williams_482's recent activity
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Comment on ‘It’s shameful’: New York’s elite lash out at Zohran Mamdani’s second-home tax in ~finance
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Comment on The center has a bias in ~tech
williams_482 Link ParentCan you elaborate on how this relates to the preceding portion of your comment?To discuss AI, you need to grok AI, and that means to be capable of loving it just as much as being capable of hating it. I don't see the loud anti-AI camp being charitable on that side.
Can you elaborate on how this relates to the preceding portion of your comment?
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
williams_482 Link ParentVintage Story is so good. If you're not aware, the 1.22 update is currently in the unstable prerelease stage and will probably have a stable release some time in April. Lots of good stuff coming...Once we are done I believe the next game we are going in is back to Vintage story, I have forgotten everything, so am looking forward relearning and experiencing it again.
Vintage Story is so good.
If you're not aware, the 1.22 update is currently in the unstable prerelease stage and will probably have a stable release some time in April. Lots of good stuff coming in that update, so I'd recommend waiting until it's out to start a new playthrough.
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Comment on The cognitive dark forest in ~tech
williams_482 Link ParentWhen I clicked on a hyperlink of the word "debunked" I expected something more concrete and convincing than an article which on closer reading only claims the story is improbable.I think this alludes to the Target pregnancy scandal, which was debunked.
When I clicked on a hyperlink of the word "debunked" I expected something more concrete and convincing than an article which on closer reading only claims the story is improbable.
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Comment on A day in the life of an ensh*ttificator in ~tech
williams_482 Link ParentHaving new designs purely for the sake of having new designs is mostly neutral, although the fast fashion culture fed by these choices is clearly a blight on society. Artificially hampering...Is having new designs a bad thign?
Having new designs purely for the sake of having new designs is mostly neutral, although the fast fashion culture fed by these choices is clearly a blight on society.
Artificially hampering designs of practical products so they can be easily changed every year and give sales something useless but different to hype up about the latest generation? Yes, that's also clearly terrible.
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Comment on I made a word game - and it has come a long way in ~games
williams_482 Link ParentI'm not sure how I would add this while keeping the clean, simple feel of the UI, but I wish there were a visual indicator of what direction the letters would be rotated in. I keep thinking that...I'm not sure how I would add this while keeping the clean, simple feel of the UI, but I wish there were a visual indicator of what direction the letters would be rotated in. I keep thinking that it's going to turn in the other direction for some reason, even though clockwise feels like it should be the intuitive direction.
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Comment on Opta removes all advanced statistical data from fbref.com in ~sports.football
williams_482 LinkThis is a terrible blow to statistically inclined football fans and amateur analysts. It also looks like a terrible decision by Opta, who made a lot of money off of selling fan interest in sports...This is a terrible blow to statistically inclined football fans and amateur analysts.
It also looks like a terrible decision by Opta, who made a lot of money off of selling fan interest in sports statistics to broadcasters and other media companies. Cutting off access to regular people just as football statistics are starting to become mainstream is clearly not going to help the long term standing of their industry, nor their reputation within it.
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Opta removes all advanced statistical data from fbref.com
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Comment on Star Wars shake-up: Kathleen Kennedy steps down as George Lucas protégé Dave Filoni, exec Lynwen Brennan take over Lucasfilm in ~movies
williams_482 Link ParentI liked Clone Wars, and to a lesser extent Rebels, but what I've seen of Filoni's projects since then has been extremely disappointing. He seems to be far too invested in all the weakest parts of...I liked Clone Wars, and to a lesser extent Rebels, but what I've seen of Filoni's projects since then has been extremely disappointing. He seems to be far too invested in all the weakest parts of his early works, especially an insistence on repeatedly returning to old characters and tying so many seemingly disparate things together that the stories feel repetitive and incestuous.
In retrospect, Clone Wars was a very favorable project for Filoni to take on. He had Lucas's guidance and massive financial backing, plus a pretty good set of story bookends he was beholden to. He also had a bunch of preexisting characters that his audience either liked or wanted to like, and his primary job was to rehabilitate some (mostly Anakin) and flesh out a host of others who were mostly cardboard cutouts in the prequels. Clone Wars' meandering setting meant that random drop ins on mostly irrelevant legacy characters were mostly harmless fun. Further, his one really whacky choice that could easily have been awful (bringing back Darth Maul) was actually executed really well, rehabbing yet another cardboard character into a somewhat complicated yet clearly evil villain. The actual plots are limited in scope by the setting, and compress nicely into satisfying 1-4 episode arcs.
Rebels gave him more freedom to create a full story arc himself, and forced him to create his main characters whole cloth. The later mostly worked, the former was a bit of a mess held together by those characters. Nearly everything after that has been very disappointing.
Filoni's early works succeed at creating interesting characters, either new or from woefully underdeveloped existing characters. Which makes it really ridiculous how his later works mostly just want to check in on those characters, or others from original films, and run them through new-ish grandiose stories that just don't hold up very well. It reads to me as a failure to identify what he's good at, buoyed by portions of the fanbase who really do just want to see their favorite characters doing more things, and have as many references as possible crammed in for them to notice.
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Comment on Are cooperatives more virtuous than corporations? in ~society
williams_482 Link ParentWhat is this in reference to?I dread the day another East Asian moves into the community and they try to give them my money or vice versa
What is this in reference to?
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Comment on What makes a game, a game? in ~games
williams_482 Link ParentCalvinball should count as a game, and fails that criteria completely."someone separate from the participant sets the rules", and even though I ultimately agreed, I'm still not truly sure.
Calvinball should count as a game, and fails that criteria completely.
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Comment on Why language models hallucinate in ~tech
williams_482 Link ParentThis is an ironic example, because LLMs recommending sketchy food choices is a genuine danger. We've seen them recommend putting Elmers glue in pizza cheese, and worse, make lethally wrong...In some contexts, like cooking, guessing is harmless: worst case scenario you ruin a meal.
This is an ironic example, because LLMs recommending sketchy food choices is a genuine danger. We've seen them recommend putting Elmers glue in pizza cheese, and worse, make lethally wrong recommendations about what forageable mushrooms are safe to eat.
Guessing becomes dangerous in a much wider range of situations when the guesser lacks the "sanity check" guardrails that most most adult humans have.
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Comment on US Federal court strikes down Donald Trump’s April 2 tariffs in ~society
williams_482 Link ParentI believe the idea assumes that the government is willing and able to accurately value the cost savings companies are getting specifically for dodging United States environmental regulations. I'm...I believe the idea assumes that the government is willing and able to accurately value the cost savings companies are getting specifically for dodging United States environmental regulations.
I'm not sure if it's practical, but that information is out there and if it can be applied consistently, I'm for it. Not unlike the idea (which I believe I first encountered around here) of the federal government levying a 100% tax on local tax breaks to corporations, to stop municipalities from engaging in their own race to the bottom looking to lure undecided companies to build on their land.
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Comment on Offbeat Fridays – The thread where offbeat headlines become front page news in ~news
williams_482 Link ParentStraight out of Ozymandias.Straight out of Ozymandias.
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Comment on If you could travel back in time and bring one thing back to the modern day, what would it be? in ~talk
williams_482 LinkI'd try to grab some histories. The first specific target that comes to mind would be complete copies of Livy and Polybius, both of which we have in part but with significant portions missing....I'd try to grab some histories.
The first specific target that comes to mind would be complete copies of Livy and Polybius, both of which we have in part but with significant portions missing. These two are generally seen as the best available sources for the periods they cover, and for much of the period where they overlap, Polybius would be preferred were his not missing.
With that said, there are surely more interesting documents that failed to survive to us which could tell us a lot about something less well explored than republican Rome.
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Comment on Some ChatGPT users are developing delusional beliefs that are reinforced by the large language model in ~tech
williams_482 Link ParentI am not a therapist, and wouldn't say I'm particularly good at identifying subtle undertones in written communication, but that conversation was absolutely ringing alarm bells for me. The...I am not a therapist, and wouldn't say I'm particularly good at identifying subtle undertones in written communication, but that conversation was absolutely ringing alarm bells for me. The combination of actively seeking approval for doing "something" about another person, but no elaboration whatsoever on what that something is, is really creepy.
I'm confident that most people would at least come out of that conversation feeling something was wrong, and would probably ask the obvious "what are you planning to do?" questions.
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Comment on The epicenter of conspiracy belief: the economically left-leaning and culturally regressive spot in the political landscape in ~society
williams_482 Link ParentOne of the things that struck me watching the original Twilight Zone (1959-1964) episodes is that when they wanted to harken back to "the good old days", they tended to show a heavily whitewashed...This attitude profile yearns for a concrete model of society that of post-war European societies, where economic inequalities were comparatively low and society was not yet plagued by unsettling modernization processes and cultural diversity.
One of the things that struck me watching the original Twilight Zone (1959-1964) episodes is that when they wanted to harken back to "the good old days", they tended to show a heavily whitewashed version of the post-reconstruction era south. One of the more blatant examples is A Stop at Willoughby, featuring the following description of an imaginary town:
Willoughby. July. Summer. It's 1888. Really a lovely village. You ought to try it sometime. Peaceful, restful.Where a man can slow down to a walk and live his life full-measure.
This stuck out to me because that usage of the 1880s to fill in as the idyllic past is extremely similar to the way modern Americans tend to look back at the 1950s and 60s, the same period in which those Twilight Zone episodes were originally created. Both the 1960s and 1880s were roughly two decades after the end of a horrifically destructive war; they are also ~70 years from "the present", a time the vast majority of living adults did not experience but likely heard charming stories about from their own parents or grandparents. And they are periods in which major societal changes were happening, but which can in retelling be easily pushed up to the later years in which their effects became more obvious.
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Comment on Minecraft’s problems aren’t just the new features in ~games
williams_482 Link ParentIt does look really cool, and priced very reasonably as well ($22). Now I know where I'll go next time I have the urge for this sort of thing.It does look really cool, and priced very reasonably as well ($22). Now I know where I'll go next time I have the urge for this sort of thing.
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Comment on Minecraft’s problems aren’t just the new features in ~games
williams_482 Link ParentIt's 8:1, but yeah it's a major time saver for traveling. And there are ways to get up onto the roof of the nether, which is completely safe from the usual nether dangers and completely...It's 8:1, but yeah it's a major time saver for traveling. And there are ways to get up onto the roof of the nether, which is completely safe from the usual nether dangers and completely featureless, easy to mark paths between portals however you please.
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Comment on What's an atypical thing you do that you'd recommend to others? in ~talk
williams_482 Link ParentApparently imgur doesn't like hotlinks any more. It goes to a Calvin and Hobbes comic, which I am otherwise unable to link. That is excellent.Apparently imgur doesn't like hotlinks any more. It goes to a Calvin and Hobbes comic, which I am otherwise unable to link.
I learned this from a story my father, who was a captain in the army at the time, tells about doing it once to avoid sneezing on the Colonel's wife.
That is excellent.
The comparison with ancient and medieval plagues is in interesting one, and I thing surprisingly relevant.
Pre-industrial agricultural societies pretty much across the board wind up forming societal structures where labor is heavily devalued relative to land and capital, because the local powerful people deliberately design them that way. A typical peasant family has not quite enough enough land to reliably feed themselves once taxes, disruptive weather conditions, and other attritive elements are accounted for, but they have enough labor available to work far more land given the opportunity. This surplus labor is normally spent in the fields owned by the local landowning "big men", for as little pay as these big men can get away with without things in the peasant community becoming so desperate that the surplus labor decide they'd rather attempt a violent uprising. All in all, peasants wind up working about as hard as they can sustain to keep themselves and their families alive, while the big men take everything else.
In situations where the local population is significantly reduced (such as a plague, or a brutal conquest and displacement of a local culture by a foreign invader) peasants are able to take control of land that had belonged to the deceased (both dead peasant families, and dead big men), and can use that formerly-surplus labor to work that land for themselves. This gives them significantly more short term power because they actually can feed their families without the meager earnings from working someone else's land. The local big men are still out there, with quite a bit of land, but that land is worthless if not worked. With a much smaller and less desperate labor pool to draw from, they need to pay much higher rates for workers, which gives them less surplus to spend on tools of extraction like armed soldiers. Total productivity wouldn't increase much overall (it might even go down slightly, because a peasant who has enough food to eat for the year and a surplus to trade for a few luxuries doesn't get a very good return from working even harder to get even more yields), but those peasants would find their individual lives much improved.
Over a few generations peasant populations increase to the capacity of the land, the local rulers slowly recover their wealth and military strength and are able to squeeze more and more out of this expanding peasant population until they are back at maximum sustainable extraction, and things return to normal.
The exact mechanics obviously do not map on neatly to modern society, but the general pattern of more resources coming available to the lower classes greatly reducing the wealth gap is definitely there. One could also note the relevance of an upper class extracting as much as possible from the lower classes, and spending that extracted surplus to maintain their power and continue extraction. It's breaking that feedback loop, not the precise mechanics of agrarian land and labor availability, which gives the lower classes power.