TonesTones's recent activity
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Comment on Tildes Book Club discussion - March 2025 - Hyperion by Dan Simmons in ~books
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Comment on Top twenty worldwide with social-engineering and a cheat that's still undetected in ~games
TonesTones Link ParentI understand. That perspective makes sense to me. I didn’t read the piece in the same way you did: I felt like they also believed that the social engineering was at least “interesting”, even if...I understand. That perspective makes sense to me. I didn’t read the piece in the same way you did: I felt like they also believed that the social engineering was at least “interesting”, even if they regretted it after the fact. I don’t agree; it’s pretty obvious to me that people are somewhat vulnerable because they assume good faith.
I understand where you are coming from, though, and I’ll amend my comment above.
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Comment on Top twenty worldwide with social-engineering and a cheat that's still undetected in ~games
TonesTones (edited )Link ParentThe implication that it’s okay to cause harm to a community just because it’s unprecedented or clever does not sit right with me at all. Edit: See @MimicSquid’s response below. I misinterpreted...Have you never felt joy at being clever? At figuring out something no one else has done?
The implication that it’s okay to cause harm to a community just because it’s unprecedented or clever does not sit right with me at all.
Edit: See @MimicSquid’s response below. I misinterpreted their original comment.
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Comment on Something big is happening in ~tech
TonesTones Link ParentThese blog posts never make sense to me. I think generative AI is an incredible technology; even understanding the basic principles, the result blows my mind. Yet it’s certainly not good enough to...These blog posts never make sense to me. I think generative AI is an incredible technology; even understanding the basic principles, the result blows my mind. Yet it’s certainly not good enough to replace me, yet.
If it’s as good as they claim, proponents should not be building more AI tools, or even more software. Or writing blog posts. They should be branching out into other fields! Actually building companies that have opex that is orders of magnitude cheaper and taking business from slow-to-move industry titans.
I’ll wait till an AI-developed product shows up that costs pennies on the dollar.
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Comment on Why computers won’t make themselves smarter - Ted Chiang in ~tech
TonesTones LinkI appreciate Ted Chiang’s thoughts and think this was a solid argument against the intelligence explosion… 5 years ago. Now, it reads more like a prediction piece describing how impossibly hard...I appreciate Ted Chiang’s thoughts and think this was a solid argument against the intelligence explosion… 5 years ago. Now, it reads more like a prediction piece describing how impossibly hard the things LLMs are doing right now is.
For example, there are plenty of people who have I.Q.s of 130, and there’s a smaller number of people who have I.Q.s of 160. None of them have been able to increase the intelligence of someone with an I.Q. of 70 to 100, which is implied to be an easier task.
A group of A.I. researchers created something far, far smarter than any one of them individually. (Even if the nature of intelligence in LLMs is dubious, Ted Chiang is making no claims about the nature of intelligence, only the observables. Modern LLMs, despite their distinctly inhuman flaws like hallucinations, are generally far smarter in observation than most humans.)
Some proponents of an intelligence explosion argue that it’s possible to increase a system’s intelligence without fully understanding how the system works. They imply that intelligent systems, such as the human brain or an A.I. program, have one or more hidden “intelligence knobs,” and that we only need to be smart enough to find the knobs. I’m not sure that we currently have many good candidates for these knobs, so it’s hard to evaluate the reasonableness of this idea.
Whoops! Compute-scaling.
An individual working in complete isolation can come up with a breakthrough but is unlikely to do so repeatedly; you’re better off having a lot of people drawing inspiration from one another. They don’t have to be directly collaborating; any field of research will simply do better when it has many people working in it.
Whoops! AI programs now use many agents to get the “random search” effect, all searching differently for the same good idea.
A few A.I. programs have been designed to play a handful of similar games, but the expected range of inputs and outputs is still extremely narrow. Now, alternatively, suppose that you’re writing an A.I. program and you have no advance knowledge of what type of inputs it can expect or of what form a correct response will take. In that situation, it’s hard to optimize performance, because you have no idea what you’re optimizing for. How much can you optimize for generality? To what extent can you simultaneously optimize a system for every possible situation, including situations never encountered before?
Whoops! Multi-modal models.
I don’t think Ted Chiang is somehow shortsighted for this piece. I simply think he wasn’t working at DeepMind or OpenAI or a university AI lab when he wrote this piece. This is a great example of why experts are often worth listening to. Fantastic, well-articulated arguments backed by hundreds of years of history can be so, so wrong when one does not know where innovation is headed.
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Comment on Bad Bunny Superbowl LX halftime show in ~music
TonesTones Link ParentGiven the state of affairs, it was a political message. He called out all the countries in the continent of America after saying “God Bless America”. The United States is sure making foreign...Given the state of affairs, it was a political message. He called out all the countries in the continent of America after saying “God Bless America”. The United States is sure making foreign enemies of our neighbors right now, so bringing out the flags of all the countries together is saying something.
I think the beauty of this halftime show was precisely that it didn’t feel like a political statement, since that really brought home the idea that this shouldn’t be political. Bad Bunny just showed a fun and authentic reflection of the Puerto Rican culture, and they are as much a part of the U.S. as any Spanish-speaking immigrant and as any citizen or non-citizen of the U.S. Sure, people are afforded different rights to vote and to own land and whatnot, but the message of unity——that all involved are real people worthy of dignity——was the take-home for me. I think that’s what we need right now, and it should not be partisan.
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Comment on Taylor Swift’s obsession with self-mythologising makes for boring art in ~music
TonesTones LinkThe last thing I would say about Taylor Swift is that her music is “impenetrable to casual listeners”. I enjoyed her last album much less than her previous works, but that isn’t because there’s a...Swift’s penchant for self-referentiality and meta-narratives makes her music seem impenetrable to casual listeners, and the artist herself overly insular.
The last thing I would say about Taylor Swift is that her music is “impenetrable to casual listeners”. I enjoyed her last album much less than her previous works, but that isn’t because there’s a scavenger hunt embedded in the album that I’m not picking up on.
Swift is one of the most popular artists in the world; these music video easter eggs are just fun things for the superfans. They’re definitely not harming her commercial appeal.
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Comment on Voyager Technologies CEO says space data center cooling problem still needs to be solved in ~space
TonesTones Link ParentFor someone like Elon, advocating for space data centers is a way to justify the SpaceX purchase of xAI (which includes Twitter), since that company is burning money. SpaceX is primarily a...For someone like Elon, advocating for space data centers is a way to justify the SpaceX purchase of xAI (which includes Twitter), since that company is burning money.
SpaceX is primarily a government contractor. I suspect this is all simply a ploy to get U.S. taxpayers to subsidize the development of large language models.
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Comment on Whatever happened to the Uber bezzle? in ~transport
TonesTones LinkSometime in 2023 when Uber was increasing their prices dramatically to become profitable, I tried calling a taxi again. Some part of me was like “I bet this is the time rideshare companies will...Sometime in 2023 when Uber was increasing their prices dramatically to become profitable, I tried calling a taxi again. Some part of me was like “I bet this is the time rideshare companies will start to lose riders.” The thirty-ish minute taxi ride cost me more than $110, and the equivalent Uber ride would have still been cheaper. That’s the moment I knew that Uber was bound to succeed; I haven’t taken a taxi since, because I don’t know how much it will cost me beforehand.
I do despise dynamic pricing. The model for consumers would be much better if there was a JIT auction model with multiple providers bidding for a ride, but that would be hard to implement. Although that’s kind of how it works now if one has Uber and Lyft on their phone, I guess.
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Comment on Jeff Bezos orders layoffs at 'The Washington Post' in ~news
TonesTones Link ParentYeah, this makes sense. Most of my criticisms actually are much more true of TV news than written articles. I’m disappointed I didn’t realize that myself when writing. I guess I’m too cynical...Yeah, this makes sense. Most of my criticisms actually are much more true of TV news than written articles. I’m disappointed I didn’t realize that myself when writing. I guess I’m too cynical about the state of publication news right now and let my anger get in the way.
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Comment on Jeff Bezos orders layoffs at 'The Washington Post' in ~news
TonesTones (edited )Link ParentAgreed, but I’d argue that the type of person that is a billionaire doesn’t think in this way. “This 0.5% loss/gain is negligible” just isn’t the mindset of tech CEOs in my framework. They care...I wouldn’t. Even if the Washington Post were profitable, say $100M per year, that’s economically irrelevant to Jeff Bezos. That would be on the order of about 0.5% of his net worth, which itself routinely moves by tens of billions of dollars year to year.
Agreed, but I’d argue that the type of person that is a billionaire doesn’t think in this way. “This 0.5% loss/gain is negligible” just isn’t the mindset of tech CEOs in my framework. They care purely about profit maximization, and see these companies all as independent operating entities. I understand that Bezos bought the company to influence the Post’s publication. I don’t believe that laying off 1/3 of staff in one swing is the method.
A successful YouTube “journalist,” needs only to attract and retain viewers. A seven-figure subscriber count tells us nothing about reporting quality, only about engagement.
I agree with your points re journalism and Youtube and different standards. I’d argue that the in-house publication, existing reputation, and subscriber “stickiness” of newspapers makes them a much more valuable target for a powerful bad actor wanting to change public narratives.
For what it is worth, I recognize that Youtube sucks in a lot of ways. Personally, I do not use it. Still, the (deserved) poor reputation of Youtube and the separation of publisher from creator is what enables it to host people that want to criticize existing powers. Google has substantial legal protection from Section 230 enabling it to publish content without liability. If a YouTuber is thinking “do I want to publish this or not?”, they only need to think about “will this bring in viewers?”. They generally don’t have a lot to lose.
On the other hand, an existing newspaper with substantial assets, operating income, powerful shareholders, etc. needs to consider if a publication will bring someone powerful knocking. This makes them risk-averse as long as they are not losing paying subscribers (and losing paying subscribers is much harder and slower than losing viewers on Youtube).
Perhaps I am too cynical. I agree with your criticisms of Youtube incentives as a platform. I just think the news institutions have lost their strength to the point where they can’t do their job effectively anymore.
Edit: I realized that my statements are more relevant to TV news platforms and their work. I’m probably wrong about written publications, and I don’t agree with what’s written here anymore; will need to think on it. I’ll leave it up for people to read and respond if they want to.
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Comment on Jeff Bezos orders layoffs at 'The Washington Post' in ~news
TonesTones LinkI am willing to give Bezos the benefit of the doubt that this is just cutting segments of the business that are unprofitable, with no ulterior motives. Newspapers aren’t doing well right now, and...I am willing to give Bezos the benefit of the doubt that this is just cutting segments of the business that are unprofitable, with no ulterior motives. Newspapers aren’t doing well right now, and I’m sure they are losing quite a bit of money.
Still, I believe the Washington Post was doomed ever since the buyout. High quality journalism can never be funded by a patron. High quality (and low quality) investigative journalism is coming from YouTubers now because their incentives are aligned with the viewers. I don’t see that changing; the only place for conventional news companies now is in neutral reporting like the AP and in perpetuating propaganda.
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Comment on The film students who can no longer sit through films in ~movies
TonesTones Link ParentI think it’s hard to pin down specific causes, especially since “focus” is such a nebulous term. The research demonstrates weak links between cellphone use and worse academic performance...I think it’s hard to pin down specific causes, especially since “focus” is such a nebulous term. The research demonstrates weak links between cellphone use and worse academic performance (meta-analysis here), which increases with cellphone usage (here).
The research also shows strong links between cellphone usage and worsening mental health (here), and then some correlation between worse mental health and worse academic performance (here), though note that the mental health correlation should be taken with a grain of salt. There’s a whole bunch of confounding factors like income, adverse childhood experiences, social isolation, etc. and it’s also not causation (poor academic performance could cause mental health issues).I do want to acknowledge that the bulk of your comment is about ADHD, and that I’m not saying much about that. I want to say that “focus” is a hard term to really get a grip on; kids can get distracted in lots of ways.
While I agree that something in our culture and society has changed, especially post pandemic, but I don't agree that social media use and internet access in your pockets are the causes. Nor that removing those things is the solution. I would need to see studies conducted to draw a conclusion like that.
Still, I think social media and smartphones are pretty clearly are an issue for academic performance and learning outcomes in students, which is what we care about in the classroom. I cited studies above to hopefully offer some scientific evidence, but I believe anecdotal evidence from teachers would provide the same story.
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Comment on I'm back in ~talk
TonesTones LinkThis is my favorite social media site on the Internet, and I’ve pretty much stopped browsing anything else as an online “feed”. I respect the people who post the high-quality news articles, blogs,...This is my favorite social media site on the Internet, and I’ve pretty much stopped browsing anything else as an online “feed”.
I respect the people who post the high-quality news articles, blogs, and fun internet things regularly. Plus the regular discussions are great things to mindlessly browse without having any algorithm trying to harvest my engagement. I browse through the 20 or so comments and call it a day. Overall, not much could make this place a better place to be on the Internet (imo), especially if you don’t like what the Internet has come to nowadays.
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Comment on Seeking guidance on a week long LA to Bay Area trip in ~travel
TonesTones LinkI would recommend stopping in Santa Cruz on Day 4, or just going all the way north to SF. Make sure you take Highway 1 either way! I5 is fast but has nothing to look at. Santa Barbara is not that...I would recommend stopping in Santa Cruz on Day 4, or just going all the way north to SF. Make sure you take Highway 1 either way! I5 is fast but has nothing to look at. Santa Barbara is not that far north, and you’ll end up with a lot of downtime there (which is okay if you like it, but IMO there’s more to do in other parts of California), and then have to drive really far the next day to make it up north. You are already short on time, so I’d just get the driving done all at once.
It depends what you want to see and what your travel style is, but CA is big and there’s lots to see. In the North Bay, I’d recommend deciding what you might like most (San Francisco or the nature parks) and committing a solid day to that. Personally, I’d get really tired on that itinerary, but that’s just me.
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Comment on 'Right-to-compute' laws may be coming to your state this year in ~comp
TonesTones LinkIs this a nothingburger just used to try to get companies to build datacenters in the state? Thank you, Mr. Montana senator, for providing the guarantee that all AI use is legal except for those...Is this a nothingburger just used to try to get companies to build datacenters in the state?
Zolnikov summarized the law as: “Everything is legal except for what’s not,” with exceptions to be added such as deepfakes or posting inappropriate pictures of children. “Unless it’s because of safety or security, other jurisdictions cannot limit the use of AI or computation,” he said.
Thank you, Mr. Montana senator, for providing the guarantee that all AI use is legal except for those uses of AI which are forbidden by the law.
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Comment on List animals until failure in ~games
TonesTones (edited )LinkThis was a fun game. I got to 41 until I realized something and got incredibly distracted and ran out of time. I only got one that was specific enough to be a particular species. I also love that...This was a fun game. I got to 41 until I realized something and got incredibly distracted and ran out of time. I only got one that was specific enough to be a particular species.
I also love that it tells you if you failed to mention a common animal (I did not list horse).
What I realized
Listing different dog breeds does not give you extra animals but does give you increasingly funny and irate messages about how dogs are all the same.Edit: I tried again and got to 63.
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Comment on Silver plunges 30% in worst day since 1980, gold tumbles as Kevin Warsh pick eases US Federal Reserve independence fear in ~finance
TonesTones Link ParentI think the fact that the nomination would be political was (unfortunately) obvious? Trump spoke loudly at the World Economic Forum about wanting the new Fed Chair to lower rates. Any pretense of...I think the fact that the nomination would be political was (unfortunately) obvious? Trump spoke loudly at the World Economic Forum about wanting the new Fed Chair to lower rates. Any pretense of Fed independence during Trump’s term has long been abolished. I would be surprised if anyone expects the new Fed Chair to do anything other than aggressively push to lower rates.
My perspective is that the markets reacted the way they did because Warsh isn’t that radical of a choice. Trump very well could have placed an outright saboteur in the position like he has for the FBI, the HHS, etc. Krugman correctly points out that Warsh meets a low bar.
But Trump has already ensured that the bar is on the floor.
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Comment on Pi: The minimal agent within OpenClaw in ~tech
TonesTones LinkLet me preface by saying that I’m not a software engineer. I write some code on occasion, but I do not build deliverable software. I sense that this is even more of a security risk than just...Let me preface by saying that I’m not a software engineer. I write some code on occasion, but I do not build deliverable software.
Pi’s entire idea is that if you want the agent to do something that it doesn’t do yet, you don’t go and download an extension or a skill or something like this. You ask the agent to extend itself. It celebrates the idea of code writing and running code.
I sense that this is even more of a security risk than just having AI write code. If your four tools are “Read”, “Write”, “Edit”, and “Bash”, then the moment you start fetching anything from the Internet, aren’t you exposing arbitrary code execution on your machine to the open web? Perhaps this is true of models who can run shell commands even if they are gated by MCP (I do not know why it wouldn’t be). Still, letting your machine follow the arbitrary instructions of some complex distribution makes me nervous.
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Comment on Silver plunges 30% in worst day since 1980, gold tumbles as Kevin Warsh pick eases US Federal Reserve independence fear in ~finance
TonesTones Link ParentYes, I agree that’s the reason for the dramatic price shifts. Kevin Warsh is a suprisingly independent pick. We’ll see what the Board does while Trump remains in power, but I believe much more...Yes, I agree that’s the reason for the dramatic price shifts. Kevin Warsh is a suprisingly independent pick. We’ll see what the Board does while Trump remains in power, but I believe much more strongly in the Fed’s independence after the reign of this administration is over.
I picked up this book because of the interesting discussion here, and it was a strange experience. I’m writing here mostly to spill my own thoughts. I can see why the book is praised so much, but I don’t believe that I have the humanities education needed to fully appreciate this novel.
Simmons does a fantastic job taking advantage of the different characters to construct an absolutely sprawling world within a fairly brief story. I also appreciated how different stories served different emotional purposes. The Consul’s story was my favorite, followed closely by the Scholar’s. Those tales felt so human because of the inherent tragedy, and served as a nice grounding point between more fantastical adventures. In those stories, the sci-fi plot devices exist primarily to force the protagonists through interesting dilemmas and quandries.
That opposes something like the Detective’s story or Priest’s story, where (to me) the unbelievable elements were interesting unto themselves without serving as pressures in the emotional arc of the characters. The Poet’s story and the Colonel’s story both failed to grab me. The Poet’s is an entertaining read, and the way it slid through my attention probably helped me come up for some emotional air before the truck that is the Scholar’s story. The Colonel’s story is just bizarre, and it’s the only one that felt like it did not add much; the sci-fi element of the sims did not mesh with the world, and the Shrike of the Colonel’s story did not feel like the same creature of the rest of the stories. Perhaps it pays off in the sequel.
Speaking of, I’m not sure I’ll read the sequel. I’m partial to stories designed to guide the reader through an experience without needing a particular conclusion. I quite liked the ending of this book and the allusion to Oz, speaking to how they’re all seeking something with desperation (and, for what I suspect, none will actually realize their desires). All in all, I’ll take away the prose and worldbuilding of this story most strongly, and I’ll probably come back for a reread someday.