UniquelyGeneric's recent activity
-
Comment on Reddit will implement human verification to tag and combat bots in ~tech
-
Comment on Reddit will implement human verification to tag and combat bots in ~tech
UniquelyGeneric Link ParentYeah, their subjective definition of what is a good bot gives them flexibility to pick and choose what helps foster engagement from real users (or maybe even just other bots?). We already know the...Yeah, their subjective definition of what is a good bot gives them flexibility to pick and choose what helps foster engagement from real users (or maybe even just other bots?). We already know the negative effects that rage-baiting and engagement driven metrics has on public discourse at large.
This also reminds me of when Elon Musk bought Twitter to fight the bot problem, and then suddenly became silent about it once he was behind the helm. One can imagine once he saw the actual numbers he realized that bots are a significant portion of traffic, to the point that advertising revenue/profitability may have been dependent on it.
-
Comment on Reddit will implement human verification to tag and combat bots in ~tech
UniquelyGeneric LinkOn the heels of Reddit getting fined for not being aggressive enough with its age verification, they will now implement human verification to allegedly combat the rampant bots on the platform. I...- Exemplary
On the heels of Reddit getting fined for not being aggressive enough with its age verification, they will now implement human verification to allegedly combat the rampant bots on the platform.
I was initially intrigued by the idea that bots can effectively be labeled and filtered out on a site I’ve long suspected has been succumbing to Dead Internet Theory. One does not have to look far to see that Digg’s reboot couldn’t even last a year due to supposed bots overwhelming its platform. In an age of AI agents, it’s no surprise this is likely a serious problem that large social media sites have to deal with.
Whereas Meta may soon be embracing the bots, it’s interesting to see Reddit is primarily labeling them. It appears they will allow “good” bots on the platform while banning the malicious ones (something they claim to already do to 100K accounts a day).
While Reddit’s CEO claims this will be done in a privacy-safe manner, and that they do not want their users’ identity, this doesn’t seem to track with what they are actually doing. First off, they already do collect users’ identity through email verification which in turn makes Reddit’s ads business more enticing to advertisers. Secondly, their proposed methods of human verification don’t pass the sniff-test:
- Passkeys - This does nothing other than verify you have a separate device or service to store the passkey. Bitwarden does this for free in a browser extension. While this may increase the effort to run a bot, it does little to prevent a motivated bot farmer from operating.
- Third-party Biometric Verification - This is an area already fraught with privacy violations due to poorly implemented age verification systems over the past year. To make matters worse, the one example given is Sam Altman’s controversial iris scanning crypto company (although Reddit’s CEO vaguely describes a hypothetical method that wouldn’t use iris scanning…hand-waving away any privacy concerns).
- Age Verification - The very same technology that is currently being shoved down the Internet’s throat via draconian laws, questionable vendors, and suspect lobbying sources. It’s an easy scapegoat to deflect blame by claiming it is a method of last resort, yet there are no laws requiring Reddit to perform human verification in the first place.
It makes me wonder if it’s incompetence that has led to the CEO sharing half-baked ideas rather than launching with a fully executed strategy, or if there is something more nefarious going on. It sure is convenient that they claim not all users will be requested for human verification, just the ones engaging in “fishy behavior”. This could easily be used as a tool to censor users and/or gather more information on political dissidents. The fact that there will be no actions taken against human accounts that post AI slop makes me question what their desired end result is here.
Perhaps it’s the privacy advocate in me just getting paranoid at the continuing erosion of Web 1.0 freedoms. Perhaps it’s my jaded cynicism at the motives behind Reddit (and social media at large) over the past 10+ years. Perhaps I’m just not ready to accept the brave new world we’re entering.
Perhaps I’m not alone.
-
Reddit will implement human verification to tag and combat bots
48 votes -
Comment on ArXiv is separating from Cornell University, and is hiring a CEO, who will be paid roughly $300,000/year in ~science
UniquelyGeneric Link ParentI’m really interested in what seems to have caused expenses to triple. It looks like Cornell must have been indirectly funding it by hosting the servers and general costs around electricity and...I’m really interested in what seems to have caused expenses to triple. It looks like Cornell must have been indirectly funding it by hosting the servers and general costs around electricity and maintenance. That seems to have ballooned >3x from 2024 to 2025. The cynic in me wonders if AI tooling made it easier to publish and/or scrape content about AI research.
-
Comment on Lenovo’s new ThinkPads score 10/10 for repairability in ~tech
UniquelyGeneric LinkI hate to be that guy, but Lenovo and iFixit have a partnership, so a 10/10 review by iFixit is a little like grading your own homework and/or biased towards driving sales to their partnership....I hate to be that guy, but Lenovo and iFixit have a partnership, so a 10/10 review by iFixit is a little like grading your own homework and/or biased towards driving sales to their partnership.
Not to diminish the benefits to repairability. As a ThinkPad owner whose trackpad needs replacing, this is a welcome alternative to my current strategy of just dealing with it.
That being said, as a daily driver of a Framework laptop, the repairability is only one aspect. I would prefer to see upgradability as well, particularly in this era of RAM/Storage/GPU scarcity. I may only have an opportunity to upgrade one component at a time and I would hope that as ThinkPads become more modularized the ability to upgrade becomes part of their business strategy.
-
Comment on Bookmark management for non-technical people? in ~tech
UniquelyGeneric (edited )LinkI feel like this pithy comment will drown in the valuable Tildes advice, but my recent job drowned me in documents that I sometimes-regularly referenced. I looked into a lot of productivity...I feel like this pithy comment will drown in the valuable Tildes advice, but my recent job drowned me in documents that I sometimes-regularly referenced. I looked into a lot of productivity managers and I hated the overhead in most of them.
My saving grace was the Arc Browser. It exchanges the idea of bookmarks and tabs to make you think critically about whether a tab is really something worth keeping long-term (ie a bookmark). The integration is relatively seamless for those who have to sift through a constant stream of URLs. If you have a set list of sites you alway use then it’s easy to import bookmarks but you may not be the target audience of the browser.
I feel the need to comment that Atlassian acquired The Browser Company, which manages Arc, and has grandiose ideals of making a truly AI agentic browser (the Dia browser), leaving Arc to rot. That being said, even if the browser lacks development, I really appreciate the mental mode of thinking about browser tabs ephemerally (ie kill after 24 hours).
-
Comment on Valve announces new hardware: Steam Frame, Steam Controller, and Steam Machine in ~games
UniquelyGeneric Link ParentThere’s capacitive touch on the thumbsticks and capacitive grip sense on the handles. I imagine a combination of those is used to determine grip position to disengage the touchpads while you’re...There’s capacitive touch on the thumbsticks and capacitive grip sense on the handles. I imagine a combination of those is used to determine grip position to disengage the touchpads while you’re using thumbsticks for control. Given the deliberate decision to depart from the original Steam Controller design I’m willing to give Valve the benefit of the doubt on having thought this through.
That being said, I’m somewhat disappointed with the lowered trackpads and skeptical that it will be comfortable to use properly, but I will likely see for myself once I get my hands on them. I’d still prefer the original Steam Controller design of a top-right concave trackpad, as that is the most natural position for thumbs to go. Maybe I’ll still keep my OG Steam Controller for mouse-heavy games.
-
Comment on Is vaping less harmful than smoking, and does it help people quit? in ~health
UniquelyGeneric LinkWhat the article doesn’t touch one, but I am extremely curious on, is the impact of vaping weed. This article basically throws its hands up in the air because it’s too difficult to measure,...What the article doesn’t touch one, but I am extremely curious on, is the impact of vaping weed. This article basically throws its hands up in the air because it’s too difficult to measure, despite some obvious negatives like pesticide concentration and vitamin E used in solvents.
It feels like weed vaping is less dangerous than nicotine, but that might just be based on decades of propaganda promoting cigarettes and the subsequent fallout of lung cancer diagnoses. Weed has never been as widely marketed in the mainstream and vaping is a relatively new concept that coincides with legalization (and therefore an increase in general usage).
Time will tell, but I also wish I had a near term indicator to help gauge what’s truly dangerous and what’s effectively as dangerous as alcohol (which I know is also a carcinogen, but also clearly not as damaging as tobacco smoke has proven to be).
-
Comment on What words do you recommend? in ~talk
UniquelyGeneric Link ParentYeah, you’re likely right. If I redefined my list, “probably” would be 50% and “likely” would be something higher (but with an upper bound of 90% to give enough of a degree of uncertainty) so...Yeah, you’re likely right. If I redefined my list, “probably” would be 50% and “likely” would be something higher (but with an upper bound of 90% to give enough of a degree of uncertainty) so maybe 75% is the right sweet spot.
I wrote my initial list at a bar so it was not going to be exhaustive, nor academic, but this is the type of topic that would make for a fun bar debate.
To fuel the fire, I wonder what other terms like “maybe” or “perhaps” imply in terms of probability?
-
Comment on What words do you recommend? in ~talk
UniquelyGeneric Link ParentYes, the PIE roots are often theorized because there wasn’t a written language when they were initially formed, so you’ll see notation with an asterisk (*) like: for the root of both “wind” and...Yes, the PIE roots are often theorized because there wasn’t a written language when they were initially formed, so you’ll see notation with an asterisk (*) like:
*wendh-
for the root of both “wind” and “wander”.
-
Comment on What are some “sore thumb” lyrics for you? in ~music
UniquelyGeneric Link ParentThis comment was borne out of a place of open-minded intrigue and a desire to challenge personal assumptions, but I want to caveat that as the writer, I am a member of generally accepted majority...This comment was borne out of a place of open-minded intrigue and a desire to challenge personal assumptions, but I want to caveat that as the writer, I am a member of generally accepted majority in society and therefore may have an unconscious bias to downplay eugenics in its various forms.
The outcome of the movie is that the world learns and adapts to new information, and for the better. President Camacho is one of the first individuals to overcome his ego, eventually abdicating his own position for the greater good.
It may not be a super compelling argument against eugenics, but I think the fact that characters (and the general populace) show some growth at the end tips the scale towards “nurture” in the nature vs. nurture debate.
That overall message may be done through crude humor and now-verboten slurs, but as I’ve dissected the film I don’t think the premise was inherently eugenicist. It’s ultimately the lopsided population distribution (to low socioeconomic status) and environmental destruction (due to lack of expertise) that causes a vicious cycle that leads to the idiocracy, not a “poisoned” gene pool. You could argue that “poor people over-producing” aligns with many eugenicist beliefs, but the film isn’t advocating for murder or violence against these people either.
I started to get deep into this and wanted to understand what constitutes genocide, to see if it strictly had a genetic component. According to the Genocide Convention, it involves an “intent to destroy[…]a national, ethnically, racial, or religious group”. I don’t see the lower socioeconomic status group in Idiocracy as belonging to those since the eventual governing body of the US (/world?) is itself a racially diverse group. However, if I were to be more fast and loose with definitions and instead claim that the descendants of the low socioeconomic progenitors are themselves one of these qualifying bodies, then the education of “low IQ” individuals could qualify as genocide under:
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
But even then we are talking about people evolving into improved human beings…not being destroyed/murdered. So from this perspective the film is not advocating for eugenics.
Outside of the film, there’s relatively strong evidence to indicate that socioeconomic status is a far more likely of predictor of outcomes than genetics. Some of the counterfactuals to those studies (e.g. that adults can increase IQ over time) continue to give credence to the “nurture” side of the debate as they imply the environment is the primary limiting factor to IQ rather than genetics.
I didn’t start this comment to downplay your interpretation. I saw the film a year or two ago and some elements definitely did not age well by modern standards. That being said, I have personally used the film as an allegory for some of the current decline we’re seeing in society and I wanted to reassess whether my memory clouded my judgement in its message (to the extent that I looked up the full screenplay to be certain of the ending narrative). There’s definitely some ambiguity still left in interpretation, as most art tends to have, but the concrete examples I found led to my ultimate evaluation that it’s not genes but the social environment that deserves critiquing.
-
Comment on What words do you recommend? in ~talk
UniquelyGeneric Link ParentI do see a hierarchy of likelihood via various terms: Possible - the base form. The laws of physics don’t preclude the outcome from happening. Feasible - the outcome is achievable based on an a...I do see a hierarchy of likelihood via various terms:
- Possible - the base form. The laws of physics don’t preclude the outcome from happening.
- Feasible - the outcome is achievable based on an a set of common/available conditions, but needs an independent impetus to actually happen.
- Plausible - it’s believable that the outcome can be / was achieved
- Likely - it’s beyond a 50% chance the outcome has or will happen
- Certainly - it’s beyond any doubt that the outcome has or will happen
- Definitely - it’s a 100% chance at achieving the outcome
Now, when you string these hierarchies together (“it’s certainly possible…”, “it’s definitely likely”) it becomes a layer too deep for me to want to explore further.
-
Comment on What words do you recommend? in ~talk
UniquelyGeneric Link ParentI’ve been fascinated at the similarities between “wonder” and “wander” since they are conceptually similar (i.e. to wonder is to let your mind wander). The etymologies appear separate (though both...I’ve been fascinated at the similarities between “wonder” and “wander” since they are conceptually similar (i.e. to wonder is to let your mind wander). The etymologies appear separate (though both of Germanic origin). The PIE root for “wander” at least gives some indication of its base abstraction which also forms the word “wind” (as in to turn / winding around). Makes sense, since you try to “wrap your mind” around a concept by wondering/wandering about various facets of it.
-
Comment on What words do you recommend? in ~talk
UniquelyGeneric LinkConflate - I most often use this when cautioning about equating two concepts that are necessarily distinct (e.g. “let’s not conflate rights with privileges”). Because I’m a sucker for etymologies...Conflate - I most often use this when cautioning about equating two concepts that are necessarily distinct (e.g. “let’s not conflate rights with privileges”). Because I’m a sucker for etymologies I looked it up and it’s essentially Latin for “with fire” as in to melt together.
-
Comment on Glow-in-the-dark succulents could be the future of ambient lighting in ~science
UniquelyGeneric Link ParentYou’re right, I got carried away with a desire to turn my own succulents to an organic night-lite, regardless of relevance. removing my mistaken post as I wither away at my own cringeYou’re right, I got carried away with a desire to turn my own succulents to an organic night-lite, regardless of relevance.
removing my mistaken post as I wither away at my own cringe
-
Comment on My ordinary life: Improvements since the 1990s in ~tech
UniquelyGeneric LinkWhile it doesn’t have as much self-reported analyses and graphs as some more iconic Gwern long-form reads, I think it roughly holds true for Millenials that grew up in the same time period. I do...While it doesn’t have as much self-reported analyses and graphs as some more iconic Gwern long-form reads, I think it roughly holds true for Millenials that grew up in the same time period.
I do think an implicit point that isn’t necessarily highlighted (caveat: I did initial skimming rather than a deep read), is that most of these changes happened before 2010. The past 10-ish years haven’t fundamentally changed the world the same way the 90s-10s did. The past 10 years may have extended concepts realized in the original dotcom-boom, but they also displayed the enshittification that occurs when you take these concepts to a logical conclusion.
Gwern might have done a good reminder, though, that we have progressed as a society in many somewhat un-sexy ways. We take for granted the relative comfort that we live in as if it weren’t the pinnacle of civilized society. That being said, I think it’s easy to project a lot of future progress by the recent(ish) rate of change. It may be that we’re exhausting the available solutions (/low hanging fruit) that exist in our current paradigm, and so we should be due for a new paradigm shift instead of expecting more incremental change.
-
Comment on Spotify is adding direct messaging to their music streaming app in ~tech
UniquelyGeneric Link ParentI’m in my 30s and have been a Spotify user for years. I think a point that @EgoEimi might be missing is that when you’re <30 you have much more time for hobbies and socialization. My friends in my...I’m in my 30s and have been a Spotify user for years. I think a point that @EgoEimi might be missing is that when you’re <30 you have much more time for hobbies and socialization. My friends in my generation are all having kids, or hitting peaks in their career, so free time is a precious resource. We chat still, but we aren’t discovering music the same way we once were / at all.
I’m a musician myself, so I love talking about and sharing music, but it’s just not an activity I really do online anymore (even with my musician friends!). While Spotify may be tapping into the Gen Z/Alpha cultural zeitgeist by enabling DMs, I don’t think they need to bother inserting themselves into Millennial/Gen X lives to keep them as subscribers at this point…we’re already there and are becoming (/already are) averse to change in our Internet experience.
-
Comment on Glow-in-the-dark succulents could be the future of ambient lighting in ~science
UniquelyGeneric Link ParentWhile I would also be psyched for a self-powered glow, I’m expecting these to be the same kind of phosphors in the toys I grew up with as a kid. The shame with that kind of phosphor is that it can...While I would also be psyched for a self-powered glow, I’m expecting these to be the same kind of phosphors in the toys I grew up with as a kid.
The shame with that kind of phosphor is that it can be charged up, but it hits a ceiling on the total power stored. This inevitably gets discharged over the span of an hour or two when it literally loses its luster (although looking it up, it might effectively last in some faint form for up to 6-8 hours).
While it might be nice to have some plants retaining ambient light once the sun sets, I actually most want this type of ambient light when it’s late at night (i.e. 10pm and later). It’s during this time I have automated timers to turn down/off room lighting and make everything more warm-hued.
Post sunset glow might look cool, but wouldn’t be particularly useful outside of some novelty for guests (especially in the Winter when the sun sets earlier). My fear is that the only way to extend the “charge” for these plants would be to put them into some irregular lighting patterns that could be the bigger impact on plant health rather than the toxicity of the phosphors themselves.
Edit: I do remember the phosphors as a kid could be charged by standard home lighting, so it’s a possibility that they can retain non-UV light/energy. If so, these might actually fit the bill for my use case!
-
Comment on Forums are still alive, active, and a treasure trove of information in ~tech
UniquelyGeneric LinkOne forum I’ve used in the past that wasn’t listed in the multiple music-related forum lists is Nord Keyboards. I linked for the Nord Stage, which is a keyboard that can combine organ, piano, and...One forum I’ve used in the past that wasn’t listed in the multiple music-related forum lists is Nord Keyboards. I linked for the Nord Stage, which is a keyboard that can combine organ, piano, and synthesizer sounds.
The real value in the forum in my view is harvesting all the time/effort of other users by downloading presets that can best emulate certain sounds or songs (e.g. the intro to “Baba O’Riley”). It almost feels like an underground pirate scene with the esoteric knowledge needed to re-engineer what could otherwise be more easily sampled directly.
It’s a niche scene that I could easily see blossoming if Nord made an official way to share community presets, but perhaps the forum itself is what fosters enough discussion to keep users engaged in the first place. I also suspect many users are middle aged dads in cover bands based on genre popularity, and so the forum format itself scares away younger users who balk at the friction of uploading preset files to an unstructured topic thread.
Looking at this report from 2023, it looks like ~24% of the ad traffic on Twitter/X was invalid/bot traffic.
While I agree that Dead Internet Theory may have started as an online joke, I think there’s some truth to it when a quarter of one of the largest social media sites was bots. Now, there are a lot of reasons why there could be bots, and surely not all of them are posting content, but the ones that do can generate more in an hour than a single human can in a day. Now with the rise of AI agents and Clawdbots, the barriers for creating bots are getting lowered every day. Paired with such large financial incentives to create engagement and steer public discourse, I can only imagine the number of bots has gone up in recent years.
To your point about low effort content getting signal boosted, the bots don’t need to be producing high effort content either to attract upvotes. Bots can dominate conversation simply by generating superfluous content to drown out the genuine humans.
It’s a commonly recognized phenomena for new bots to make reposts on Reddit (particularly in r/aww and r/todayilearned) to farm karma, thereby establishing a false legitimacy before moving on to more nefarious astroturfing. When you look at the comments on these reposts they are carbon copies of the top comments on the original posts. These aren’t just low effort jokes either, they can be word-for-word anecdotes. The bots commenting on bot reposts could be fueled by bot farms looking to quickly karma farm multiple new accounts.
It’s very telling when you look at Reddit’s auto-generated username format (e.g. Adjective-Noun-XXXX, where X is a number). The bots don’t even need to generate their own username and avoid collisions anymore, Reddit does it for them! Once you see it you’ll notice it everywhere, particularly in comment threads, and that’s why I feel Dead Internet Theory may not be such a joke after all.