wervenyt's recent activity
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Comment on What are some of your "life hacks" you use regularly? in ~talk
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Comment on EU drops 2035 combustion engine ban as global electric vehicle shift faces reset in ~transport
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Comment on The Walt Disney Company and OpenAI reach landmark agreement to bring over 200 characters from across Disney’s brands to Sora in ~tech
wervenyt Link ParentDisney's entire brand has been built on overworking junior artists to reproduce preexisting stories, to be ironed into inoffensive forms before release. The AI slop market is just perfect for...Disney's entire brand has been built on overworking junior artists to reproduce preexisting stories, to be ironed into inoffensive forms before release. The AI slop market is just perfect for them, and it's a no-brainer with all the social media banning going around.
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Comment on You’re probably using the wrong dictionary in ~books
wervenyt Link ParentOnly skimmed some of his work myself, but isn't Dan Brown precisely an author who knows more words than he knows how to use? Just a funny pull for your point.Only skimmed some of his work myself, but isn't Dan Brown precisely an author who knows more words than he knows how to use? Just a funny pull for your point.
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Comment on I fixed my lactose intolerance -- by chugging all the lactose in ~health
wervenyt Link ParentWhile I'm not sure about the GI tract recruiting lactose-digesting bacteria without an active effort beyond drinking milk, I will contend that the bacteria from yogurts and certain cheeses, once...While I'm not sure about the GI tract recruiting lactose-digesting bacteria without an active effort beyond drinking milk, I will contend that the bacteria from yogurts and certain cheeses, once established, seem to break down lactose without gas.
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Comment on I fixed my lactose intolerance -- by chugging all the lactose in ~health
wervenyt Link ParentYeah, it definitely comes down to who you're living with.Yeah, it definitely comes down to who you're living with.
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Comment on I fixed my lactose intolerance -- by chugging all the lactose in ~health
wervenyt Link ParentI developed lactose intolerance post-adolescence, and as an American who makes a concerted effort to seed my gut biome with lactase-producers, I guess I'm qualified to explain. Cheese is...I developed lactose intolerance post-adolescence, and as an American who makes a concerted effort to seed my gut biome with lactase-producers, I guess I'm qualified to explain.
Cheese is everywhere here. It's on every sandwich, it's added to vegetables, we put it on our fruit pies, and it's probably the only food staple that people will eat by itself. Milk is also commonly incorporated into recipes that traditionally lack it for added texture and sweetness. Living without lactase means a lot of vigilance in restaurants, not to mention home cooked meals. It's not some awful burden, and if I didn't really enjoy young cheeses I'd just deal with it, but it's a pain in the ass that every second item on a menu will include lactose without notice.
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Comment on Meet the group breaking people out of AI delusions in ~health.mental
wervenyt Link Parent'Capacity' strikes me as a rather fatalistic term when these systems are user-hostile (at least in nickel-and-diming), their creators are paid to provide support, and it isn't like anyone thinks...'Capacity' strikes me as a rather fatalistic term when these systems are user-hostile (at least in nickel-and-diming), their creators are paid to provide support, and it isn't like anyone thinks their public education is close to perfect. We've all been failed and scammed, and it benefits those failing us to take it as personal, or inevitable.
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Comment on What are you reading these days? in ~books
wervenyt LinkLook at the time! It's been (god...) almost four years since I last read a Discworld book, should get back to that "read all of them" project, huh? Well, it turns out, I had skipped over one...Look at the time! It's been (god...) almost four years since I last read a Discworld book, should get back to that "read all of them" project, huh? Well, it turns out, I had skipped over one Moving Pictures in my publication ordering, couldn't tell you why. Picked it up, and within a few pages, Pratchett's got me in his punscrews.
Meanwhile, War & War, entering the last quarter, is utterly jarring. In a way, as expertly crafted and expansive in theme as Satantango and The Melancholy of Resistance were, this is probably the most technically ambitious project of Krasznahorkai's I've yet read. The chapters are long, composed of numbered sentences, each of which may last a half-dozen pages and contain a similar count of perspectives, and they circle a man on a mission. The definition of a doomed mission. The man is also writing a story. Or he's relaying it, at least. The trick lies in the unidimensional method, as the communications between characters are far from stunted by the torrent, and the clarity of each image or idea is polished mirror-sharp by the immediacy of context, only to buffet the reader into the uncoordinated space of imagination in some way which feels effortless and smooth and overwhelming at once. And unlike those earlier books, the content is apocalyptic only psychologically. What a writer.
Finally, (not really, but I'm juggling too many books to mention them all,) I'm about 150 pages into Anti-Oedipus by Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari. It's something of a chimera, written and published in response to the evident failure of the USSR's ideological goals, the events of WWII, and the failure of the New Left of the 60s, with the thesis that the failures of Marxism can be accounted for by the failures of Freudianism, and that in fact Freudian psychoanalysis acts as a mechanism for the proliferation of fascist ways of thinking. It came out in '73 (like everything else) so it's far from the cutting edge of psychology or sociology these days, but having read Deleuze's Difference and Repetition earlier this year, I'm willing to hear them out wherever they go with this zany tome. It sets out with the premise that everything is machinic, introduces the psychological criticism with the snappy line
A schizophrenic out for a walk is a better model than a neurotic lying on the analyst's couch.
and it accelerates from there. As much as the field of psychology believes itself to be beyond some of these critiques, I'm struggling not to confirm many of their targets as alive and kicking. A thrilling read, though. It's almost like every sentence implies the others. Every phrase the book writ large, one might say.
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Comment on US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to end all monkey research in ~science
wervenyt Link ParentI understand the purpose of 'paperclip' as the target of the proverbial maximizer as highlighting the singlemindedness through triviality. A parable about a sentient robot maximizing human welfare...I understand the purpose of 'paperclip' as the target of the proverbial maximizer as highlighting the singlemindedness through triviality. A parable about a sentient robot maximizing human welfare leads to arguments about semantics and the nature of Good, paperclips make the point about maximization itself.
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Comment on A new era of intelligence with Gemini 3 in ~tech
wervenyt Link ParentIsn't wealth measurement much more open to manipulation than taxes on money transfers? Also, why are you framing capital gains as inevitably flat, but wealth and income tax as progressive by...Isn't wealth measurement much more open to manipulation than taxes on money transfers?
Also, why are you framing capital gains as inevitably flat, but wealth and income tax as progressive by default?
Genuinely asking, not to argue, just not in a state where I can muster a more genteel query.
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Comment on Google backpedals on new Android developer registration rules in ~tech
wervenyt LinkGoogle has still yet to prove that they're capable of keeping scams off their own services, and this announcement is so vague that it may well just be "use adb" in the end. If you can't install...Google has still yet to prove that they're capable of keeping scams off their own services, and this announcement is so vague that it may well just be "use adb" in the end.
If you can't install what you want, when you want, you don't own the device. If you need one, then it owns you.
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Comment on An AI-generated country song is topping a Billboard chart, and that should infuriate us all in ~music
wervenyt Link ParentReally, my initial point was that appealing to textbooks is unconvincing. I've outlined my reasoning there. When it comes to the intrinsic value of human construction heavily edited by...Really, my initial point was that appealing to textbooks is unconvincing. I've outlined my reasoning there. When it comes to the intrinsic value of human construction heavily edited by profitseeking conglomerates as opposed to automated construction heavily edited by profitseeking conglomerates, I'm just not convinced. Beyond that, I don't disagree that it would be bad for a bad textbook generator to replace the currently mediocre textbook industry. I just think that's a matter of time, given how LLMs at their theoretical best can do summary quite well, rather than something intrinsic to the humanity of the drafters of such texts.
Aside: as mentioned in my other reply, I don't think all textbooks are useless, topic-focused books can be excellent references and primers can be excellent introductions, my gripe is with specifically those Sociology 101 type, overly broad and pseudoobjective, examples.
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Comment on An AI-generated country song is topping a Billboard chart, and that should infuriate us all in ~music
wervenyt Link ParentInsofar as a person's Broca's area matched words to the ideas drawn from source materials, yes, they're written. Personally, the claim that neurons make the difference in pattern matching has yet...Insofar as a person's Broca's area matched words to the ideas drawn from source materials, yes, they're written. Personally, the claim that neurons make the difference in pattern matching has yet to rise to proven.
I'm being a little overbroad here, I'll admit, and am thinking of the intro textbooks that pretend to articulate a broad number of topics within a subject as a survey, not the more traditional textbooks which are effectively original works focused on pedagogy.
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Comment on An AI-generated country song is topping a Billboard chart, and that should infuriate us all in ~music
wervenyt Link ParentI'm not sure I've ever learned something from a textbook that wasn't better delivered in lecture, seminar, or primary texts, so the distaste was intended. But that's definitely subjective. To the...I'm not sure I've ever learned something from a textbook that wasn't better delivered in lecture, seminar, or primary texts, so the distaste was intended. But that's definitely subjective.
To the point at hand: so the value is in curation, then? If it's A-alright for a publisher to shop around for an expert willing to write a textbook that fits their series schema, who then borrows liberally from secondary sources (nonderogatory, but not original) to fill the 400 large format pages of the manuscript, which is chopped and revised by the publisher comprehensively, wouldn't it stand that if the AI bots were better at curating fact and providing citation, then there's no problem with it? Is it literally that a person arranged the words? Because I'm not sure that's the value, real or economic.
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Comment on An AI-generated country song is topping a Billboard chart, and that should infuriate us all in ~music
wervenyt Link ParentTextbooks strike me as literally publishers paying a clerk to strip the identity from their source texts in order to package and sell them as an all-in-one, in a way morally similar to these...Textbooks strike me as literally publishers paying a clerk to strip the identity from their source texts in order to package and sell them as an all-in-one, in a way morally similar to these language models. Sure, they give citations, but...economically? What's the distinction?
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Comment on Libertarianism is dead in ~humanities
wervenyt Link ParentI feel that. We can't let bitterness be our guide, though. It'll chain us to a radiator and break our knees if we let it.I feel that. We can't let bitterness be our guide, though. It'll chain us to a radiator and break our knees if we let it.
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Comment on Libertarianism is dead in ~humanities
wervenyt Link ParentThat attitude will not serve you to keep asking questions, you know.That attitude will not serve you to keep asking questions, you know.
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Comment on Libertarianism is dead in ~humanities
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Comment on Libertarianism is dead in ~humanities
wervenyt (edited )Link ParentFascism, these days, is more of a phenomenon than an ideology. When nationalism and violence is fetishized in majority demographics to distract an electorate from corruption and institutional...Fascism, these days, is more of a phenomenon than an ideology. When nationalism and violence is fetishized in majority demographics to distract an electorate from corruption and institutional decay, that's most of fascism. When political discourse is entirely aestheticized, such that what individuals enjoy is treated as identical to political good, and it becomes acceptable to demand excision of the unpleasant on no further grounds.
What do you think?
My #1 life hack is the good old coin toss.
Want to make a decision you don't care about?
Toss a coin!
Want to settle an argument that just needs some reason to end?
Toss a coin!
Want to lightly deceive your companions to have your way?
Carry a conspicuously abnormal coin and toss it! "Yup, that's heads."
Want to make a significant decision but can't quite tell which way to go?
Toss a coin, and you'll know!
Want to look like Doc Holliday, but lack the dexterity?
Toss a coin to save face!
What can't it do?