beej71

I think this gets to one of the important points which is we tend to view a hammer as a tool (an extension of ourselves), but we don't tend to view our direct reports as such.

There's a line there somewhere that gets crossed.

Part of it has to do with direct one-to-one determinism. I pull that lever, the excavator bucket pulls up a ton of earth. There was no extra decision made in the middle. And it was completely reproducible.

We might even go so far as to say, "I moved a ton of earth." Even though it was the backhoe that did it.

Back to CNC, consider the manager who orders the machinist to use the CNC to make a widget. Does the manager qualify as a machinist?

I think most people would say, "No. Not unless he coincidentally was one."

There's another person in the middle in that case. That level of indirection is somehow making the manager not a machinist.

I speculate it has something to do with the fact that the machinist in the middle is an independent being that holds knowledge to make things go. The manager gives a very high-level instruction and doesn't instruct the machinist on how to do it.

And I think LLMs are starting to feel (to folks like me) a bit like that machinist. They're not deterministic like the backhoe and the compiler. And they seem human, convoluting the matter further still.

Thanks! :) Crazy time for it, for sure. I'm teaching the two Software Engineering courses next year and have basically thrown the existing ones out. We'll see what rises from the ashes. More systems-level design stuff, more AI forward, larger projects, larger teams.

I still believe it's vital to learn how to code, but now we have to front-load more of the SE skills that have historically been obtained on the job.

"What a time to be alive!" I admit that I wouldn't have minded if all this LLM stuff has waited another 15 years to happen. :)

Excellent!! Mind if I add all this into to the post with credit?

They just straight up ask people to be a proxy? And people say yes? SMH...

My town has a listener-supported community radio station with all volunteer DJs who play whatever. I love tuning in and getting random music. And, unlike the robo stations, I rarely hear anything I've heard before. It's the only music station I have programmed in on my car. (My car is 26 years old--does the terminology still work? Maybe I should say "favorited". :) )

This all reminds me about how RealID was vital to secure us from terrorism, and it took 20 years to get it in place... with no significant terrorist actions in that timeframe.

IMHO this level of tracking ain't worth the safety gained. Seems like safety gain is just the excuse at this point.

It's amazing how easy it is for big companies to get these carve-outs compared to common citizens trying to keep the government from monitoring their activity.

Not at all surprising, though.

Every tool had side effects. So maybe the middle ground is "AI is just a tool with the following side effects: [list the unprecedented number of side effects here]".

This is why the "put the sunglasses on" fight went on forever. :)

I think the transmission through the medium makes the relationship with the other side.

One could certainly have a pen pal relationship where the only communication was via text. The relationship begins with the very first message.

Or a relationship with an autobiographer who spills their soul onto the page.

But if I look through the text of an AI spilling its soul, there's nothing on the other side.

I think something half-baked by a non-expert hold more valuable human touch than the most perfect machine-generated result ever could. Not even in the same ballpark.

And a computer would make a more efficient and less error-prone officiant.

I wonder how many parents are looking forward to the day their kids can just talk to a computer and have an LLM produce all the works. That'll be something to proudly hang on the fridge, yeah?

I once read Ben Franklin's autobiography. I have yet to experience any great blossoming of our relationship.

I've also read it, and got to know the man that much better. It especially added a great deal of texture to the experience of visiting his home site, his church, and his grave.

I'd argue that humans rarely have unique perspectives, being highly influenced by their environment and experience. And have we not seen AI coming up with novel math?

I don't think unique perspectives are necessarily the compelling part. I think the words are just a medium for thoughts. AI only produces the former, not the latter.

That's my relationship with Ben Franklin. It's not that I read what he wrote; it's that I know what he thought.

There's a road in California that is the last hand-built road made in the state. Nothing special about it, in particular (aside from the terrifying, exposed drop), otherwise.

But since I know the human history of the road, it _feels_ different when I'm on it than other machine-built roads.

It's the same in a hand-made house. Knowing the human labor gives the house a different vibe.

If we look at 10 paintings and one was painted by a human master artist, it becomes, to me, more impressive than the AI works, even if it isn't the award-winner.

These sentiments are incredibly subjective, of course. Some people simply feel no difference between a hand-made brick and a machine-made brick other than the latter is likely cheaper and of higher material quality.

But for those of us looking for the indescribable _soul_ of the work, we fail to find it in those produced by machine.

I just visited Lowell National Park and watched the mechanical looms in action. The cloth they produced was blandly soulless, like all the cloth we use and wear and discard. The loom itself, on the other hand, was a hand-built mechanical work of art, and felt amazingly _human_ by compassion.

This isn't something we tend to value in the US, though. The closest we get is people hanging their kids' childhood art on the walls and buying custom art at great expense to increase social standing. And a few support-your-indy-artist types.

For me in that case, I'd value the story but not the writing. I want to know that a human has had the experience of writing what I am having the experience reading.

If I find out after the fact that an AI wrote it, the writing becomes bland, like a magic trick exposed.

It seems to be that you don't appreciate the relationship between the author and the reader and the author and the text, which is fine, but is a bit tragic.

Not that I doubt that one day people will simply gather around the AI infinite story creation bot. They just won't know what they're missing. :(

We're all in small groups on discord or in signal now. FB feed is just not the best medium for keeping up with friends.

amount of tax dollars spent on classes in progressive tea pot clay handcraft is minuscule.

Seriously. Our debt goes up by $1T every 7 months, but I'm sure dropping even all student loans from all education won't stop it.

I guess I get way more value from having artists in society than most people do. I get a lot of value out of city parks and libraries, too, both perpetual money-losers.

One thing to add to your argument is the cost of the degree, which is now 5x more (inflation adjusted) than when I went to school. None of these programs would be at risk under these new rules back in the day.

As an cynical American, I view all publicly-traded companies as purely extractional at their core. Any positive customer experience is either coincidental or forced.

Yes, I agree. When shopping for goods and services locally, I look for the small shop that gets the best reviews. It's always been a better experience for me. The small companies can't afford to shaft 5% of their customers in the same way the big ones can.

I think people are better developers when they slow down. But I also think that makes them worth less in the market. Pretty clear from existing software quality that quality software is not requisite for successful business.

I do definitely watch TV and movies from time to time. Really my beef is with social media. TV and movies as media, that's a wagon I just largely fell off of at some point.

I'll still watch a good movie, for sure. Interstellar, Primer, Coherence, Run Lola Run, The Big Short, Contact, Excalibur... But The Expanse, Project Hail Mary, The Martian... I enjoyed the books more than than the movies, and the movies were good. Still haven't read Contact, shamefully.

Maybe! I'm red-green colorblind and the shelf was stained dark, so I wouldn't have noticed. :)

I don't have a good answer for kids breaking stuff.

And I do wonder what glues are used in the bamboo scrubbers, but I have no way of finding out. The scrapers are at least a solid single piece. They're either definitely bamboo or some very skillfully-engineered plastic to look exactly like it. ;)

There are a lot of cheap glass blenders on [ONLINE STORE]. But yeah, the high end ones--maybe they're trying to avoid that 50s look.

We just run with the plastic lids with glass tupperware. The only other sensible replacement we've found is reused jars and Ball jars, but all those lids have plastic liners, too. We don't cook the lids and food contact is limited. Would be nice to have something else. Silicone lids? We have some of those we picked up for Ball jars at some point. But this seems like a lower potential issue than cooking with plastic materials.

For really inexpensive stuff like blenders and glass containers is the second-hand store.

I don't get this whole attitude. Moving away from plastics in our kitchen was basically zero extra cost. Something busted, and we replaced it with non-plastic. Even bamboo scrubbers don't cost more than plastic (maybe even a little less) and I can't see any particular longevity difference.

I think the fact that I volunteer to clean up trash on public lands and know that weathered plastic is the period worst period to remove makes me move away from plastic in general.

Plus, a solid $3 wooden spoon is just a joy to cook with. They outlast the plastic ones, too.

Microplastic ingestion? Well, I'm not sure the effects or the relative quantity compared to tire shed and other industrial factors. But if I were forced by some diety to bet my life on if plastics in the kitchen or on clothing had a negative health effect, I'd make that bet.

But the main thing I don't get about the attitude stems from the fact that I don't really care what other people use in their kitchens. I recommend it.

Just please don't litter. :)

It's true that I'm in a place of privilege in the world. But it's amazing how much time gets freed up of one doesn't watch TV or read social media. Like the numbers show, it's hours per day.

I sympathize with people who truly do not have the time, but that's different from most people who simply choose not to spend their time reading or writing.

As a CS instructor, I find this article extremely interesting, FWIW.

I couldn't attach my xteink to my phone because of a standoff around the camera on my phone case. I just now realized that the standoff could be removed and now the magnet works! :)

Did you install Crosspoint on it? I absolutely recommend it.

For reading on my phone Moon Reader is my go-to.