skybrian's recent activity
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Comment on You can now use your Gmail account in Proton Mail in ~tech
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Comment on You can now use your Gmail account in Proton Mail in ~tech
skybrian Link ParentYeah, good luck with that. The world seems to be moving towards passkeys and mobile notifications. Email is a fallback notification scheme.Yeah, good luck with that. The world seems to be moving towards passkeys and mobile notifications. Email is a fallback notification scheme.
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Comment on You can now use your Gmail account in Proton Mail in ~tech
skybrian Link ParentIt seems like encryption would limit how good Proton’s search can be? Is it all done client side?It seems like encryption would limit how good Proton’s search can be? Is it all done client side?
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Comment on It's not just X. It's Y. in ~humanities
skybrian Link ParentYep. For reasoning, I don’t particularly mind since polished prose isn’t really the point, but it would be nice if they did a better job on documentation.Yep. For reasoning, I don’t particularly mind since polished prose isn’t really the point, but it would be nice if they did a better job on documentation.
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Comment on Who’s buying SpaceX and Anthropic? in ~finance
skybrian Link ParentOn the one hand, the valuations are sky-high already and on the other, opinions differ very widely on how valuable AI is and its long term effects on society. Maybe they won’t meet expectations,...On the one hand, the valuations are sky-high already and on the other, opinions differ very widely on how valuable AI is and its long term effects on society. Maybe they won’t meet expectations, but I wouldn’t want to exclude them from a broad index fund. The point of such things is that you don’t want to exclude any possible winners.
For example, Google kept going up far longer than I thought it would based on my rather cynical view of Internet advertising.
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Comment on You can now use your Gmail account in Proton Mail in ~tech
skybrian Link ParentIt sounds like it would be a nicer transition for people who use email a lot, who are probably the target audience for this. Nowadays most of my communication with people has moved to chat and...It sounds like it would be a nicer transition for people who use email a lot, who are probably the target audience for this.
Nowadays most of my communication with people has moved to chat and email is largely messages from businesses or things like account signups, and I doubt any of them use Proton.
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Comment on Bernie Sanders: The public should own half of the big AI companies in ~society
skybrian Link ParentNone of the startups I worked for did that as far as I know, but perhaps it’s more common now. I don’t think it works for stock options, which is what I got.None of the startups I worked for did that as far as I know, but perhaps it’s more common now.
I don’t think it works for stock options, which is what I got.
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Comment on The dead economy theory in ~society
skybrian Link ParentIt’s often difficult to separate out cognitive versus other aspects of a job when human relationships are involved. For example, some people can learn on their own from reading or doing computer...It’s often difficult to separate out cognitive versus other aspects of a job when human relationships are involved. For example, some people can learn on their own from reading or doing computer exercises, but there’s more to teaching than that.
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Comment on The fall of the theorem economy in ~science
skybrian Link ParentThis seems sort of like relying on an axiom or conjecture, except you're not free to assume the opposite.This seems sort of like relying on an axiom or conjecture, except you're not free to assume the opposite.
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Comment on Bernie Sanders: The public should own half of the big AI companies in ~society
skybrian Link ParentThanks, I wasn't aware of it. Do startups commonly use that?Thanks, I wasn't aware of it. Do startups commonly use that?
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Comment on Bernie Sanders: The public should own half of the big AI companies in ~society
skybrian LinkOf course this legislation has no chance, but maybe it will get people talking? I wonder if a variation on it might work, though. The trick would be to get in early, before a startup's valuation...Of course this legislation has no chance, but maybe it will get people talking?
I wonder if a variation on it might work, though. The trick would be to get in early, before a startup's valuation has gone up. Suppose that, when a startup sells stock to an investor or grants it to an employee, they could give 20% to a sovereign wealth fund, and in return, the investor or employee pays no capital gains? It would probably seem like a good deal at the time (increasing the value of the shares), and the government would hang onto the shares, perhaps selling some if there's a stock buyback.
A lot of startups fail, but some of them grow to be giant companies.
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Comment on Which Substacks do you subscribe to/follow? in ~tech
skybrian LinkYou can probably tell from the links I share. Construction Physics is pretty good.You can probably tell from the links I share. Construction Physics is pretty good.
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Comment on The dead economy theory in ~society
skybrian LinkMaybe, but I’m wondering how many jobs are purely cognitive in each industry. Much like happened in some US manufacturing centers due to foreign competition, it could be devastating while also...General-purpose AI threatens cognitive labor comprehensively, across every industry, simultaneously.
Maybe, but I’m wondering how many jobs are purely cognitive in each industry. Much like happened in some US manufacturing centers due to foreign competition, it could be devastating while also being far from “the end of work.”
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Comment on It's not just X. It's Y. in ~humanities
skybrian Link ParentIf the LLM’s remain the same, their tells will become more and more recognizable. But I think this is more likely to be a phase? I don’t think Claude says “you’re absolutely right” anymore?If the LLM’s remain the same, their tells will become more and more recognizable. But I think this is more likely to be a phase? I don’t think Claude says “you’re absolutely right” anymore?
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Comment on Who’s buying SpaceX and Anthropic? in ~finance
skybrian Link ParentThere are shenanigans in other parts of the world too, and you miss some big gains that way.There are shenanigans in other parts of the world too, and you miss some big gains that way.
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Comment on Decades of effort restore steelhead and salmon passage on California's Alameda Creek in ~enviro
skybrian LinkFrom the article:From the article:
Last year, California Trout and Pacific Gas & Electric removed the final barrier to fish passage on California’s Alameda Creek with funding from NOAA Fisheries’ Office of Habitat Conservation. For the first time in 50 years, threatened Central California Coast steelhead and other migratory fish can reach spawning grounds and juvenile rearing habitat in the upper watershed.
Construction crews relocated a Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) natural gas pipeline and removed its concrete covering. The pipeline had spanned the creek and created an 8-foot drop in the creek. They installed the new pipeline section deep below the creek bed, removed the old pipe section, and regraded the stream channel—restoring a natural pathway for fish.
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Decades of effort restore steelhead and salmon passage on California's Alameda Creek
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Comment on Clanker: A word for the machine in ~tech
skybrian LinkOne reason I dislike "clanker" is that it doesn't work as a metaphor. "Clanker" implies a machine that makes a lot of noise. Chatbots are silent. They're also invisible unless you go online. "Bot"...One reason I dislike "clanker" is that it doesn't work as a metaphor. "Clanker" implies a machine that makes a lot of noise. Chatbots are silent. They're also invisible unless you go online. "Bot" seems straightfoward, but I also like "ghost."
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Comment on It's not just X. It's Y. in ~humanities
skybrian LinkFrom the article: [...] [...] [...] [...]From the article:
Recent overuse by language models has led many to declare it bad writing. I'm not so sure. Nobody called JFK a lazy writer when he said, "ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country." Negative parallelism is a rhetorical device, and any rhetorical device is only as lazy or inspired as what it contains.
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Now, we have AI detectors that claim to protect you from the witch hunt by looking for these patterns. You take your own writing and you run it through Grammarly, which will analyze word patterns that AI detectors might flag. Then it offers ideas for how to change them, which a) gives Grammarly the power to write for you and b) makes your writing lose any sense of rhythm or intent.
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Defining reasoning the way it has been used in LLMs assumes that the point of asking a question is to get an answer, that answers can be verified, and that nothing is lost in immediate closure. This has real effects on writing, and the openness to doubt is something we lose in the rapid prototyping of thought that occurs with a language model. Ambiguity, doubt, and uncertainty matter more to some ways of thinking than any immediate answer. The inner life grows in the spaces between the industrial complexes that harness every remnant of our externalized thought.
Nonetheless, the language we use in these states is the same. When AI detectors flag text as AI-generated, is it because it follows a certain structural pattern of that reasoning? Pangram and reasoning models both detect structural patterns based on how humans reason when writing. Pangram's model is trained on pre-2021 data; it then inserts AI-generated versions of the same text into its training.
So, if we publicly shame people whose text looks like it might have been written by a machine – because it mimics the language used for human reasoning – and people stop writing in ways that they internalize as "AI writing" out of fear of false detection, it sends a signal that your language for reasoning must be policed, or you too could be held up to public scrutiny.
In the end, shaming people for writing that gets flagged as AI can lead people to sidestep structures the model has learned from us: structures that are effective tools for argumentation. We take the tools of critical thinking out of the kit at the time we most need them.
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I'm not convinced by the old "if you haven't done anything wrong, you don't have anything to worry about" line. I've seen 99.8% cited as a measure of accuracy in automated surveillance systems since 2018. As Arvind Narayanan has noted, that is on a per-paper basis, which compounds every time we use it. So up to 10% of college students could be falsely accused. If we collectively run every bit of text through an AI model to check whether it is AI-generated, we will generate false positives on an even larger scale.
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We create a culture of self-censorship and AI-detector-pressured rewriting and paraphrasing as people strive to avoid these witch hunts. That is the opposite of protecting human expression. We should resist normalizing a trust in any machine's ability to determine matters of guilt. If using AI to write is, at its worst, an industrialization of the mind, then AI detection, at its worst, becomes a surveillance system for thought.
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It's not just X. It's Y.
20 votes
What does the discovery of a business look like? Probably a web search? How do you know you got the right website? It’s rather hazy, based on reputation, and perhaps vulnerable to impersonation. But once you have the right website, https is pretty secure.
How does a business identify you, assuming it needs to? A bank doesn’t care what your email address is when you sign up. They will want to see your ID, probably in person at a bank branch. It’s vulnerable to identity theft, but we don’t have anything better.
Email has nothing to do with the initial signup, because they don’t know your email when you sign up. A bank doesn’t care what email you give them, as long as it works. Other businesses sometimes rely on a bank relationship (for example, via a credit card).
A passkey works pretty well to re-identify you. An email or SMS might be used for login or account recovery, but it assumes you already established a relationship, and their security depends on the provider.
I don’t much like installing apps either, but they’re becoming increasingly popular, particularly for things like banking.