jlaternman

Oh well then, if it references something already published somewhere. Nothing to talk about here. It's a perfectly normal, non-secret thing. Let's move on.

It is amazing how Dr. Know projects where AI is likely to go. And a Kubrick script, no less. Even the commercial overlap, where you pump in coins as the only way to get answers. Did it not also have ads? Truly prescient.

I agree with this redescription fallacy and the point being made here. Perhaps a better analogy to humans would be:

Humans appear to intelligenty communicate, however these are just cleverly disguised sound patterns produced by the brain that happen to increase the likelihood of food going into their mouths, and various similar reward attracting mechanisms that make survival outcomes more likely. So human intelligence could be reduced to something like "fancy food-attracting algorithms" using the same fallacy.

I'm kind of on the fence on the subject of whether LLMs could be compared to the complexity of the human brain, myself.

A more accurate formulation would be their strategy for decades has been asserting commercial influence on their political opponents. Going back further, this chimes with their overall strategy. From the center, expand out. Hard when safest, but soft and covert when more effective. Always a form of aggression.

South China Sea aggression lists (I didn't say anything about a list of wars with names):

- https://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/12/world/asia/diplomatic-res...

- https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/20/world/asia/south-china-se...

- https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/09/15/world/asia/so...

Starting conventional wars in the style of Putin isn't necessarily the sign of good will or peace you appear to accept it as. And aggression can be defined in different ways. Aggression to hold their own order inside their current territories is another aspect of this. Suppression of their own populace is an aggression that exists around the clock, and has notably expanded in Hong Kong to disgusting levels in the last few years.

Threats to world powers who dare to speak up are another one, such as the one during Covid that threatened bluntly to pluck out one of the five eyes if they're not careful with their words to protect freedoms in HK. – https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-54995227

Aggression within their own ranks is also visible, such as removing major military leaders recently under suspicion of not being "all in" in terms of loyalty to the CCP's wider project (whatever that is).

Chinese companies thrive in an entrepreneurial framework, then their leaders are routinely kidnapped if they speak out against the party's aims. Minority communities are sent to camps and sterilised. Tibet is under intense surveillance and constant dictates to move ancient towns somewhere else if it's in the way of say a new dam they want to build.

This deeply internal and covertly outwards aggression cannot stand. It's evil incarnate. Sneaky and covered over just-enough, but visible enough to see the nature clearly.

Main trading partner for the vast majority of the world is not a trust signal. It is an effect of strategy.

Relies on navigable seas means nothing in the context of seas becoming dominated by China. Then, they would have that, simply not in a cooperative way.

We could expect China to be extremely aggressive in asserting control over waters they dominate, because that is what they have done for decades. As aggressive as they can be.

And Google Maps literally did something very similar to me once, just a few years ago. Told me straight ahead when there was a sharp hairpin obscured by overhead bridge (literal mapping issue in unusual motorway adjacent road). Caused a crash with minor injuries I got back up and walked away from (on two wheels, would have been fatal if I didn't brake so well, or didn't get off the road fast enough, a large truck came round the corner). Takeaway is "never make driving decisions based on what the screen shows." There is no platform worth trusting more than your eyes on the road ahead.

One of the biggest forces is simply the voice of the people, as demonstrated in threads like this. Note how NordVPN cited growing public sentiment against taking half the internet down in Spain in an attempt to stop streams during games.

I think it's simply a context thing, and LLMs can go blind to any part of the instructions at any time, possibly when exploring complex micro tasks that create their own layers of context within them. That's how the pattern feels to me. Parallel to a limit on the number of things a human can hold in its head at the same time. The more complex the thinking involved becomes the bigger the self generated context becomes, too, it doesn't seem like an easily fixed problem to me other than to have an extremely small "mission critical instructions" context that are surfaced in a more impossible-to-ignore way.

I was also around then, and actually it did feel exactly the same now that you say. Sense of sailing towards an unknown destination that seemed very exciting, but was clear we didn't quite get what it was yet and were working out the destination mid-flight.

Why would they need to release the prompt, as if it's a part of transparency? It's obviously some form of "find security vulnerabilities" and contains no magic in itself. All that matters is the output here.

This is a completely paywalled article.

Not being able to read the argument, I'll just note that dogs are horrible sound polluters. Possibly only when they have bad human owners, but I'm pretty sure they're biologically evolved to mark territory by sound pollution, and should learn to shut up, too.

This feels part of a category of error I've noticed countless times.

It's as if the boundary of user and LLM is not clear in its thinking, as two separate things. It can be pretty damn weird at times. For example, identifying itself as the user. In this case, it's the other way around. Has been a long running thought of mine for a while now, why this would be.

Yep. Grammar and structure is too perfect. "Just let it slide" shows a disconnect. Also the title felt completely out of place to me for HN, I clicked it out of curiosity to see. Good advice given nonetheless.

Actually this makes sense to me.

It sounds like they are in a cutthroat market, and realised they couldn't afford to stake that principle. And that it wouldn't matter if they did – it would just assure them being handicapped in a field where no others followed suit.

Better hills to die on.

True, but there is no obstacle in the way of showing the source. Especially considering how concise Japanese is. Best of both worlds. Fascinating discussion in this whole thread.

macOS does have weirdness with windows that span multiple screens. I bet some of that kicked in to an unacceptable level. It can create incoherent moving/snapping, for example. Has been kind of crazy-making for a while, for my set-up where screens are not joined but adjacent in a triangular configuration.

Nope. He was unapologetically socialist before his involvement in the Civil War, and that conflict actually did make him anti-communist, and an anti-authoritarian. Socialism of the kind Orwell supported and communism of the kind we have seen in the world are two very different things.

For those reading who are curious on which comment is accurate, I would encourage you to read up on it to confirm for yourself. It's a highly fascinating subject to read about.

Another thing the Spanish Civil War did make Orwell was a hardcore realist.

"Half a loaf of bread is better than no loaf."

And by the way, this still IS the software market I participate in, because there’s a lot of great indie software still adhering to it. It’s still possible. I have weeded out almost all unnecessary SaaS. I do actually have Fastmail and 1Password, which is funny since those were mentioned here a lot.

A few recent example purchases (macOS): BBEdit, Base, A Better Finder Renamer, Nitro (that’s lifetime, though I actually prefer “until the next major version”).

I think this looks great too. Finally replicating the efficiency of newspaper layouts. No enforced symmetry, just content in an optimal space. I want.

Lots of things. “Could I have some sugar, please; two frappy mochachos? one with almond milk; can you explain what all these options are, please; what the hell is mushroom powder?” In today’s coffee shops this can lead to hours of complex social interaction at the counter, enriching our lives and ultimately extending our lifespans. — sorry, couldn’t resist. In seriousness, I actually find this conversation interesting. Some coffee shops do have quite a social culture around them, though I think they’re outliers on whole. Here in Spain it’s a mix, but in some it is like everyone’s friends with the barista.

Excellently put.

This sounds right – likely tests to gather information. What gets through, what doesn't, what's successful, what isn't. I think the ultimate goal would be to influence the platform (I don't have showdead enabled, so I'm assuming OP's observations are accurate).

It does initially look like a stupid and Insanely Facile fashion statement, I agree, but I think the iPod sock v2 could be one of the most practical and cleverly designed products Apple has ever released.

It's clearly intended to be used as bait for phone snatchers. That iPhone dangling loose a foot below your arm in free air is just too tempting… no thief can resist. But, then! You start swinging that motherf*cker, and your iPhone becomes a deadly weapon before any potential thief has time to think.

Third parties are sure to fill the market with the most obvious additions, e.g. metal spikes, studs, mildly poison-laced hooks. I assume there will also be training courses scheduled in Apple Stores around the world to clarify this accessory's purpose — not to mention, to teach proper technique and the ethical considerations of when to stop striking with the iPhone Pocket to avoid manslaughter charges in your region.

This is a move by Apple to subtly promote armed, deceptive martial arts as self-defence. To promote the Bushido spirit as a practical coping mechanism in these stressful times, and to empower its users in everyday situations. I for one think it's Insanely Great, and right on that bold frontier of innovation and Thinking Different that Apple built its reputation on.

I agree with almost all of this.

IMO the issue is we won't be able to adequately answer this question before we first clearly describe what we mean of conscious thinking applied to ourselves. First we'd need to clearly define our own consciousness and what we mean by our own "conscious thinking" in a much, much clearer way than we currently do.

If we ever reach that point, I think we'd be able to fruitfully apply it to AI, etc., to assess.

Unfortunately we haven't been obstructed from answering this question about ourselves for centuries or millennia, but have failed to do so, so it's unlikely to happen suddenly now. Unless we use AIs to first solve that problem of defining our own consciousness, before applying it back on them. Which would be a deeply problematic order, since nobody would trust a breakthrough in the understanding of consciousness that came from AI, that is then potentially used to put them in the same class and define them as either thinking things or conscious things.

Kind of a shame we didn't get our own consciousness worked out before AI came along. Then again, wasn't for the lack of trying… Philosophy commanded the attention of great thinkers for a long time.

Wow, haha. Reminds me of the recent South Park where they hold up the phone and the AI says "I can confirm we have the authority to pass."

Do you mean some Russians used Ukraine as a money laundering middleman, specifically through corruption of politicians and elites in the system there? Because it sounds like it. Before the "conflict" (invasion) happened.

Yep. I'd like to see some news stories confirming this magical past.

All true, I have no doubt, but this experience has weighted your judgement here IMO. That isn't the force at play in modern customer service policies.

Wow, love this – and how Byrne keeps creating interesting projects in the digital age. How did I not know about this before.

This, and also brain fog – which unless it is truly debilitating is hard to prove, hard to treat, and can feel pointless to talk about after a while. You won't necessarily hear people talk about "having Long Covid" unless their symptoms are easily measurable and debilitating in a key area of their life. 20% sounds viable to me, too.