense read but a very valuable (and expensive) lesson that no one outside South Africa thought was worth paying attention to. Generations of opportunity were stolen from under our nose, but that just Africa problems. Not something you'd see in the first world.
The BBBEE system was not perfect, but still a policy written by Intelligent people with solid justifications at the time And it was reduced to a quota system.
Now is whe the touchy part that I disclaimed with previously comes in. This policy only really applied to businesses but we believed it was everywhere all the time. Suddenly, if you didn't make it into university or get a job, it's because of BEE. If you company lost a massive government contract, it's because of BEE. Decline of inner cities. Falling education standards. Service delivery protests. Infrastructure being stolen in broad daylight. Potholes. Rolling blackouts. It's all just BEE.
Yes, we were being governed by a con artist and his chronies. But he was only there because of BEE. We doing the angry DEI rants before it was cool.
Even amazing public servants were removed from office to facilitate looting and it was masked as a BEE initiative.
Over the 2010s there was an entire industry around mathematical manipulation of ones business to get to Level 1 status. At it's worst, you could just give a cleaning lady a fancy title and score points. And it wasn't a big secret. I believe my mom and aunt were a "directors" in my dads business for female representation.
This prevalence of manipulating numbers combined with the, new national reality, open corruption and the very obvious social decline; you can imagine what some some people tried to scapegoat to push various agendas.
And that's when you started to see the whole, "it was better under apartheid" narrative spinning up.
Because the blame game is so easy: The wrong people were in charge and bad things happened. Same way you can see the sorry state of many black areas that were racial dumping grounds compared to the former "white only" areas. Black people had every advantage over 30 years and they couldn't keep the lights on and the streets clean.
The reality is that when 80+% of the population gets equal rights, there is going to be unilateral impacts. And unfortunately the country was only really geared to service a tiny minority of population. While we had world class cities and infrastructure, it could not keep up to the scale of development and it was only exaggerated under Zuma.
From here the BEE debate spins into extremism in every possible direction.
On one hand there are people saying reconciliation was not nearly enough and we need to expropriation of land and assets for redistribution (I knew someone in uni that genuinely believed it was just about to happen and he could graduate, get his land and live in peace.) The other is that apartheid was better, in that power was focused on people best suited to use it. Another is that the state should leave everything to the private sector and "let markets decide". Or we nationalize everything. Or we should be moving completely away from big business interests and focuse entirely on rural and black communities. Or we just split up the country entirely. Of black people need to get revenge (and this sentiment was a reality and did result if several horrific farm murders. But it's not nearly the "white genocide" some people make it out to be.)
This is just my single view on what happened. There are people that definitely benefited from this initiative. There was most likely deserving people that were considered for a role because of BEE. And there could also have been the reverse where the program was manipulated and the wrong person was put in place. But the discussion doesn't deal in spesifics and edge cases.
"The program started, things got worse, program bad." That's how a lot of people saw it.
I added so much context around this because nothing happens in isolation. I didn't touch on major banks being implicated in devaluing the currency. Or the Gupta Family and the Sahara Business Empire and how they were taken down by a wedding. Or KPMG and SAP not just being complicit in State Calture, but willing participants. Or that time the president was accused of sexual misconduct and he just said that it was okay because he took a shower after. We let that slide but it really came back to bite us. -
Comment on What are some stories of progressivism gone wrong in implementation? in ~society
SloMoMonday LinkSo this is one of those things where there is a very narrow band of rationality between two different flavors of discrimination. So please forgive me if I stray too far one way or the other. After...So this is one of those things where there is a very narrow band of rationality between two different flavors of discrimination. So please forgive me if I stray too far one way or the other.
After apartheid in South Africa there was various reconciliation projects with a wide range of efficacy.
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Comment on Grok AI generates images of ‘minors in minimal clothing’ in ~tech
SloMoMonday LinkTo shift away from the moral bankruptcy needed to make a machine that does this and the consequences of it existing; I'm curious on the How of this particular situation. If this is an "emergent"...To shift away from the moral bankruptcy needed to make a machine that does this and the consequences of it existing; I'm curious on the How of this particular situation.
If this is an "emergent" behaviour, the timing is very convenient. Because in the start of December there was a new light/mid-weight model framework called something like Zee Image. It's one that currently focuses more on realistic people and artificial 'photography". And naturally, it immediately started to be trained for deepfakes. There is already uncensored versions of it along with a full library of LORAs for celebrities, models, athletes and best of all, politicians. (Sidebar: is there anyone I can report these type of things to. I know the bigger model hosting sites draw a line at real people but it's not that hard to find this sort of crap and it's got to be illegal.)
Don't want to speak ill of the lovely AI specialists someone like Elon Musk would hire. But it would be surprised if all those AI researchers are just copying other peoples homework. And in this case they pushed an uncensored version of an open source project. Cant imagine why they would even have an uncensored model in a build, but it seems like an innocent enough mistake.
I started developing this theory when Sora released 6 months after public releases of the Chinese Wan Video Model. Around when people were getting past the models tendency to favor Asian features and there was already a library of different styles and animations. Its not like these companies really care about property rights or intellectual integrity and whats one more thing after strip mining the entire internet.
Finally fixed some Linux driver issues and got down to playing Resident Evil 9.
I'm just a massive fan of the series and playing this, it feels like finally getting what Capcom envisioned for RE6. This is probably the second worst game to jump into the series with and I'd recommend the remakes or RE7 if you're new. I think of it as Fast and Furious of video game series where anyone can easily jump in, except for when the series needs to wrap up plot lines.
Estimating that I'm about half way through and to sum up my non-spoiler feelings. From the first frame of gameplay, it is stunning and runs smoothly on my mid-level machine. Player movement is a little weird with walk/run speed. You can choose first or third person but I'd stick to the default switching for a first play. Body horror and gore is pretty gnarly and in your face, as well as death animations that are on par with Dead Space. There's two difficulty settings and I do not recommend "classic" if you don't want saving to be a resource (seriously, its easy to forget that there is no auto-save). Old Man Leon still does Leon things in Leon ways and its always a treat to get the one liners or some stupid acrobatics.
Spoiler thoughts
Resident Evil is such a fascinating series and I've loved it since watching my uncle play RE2 gave me nightmares as a kid.In spite of that, I don't think RE was ever good at horror. There is amazing tension. First exploring RCPD, Dinner with the Bakers (and Banned Footage DLC), the Doll House. But its always bite sized because a the progressive gameplay loop makes the players more powerful and eventually you're running and gunning your way through hoards. This game tries to subvert that trend by leaving Grace constantly under-powered. All the grace segments are monster movies. Most zombies she faces have unique characteristics and properties that you are forced to navigate around and leverage.
You learn it pretty quickly when you start with the completely empty hotel level, then move to the hospital "Shadow Ghost" monster and then you are thrown to Chef and all the different doctor/nurse zombies of the Hospital. Some of them flick lights on and off. Others will scream to draw attention. It's a tense puzzle box and its only scary the first time. Because at a certain point, you figure out the game is playing by rules. Until the game makes you aware of the threat, you are rarely in danger. You can see in the animations when creatures are on a script and when the AI is attacking. Some scenarios are very clearly choreographed where it's not too difficult to trace the intended solutions.
Does that make the game bad? No. It's just a shame that the series seems to be inching closer to a vision of horror but can never quite reach it. The game-play for Grace is incredibly engaging and I like her as a character who's got a far more reasonable reaction to the situation. It's a fun change of speed from how the series usually escalates things.
And on the topic of escalations: Leon shows up with the tact and charisma of a live grenade. I don't think he ever acknowledges that there are zombies. He starts in the middle of the outbreak scene in the beginning of The Last of Us. And his reaction is like the suspect he's chasing is just throwing boxes in front of him. Then in his second level, it goes from zero-to-zombie in under five minutes and all he says is "Victors done it again." Coming out of RE4R, its perfect. There's that catharsis of following after Grace and not putting up with any of the bio-weapon crap anymore.
It doesn't mean there's no challenge. Unlike the original zombies or the parasites, these enemies have some crazy animation and attack patterns with a stupidly inconsistent health system. Combat is also a lot more frantic in ways I've not seen in the series before. It feels like I have to strike a balance between being surrounded or being cornered and I'm juggling weapons, ammo and healing (also sharpening an axe in the middle of combat) all on the fly. Throw in hazards and special enemies and blind spawn, it can sometimes feel like Mercenaries mode or playing new Doom. The whole thing of using the chainsaw is a big part of the marketing, but they make you work for it and I wish is was as straight forward as the old Sack Hat.
I mentioned that this game feels like the intent for Resident Evil 6 and even though that is the weakest game in the series, I can't help but compare. There's the constant shifts in gameplay style and story lines, but at the same time you get to have some of the slow intrigue and counter-intuitive door mechanisms. Part of me would have preferred having a dedicated Leon and Grace route and some segments can have a sense of ending too soon (which is a lot better than dragging on too long). The series has had a good run on its DLC so I'm hopeful they can keep it going.