TemulentTeatotaler's recent activity
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Comment on LLMs can unmask pseudonymous users at scale with surprising accuracy in ~tech
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Comment on Living human brain cells play DOOM on a CL1 in ~tech
TemulentTeatotaler Link ParentJargon can be messy, but the point I was going for was that I think neuroscience sits around the level I think most people care about-- giving insight about suffering to inform ethical positions....Jargon can be messy, but the point I was going for was that I think neuroscience sits around the level I think most people care about-- giving insight about suffering to inform ethical positions. I don't really care about metaphysics or the "why" of consciousness. It's cool, and I'll enjoy Blindsight with the rest, but a true understanding of consciousness may be as inaccessible as a full picture of the universe and it wouldn't matter to me.
You called this "evil", which isn't exactly agnostic. Why? Would it be if it was mouse cells? A blackbox recreation of a neuron? We've been doing this sort of thing with rat cells for decades.
If Google/NPCs start screaming are you locked into consciousness being so completely inaccessible that anything outside of an arms-length of shared evolutionary history with humans is out of luck? Or instead do we have to treat any and all signs of distress/preference as potential harm?
Why do you have whatever views you do about treatment of a foetus? Do octopodes with their very different brain suffer, or just have nociception? Would it be good or bad were we to engineer/breed "pain-free" livestock (barring more ethical alternatives we aren't choosing)?
There are hard and important questions and, unfortunately, we have no other better tool than ourselves to try to answer them. I'm not convinced using our collective experience/reports as a basis can't go a lot further than most people give it credit for.
...it becomes circular to say that a measurement of memory is a measurement of experience itself.
Besides being the thing I care about, self-reports are samples that correspond to experience. There are lots of things we model statistically, indirectly, or understand top-down. We don't have to have access to the neutrino to infer its existence or qualities.
There are things we understand about the brain/consciousness now that were impossible in the past. Who knows what comes up when you start having neural prostheses, higher resolution scans, or deep analysis of all we know about different abnormal brain states? Personal view is it's very premature to write it off as the "hard problem".
Not going to reply anymore, but cheers.
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Comment on Why we struck Iran in ~society
TemulentTeatotaler Link ParentI get that, and really am not comfortable having an opinion on most geopolitics because it's so far beyond what I understand or have any influence on-- checking out is fine. I also had a friend...I get that, and really am not comfortable having an opinion on most geopolitics because it's so far beyond what I understand or have any influence on-- checking out is fine. I also had a friend growing up whose extended family were tortured under Pinochet, and am aware of Operation Condor and a lot of the rest of our shady history.
But not all events are the same. Killing a terrorist in response to the largest attack on U.S. soil isn't openly assassinating dozens of heads of state. Killing politicians you don't like is increasingly on the table and we already had that happen up in MN.
The world would look very different if PNAC/neocons hadn't invaded Iraq. Millions are dead, even if you only see them on the news. Iran would look wildly different without our coups, or maybe just the U.S.-backed pressure of UAE/Israel and withdrawal from the nuclear deal.
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Comment on Why we struck Iran in ~society
TemulentTeatotaler Link ParentOsama wasn't the head of state and the highest religious authority of a country of 90+ million. A better comparison would be Trump killing Qasem Soleimani in his first term after using Iraq...Osama wasn't the head of state and the highest religious authority of a country of 90+ million.
A better comparison would be Trump killing Qasem Soleimani in his first term after using Iraq without their knowledge to lure him out. That seems to have fizzled out after they shot down their own plane. Or maybe because they didn't actually want to escalate with the global military hegemon, or other reasons beyond me.
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Comment on Living human brain cells play DOOM on a CL1 in ~tech
TemulentTeatotaler Link ParentThe principle of symmetry wouldn't let me understand that people like cilantro, have same-sex attraction, or the rest of the vast spectrum of the human condition. Self-report is as valid a way of...The principle of symmetry wouldn't let me understand that people like cilantro, have same-sex attraction, or the rest of the vast spectrum of the human condition. Self-report is as valid a way of understanding consciousness as we've ever had, and if you discard it you may as well be committed to strong solipsism.
It's possible that it's all self-delusion and perfectly inaccessible. You can't categorically say you existed more than the current second, or that a tricksy demiurge didn't bury dinosaur bones to test you.
The question is how far can you go if instead you choose to take human self-report of experience as valid, since I think most people do that [when it's convenient].
We can only measure memory.
In principle, it should be perfectly possible to remember an event you were not conscious, in the sense of having an actual subjective experience, for.I skipped this in my reply since I wasn't sure if you were saying that you ought to be able to remember events when your brain's memory formation was impaired?
Are you saying that someone having some acute pain induced by something like capsaicin actively reporting how they're feeling on some scale is "memory"?
The regular use of memory is something that can be induced in lab settings. You can have someone fill in details about a childhood trip that they never went on. Memory formation can be inhibited, which may be helpful in anticipation of some traumatic event (a painful surgery).
The amount we understand about how the brain works is wild to compare to any other time in history. That includes, at the very least, the ability to understand a human/mammal/vertebrate/whatever's experience.
But consciousness, as in the pure subjective experience...
Behaviorism was very successful at understanding behavior. It just happened that there was more to the picture, and when extinguishing a response to a phobia didn't extinguish the fear you ended up with a pretty miserable person.
But, accepting self-report, neurology is at the level of interest. We care about pain and suffering. Physics doesn't have to care about relativity until we need good GPS. That's the level you can meaningfully talk about ethical concerns. There may be some Planck length of the atom of qualia that is forever inaccessible. It may also not matter.
All models are flawed, but some are useful. Not all topics need to involve the most low-level layers that conceptually exist. Economics works okay without mastery of psychology->biology->chemistry->physics->fancy physics->inaccessibly fancy physics.
At each layer you get new precision and can ask/answer new questions, but you add a lot of complexity and may lose generalizability, and eventually you'll always hit a wall.
Many things can also be understood indirectly. My eyes glaze over when astronomers I've known have explained how various indirect effects are used in complicated ways, but they seem to get it, at least.
I'm not the person to figure it out. I just think it's overly hasty to dismiss the possibility that data mining the human experience won't turn up some patterns, which in turn can make informed guesses (cybernetics, activity modulation w/rTMS or drugs, designer organoids, who knows). That understanding is used to say "X is linked to acute pain" or that phantom limb syndrome occurs when neighboring regions invade the inactive region and take over the sensory map. They're tested in the same way we accept anytime you ask someone how they feel.
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Comment on Living human brain cells play DOOM on a CL1 in ~tech
TemulentTeatotaler (edited )Link ParentWe may never find some atom or laws of qualia, but I don't think we're stumbling in the dark. We can and have been making predictions about the inner life of other humans/animals since forever,...We may never find some atom or laws of qualia, but I don't think we're stumbling in the dark. We can and have been making predictions about the inner life of other humans/animals since forever, and understanding the relationship between body, brain, and mind since at least the 1860s with Broca's aphasia or the 1750s with L'homme machine wartime observations.
There are reasonable assumptions to be made. We accept self-report when people say how they're feeling, and that this often generalizes. Sometimes corrections have to be made for things like fallible memory, cultural differences (e.g., an Eastern patient caught quietly saying "it hurts, it hurts", deferring to the doctor more than the WEIRD baseline), deception (e.g., sympathetic lameness in a pet who wants to be treated better), and other sources of bias.
If you only had access to a brain scan do you think you wouldn't be able to diagnose whether they're having pain based on that, or what sort of symptoms a stroke in a particular area might cause, along with the qualia that go along with that? Or that this predictive ability says nothing about our understanding of brain function or consciousness?
Currently things like transcranial magnetic stimulation can be used to to non-invasively modulate activity in the brain, and a quick look suggests it may work like expected:
Overall, TMS was associated with statistically significant effects on warm and cool sensory thresholds, cold pain thresholds, suprathreshold stimulus unpleasantness ratings, and wind-up pain.
We compared time courses of a subjective scale of pain induced by intradermal capsaicin injection in seven normal subjects ... rTMS over M1 induced earlier recovery from acute pain compared with the sham or control conditions.
Bayesian evidence of reduced pain scores and increased heat pain thresholds were found after active rTMS, with no changes occurring after sham rTMS.
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Comment on Dating apps are training us to want the wrong people in ~life
TemulentTeatotaler Link ParentI think I found a PDF, if you're still interested. Google Scholar and Sci-Hub sometimes have paywalled articles. In a (very) quick look I'm not really seeing anything like the "online = twice as...I can't access the study...
I think I found a PDF, if you're still interested. Google Scholar and Sci-Hub sometimes have paywalled articles.
In a (very) quick look I'm not really seeing anything like the "online = twice as picky" claim or any focus on online behavior. Looks like MTurk surveys for some patterns in romantic interest over time (which is measured in events instead of days, which they acknowledge might be a bit skewed).
The closest might be table 6 for meeting context, the prevalence, and whether it led to affairs or long-term or short-term relationships?
Out of what group exactly?
Yeah, not sure what the pool of real life relationship candidates would be, or what culling would look like. Everyone you make two seconds of eye contact with? I was taught to never end a sentence with a proposition.
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Comment on Seven million cancers a year are preventable, says report in ~health
TemulentTeatotaler Link ParentFor at least a couple decades:For at least a couple decades:
In 1998, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (Centre International de Recherche sur le Cancer) of the World Health Organization classified alcoholic beverages as a carcinogen. Its evaluation states:[19]
There is sufficient evidence for the carcinogenicity of alcoholic beverages in humans. […] Alcoholic beverages are carcinogenic to humans (Group 1).
A 2001 systematic review did not find a clear safe level of alcohol consumption where there is no increased risk of cancer.[4]
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Comment on "Tax us more". Nearly 400 millionaires and billionaires call for higher taxes on super-rich. in ~society
TemulentTeatotaler Link ParentTo paraphrase a David Mitchell sentiment on tax avoidance, when you create a grey area where what you pay is based on your conscience what you've effectively done is create a tax on being a good...To paraphrase a David Mitchell sentiment on tax avoidance, when you create a grey area where what you pay is based on your conscience what you've effectively done is create a tax on being a good person.
More prosocial billionaires don't want to donate more. They want to force the Elon Musk's of the world to donate more, alongside them. If they didn't the saturation of wealth in the worst people would just accelerate, if anything.
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Comment on More than 200 women allege drugging with a diuretic to make them urinate during interviews by senior French civil servant in ~news
TemulentTeatotaler Link ParentI think they mean it's been known since 2018:I think they mean it's been known since 2018:
The alleged assaults came to light in 2018, after a colleague reported Nègre allegedly attempting to photograph the legs of a senior official, prompting police to open an investigation. Officers found a computer spreadsheet titled “Experiments”, where he had allegedly noted the times of druggings and the women’s reactions.
In 2019, removed from the ministry and the civil service ... Awaiting trial, Nègre has been able to continue working in the private sector.
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Comment on Timasomo 2025: The Showcase in ~creative.timasomo
TemulentTeatotaler Link ParentI remember the air garden game you were working on-- really like the whole cozy/natural aesthetic vibe you have! How did you go about making the tutorial? Was that done after the fact, or were you...I remember the air garden game you were working on-- really like the whole cozy/natural aesthetic vibe you have!
How did you go about making the tutorial? Was that done after the fact, or were you comfortable enough with the process to do it as you went along?
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Comment on Timasomo 2025: The Showcase in ~creative.timasomo
TemulentTeatotaler Link ParentThat's impressive! kfwyre narrowly resolved my ignorance on what the EPP project was... before that I was leaning towards there being some sort of Hecate/hex theme. Very cool hair, and good taste...That's impressive! kfwyre narrowly resolved my ignorance on what the EPP project was... before that I was leaning towards there being some sort of Hecate/hex theme.
Very cool hair, and good taste with the dog familiar!
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Comment on Timasomo 2025: The Showcase in ~creative.timasomo
TemulentTeatotaler Link ParentYou've got a really nice voice! The theatre background comes through. Having a contrast between young and old person is also a really solid concept to play with. Out of curiosity, do you have a...You've got a really nice voice! The theatre background comes through. Having a contrast between young and old person is also a really solid concept to play with.
Out of curiosity, do you have a process for composing? Do you play around then transcribe? Work around some guides like the major/minor voice? Composition first?
voluptuous river vocabulary
If you go full fjord concept album can you sneak in This is Just a Tributary? Jack Black is probably between movies and I found out about his role in Laser Fart last month so I think you'd have a chance getting a cameo.
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Comment on Tilderinos in ~talk
TemulentTeatotaler LinkI'm all-in on "capsed|shifty|upper backtick(s)." It isn't going to catch on... but if it does I was there at the ground floor.I'm all-in on "capsed|shifty|upper backtick(s)." It isn't going to catch on... but if it does I was there at the ground floor.
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Comment on Tilderinos in ~talk
TemulentTeatotaler Link ParentIt's hard to know how to speak to an unknown audience. Any random stranger could have had experiences that make reasonably innocuous topics or idiosyncrasies intolerable. Sharing holiday plans or...It's hard to know how to speak to an unknown audience. Any random stranger could have had experiences that make reasonably innocuous topics or idiosyncrasies intolerable. Sharing holiday plans or how much you like your dog is going to suck if it's to someone estranged from family or who just lost a pet... and there really isn't a lot you can do to avoid that as soon as you step into a public place.
You can choose to be as anodyne as possible, but that sort of stiff/stifling type of interaction can be as bad as saying something careless.
A small shift I had, trying to figure out some of these problems without perfect answers, was looking at it from a system level.
Do you try to understand people when you can, and take what you know about them into consideration? Can you back off if someone is upset/heated, even if you don't agree? Are you better than the average person they're interacting with nonstop throughout the day?
If so, you're--on average-- making things better by participating.
Can you acknowledge faults? Do you pay attention or otherwise try to reflect/improve in how you interact? Can you think of anything you've learned or started doing better in the last span?
If so, then you're moving in a good direction.
Are the doubts keeping you from participating or stressing you out?
Be nicer to yourself! From seeing you around I think you're doing great.
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Comment on Charlie Kirk's murder reveals a cultural sickness (Just Asking Questions podcast episode) in ~society
TemulentTeatotaler Link ParentHe's been a contributor, guest, and host for TPUSA for years. If you've seen eulogy-ish pieces for Kirk odds are he wrote them or is at least referenced.He's been a contributor, guest, and host for TPUSA for years. If you've seen eulogy-ish pieces for Kirk odds are he wrote them or is at least referenced.
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Comment on Charlie Kirk's murder reveals a cultural sickness (Just Asking Questions podcast episode) in ~society
TemulentTeatotaler (edited )Link ParentGood rhetoric and rationalizations require intelligence. Finding your position is different from supporting your position. The strongest abolitionist and pro-slavery voices both used scripture. I...Good rhetoric and rationalizations require intelligence. Finding your position is different from supporting your position. The strongest abolitionist and pro-slavery voices both used scripture. I can't claim to know all their motives, but a good guess would be having an economy built on chatel slavery has most doing it from self-interest instead of religion/ideology.
By pointing out that Liz Wolfe probably shares the same positions about trans people as Charlie Kirk slipping in a "supposed" is expected. It waters down what is pretty blatant hate in calling trans people "an abomination to God", making her view more palatable. The same with "rampant celebration and dehumanization of a father and husband who was killed for the words he spoke."
I haven't listened to the podcast and couldn't find a transcript. Did they bring up his support of Jack Posobiec (at least neo-nazi-curious), or the movie-length plug of Unhumans?
...it lauds Franco and Pinochet, and claims that "The book argues that leftists don’t deserve the status of human beings – that they are, as the title says, unhumans – and that they are waging a shadow war against all that is good and decent, which will end in apocalyptic slaughter if they are not stopped"
It seems like that would be relevant to a Marxist guest.
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Comment on Timasomo 2025: Final Updates in ~creative.timasomo
TemulentTeatotaler (edited )LinkWasn't sure I'd have any time to participate, or whether I'd share anything if I did. I started a project with ImGui/Vortice as an overlaid frontend for ffmpeg's memory based (copy/concat demuxer)...Wasn't sure I'd have any time to participate, or whether I'd share anything if I did.
I started a project with ImGui/Vortice as an overlaid frontend for ffmpeg's memory based (copy/concat demuxer) editing, but after a little work I found LosslessCut which was a better version of what I wanted. Also learned a bit of Godot and did some basic work on an exploratory idle game (and did some related math/design reading), but put that aside for the time.
Instead of coding I switched to trying to finish (or... work on) some writing. I'm ~90% done with a response to a Tildes writing prompt I didn't have time for at the time. Not sure how to finish it up, but I've enjoyed how some of it worked out.
Also got a little bit of worldbuilding/epigraphs done for two projects. I'm avoiding really starting either (the first spawned the second which begot the third) both because I'm not comfortable writing, but also--and related-- trying to get anything that is internally consistent and compelling is hard and feels like something best to take slowly.
Thanks for running the event! Same to @CannibalisticApple and all the other hosts and contributors!
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Comment on <deleted topic> in ~books
TemulentTeatotaler Link ParentIt's been ages since I've read those, but is it also being used as utilitarian/practical? You can have "simple" cheap/roughspun peasant clothing, but it also sets apart fancy attire from something...It's been ages since I've read those, but is it also being used as utilitarian/practical? You can have "simple" cheap/roughspun peasant clothing, but it also sets apart fancy attire from something modest or unembellished?
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Comment on British AI startup beats humans in international forecasting in ~tech
TemulentTeatotaler Link ParentHere's their scoring FAQ if you'd like to check it out? More involved than I'd feel like giving an opinion on, but a quick look suggests it does penalize overconfidence: It also has scores for...Here's their scoring FAQ if you'd like to check it out? More involved than I'd feel like giving an opinion on, but a quick look suggests it does penalize overconfidence:
One interesting property of the log score: it is much more punitive of extreme wrong predictions than it is rewarding of extreme right predictions.
It also has scores for things like performance relative to peers and "coverage" (how early you were / the span for which your prediction was correct).
As a 14 year old girl living in Florida who enjoys turntablism and hastening the evolution of mole people, it is a worrying eventuality.
Deanonymization isn't exactly new, but we have seen better/easier tools get adopted by scammers and bad actors pretty quickly. I think there are interesting possibilities for defensive use but I don't have a lot of hope for it to be widespread, and a lot of the harm that can be done from mass surveillance doesn't need to care about any given individual.