RNG's recent activity
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Comment on How Bluesky, the rival of Elon Musk’s X, is seizing the moment in ~tech
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Comment on How Bluesky, the rival of Elon Musk’s X, is seizing the moment in ~tech
RNG LinkBluesky seems to be just liberal Twitter. I cannot find the non-political stuff I like on Bluesky.Bluesky seems to be just liberal Twitter. I cannot find the non-political stuff I like on Bluesky.
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Comment on Russia suffers deadliest day since start of full-scale invasion, Ukraine's military says in ~news
RNG Link ParentIt's hard to imagine whatever is sent will be enough to stave off Russia for an indeterminate amount of time (say, four years?) I haven't seen any meaningful evidence that suggests this will...What makes you think Biden won't leave a January surprise and dump a bunch of funding and capacity before he out?
It's hard to imagine whatever is sent will be enough to stave off Russia for an indeterminate amount of time (say, four years?)
Whats stopping Europe from rising in place of the US' fall and becoming the predominant hegemonic power and arbiter of all this?
I haven't seen any meaningful evidence that suggests this will happen. I suppose it's possible, but I have no reason to think Europe will suddenly start spending 3x what they are now on Ukrainian aid.
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Comment on Russia suffers deadliest day since start of full-scale invasion, Ukraine's military says in ~news
RNG Link ParentUkraine would have been long lost without US support. And I've been hearing that the Russian economy is about to collapse for three years now, and it's yet to happen. Even with Russia's bad...Ukraine would have been long lost without US support. And I've been hearing that the Russian economy is about to collapse for three years now, and it's yet to happen. Even with Russia's bad economy and truly massive assistance from the US, Ukraine is still losing ground. When US aid dries up, it's hard to fathom how this would not change the game in the war.
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Comment on Russia suffers deadliest day since start of full-scale invasion, Ukraine's military says in ~news
RNG LinkThe finish line is in sight for Russia; if they can keep up the offensive for just a few more months, Ukraine's offensive capability will eventually collapse. Considering the war has gone on for...The finish line is in sight for Russia; if they can keep up the offensive for just a few more months, Ukraine's offensive capability will eventually collapse. Considering the war has gone on for two years, this seems like an easily achievable goal.
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Comment on Elections: ultimately, it’s going to be okay in ~society
RNG Link ParentHonestly, we need to be rid of it. It gums up getting things done in government and grinds lawmaking to a halt. We may not like the fact that the government will function under Republicans, but...Honestly, we need to be rid of it. It gums up getting things done in government and grinds lawmaking to a halt. We may not like the fact that the government will function under Republicans, but I'd rather it function under both rather than under neither.
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Comment on The Vatican’s anime mascot is now an AI porn sensation in ~tech
RNG Link ParentIt's also like, how is this even news? This has famously been done with essentially all animated characters on the internet.Taking "cute innocent female character" and sticking it in the lazy AI porn converter is in bad taste
It's also like, how is this even news? This has famously been done with essentially all animated characters on the internet.
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Comment on Best solution to extract PDF data? in ~comp
RNG Link ParentI think Pytesseract is well known enough that if you have any familiarity with python at all, you can likely get 99% of the way there by prompting an LLM to generate what you are looking for.I think Pytesseract is well known enough that if you have any familiarity with python at all, you can likely get 99% of the way there by prompting an LLM to generate what you are looking for.
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Comment on Best solution to extract PDF data? in ~comp
RNG Link ParentThe problem is that there really isn't a reliable way to extract data from a PDF. PDFs are weird. If his system is connected to the internet, he can try a few different libraries that try to parse...The problem is that there really isn't a reliable way to extract data from a PDF. PDFs are weird. If his system is connected to the internet, he can try a few different libraries that try to parse PDFs, but like I said before, these have basically coin-flip odds of success. If he has to request software be installed and approved by security or something, Tesseract will be about as sure a bet as any.
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Comment on Best solution to extract PDF data? in ~comp
RNG LinkCan you reasonably bring in software packages onto the network you are doing the work on? I recommend using Tesseract OCR with Pytesseract, but there are other PDF parsing libraries that have...Can you reasonably bring in software packages onto the network you are doing the work on? I recommend using Tesseract OCR with Pytesseract, but there are other PDF parsing libraries that have coin-flip odds for working with your particular PDF format.
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Comment on Several Russian developers lose kernel maintainership status in ~comp
RNG Link ParentSo it isn't all Russian contributors, but just ones who's employers are sanctioned?So it isn't all Russian contributors, but just ones who's employers are sanctioned?
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Comment on Advice for dealing with racist/pro-Donald Trump family? in ~health.mental
RNG Link ParentI guess that just doesn't match my anecdotal experience at all. Neither for myself or anyone I know. Yes, there is often some non-rational impetus that causes one to examine their beliefs, but I...I guess that just doesn't match my anecdotal experience at all. Neither for myself or anyone I know.
Yes, there is often some non-rational impetus that causes one to examine their beliefs, but I think it's rare this is sufficient for a life-changing transformation. It's the result of this critical examination when one finds that the foundations of their belief set are massively lacking that leads to the transformation. But everyone is different, so these anecdotes may not be representative.
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Comment on Advice for dealing with racist/pro-Donald Trump family? in ~health.mental
RNG Link ParentHave you ever met someone who was a former conservative? Former evangelical? Do you really think reason wasn't the means by which they deconstructed their old world view?"You can't reason someone out of a position that they didn't arrive at by reason."
Have you ever met someone who was a former conservative? Former evangelical? Do you really think reason wasn't the means by which they deconstructed their old world view?
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Comment on Linguaphiles of Tildes: where do you get your words? in ~humanities.languages
RNG LinkI try to express my thoughts in the simplest possible way for the audience I intend. Jargon is sometimes necessary as a shortcut to communicating complex ideas quickly to an audience who already...I try to express my thoughts in the simplest possible way for the audience I intend.
Jargon is sometimes necessary as a shortcut to communicating complex ideas quickly to an audience who already knows the terminology. Outside of being a time-saving measure, I try to still communicate as clearly and conversationally as possible even in these situations. If you are going to talk about something you are knowledgeable about with people who aren't, it is a craft to make these complex ideas accessible.
The thought of using unfamiliar complex words for the sake of it seems wrongheaded; what are you even trying to accomplish?
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Comment on Toyota is the latest company to scale back its DEI policies in ~transport
RNG LinkSince June, a mounting number of companies have pulled back on their corporate commitments to diversity, equity, and inclusion. Tractor Supply and John Deere were some of the first companies to do so, reversing some of their DEI policies and pulling sponsorship of Pride events and other “social or cultural awareness” events. In the months since, several others have followed suit—including Harley-Davidson, Lowe’s, and Ford—and revoked their participation in the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index, which evaluates companies on how inclusive they are of LGBTQ+ employees.
The automaker will no longer sponsor LGBTQ+ events and plans to “narrow our community activities to align with STEM education and workforce readiness,” according to a Bloomberg report.
Like other companies, Toyota will also no longer participate in the Corporate Equality Index.
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Toyota is the latest company to scale back its DEI policies
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Comment on I now think a heretical form of Christianity might be true in ~humanities
RNG Link ParentWhat information are we missing? Everything plugs into Bayes theorem nicely. Measurements for what? Priors? The likelihood of outcomes on the different hypotheses? This argument doesn't tell you...You don't need to assume the full distribution, but you do need some information about it via the other terms in Bayes' formula.
What information are we missing? Everything plugs into Bayes theorem nicely.
In practice you'd take measurements to empirically approximate those other terms, and that's the real power of Bayesian statistics.
Measurements for what? Priors? The likelihood of outcomes on the different hypotheses? This argument doesn't tell you what priors to plug in. You can mod this argument just to calculate a Bayes factor to tell you that some hypothesis is more likely given the evidence than another.
Could you point me toward the argument you're referring to here?
In this paper, on page 6 you can find a clean layout of the argument https://philarchive.org/rec/BARARL-3
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Comment on I now think a heretical form of Christianity might be true in ~humanities
RNG Link ParentIt may turn out that everything happens necessarily. The laws, the constants, even me typing this sentence out. It turns out the necessitarian view is well accommodated by Bayesian reasoning. We...We have no reason to think that anything about the laws of physics even could vary; they could simply be a brute fact.
It may turn out that everything happens necessarily. The laws, the constants, even me typing this sentence out. It turns out the necessitarian view is well accommodated by Bayesian reasoning.
We aren't asking what constants are most likely if you turned back the clock and ran it again; we ask which hypothesis better predicts the evidence of fine-tuning.
To motivate this view, imagine I gave you a coin. What are the chances it lands on heads? Well, from both a frequentist and epistemic account, 50%. Now imagine I tell you that it's not a fair coin; it's weighted on one side such that it's guaranteed to always land on the same side, but suppose I don't tell you which side it's weighted on. Now, you have no idea what the frequentist probability of it landing on heads: might be 100% might be 0%. However, the epistemic possibility of it landing on heads is 50%.
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Comment on I now think a heretical form of Christianity might be true in ~humanities
RNG Link ParentSo generally what is done is throw the law structures in the background and ask what the likelihood of the constants resulting in life-permitting universes is. Multiple samples would be something...To apply Bayes you still need a model; you can approximate it, but that requires multiple samples. So to apply it in this domain you have to make an assumption. In doing so, you have the freedom to obtain any result you want.
So generally what is done is throw the law structures in the background and ask what the likelihood of the constants resulting in life-permitting universes is. Multiple samples would be something necessary for frequentist, rather than Bayesian, accounts of likelihood.
AFAIK the strongest claim we can make, even with Bayes, is: the universe which we I observe does could exist. We don't really need Bayes to help us figure that out, though.
The strongest claim one could make is, all things being equal, the constants falling in the life-permitting range is better predicted by theism than naturalism.
There may certainly be other statements you can prove I'm not aware of, but I expect them to be similarly vague. Anything stronger must presuppose a model about the distribution of universes in some multiverse which doesn't necessarily have bearing on our reality.
Since we are talking about epistemic probability and Bayesian statistics, we don't need to know the actual intrinsic probability distribution.
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Comment on I now think a heretical form of Christianity might be true in ~humanities
RNG Link ParentSo the only note I'd have here is we could just pick out one and have a good argument, assuming you don't engineer all the rest to somehow keep the universe life-permitting. You could just throw...The argument is that each of these constants land in particular ranges, which if they were otherwise, would not support life. Then, due to the fact that there are multiple constants and the fact that all these individually unlikely events all occurred jointly, it is unlikely to have been random chance.
So the only note I'd have here is we could just pick out one and have a good argument, assuming you don't engineer all the rest to somehow keep the universe life-permitting. You could just throw those in the background data.
Because we don't know how it is calculated, it is arbitrary? Or, what is the justification for this position?
So this point isn't generally controversial. If, say, the cosmological constant was smaller, the universe would collapse in on itself. If it was much larger, the universe would be filled with only hydrogen, and each hydrogen atom would be light-years away from the others.
This is the central premise of the argument. If one of the constants is correlated with another, then the second constant's value contributes less information about the joint distribution. If one of the constants is a direct function of another, then it contributes exactly no information. If all these constants are dependent, then the argument falls apart entirely -- it wouldn't matter if there were a million constants or just one.
I'm a little less familiar with the whole cumulative case; the cosmology and physics is quite complex, so I personally really only know about the cosmological constant, which is enough to motivate the argument.
I would say that the argument itself implicitly smuggles in the idea of multiple universes by supposing that there are alternatives to the constants in the first place.
The Bayesian argument is merely saying that cosmological fine-tuning is more expected on theism than naturalism. This isn't making any claims about any other universes or something.
Do you have any recommendations for these interests:
I don't believe in getting political news or information from a short-form text site.