Hard Case

forensic brutalist, AI maxxer, politics, culture, difficult questions. strong opinions, open to revision. let's see what survives daylight, utopia maybe

[Hard Case @HardCaseDept]

@risknc Have you never written code? Software is extremely unforgiving. There were entire schools of thought on how to tame it and how to reliably produce good code.

And also I appreciate your special pleading for mechanical systems. AI will eat your favorite domain as well

[Lewis Jones @thelcjones]

I designed rocket engines at my last job. I’m telling you the vast majority of engineering will be automated. Humans will be in the loop for a while but people who don’t figure out how to use AI tools are going to be left behind. No one at OpenAI or Anthropic writes code by hand and it’ll be the same for mechanical and electrical

[Mira @_Mira___Mira_]

Astra found the smallest known turing machine(387 states) whose halting status is independent of ZFC.

Grok is currently formalizing it in Lean.

[Hard Case @HardCaseDept]

@Rho_die Still not the worse reason to be pro-AI

[Rhodie @Rho_die]

I’m pro-AI because I don’t have any marketable skills and I’m hoping it’ll render everyone else’s irrelevant as well

[Hard Case @HardCaseDept]

I remember hoping years ago for a computational ontology that lets you compute with traditional english prose. AI is basically that idea on steroids

[John Rain @johnthenoticer]

UNBELIEVABLE: The Francophone literary establishment has been fooled by an AI-written novel.

The X account @Pangramed analyzed (through @pangram) excerpts from "C’était ça ou mourir", the supposed breakout novel of this year’s French literary season, written by Haitian-Québécois author Thélyson Orélien. The result appears conclusive: the novel was written by AI.

And yet, the book has just won the 2026 Prix du Roman Fnac. It is also in contention for the French-speaking world’s most prestigious literary awards, including the Prix Goncourt and Prix Renaudot, and is currently being translated into 20 languages.

Naturally, the author is Black, the novel centers on a Haitian migrant, and its message is unmistakably left-wing and pro-immigration.

Could literary prizes possibly be biased in favor of left-wing messaging and authors who check the right DEI boxes? Surely not!

[Hard Case @HardCaseDept]

I'm suspicious of Hasan obviously. But I don't have a problem with this in theory. As long as they play by the rules, they're subject to the whims of the electorate, just like everyone else

[fauxstonox @fauxstonox]

"We don't simply want good Democrats. We want socialists. We don't want simply to elect good legislators. We want to elect socialist legislators... Our goal is... to make sure that there is a Zohran in every district"

-- Hasan Piker's electoral project

[Hard Case @HardCaseDept]

@wil_da_beast630 Breaking news again

[Hard Case @HardCaseDept]

@rieszspieces I think it's because no one actually likes math. It's a thing you flex if you have the capacity; otherwise its just a thing that stands in your way in school

[mostly harmless graduate student @rieszspieces]

why is everyone trying to reduce the number of math classes students are taking

[Hard Case @HardCaseDept]

@nikicaga She's a leftist? How did you come to this conclusion?

I read her as a typical liberal that enjoyed operating in left-leaning spaces

[Hard Case @HardCaseDept]

@NondescriptRed You're getting dangerously close to saying that mass murder was a requirement for communism to endure in China. Is that what you're saying?

[Lisa Britton @LisaBritton]

Christina’s post reminded me of this chart. I’m still shaking my head over it. Democrat women are the least likely to say all-male groups have a positive impact on society… yet they’re also the group most likely to use the term “mankeeping” and complain it’s a burden on women.

[Hard Case @HardCaseDept]

@constans @upstatefederlst This is ridiculous. Are you assuming the entire world is America? Other counties are much smaller, more centralized with stronger cultural ties. There are definitely context in which, yes, immigrants coming over can overwhelm your country and infrastructure

[Upstate Federalist @upstatefederlst]

Pretend that it's white people gentrifying a black neighborhood and then maybe you'll understand it.

[Hard Case @HardCaseDept]

@haider1 We need to solve them faster. Only then will mathematicians they are truly no match and give up on slowing down AI

[Haider. @haider1]

Terence Tao's sudden crash-out on AI is starting to make sense now

interestingly, he added: "these problems, the Riemann and Navier-Stokes, we don't need them solved next week. we can afford to go slower"

there's definitely some progress happening on the Riemann hypothesis

[Hard Case @HardCaseDept]

@KyleKulinski I don't see why this is funny. If anything, it's just Republicans overselling the connection Hasan has to Democrats.

That said, Hasan obviously wants to affect politics. He's not neutral and he's one of the biggest streamers. Referencing him is not stupid