heraplem's recent activity
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Comment on The doomsday cult inside OpenAI in ~tech
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Comment on Steam recently made a fundamental change to indie game discoverability in ~games
heraplem LinkIn a world where it often feels like everything keeps getting darker, Valve is a shining beacon.In a world where it often feels like everything keeps getting darker, Valve is a shining beacon.
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Comment on A beginning for mathematics in ~science
heraplem LinkIt's about as nice a vision as you could hope for, I suppose. In a way, it sort of proposes that mathematicians should become like chess players. I did not see an answer to where the funding will...It's about as nice a vision as you could hope for, I suppose.
In a way, it sort of proposes that mathematicians should become like chess players.
I did not see an answer to where the funding will come from, though.
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Comment on [Poem] Things Artificial Intelligence Can’t Do - Aaron Belz in ~books
heraplem Link ParentOnly speaking for myself here. A better analyst than me would spend a lot of time talking about the body of the poem itself, which has nothing to do with AI. Only the title frames the poem as...Only speaking for myself here.
A better analyst than me would spend a lot of time talking about the body of the poem itself, which has nothing to do with AI. Only the title frames the poem as being "about" AI. But I am a poor analyst, so ...
I take the poem to be a combination of sincerity and irony.
It's sincere, because these are things that AI genuinely cannot do. They are genuinely human things.
It's ironic, because they are mostly depressing things, things that you don't really want to do.
In asking the question "What can't AI do?" the set of "good" answers seems to be shrinking daily. So all that is left are the "bad" answers.
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Comment on How accurate have Ed Zitron's AI skeptic predictions been? in ~tech
heraplem (edited )Link ParentI agree. This is why I don't call myself "anti-ai" even though I completely loathe the technology (and I'm no poser—I've hated it since the mid-2010s). You can't authentically be "anti" something...I agree. This is why I don't call myself "anti-ai" even though I completely loathe the technology (and I'm no poser—I've hated it since the mid-2010s). You can't authentically be "anti" something that you can't meaningfully oppose.
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Comment on How accurate have Ed Zitron's AI skeptic predictions been? in ~tech
heraplem (edited )Link ParentI think that many (most?) people who dislike generative AI aren't completely honest—probably not even to themselves—about the actual reasons they dislike it. I say this because I know why I...- Exemplary
I think that many (most?) people who dislike generative AI aren't completely honest—probably not even to themselves—about the actual reasons they dislike it. I say this because I know why I dislike generative AI, and my reasons only partly overlap with the most common anti-AI talking points. (I don't really consider myself "anti-AI", because I think that's about as meaningful as being "anti-earthquake".) However, I think that you are missing some things.
First, I think you're a bit invoking the Goomba fallacy. You don't know whether anti-AI people are more likely to be developers, support increased pay for artists, be vegans, etc. It's kind of unreasonable to purport to identify hypocrisy in a group of people that you don't really know anything about other than one shared trait.
Second, I think it is unwise to expect any group of people to always be rational about everything. Humans have a status quo bias, so they will perceive a bad change as worse (per unit of "badness") than a bad status quo. So even if the status quo for artists was already bad, people will comparatively overreact to worsening conditions. This is indeed irrational, but it is something that applies to all groups of people.
Third, I have a bone to pick with this particular argument:
Maybe it's on behalf of artists, but where have these people been for the past hundred years? The trope of the starving artist is from the 1800s, and we've been farming out illustration work overseas for pennies on the dollar since the 1950s.
To my mind, painting generative AI as "bad for artists" is a comical understatement. I've gone on at length about this before, so I won't repeat myself, but I really believe that, in the long term, generative AI represents the wholesale obliteration of human-made art. I think that, within a century or two, humans will basically have stopped making art, at least as we currently think of it.
And this goes for everything to do with generative AI. I think it represents a complete transformation of what it means to be human. Humanity has gone through these sorts of changes before, but generative AI is different from all the others in that it's hard to see how it represents anything other than a diminishment of humanity itself. Previous technologies certainly diminished parts of the human experience, but they also opened up new ones. Not this time, I think.
(We had a pretty good run from 1440 up to the 1900s or so, and that resulted in the idea that technological progress was linked to the uplift of humanity. I think even a lot of people who are ambivalent about generative AI still believe this deep down, or at least want to believe it, which is why you see a lot of people say things like "The problem isn't AI, it's the context", which IMO is a thought-terminating cliche.)
Framing it as a matter of mere job loss is underselling the significance of the change. Job loss can theoretically be solved with UBI or some similar mechanism (though I doubt that this will actually happen), but you can't give humans their place in the world back. This is, I think, what is really at the heart of anti-AI sentiment. But no one wants to say it because it's too nebulous to express succinctly and too scary to admit.
I used to love reading old novels. I loved seeing the ways that humans have found meaning throughout history and thinking about they could tell us today. Now I can't bear to do that anymore. When I go back and read those books, I just feel totally defeated. Nothing they wrote means anything anymore.
Again, as a novice in this field, maybe I'm getting something wrong, but isn't that inherently anti-capitalist and therefore inline with the beliefs of many anti-AI believers?
I'm about to make a very speculative and wishy-washy argument, but: this is basically what a lot of FOSS people thought in the early days, and it didn't work out. FOSS was indeed highly disruptive to the tech companies that existed at the time, but it turned out to be a massive boon for big tech in the long run, because it gave them a base of high-quality software that they could use without having to spend any money. (And, indeed, a large base of high-quality code to train models on. In the long run, developers' pro-social behavior was rewarded with the devaluing of their skills.) I can't predict how it will happen—it may have nothing to do with OpenAI and Anthropic, for example—but I believe that generative AI will end up the same way in the long run.
Even though I can't predict the future, I can say that the utility of AI in constructing a repressive society seems pretty obvious. I think the future of civil liberties is extremely grim.
Basically, my perspective, and I think that of most anti-AI people, was succinctly summarized by Walter Benjamin in 1940:
A Klee painting named Angelus Novus shows an angel looking as though he is about to move away from something he is fixedly contemplating. His eyes are staring, his mouth is open, his wings are spread. This is how one pictures the angel of history. His face is turned toward the past. Where we perceive a chain of events, he sees one single catastrophe which keeps piling wreckage upon wreckage and hurls it in front of his feet. The angel would like to stay, awaken the dead, and make whole what has been smashed. But a storm is blowing from Paradise; it has got caught in his wings with such violence that the angel can no longer close them. The storm irresistibly propels him into the future to which his back is turned, while the pile of debris before him grows skyward. This storm is what we call progress.
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Comment on Gamergate but actually in ~games
heraplem (edited )Link Parent"Audience misalignment" is a great way to describe it. I will definitely use this term in the future. There's another layer to it, too. In the 90s and 00s, gaming companies marketed games heavily..."Audience misalignment" is a great way to describe it. I will definitely use this term in the future.
There's another layer to it, too. In the 90s and 00s, gaming companies marketed games heavily to young boys, so much so that they essentially created the synthetic "gamer" identity. In the 10s, gaming companies started to market to broader audiences, and also a greater diversity of voices rose to prominence online. A bunch of anomic young men felt like their identity was being stolen from them. Put that together with the very strange media environment of 2014, and something like GamerGate was probably bound to happen around that time.
I always said back then that the big problem (well, one big problem) with GamerGate was that it lacked a class analysis. The targets of their ire were "cultural elites", when it should have been big corporations. But these young men subconsciously thought of the big gaming corporations as their friends, because they were the source of this "gamer" identity in the first place. And the fact that this was an actual identity partially explains why they were so sensitive to the opinions of game journalists. They demanded to be taken seriously. But at the same time, they wanted reviews to be "objective", which basically just meant that they wanted product reviews, not critical analysis.
GamerGate was structurally very similar to other "paranoid style" movements, like the Know-Nothings and the Red Scare; except it was spiritually even more void, because it was also a phenomenon of consumerist entitlement.
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Comment on Gamergate but actually in ~games
heraplem (edited )Link ParentThis just seems implausible. Big journalism outlets have been on the decline everywhere, not just gaming. It seems far more likely that games journalism has been prey to the same structural...GamerGate is a big reason why the transition in the state of affairs in gaming journalism took place.
This just seems implausible. Big journalism outlets have been on the decline everywhere, not just gaming. It seems far more likely that games journalism has been prey to the same structural factors affecting everyone else.
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Comment on Songs about doing chores / daily routines? in ~music
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
heraplem Link ParentIt took my wife, a friend, and myself about four nights with a few hours of play each night. But having multiple people around really makes this sort of game easier. Depending on how good you are...It took my wife, a friend, and myself about four nights with a few hours of play each night. But having multiple people around really makes this sort of game easier. Depending on how good you are at these sorts of puzzles, I could reasonably see it taking around a week if you're playing alone.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
heraplem (edited )LinkMy wife and I just finished The Incident at Galley House. This is another entry in the mystery game mini-revival that seems to have been kicked off by Return of the Obra Dinn. If you're a fan of...My wife and I just finished The Incident at Galley House. This is another entry in the mystery game mini-revival that seems to have been kicked off by Return of the Obra Dinn. If you're a fan of Obra Dinn, The Case of the Golden Idol, and/or The Roottrees are Dead, then you must play The Incident at Galley House.
Notably, it's published by Evil Trout, the same people that published the criminally-underrated The Roottrees are Dead. I wouldn't say I liked it quite as much as Roottrees, but I'm not sure that's the game's fault—it might have something to do with expectations, and also with the fact that Roottrees was comfy, and this game decidedly is not. Nonetheless, it's a stellar puzzle. I wish I could say more, but the nature of this sort of game is that you can only experience it once.
Like Roottrees, Galley House is actually a remake of an itch.io browser game—specifically, Type Help. (What an awful title!) I went and played a bit of Type Help after finishing Galley House, and the core game is actually 100% identical, except that Galley House adds an additional arc at the end (much like Roottrees did). I actually think that Type Help is in some ways more compelling—pure text gets certain vibes across better than voice acting and visuals—and it apparently made big waves in the interactive fiction community when it was first released. Still, don't let that stop you from playing Galley House, if for no other reason than to support the original developer.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
heraplem (edited )Link ParentWell, there are fans that swear by Mystery of the Emblem, Genealogy, Thracia, Binding Blade, and Sacred Stones . . . I don't think anybody swears by Gaiden. I'm in the same place. I don't mind if...There's a few fans that swear by Gaiden and Thracia
Well, there are fans that swear by Mystery of the Emblem, Genealogy, Thracia, Binding Blade, and Sacred Stones . . . I don't think anybody swears by Gaiden.
So, I don't think I'm a Zelda fan anymore?
I'm in the same place. I don't mind if they felt like Zelda had to change, but I just despise open-world design in general. I wish they had gone in a different direction.
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Comment on The tantalizing possibility of locating consciousness in the brain in ~science
heraplem Link ParentI'm not saying you're definitely wrong—consciousness is a mystery, and I have very few certain ideas about it—but, like, you have subjective experience, right? Because, as far as I'm concerned,...I'm not saying you're definitely wrong—consciousness is a mystery, and I have very few certain ideas about it—but, like, you have subjective experience, right? Because, as far as I'm concerned, "consciousness" is basically just a synonym for "subjective experience".
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Comment on The tantalizing possibility of locating consciousness in the brain in ~science
heraplem LinkWas it ever a widespread view that consciousness requires intelligence? If so, I would just like to plant my flag and say that I have always been on team "Consciousness and intelligence are not...Of course, the idea that consciousness requires intelligence might be pre-AI thinking. As that assumption has begun to weaken, researchers have become increasingly willing to consider the possibility that subjective experience arises from evolutionarily older structures deep within the brain.
Was it ever a widespread view that consciousness requires intelligence?
If so, I would just like to plant my flag and say that I have always been on team "Consciousness and intelligence are not directly related".
If this starts to become a consensus, I do have to wonder what it will do to peoples' views on veganism.
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Comment on Worse on Purpose: a site that tracks which brands are still worth their old reputation and which have been enshittified in ~enviro
heraplem (edited )Link ParentThat probably is true, but I meant something a little stronger than that. Anyone who could get themselves hired at Palantir could get themselves hired at any generic company that needs developers,...I don't understand what you mean. Are you saying a white collar person always has the option of going blue collar because blue collar is a step down, whereas a blue collar worker doesn't have a similar option available (if I misunderstood, please don't be offended, just let me know what you actually meant)?
That probably is true, but I meant something a little stronger than that.
Anyone who could get themselves hired at Palantir could get themselves hired at any generic company that needs developers, which is to say most companies. I suppose we're assuming they got rejected from other big tech firms, so Palantir was their only option in that regard—but no one needs to work at big tech. They can go work for a bank or a grocery chain or whatever.
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Comment on Worse on Purpose: a site that tracks which brands are still worth their old reputation and which have been enshittified in ~enviro
heraplem Link ParentSomeone who works at a slaughterhouse may have had no choice. Someone who works at Palantir always had other choices. Maybe they would have had to give something up to make those choices. Well,...Some of them may have had no choice when starting to work there
Someone who works at a slaughterhouse may have had no choice. Someone who works at Palantir always had other choices. Maybe they would have had to give something up to make those choices. Well, the right choice isn't always the easiest choice.
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Comment on How “HIV is the cause of AIDS” is true in ~science
heraplem LinkI don't have a paid subscription to this Substack, so I can't read the whole thing, but I find it strange that the author is appealing to causality as the central problem here rather than...I don't have a paid subscription to this Substack, so I can't read the whole thing, but I find it strange that the author is appealing to causality as the central problem here rather than reference. Frege, Russel, Kripke, and Putnam all dealt with this sort of problem at length.
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Comment on What did banning Airbnbs in New York City accomplish? in ~finance
heraplem Link ParentThis is something that I wish more neoliberal types would accept. I'm sympathetic to the ideal of effective evidence-based government, but so many neoliberal types (or, at least, the ones who are...This is something that I wish more neoliberal types would accept. I'm sympathetic to the ideal of effective evidence-based government, but so many neoliberal types (or, at least, the ones who are vocal online) are frustratingly stubborn and seem to simply not care about winning.
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Comment on If AI is sentient then so is ‘Age of Empires II’ in ~tech
heraplem Link ParentPersonally, I'm a bit of a biological chauvinist; i.e., my prior is that organic brains are more likely to be conscious than non-organic "brain-like things" of similar or even greater complexity....I just struggle to ascribe a “maybe there’s emergent behaviour there that we don’t understand” to a biological machine like a bacterium or a fly without being forced to ascribe the same thing to a trillion parameter ball of statistical input/output processing.
Personally, I'm a bit of a biological chauvinist; i.e., my prior is that organic brains are more likely to be conscious than non-organic "brain-like things" of similar or even greater complexity. Actually, I have some doubt that digital brains can ever be conscious on any scale of complexity.
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Comment on ‘Donkey’: Eddie Murphy ‘Shrek’ spinoff sets summer 2028 release in ~movies
heraplem LinkHistory shows that spin-offs starring a comic relief character rarely work. The earliest example I'm aware of is Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor, starring Falstaff (the comic relief...History shows that spin-offs starring a comic relief character rarely work. The earliest example I'm aware of is Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor, starring Falstaff (the comic relief character of Falstaff from the Henry IV plays) and often considered Shakespeare's worst.
I think one of the things that makes people suspicious is the simple observation that, despite all their warnings, these people continue to build the thing that they are warning about.
I understand that they have their reasons (including, but not limited to, uh, money), but it's very hard to convince someone that you are sincere when your actions appear to contradict your words.