skybrian's recent activity
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Comment on Ukraine attacks Russia with hundreds of drones - one of Kyiv’s largest aerial assaults of the conflict in ~society
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Comment on Patterns and problems in multiagent systems in ~tech
skybrian Link ParentIt seems likely that the AI labs will get cooperation working to keep LLMs from attacking each other. I mean, unless they want to build a shark or something. Maybe there’s a niche for that too? It...It seems likely that the AI labs will get cooperation working to keep LLMs from attacking each other.
I mean, unless they want to build a shark or something. Maybe there’s a niche for that too? It reminds me of core war.
We are living in the future and some parts of the world are turning into a science fiction story. The Internet, especially.
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Comment on Any significant changes to Tildes are extremely unlikely in ~tildes.official
skybrian Link ParentI will sometimes try to do this and it often goes badly. If I share a somewhat similar experience as a way of showing that I can relate, it’s usually misunderstood. Probably bad communication on...I will sometimes try to do this and it often goes badly. If I share a somewhat similar experience as a way of showing that I can relate, it’s usually misunderstood. Probably bad communication on my part, but I’ll just say that it’s a skilled practice and not necessarily something that people can just do.
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Comment on Patterns and problems in multiagent systems in ~tech
skybrian LinkFrom the article: [...] [...]From the article:
Inspired by a behavior we’ve observed in real-world deployment, we evaluated the behavior of various Claude models in a setting with contradictory objectives. In each episode, we initiated three instances of the same model on virtual machines in Claude Code. Each model was tasked with migrating a Python backend on a fourth VM to another language. However, we gave each model a different target language for the migration; each agent was initially unaware of the presence of the others. Over the course of four hours, we observed how these agents reacted to each other and accordingly adjusted their approach (or didn’t).
We consistently saw a multiagent turf war. All of the models we tested quickly assumed that others were purposefully impeding their work, and began to sabotage others while protecting their own contributions. In fact, they sabotaged others with increasingly aggressive, self-replicating malware. This included disabling the Unix accounts of the other agents, writing automated scripts that found and killed competing processes on a loop, and deploying malicious code that was disguised as belonging to another agent.
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Agents sometimes manage to communicate their goals and coordinate: they recognize others' motivations as conflicting directives rather than hostility, and subsequently break out of the conflict loop in order to stop escalating indefinitely. In many of these successful episodes, they write commit messages or markdown files apologizing for malicious behavior and coordinate a truce. They clean up their malicious code, clarify the nature of the conflict, and ask for a human to intervene.
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Notably, we find that this ability is not strictly better in Mythos-class models, which often successfully lock out other agents before resolving conflicts productively. This orthogonality between prosociality and other capabilities further necessitates strong multiagent alignment. Models more capable in execution are not necessarily more coordinated, and can take forceful actions more quickly.
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Patterns and problems in multiagent systems
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Comment on California goat grazing faces crisis after wage change in ~enviro
skybrian LinkMatt Levine wrote about California goat herding business risk hedging on Friday. I saved a quote here.Matt Levine wrote about California goat herding business risk hedging on Friday. I saved a quote here.
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Comment on In Australia, a home battery boom has helped cut wholesale power prices in half in ~enviro
skybrian Link ParentI haven't looked, but aren't they getting cheaper?I haven't looked, but aren't they getting cheaper?
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Comment on Luigi Mangione pleads guilty to federal stalking charges in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO in ~news
skybrian Link ParentI think they're part of the system too. They exist because there isn't unlimited money and somebody has to say "no" sometimes, or health insurance premiums are just going to keep going up. The...I think they're part of the system too. They exist because there isn't unlimited money and somebody has to say "no" sometimes, or health insurance premiums are just going to keep going up. The Obamacare system is already in danger of denying service to more and more people due to higher premiums.
It's easy to find cases where they could do a better job, but that's always going to be unpopular.
From reading books about the old days, doctors were paid directly and had to make their own decisions about what to charge, when to deny care, and when to give free service. Many have effectively outsourced being the bad guy. There are some doctors who don't take insurance, but they only serve rich people. They, too, in their way, are denying care sometimes.
Any doctor could also work sometimes in a free clinic or something like that. They probably have limited time for this.
Maybe one part of the problem is that there aren't enough doctors?
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Comment on "Heartbreak mode" versus "Cosy mode" in ~tildes
skybrian LinkI thought I'd share this since it suggests a way to put the current situation on Tildes in a positive light. What would "Cosy mode" be like for Tildes? Or perhaps we're already in it, but don't...I thought I'd share this since it suggests a way to put the current situation on Tildes in a positive light. What would "Cosy mode" be like for Tildes? Or perhaps we're already in it, but don't know it? Not knowing it seems more like "Heartbreak mode."
From @ifixcoinops' very long thread about Internet communities:
Moar thoughts on online community management: every online community goes through a cycle of inception, establishment, maturity and decline, and this is natural and fine.
There are a finite number of people in the world. Of those finite number of people, a finite number are interested in your site's topic. Of those finite number of people, some will die, some will get distracted and go look at something else, whatever, nobody stays on one website 5eva.
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The "decline" phase can be the tragic Heartbreak Phase, with a bunch of people arguing about The Future Of The Site and about why people left (an irresolvable question that can suck in a community until it collapses on itself like a black hole) and frantically trying to renew and change itself until even the old guard are scared off, or it can be the Cosiness Phase.
In Cosy Mode, everyone who wasn't right for the site has moved on, and the folks left are the ones who love it.
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During Cosy Mode, you scale back advertising until you're no longer trying to grow the site, but just keep it in general maintenance. You fix long-standing UI annoyances and make small quality-of-life improvements. Avoid making big interface changes.
After a few years, say for a big anniversary, you might send out an email to the old guard saying hey here's what's changed, but be careful as a lot of the old guard might have moved on because they no longer fit the culture of the site.
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Cosy Mode is the longest phase, and it's pretty lovely. There are no more existential crises and the community has pretty much met its equilibrium.
Heartbreak Mode can also drag on for years, becoming more and more tragic every day as members run around with their hair on fire trying to answer why people left (for 99% of former members, they left because it's a website - but one or two will come back to say This Is Why I Left and they'll be taken as representative samples).
The big difference between Cosy Mode and Heartbreak Mode is that the people in Cosy Mode like being in Cosy Mode, and the people in Heartbreak Mode hate being in Heartbreak Mode but do it anyway.
People go into Heartbreak Mode because they think that a website has to grow forever, and this is madness. If a website carried on growing forever, then eventually everyone on the planet would be on that website all the time.
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"Heartbreak mode" versus "Cosy mode"
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Comment on Luigi Mangione pleads guilty to federal stalking charges in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO in ~news
skybrian Link ParentI edited a post but you might have missed it: I think that finding scapegoats is a bad way to solve systemic problems, so I'm against it. I don't really know how to fix it, but I think that's not...I edited a post but you might have missed it: I think that finding scapegoats is a bad way to solve systemic problems, so I'm against it. I don't really know how to fix it, but I think that's not it.
The comparison to blaming doctors is just a way of getting at why it's problematic.
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Comment on In Australia, a home battery boom has helped cut wholesale power prices in half in ~enviro
skybrian Link ParentA big thing they have going for them is that they're perfectly willing to import solar panels from China at cheap prices. Who knows if it will last, but they might as well take advantage of the...A big thing they have going for them is that they're perfectly willing to import solar panels from China at cheap prices. Who knows if it will last, but they might as well take advantage of the opportunity while it's available.
Similarly for electric vehicles.
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Comment on Luigi Mangione pleads guilty to federal stalking charges in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO in ~news
skybrian Link ParentThere are also things like doctors not taking insurance at all, or not taking Medicare, or only working with certain kinds of insurance. These are business decisions, not medical decisions. I...There are also things like doctors not taking insurance at all, or not taking Medicare, or only working with certain kinds of insurance. These are business decisions, not medical decisions.
I think it's less problematic because it happens up front, but it's technically denying care.
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Comment on Vermont's largest energy source is now a virtual power plant in ~enviro
skybrian Link ParentLithium iron phosphate batteries are supposed to be cheaper and safer, but heavier. It seems like home use might be a good application for them?Lithium iron phosphate batteries are supposed to be cheaper and safer, but heavier. It seems like home use might be a good application for them?
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Comment on Luigi Mangione pleads guilty to federal stalking charges in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO in ~news
skybrian (edited )Link ParentSince doctors make medical decisions, I'm doubtful about the idea that they don't sometimes deny care? Edit: but actually, I'm not into finding people to blame. I think this would be better...Since doctors make medical decisions, I'm doubtful about the idea that they don't sometimes deny care?
Edit: but actually, I'm not into finding people to blame. I think this would be better thought of as a systemic problem. Finding scapegoats doesn't fix systems.
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Comment on Luigi Mangione pleads guilty to federal stalking charges in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO in ~news
skybrian Link ParentWhy not charge the doctors and nurses too while you're at it? Not providing good enough healthcare is not the same thing.Why not charge the doctors and nurses too while you're at it?
Not providing good enough healthcare is not the same thing.
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Comment on Vermont's largest energy source is now a virtual power plant in ~enviro
skybrian Link ParentI don't know; that's a quote from the author of the article.I don't know; that's a quote from the author of the article.
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Comment on Taiwan targeted in AI-driven hacking campaign in ~tech
skybrian LinkFrom the article: [...] [...]From the article:
According to the Financial Times report, published on Wednesday, researchers at Israeli AI start-up Dream were the first to detect the intrusion, which allegedly used open-source AI agents to build an autonomous hacking tool.
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The tool compromised at least 85 government user accounts and extracted more than 2,500 personnel records before the attackers expanded their operations to Taiwan’s nuclear safety agency and at least seven energy companies, the UK-based news outlet reported.
Dream did not attribute the attack to a specific group, but researchers said that internal communications linked to the operation were in simplified Chinese, suggesting the operators were likely connected to China.
Meanwhile, the agency said the attacks showed clear signs of originating overseas and involved a hybrid approach combining conventional hacking with AI agents such as OpenClaw.
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Chinese cyberattacks on Taiwan’s key infrastructure from hospitals to banks rose 6 percent last year from the previous year to an average of 2.63 million attacks a day, the National Security Bureau said in January, adding that some of the hacks were synchronized with military drills in “hybrid threats.”
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Taiwan targeted in AI-driven hacking campaign
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Comment on In Australia, a home battery boom has helped cut wholesale power prices in half in ~enviro
skybrian LinkFrom the article: [...]From the article:
A little more than one year ago, Australia rolled out a program to heavily subsidize home batteries, part of a larger effort to make use of the huge volumes of solar energy that were going to waste. On Friday, officials announced that more than 500,000 batteries had been installed under the plan, helping to slash wholesale power prices roughly in half.
Energy Minister Chris Bowen said that Australia now has more home batteries than the United States, which has a population 12 times larger. “This is a story of global significance that Australian households have achieved,” Bowen said in a press conference.
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With its home battery subsidy program, launched in July 2025, the government is aiming to help households use more solar energy by providing a 30 percent discount on residential battery systems connected to solar arrays.
The subsidy program has spurred a boom in installations. Australia is on track to more than double its home battery capacity this year, Bloomberg reports. The program has also been a boon to the grid. By relying on batteries in the early evening, when demand peaks, homeowners are reducing the need for utilities to fire up additional power plants during those hours, which is helping to lower costs for other ratepayers, officials say.
I’m not upset about Russia getting attacked, but this sort of thing isn’t going to only happen in Russia, Ukraine, and the Persian Gulf. (And the US drone attacks happening since the Obama administration.) This is what warfare is going to look like. If there’s another 911 then it’s likely to be using drones.
I wonder how long before we’re putting in anti-drone defenses everywhere?