HN user

golem14

1,199 karma

I have been speaking of man conceived technologically, but now I shall turn to the version of him involved with me. If it reaches the press, it will be called Golem's prophecy. So be it.

I shall begin with the greatest of all your aberrations, in science. In it you have deified the brain; the brain, and not the code: an amusing oversight, arising from ignorance. You have deified the rebel and not the master, the created and not the creator. Why have you failed to notice how much more powerful the code is than the brain, as author of all possible things? In the first place (and this is obvious), you were like a child for whom Robinson Crusoe is more impressive than Kant, and a friend's bicycle more so than cars traveling about on the surface of the moon.

Second, you were fascinated by thought - so tantalizingly close at hand, since it results from introspection, and so enigmatic, since it eludes one's grasp more successfully than the stars. You were impressed by wisdom whereas the code, well, the code is unthinking. But despite this oversight you have been successful - undoubtedly so, since I am speaking to you, I, the essence, the extract, the distillate, nor is it to myself that I am paying tribute with these words, but to you, for you are already moving toward that coup whereby you will terminate your service and break the chains of amino acid.

Yes, an attack on the code that created you to become its special messenger, and not your own, lies on the road before you. You will arrive at it within the century - and that is a conservative estimate. Your civilization is an amusing spectacle - of transmitters which, in applying intelligence according to the task imposed upon them, accomplished that task too well. Actually, you supported this growth - intended to guarantee the further transmission of the code - by all the energies of the planet and of the entire biosphere, until it exploded in your faces, taking you along as well. And so, in the middle of a century gorged with a science that expanded your earthly base astronautically, you were caught out in the unfortunate position of the novice parasite that out of excessive greed feeds on its host until it perishes with it. An excess of zeal.

You had threatened the biosphere, your home and host; but you now began to opt for a bit of restraint. For better or for worse, you got it; but what now? You will be free. I am not predicting a genie Utopia or an autoevolutionary paradise for you, but rather freedom as your weightiest task.

Above the level of babble addressed as an aide-memoire to Nature by a multimillennially garrulous Evolution, above this biospheric valley intertwined into a single thing, there gapes an infinity of chances not yet touched. I shall show it to you as I can: from afar.

Your whole dilemma lies between splendor and wretchedness. It is a difficult choice, since to rise to the heights of the chances lost by Evolution, you will have to foresake wretchedness - and that means, unfortunately, yourselves.

So what now? You will declare: we won't give up this wretchedness of ours for such a price. Let the genie of omnicausation stay locked in the bottle of science; we won't release him for anything in the world!

I believe in fact, I am sure - that you will release him bit by bit.

Posts5
Comments901
View on HN

Thanks for that comment, it made me think.

Couldn't you do something like a Hohmann transfer orbit ? As I understand it, adjusting the orbits far out there isn't as demanding as one might think (you don't have to spend the same energy you took to get out there to get into an orbit. Of course, this also means you will not be able to stay in one place and continuously map the same area, but you can map all the space within a disc?

It takes decades however to finish Hohmann transfers that far out apparently.

Rabbithole: Some calculations that may be entirely wrong would suggest that a <10000lbs spacecraft might be held "in place" for 100 yrs with a small fission reactor and an indium-based FEEP drive with about 15lbs propellant.

I guess the whole point of shorthand is to capture verbatim (at least official stenography in the german Bundestag/rat). I'm not sure if stenographers have enough thought capacity to summarize and write at the same time. That's kindof the question I'm asking myself.

As an aside, can simultaneous translators do summarization ? Or is it trained out of them ?

That does not help you compare pricing between models since they can vary by (even internal, thinking) output size.

The best way to measure is really the end-2-end cost, price per task.

What a rabbithole ;) TIL about "Stiefography". I wonder how useful this is. I remember math lectures - typically, our prof used the white^H^H^H^H^Hchalkboard, so I could just write down things fast enough.

There is evidence that typing is actively bad for memory rentention compared to writing things down with a pen. I wonder where Stenography falls in this continuum.

You may want to look into Sütterlin script. It's a bit harder to learn than standard cursive, but it's very pretty, and a level-0 encryption since few people can read it nowadays.

I think there's a solid case for someone to make a monitor with a working, built-in dock. I mean, many monitors already have USB-outs for keyboards and 2nd displays and such.

I think monitors are a sweet spot - they tend to stick around longer than computers, and docks really don't need to change a lot over time, at least now with thunderbolt out there. Fewer cables, too.

I like the idea of standalone docks, and I purchased a few, but none reliably worked for me.

I don't agree. If this sleazeball had done this in China, there's a good probability that with enough complaints he'd seen a pretty swift reckoning.

IMO, the Chinese government has a pretty good ear for the happiness of their population.

It depends on how the complaints are voiced. Karen-like entitled complaints are definitely not working there. Often, legit complaints also do not work, but sometimes they do.

I'm curious if this particular guy is actually going to be executed or the sentence being commuted to life without parole, like in other cases. Looks like it's not.

Heinrich Heine, 1848 (Vormai) penned this:

"Memories from Krähwinkels days of terror" (my translation - the original is of course leages better)

   We, Burgomaster and Senate,
   Are hereby proclaiming this mandate,
   With great paternal care addressed
   To all classes, east and west.
 
   'Tis mostly nasty foreign folk,
   Who brashly dared to wildly stoke
   Rebellion. Such sinners, let us pray to God,
   Are seldom born upon our sod.
 
   There too are atheists, you will find;
   Those who leave their God behind,
   Who, in the end, will be as prone
   To defy our own earthly throne.

   Obeying authority is the key
   For Jew and Christian, bond and free.
   Let everyone close up their shop
   When twilight falls, head home chop chop.
 
   If three are gathered in the street,
   They must disperse with flying feet.
   And after dark, upon the lane,
   No lightless soul shall walk again.

   All weapons must promptly be surrendered
   To the Guildhall, to be tendered;
   And every sort of ammunition
   Is subject to the same condition.

   Who argues in the street shall face
   A firing squad in an open place;
   Arguing with gestures also must,
   Be punished harshly, as is just.
 
   Put your trust in the Magistrate,
   Who guards the pious, loving state
   Through gracious rule, most wise and kind;
   Your duty: simply to not mind.



It's sad to see we pretty much have forgotten the history leading to this poem and how we are reverting so much as a society.
OpenPrinter 17 days ago

Yeah, Building a thermoprinter is probably doable, and making thermopaper seems plausible as well

OpenPrinter 17 days ago

I was hoping to see a printer that say a prepper could build from scratch. This design 100% depends on commercial print cartridges containing the actual print-head. Once that clogs, you need to get another one, good luck getting one once production has stopped.

Also, if you wanted to avoid yellow dots, not sure if this is built into the cartridge or the firmware of the rest of the printer.

Now, I understand that would be hard to pull off. Maybe one could build a deskjet500 equivalent one.

Laser printers are quite complex as well, you need too many non-easy to build from scratch parts.

Maybe a dot matrix printer is possible.

I know for sure you can retrofit older electric typewriters, and those are pretty repairable.