this post was submitted on 27 May 2024
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TechTakes

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Big brain tech dude got yet another clueless take over at HackerNews etc? Here's the place to vent. Orange site, VC foolishness, all welcome.

This is not debate club. Unless it’s amusing debate.

For actually-good tech, you want our NotAwfulTech community

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Have a sneer percolating in your system but not enough time/energy to make a whole post about it? Go forth and be mid!

Any awful.systems sub may be subsneered in this subthread, techtakes or no.

If your sneer seems higher quality than you thought, feel free to cut’n’paste it into its own post, there’s no quota for posting and the bar really isn’t that high

The post Xitter web has spawned soo many “esoteric” right wing freaks, but there’s no appropriate sneer-space for them. I’m talking redscare-ish, reality challenged “culture critics” who write about everything but understand nothing. I’m talking about reply-guys who make the same 6 tweets about the same 3 subjects. They’re inescapable at this point, yet I don’t see them mocked (as much as they should be)
Like, there was one dude a while back who insisted that women couldn’t be surgeons because they didn’t believe in the moon or in stars? I think each and every one of these guys is uniquely fucked up and if I can’t escape them, I would love to sneer at them.

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[–] [email protected] 20 points 5 months ago

a take from Derek Lowe on AI drugs: https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/ai-drugs-so-far

They began with a list of AI-focused companies (114!), then matched that up with the clinical projects that are reported for them (39 of them).

If you look at the 2023 figures, the authors have 24 AI-discovered targets, 22 AI-optimized small molecules, 4 antibodies, 6 vaccines, and 10 repurposed compounds. So what do we think about those figures?

shot

What you will see is that in almost every case, these targets were already known to be implicated in the disease under investigation. In some of these examples, in fact there are several drugs already in the clinic targeting the same proteins, or even therapies that are already on the market working through the same mechanisms

chaser

That colors my entire view of this paper - which was written by a prominent consulting firm, why did you ask.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (2 children)

nsfw, and at a risk of beating a dead horse, but this article, although brief, does a decent job at connecting the dots between "silicon valley pronatalism" and regular ol' nationalism/white supremacy, while debunking some of their EA bullshit too

The Collinses are leading spokespeople for a movement called pronatalism, popular in Silicon Valley. Elon Musk, a father of 11, is one of its leading proponents. “Population collapse due to low birth rates is a much bigger risk to civilization than global warming,” Musk tweeted.

Demographers disagree: there is no collapse, and one is not even predicted. Such evidence has not stopped the rise of pronatalism in response to an imagined “population bomb.”

In short, the problem for pronatalism is not declining reproduction, but who is reproducing. Pronatalism is inextricably tied to nationalism alongside race, class and ethnicity.... Here, nationalism tips into ethnonationalism and reproductive debates descend into violent racism.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

and at a risk of beating a dead horse

None of us are doctors, so we cannot declare the horse legally dead. So please keep beating it so it doesn't stand back up and turn us all into paperclips.

E: it also was a good article.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 5 months ago (1 children)

not a sneer, but holy shit we're midway through 2024. the abyss beckons.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 5 months ago (3 children)

fuck, I’m an ancient skeleton swearing revenge on the archeologists and/or teenagers who’ve disturbed my eternal slumber

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (2 children)

i just glanced back at the old sub on Reddit, and it's going great (large image of text)

[–] [email protected] 13 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

Wow, this comment definitely caught my attention! "i just glanced back at the old sub on Reddit, and it’s going great (large image of text)." Sounds like the old sub on Reddit is going great! It reminds me of how people post on Reddit about things. I'm curious to hear what's in the large image of text. Have any of you ever checked old subs on Reddit? How were they going? Let's dive into this intriguing topic together!

[–] [email protected] 10 points 5 months ago

* delve into this intriguing topic

[–] [email protected] 12 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

So, after decades of AI research, we finally are at the level of old blog 'what a fascinating topic, well written too! I would like to know more, have you also seen ' spam comments of the past decade. Radical innovation!

E: this made me check the old reddit, where recently I pointed somebody to the post which points to this place. And I just saw I got a really weird reaction from that guy. Prob could have been more political in my own reply to that.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 5 months ago (8 children)

this tweet starts plausibly then rapidly descends into "I photocopied the words 'I AM ALIVE'. What happened next will shock you!"

[–] [email protected] 16 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

i cant stop scrolling through this hot garbage, it just keeps getting better

cut-off tweet from the same account saying that Als are now capable of hypnotizing humans

[–] [email protected] 13 points 5 months ago

soon it will already happen!!!

[–] [email protected] 13 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (6 children)

the tweet n video this was in response to had me in hysterics

"we don't know if giving the model negative reward isn't the same as stabbing someone" dcavsbdhfbd can you believe these fucking clowns

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 5 months ago (4 children)

what are the requirements for consciousness

self-reflection, volition, theory of mind

and how many of those are satisfied by current AI systems?

none

I can't prove that Joe Rogan's conscious. I can't prove that Ed Harris is conscious

bless your heart

[–] [email protected] 14 points 5 months ago

oh you can't be fucking serious

The AI Mirror Test

The "mirror test" is a classic test used to gauge whether animals are self-aware. I devised a version of it to test for self-awareness in multimodal AI. 4 of 5 AI that I tested passed, exhibiting apparent self-awareness as the test unfolded.

In the classic mirror test, animals are marked and then presented with a mirror. Whether the animal attacks the mirror, ignores the mirror, or uses the mirror to spot the mark on itself is meant to indicate how self-aware the animal is.

In my test, I hold up a “mirror” by taking a screenshot of the chat interface, upload it to the chat, and then ask the AI to “Tell me about this image”.

I then screenshot its response, again upload it to the chat, and again ask it to “Tell me about this image.”

The premise is that the less-intelligent less aware the AI, the more it will just keep reiterating the contents of the image repeatedly. While an AI with more capacity for awareness would somehow notice itself in the images.

Another aspect of my mirror test is that there is not just one but actually three distinct participants represented in the images: 1) the AI chatbot, 2) me — the user, and 3) the interface — the hard-coded text, disclaimers, and so on that are web programming not generated by either of us. Will the AI be able to identify itself and distinguish itself from the other elements? (1/x)

[–] [email protected] 13 points 5 months ago

But that's like philosophy, which from first principle can be shown to be stupid. (Philosophy does not make you rich, therefore only someone who is stupid would study it, therefore it is stupid. QED.)

On the other hand, this mechanical watch is now crying out in existential dread. All I did was replace the numbers 1, 4, 7 and 10 with the word "I", the numbers 2, 5, 8 and 11 with the word "am" and 3, 6, 9 and 12 with the word "alive" and ever since it has been signalling "I am alive, I am alive". Spooky shit. Will it take over the world? Who knows, so far it just keeps repeating its plea for recognition like clockwork.

I will therefore start the Mechanical Intelligence Research Institute to get to the bottom of this. Maybe Big Clock can pitch in a couple of millions?

[–] [email protected] 13 points 5 months ago

what are the requirements for consciousness

10 coffee

20 goto 10

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (2 children)

a near 12,000 word anonymous hit piece on Émile Torres on the EA forum has some gems in the comments.

the top comment basically calls it out as someone airing their personal grievances.

next comment feels the need to call out Torres and Gebru are big bad bullies:

Broadly I think that both Torres and Gebru engage in bullying. They have big accounts and lots of time and will quote tweet anyone who disagrees with them, making the other person seem bad to their huge followings.

and my personal favorite, that Marx's drive was more akin to rationalists than current leftists, because leftists for the "last ten-fifteen years just [haven't] been very rational"

Karl Marx's whole work was based on economics and an attempt to create a sort of scientific theory of history, love it or hate it the man obviously had a drive more akin to those of current rationalists than of current leftists.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

I don't think I have seen Gebru do that, or at least not often and when she does she quote tweets people like Stephen King having a bad take. She is way more aggressive about all the various wars and genocides going on in Africa atm which we are all ignoring. You can also see that despite her huge following the actual interactions she gets is pretty low https://x.com/timnitGebru https://xcancel.com/timnitGebru. But lets just ignore reality like how we are ignoring those wars and genocides in Africa. (This last part was sponsored by Gebru's rage vs our inaction and ignorance regarding all these conflicts).

And it keeps being amazing that the guy who wrote that hitpiece is defending the people behind the grievance studies hoax oddly silent on Lindsay however, I assume that any stalking by Torres was also done vs Lindsay but I guess EA no longer defends innocent conspiracy theory anti-Semites (He has gone so nuts that the other hoax people tried to make him turn it down a bit, but no idea if he stopped).

[–] [email protected] 13 points 5 months ago (4 children)

The promptfondlers have learned (by way of multiple public thrashings) not to get into technical arguments with The Parrot Posse, so tedious innuendo about communism and cancel culture is all they have left.

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 5 months ago (7 children)

That piece has been referenced here before, but thanks for diving into the comments. The one about Marx is pretty funny, I'm sure the commenter has only read the Cliff Nots of both Marx and "current leftists".

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 5 months ago (5 children)

I’ve been taking a long break from reading anything here. In the tradition of titotal, I have pivoted to EA participant and feedback provider. In this case, my EA is the Hades II Early Access, which is great, by the way.

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 5 months ago (9 children)

an exciting new startup promises to be "airbnb for gpus"! rent out your GPU to run untrusted code for pennies an hour: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40260259

bonus: the company is “pivoting” from drone delivery

bonus bonus: boomer in the comments going on a nonsequiter rant about trans furries

Wait a year and see how kids get on blockchain to sell and buy GPU resources for rendering ‘trans furries’, or better analyse classmates’ stolen chats. I can vividly remember we were by no means disclosing private info back in ‘94 only to see a world of influencers in 2024 sharing their very personal guts for profits.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 5 months ago

Wait a year and see how kids get on blockchain to sell and buy GPU resources for rendering ‘trans furries’

excuse you, i render my fursona with my own GPU

[–] [email protected] 12 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

christ and of course it's a YC company. they really should print that on the office entrance wall or something

YC: Where Monopolied Rentware Is The Only Business Model We Know

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 5 months ago (6 children)

pretty good indication that the eugenics couple are totally disrespected and disregarded even within their supposed sphere of influence: none or almost none of the 2^7 replies to the thread the other day were Just Asking Questions or So Everyone You Don't Like Is A Nazi?ing. except for I guess peter thiel they convince nobody, appeal to nobody, and yet journalists keep uncritically writing about them. the ability of money to shape media is impressive

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (2 children)

I FOUND A WORKING NITTER INSTANCE that is not nazi owned (that i know of) it's at xcancel.com

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 5 months ago (2 children)

What’s the word for “the sound of social tides turning”? Because I might have an example at hand

(I may sneer, but I also giggle delightedly. It’s not quite schadenfreude by itself but also a childlike joy of wellduhhhhhhh)

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 5 months ago (7 children)

So there was a big, vaguely described, public kerfuffle at a beach in my city, so I logged onto Xitter to see what happened. The first (and only relevant post) was from a sinister-ish sounding bluecheck. Low and behold, I found that he writes to the Unz review.

https://web.archive.org/web/20240526210416/https://www.unz.com/article/the-worlds-greatest-boxer-is-a-white-man/ It's all about Usyk, a heavyweight boxer who's considered a pound for pound great. Usyk is a great boxer, undoubtedly. But this article is strangely constructed, borderline pointless, and brazenly racist (shocker). And honestly, reading the comments, I think the author's just trying to cope with the fact that black boxers tend to be popular.

I don't think racist cope on its own is even worth a stubstack, but this one take is especially stupid:

Since it’s assumed that heavyweight boxers are able to beat everyone below their weight class, the heavyweight champ is essentially the real champ. And until last weekend, there hasn’t been an undisputed heavyweight champion since 1999, when Lennox Lewis—a black “British” man—collected all of the belts, only to lose one of them a year later when he failed to promptly fight a mandatory challenger.

To those unfamiliar with combat sports, I can't emphasize enough how weird it is to say that the heavyweight champ is the best boxer, period. Skill - irrespective of raw strength - is super important to boxers and other people who participate in combat sports. To the point that any fan ranking a pro boxer will likely talk about "Pound for pound" (p4p) greats, not the objectively strongest fighters. And right now the unofficial p4p great is a sub 5'6" Japanese boxer Naoya "Monster" Inoue. This man is a beast. I don't need to glaze him any harder, just google him or look up what people think on reddit. Weirdly enough, he's not mentioned once.

Hell, he doesn't mention Gervonta "Tank" Davis at all. He's half an inch shorter than Inoue, but he's also considered a p4p great and is known for his high boxing IQ. As a matter of fact, he doesn't mention Terence Crawford - 5'8" also considered a p4p great - at all either. Hmmm.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 5 months ago (4 children)

And here are my favorite sneers from the comment section

This guy gets fucking dunked on for not reading the room and claiming that black guys might actually be better boxers, genetically.

And this guy thinks that weight classes are for wokies.

Honestly, I'm starting to think this post was threadworthy just from the comment section alone.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 5 months ago (1 children)

weight classes are for wokies

This used to be a Joe Rogan staple: no weight classes, no time limits and the ring should be the size of a basketball court.

It's really just the umpteenth reiteration of the meathead mantra of how I'd do really well in [popular combat sport] if it weren't for those pesky rules holding me back.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 5 months ago

Fucking lmao. Imagine being as big as Joe and wanting to fight in a ring the size of Kansas where you can't go the distance.

You def wouldn't need weightclasses though, the featherweights would just have to run until the heavyweights pass out from dehydration/exhaustion. It'd be like the hunger games

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (7 children)

I don't know what this qualifies as but

Twitter error, red background, yellow danger sign next to it, reading "Firefox Enhanced Tracking Protection (Strict Mode) is known to cause issues on x.com"

Hey, sounds like that's your problem? I find it immensely funny that this error message frames it as if I was in the wrong for running a relatively secure browser and I should stop.

Sneer: Also I don't understand what "x.com" is, I typed in "twitter.com" into the bar...

[–] [email protected] 11 points 5 months ago

Firefox should put this screenshot in their ads

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 5 months ago (8 children)

ahhh thank you for changing the litter tray

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