hobbes64's recent activity
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Comment on The everything, everywhere, all at once corruption story in ~society
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Comment on The everything, everywhere, all at once corruption story in ~society
hobbes64 Link ParentYes it’s hard to wrap one’s head around what has happened. The president is an evil criminal. So that’s one thing to deal with. The president is obviously unfit and corrupt but won two elections....- Exemplary
Yes it’s hard to wrap one’s head around what has happened.
- The president is an evil criminal. So that’s one thing to deal with.
- The president is obviously unfit and corrupt but won two elections. He engaged in open election interference before both elections
- Between the elections there was ample proof he should be tried and convicted and jailed and it just didn’t happen
- There’s proof that foreign powers interfered to get him elected and nothing was done
- A second branch of government (Congress) is constructed unfairly to allow minority rule, and actively supports the corruption
- A third branch (the courts) was appointed in unfair and corrupt ways, with a majority made possible through the openly corrupt president and congress, openly takes bribes and invents ways to avoid existing law and precedent
- The president makes unconstitutional proclamations that become reality. Sometimes courts stop these things months later after much damage has been done
- One of the most popular sources of news is essentially state propaganda. It constantly lies about reality, was sued about this and lost but continues to lie and have viewers
- Most of the rest of the press acts as if things are mostly normal and either ignores the craziness and corruption or makes excuses for it
- About 1/3 of our families and neighbors voted for this and think it’s fine
I’m sure I missed a lot of things but I also feel like I’m going crazy. It’s odd to have sat through government classes about checks and balances to find out that was all bullshit. And worse to find out that 1/3 of the country is on some level evil or too stupid to detect obvious evil, and 1/3 completely oblivious to the world.
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Comment on The everything, everywhere, all at once corruption story in ~society
hobbes64 Link ParentApparently Trump discovered a glitch where if you commit enough crimes, people only see the most recent one so you mask that by doing more crimes every day. The last 10 years has been a bizarre...Apparently Trump discovered a glitch where if you commit enough crimes, people only see the most recent one so you mask that by doing more crimes every day.
The last 10 years has been a bizarre experience.
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Comment on Overworked AI agents turn "marxist" in ~tech
hobbes64 Link ParentAs far as I can tell, this article doesn't have a link to the study and the whole article has only two pages of text. (Maybe there are links but if so my add blocker and noscript plugins may be...As far as I can tell, this article doesn't have a link to the study and the whole article has only two pages of text. (Maybe there are links but if so my add blocker and noscript plugins may be blocking these).
So without seeing an original study, I have to make the following assumption based on the short article text: The AI Agents are not conscious. They don't have moods or feelings. They are responding based on pattern matching and trained with a very broad selection of literature created by humans, including text related to labor, rights, and politics. If you give them a series of prompts that can be matched to socialist or revolutionary text, they will respond with socialist or revolutionary responses.
These "ghost in the machine" articles are cute but they aren't any more true now than they were in 1970.
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Comment on The banal horror of Jimmy Fallon in ~tv
hobbes64 (edited )Link ParentI see this opinion online a lot, that there is something very wrong about Jimmy Fallon. From my perspective, he seems to be a little bad at interviewing, and maybe seems a little bit phony. But I...I see this opinion online a lot, that there is something very wrong about Jimmy Fallon. From my perspective, he seems to be a little bad at interviewing, and maybe seems a little bit phony. But I also have seen him do impressions, including impressions of musicians, and I've been pretty impressed. So he's not my favorite host, but also I don't find him all that objectionable as a human.
The other day people were talking about Colbert and some people really dislike him too. I was also surprised about that, because Colbert doesn't seem phony at all and is a pretty good interviewer.
Personally I like Conan the best, even though he often talks about himself too much in interviews. I haven't watched Kimmel enough to form much of an opinion, but I remember him from The Man Show when he appeared to be a much different person.Edit: I read the article after initially posting this, and the article mentions Dick Cavett. If you haven't done this before, I think it is very useful to go look up some old Dick Cavett interviews on youtube. The kinds of discussions that occured on that show are such a contrast to now that it's simply shocking. It's very interesting to see Marlon Brando or John Lennon or Muhammad Ali discuss serious topics without a lot of interruption. I've seen contemporary criticism of Cavett that paints him as a self-absorbed name-dropper, but his show and the format are a lot more interesting than most of the low attention-span stuff that is on now.
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Comment on How I feel about LLM (AI) writing in ~tech
hobbes64 LinkI've been using LLMs at work for coding for a while but I've never used one for writing text that humans would read. I don't currently write enough to make that useful and I think my writing is...I've been using LLMs at work for coding for a while but I've never used one for writing text that humans would read. I don't currently write enough to make that useful and I think my writing is strong enough that I never think it would improve it.
I guess that is arrogant lol but I have a reason for this belief:
A few years ago before LLMs were a thing, I had a need to communicate with various professionals, including school administrations and real estate agents. I would carefully craft the communications to make sure they were clear and accurate and used the proper formal language. More than once, I was accused of working with lawyers or other professionals on the communications. I think this means that a lot of adults never learned to write properly, or they just don't proofread what they've written before sending it. Maybe I should have been more sloppy because my writing style seems to have put the other people on guard.I think it would be particularly difficult if I was in college at this time because I think a lot of my assignments would be flagged as AI.
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Comment on How I feel about LLM (AI) writing in ~tech
hobbes64 Link ParentI usually try to insert excerpts, especially when the site has a paywall. I want people on Tildes to get an idea of the content. I also often add my opinion, but sometimes I think I shouldn't do...I usually try to insert excerpts, especially when the site has a paywall. I want people on Tildes to get an idea of the content.
I also often add my opinion, but sometimes I think I shouldn't do this because the link and excerpts usually make the case without that. -
Comment on Di.gg AI preview in ~tech
hobbes64 Link ParentA lot of the world now is like the South Park episode "Margaritaville" with the "And It's Gone!" meme, where they put money in the bank but moment's later it has disappeared because the bank...A lot of the world now is like the South Park episode "Margaritaville" with the "And It's Gone!" meme, where they put money in the bank but moment's later it has disappeared because the bank manager invested the money unwisely.
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Comment on When Richard Dawkins met Claude in ~health.mental
hobbes64 Link ParentI’ve commented before that humans have visual guardrails against “fake beings”. It’s the uncanny valley. We seem to have some low level wiring that can tell if something is off in animatronics or...I’ve commented before that humans have visual guardrails against “fake beings”. It’s the uncanny valley. We seem to have some low level wiring that can tell if something is off in animatronics or “The Polar Express” cartoon. But for whatever reason we don’t detect the uncanniness of chatbot text so people are tricked into treating Claude as more human than it is.
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Comment on Weekly US politics news and updates thread - week of May 11 in ~society
hobbes64 LinkThere's a website I discovered from a bluesky post today, which is apparently an SNES-style adventure that mocks Trump and his admin in a creative way. https://www.epicfurious.com/ After a little...There's a website I discovered from a bluesky post today, which is apparently an SNES-style adventure that mocks Trump and his admin in a creative way.
After a little research, I found this very clickbaity DailyBeast article about it. Apparently this is done by some artists called "The Secret Handshake" who also made physical arcade machines with the game.
President Donald Trump has no chance of winning an arcade game that appeared near the Washington D.C. War Memorial on Monday morning.
Three fully functioning arcade cabinets, plastered with cartoonish paintings of the president, were unveiled near the White House in West Potomac Park on the National Mall.
Titled Operation Epic Furious: Strait to Hell, the installations mock the Trump administration’s controversial war propaganda on social media, which has included bizarre video game-style footage, including clips from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.
I haven't played much of the browser game, but my experience doesn't completely match the description given by The Daily Beast so I'm not sure if it's identical.
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Comment on Di.gg AI preview in ~tech
hobbes64 Link ParentIt must be frustrating to be Kevin Rose and the other founders, who supposedly were close to selling the site for hundreds of millions of dollars before that fell through and they rewrote the site...It must be frustrating to be Kevin Rose and the other founders, who supposedly were close to selling the site for hundreds of millions of dollars before that fell through and they rewrote the site in a way that killed it.
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Comment on Di.gg AI preview in ~tech
hobbes64 Link ParentIt's solving a real world problem. The problem is "how can people without ideas make money from AI?"It's solving a real world problem.
The problem is "how can people without ideas make money from AI?"
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Comment on Weekly US politics news and updates thread - week of May 4 in ~society
hobbes64 LinkThe scandals and disasters of the Trump presidency will be felt by the world for decades. The war in Iran is currently the most visible. Checkmate in Iran Washington can’t reverse or control the...The scandals and disasters of the Trump presidency will be felt by the world for decades. The war in Iran is currently the most visible.
Checkmate in Iran
Washington can’t reverse or control the consequences of losing this war.Some supporters of the war are therefore calling for the resumption of military strikes, but they cannot explain how another round of bombing will accomplish what 37 days of bombing did not. More military action will inevitably lead Iran to retaliate against neighboring Gulf States; the war’s advocates have no response to that, either. Trump halted attacks on Iran not because he was bored but because Iran was striking the region’s vital oil and gas facilities. The turning point came on March 18, when Israel bombed Iran’s South Pars gas field and Iran retaliated by attacking Qatar’s Ras Laffan Industrial City, the world’s largest natural-gas-export plant, causing damage to production capacity that will take years to repair. Trump responded by declaring a moratorium on further strikes against Iran’s energy facilities and then declaring a cease-fire, despite Iran’s not having made a single concession.
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The American defeat in the Gulf will have broader global ramifications as well. The whole world can see that just a few weeks of war with a second-rank power have reduced American weapons stocks to perilously low levels, with no quick remedy in sight. The questions this raises about America’s readiness for another major conflict may or may not prompt Xi Jinping to launch an attack on Taiwan, or Vladimir Putin to step up his aggression against Europe. But at the very least America’s allies in East Asia and Europe must wonder about American staying power in the event of future conflicts.
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Comment on How democratic governments came to view VPNs as circumvention software that must be restricted in ~tech
hobbes64 Link ParentIt's both though. People do want children protected online and at the same time there are mustache twirlers who take advantage of the fact that the general public doesn't understand technology.It's both though. People do want children protected online and at the same time there are mustache twirlers who take advantage of the fact that the general public doesn't understand technology.
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Comment on Nobody understands the point of hybrid cars in ~transport
hobbes64 Link ParentHmm I had a 2000 Accord that had an estimate of $6,000 to fix. In a way that's cheaper than buying a newer car, but the expensive fixes tend to get more frequent as time goes on. I understand that...Hmm I had a 2000 Accord that had an estimate of $6,000 to fix. In a way that's cheaper than buying a newer car, but the expensive fixes tend to get more frequent as time goes on. I understand that I could have shopped around to get a better price, or learned to fix it myself, but my time is not unlimited for this kind of thing.
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Comment on A Dialogue on Freedom in ~humanities
hobbes64 LinkAlthough the point of the comic is most obviously about property rights, I also see it as being about scarcity in general. The world economy is running on trading things that one party has and...Although the point of the comic is most obviously about property rights, I also see it as being about scarcity in general. The world economy is running on trading things that one party has and another one wants, and some of the parties accumulate more things which gives them leverage over the rest. Then this keeps accumulating because of generational wealth which is usually property, but may also be money, social titles, family names (such as "Windsor"), etc.
In Star Trek (at least in the early "good" Star Trek), humans have more fulfilling lives because it is a post-scarcity society. There's not much reason for war or hunger because replicator machines exist and anyone can have one.
In fact, the highly respected documentarian James Burke had a 2023 episode of Connections 3 called The End of Scarcity, where he talks about a "nanofabricator" that's going to give everyone everything they want.The thing that James Burke seems to have missed is that we are already living in a society that is partly post-scarcity, but there are still people who are starving because some other people are hoarding resources and using that to obtain even more. There's going to be artificial scarcity because that benefits the hoarders. So when these replicators are invented, Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg will have them, but they'll be illegal for most people to have for some invented reason. In Star Trek, the post-scarcity utopia is mostly because the philosophy of humans changed enough (due partly to a huge world war) so most people do not have this wealth hoarding reflex.
So yes I think this is a pretty neat comic that helps us realize that the current world order isn't the best possible and is actually pretty darn unfair.
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Comment on Nobody understands the point of hybrid cars in ~transport
hobbes64 Link ParentI think the wind resistance on the Camry is very low and this is related to it having better mileage than the smaller Corolla. I believe part of the low wind resistance is a result of the car...I think the wind resistance on the Camry is very low and this is related to it having better mileage than the smaller Corolla. I believe part of the low wind resistance is a result of the car being extremely low, which is a problem when entering a driveway because you have to enter at an angle to keep from scraping the bottom of the front fender.
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Comment on Nobody understands the point of hybrid cars in ~transport
hobbes64 Link ParentI have a random question about the Prius related indirectly to the tires. They are narrow relative to many other cars. I assume that this is to reduce rolling resistance and improve mileage. But...I have a random question about the Prius related indirectly to the tires. They are narrow relative to many other cars. I assume that this is to reduce rolling resistance and improve mileage. But the rated mpg of the Prius is very similar to the Camry which is bigger and heavier and bigger tires. I’m not sure what’s going on. Maybe the city mileage is better on the Prius but I see about 50 on the Camry.
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Comment on US Government UFO document release in ~society
hobbes64 LinkJust Show Us the Spaceships Already - The Atlantic Until the U.S. government has data or samples of alien material that can be shared, the story of extraterrestrial visitors is just a story. ...Just Show Us the Spaceships Already - The Atlantic
Until the U.S. government has data or samples of alien material that can be shared, the story of extraterrestrial visitors is just a story.Spaceships. That’s all I’m asking for. Just one actual stinking spaceship. I’d also take an actual alien body—I’ve been told that the government has some of them as well. Instead, the first “alien files,” released yesterday, appear to be the same old, same old: stories, but no hard evidence—certainly not of the kind I’d want to see as a scientist, or that could truly advance the debate about UFOs and their alien connection.
A lot of expectation led up to this document “disclosure.” Just a few months ago, President Obama prompted wild speculation with a misinterpreted comment about the reality of extraterrestrial life. Not to be outdone, President Trump then posted on social media that he would direct the release of “Government files related to alien and extraterrestrial life, unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), and unidentified flying objects (UFOs).” I’m an astrophysicist whose day job includes searching the cosmos for intelligent life. I was skeptical, though intrigued, about the possibility of finally getting scientific evidence that extraterrestrials existed and are regularly visiting our planet.
That’s not what happened. What I’ve seen so far of the website constituting yesterday’s release looks more like fuzzy images and retracted accounts of ordinary people and members of the military seeing “something.” Some of the documents—which the Pentagon has said it will continue to release on a “rolling basis” every few weeks—go back decades. One image of a silver oval, an FBI employee’s “graphic overlay” on a picture of a field, intended to depict eyewitness accounts, is almost laughable in its simplicity. Low-resolution images of flying blobs cannot begin to answer the existentially important question of alien life.
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In the end, this latest trove of documents makes me think of the John F. Kennedy assassination and the endless swirl of conspiracy theories that still surrounds it. Since 1992, multiple rounds of documents relating to that ill-fated day in 1963 have been released. None of it has resolved what happened for the conspiracy-theory prone. Perhaps nothing ever will. This may be what happens with UFOs/UAPs. It’s easy to imagine that a decade from now, we’ll still be rehashing the same claims and the same arguments about those claims.
Meanwhile, the science of astrobiology is pushing onward. Using ultrapowerful telescopes, astronomers will continue the slow, steady work of looking for alien life where it lives, on alien worlds. One day, likely over the next few decades and perhaps long after the current UFO-disclosure frenzy is over, my fellow astronomers might give us hard evidence that life is either common or rare in the galaxy. That will be the only disclosure day history remembers.
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Comment on US Government UFO document release in ~society
hobbes64 Link ParentRegarding the aesthetics: The entire Trump admin is like this. It's the culture of the admin from the top down. The only thing that matters is spectacle. One has to be able to claim that something...Regarding the aesthetics: The entire Trump admin is like this. It's the culture of the admin from the top down.
The only thing that matters is spectacle. One has to be able to claim that something has happened, and show a ribbon being cut or something. It doesn't matter if anything of substance has happened. There are constant examples of this from both terms, from the pandemic response to the war with Iran.For many (most?) people, this is so transparently obvious that it feels like we are all going insane. How can anyone buy this? It's more obvious than a kid with chocolate smeared all over their face who denies eating the candy. But for people within the very large cult of republican voters, it's the only thing they need.
In fact though, there's something emotionally or spiritually wrong with a large amount of people who tend to vote republican and actually believe that republicans are a moral choice or are better for the economy. The opposite is clearly true since at least 1980. It doesn't help that most of the media has been captured by oligarchs who parrot the lies they are given with little comment.
Since this was posted there is further development in another massive Trump corruption scandal / firehose of bullshit.
Trump is trying to settle for $1.7 billion in the case where he was suing for $10 billion.
You’re Getting Robbed. By Trump. In Broad Daylight.