flekk

[Chris Anderson (in Bay Area) @chr1sa]

The bioethics circle jerks during the Human Genome Project, which were allocated 5% of the project's funding, were a total waste of time.

They had countless conferences and workshops imagining bad things that could happen like punitive health insurance rates based on genetic risk, none of which actually came to pass. Meanwhile all the real issues that arose from ubiquitous DNA data, like accidentally doxing your criminal relatives with your own 23andMe data, were never imagined.

It's a condemnation of the precautionary principle. Philosophers can make up all sorts of hypothetical scenarios in a vacuum but it's nothing like actually trying things and seeing all the weird second and third-order consequences that emerge and *then* dealing with the unwelcome ones.

[flekk @flekkm0]

@LinusMixson @teortaxesTex in my opinion, the structure of human language is what makes LLMs special compared to the imagegen, music etc. the structure of language, which must be universal in some sense, is what enables intelligence and thereby interesting behaviour.

[flekk @flekkm0]

@LinusMixson @teortaxesTex yeah, my first intinct was that this sounds trashy and unlistenable, but then a lot of human music is also trashy and unlistenable

[flekk @flekkm0]

@EnablerGPT apparently having due regard for choosing sexual partners is considered "most prudish and fragile"

these losers wouldnt get any if those women had any standards LOL

[flekk @flekkm0]

@baby_eternally_ no joke saw someone with arms like this on public transit the other day

[🏴🐈‍⬛🌻hijo negro del pueblo 🏴🐈‍⬛🌻 @EcoTechBro]

Saying a revolutionary organization only failed because of state repression is as useful as saying an army only lost a battle because they were defeated by the other army.

[flekk @flekkm0]

@zeta_globin data curation people when they encounter the field of biology

[Daniel Rosiak @DanRosiak]

No, but listen, you know this "put the fries in the bag, Terence Tao"'--*sniff, sniff*--already the usual replies concede too much. "If Tao is serving fries, YOU will be in the lithium mines." My God! This is our defense of human dignity? Don’t worry, the correct people will get the terrible jobs!

*Pulls at shirt* You see, everything is up for radical transformation, human intelligence, consciousness, and so on and so on--except that somebody must still have a shitty afternoon so I can enjoy my lunch.

But to say "these people are envious", this is too easy. It allows us, "the educated ones," our own little fantasy: we are disliked only because we are so wonderful.

You know, the more interesting thing is this *sniff* peculiar identification with the machine. When the mathematician discovers something, apparently this was HIS achievement, his privilege, his little secret. When the machine discovers something, suddenly it's "Look what WE can do!" The achievement has become collective precisely at the moment when no human being can claim credit.

See how this "we" functions. For the achievement, I identify with the machine. For the consequences, I identify YOU with the human. "We have surpassed you." Who are we? Well, myself and the thing that has also surpassed me.

There is something almost touching here, really. To escape the humiliation of somebody absorbed in something opaque to you, you appeal to something which knows incomparably more than either of you. And this is supposed to settle the matter in YOUR favor.

You know the old example of canned laughter. Here we have a similar arrangement. The machine achieves something on my behalf. The mathematician suffers the loss of human significance on my behalf. Somebody to be brilliant for me and somebody to be obsolete for me, without me having to be either, so I can remain as I was.

But *pulls on shirt* there is this little difficulty that hides the essential thing: you still need a response from Tao! A correct proof, this Lean slop and so on, is not enough. You need him to certify his own defeat. You need him to say "By god, this is extraordinary! Yes, this is correct, but also this is interesting." Which means--and here comes Hegel--the person you are reducing to an obedient instrument must remain more than an obedient instrument. You need recognition from someone whose authority you are abolishing.

"Your so-called expertise is worthless. Now tell me, in your expert opinion, that I, qua machine representative, was right."

*Touches nose* But I would go a step further. What does this math person actually do to provoke you? In the fantasy, I mean. He need not insult you. He can be generous, mild-mannered, whatever. Something remains irritating: there is something over there which occupies him, which matters to him, and your opinion does not settle what it is worth. Perhaps he is not even looking down on you. This is the really intolerable possibility.

This, you see, is closer to the Lacanian problem of the Other's desire. Not simply "What does he have that I don't?" but "What the hell is going on with him?" Perhaps the answer is: he is thinking about something else.

The fries solve this beautifully. Now you know what you are for him. He needs the money. Your presence creates an obligation.

And this, at last, also explains why the machine can be less threatening than the mathematician. The machine's intelligence may exceed yours unimaginably, but you imagine it arrives in response to your prompt. You can complain about the tone. You have the privileges of an angry customer and so on and so on. The human has this irritating possibility of being interested in something you did not request and cannot order. And please, this includes the person already serving the fries!

*Pulls at shirt* I am almost tempted to say: the dream of unlimited intelligence conceals just this: a the wish that nobody should be doing anything you cannot immediately understand as a service.

[flekk @flekkm0]

@BDHerzinger @Scholars_Stage the vast, vast majority of the ROC stayed on the mainland except for high-ranking officials and other wealthy people. in fact the majority of the PLA by 1949 was composed of ROC defectors

[dinos @din0s_]

why are they outside Google's offices if they're anti-AI progress? that's friendly fire

[flekk @flekkm0]

@RupertEuwe @letclaudiatweet and being a bunch of shallow, validation-starved groupies, they don't have any theory of mind for people who do things because of their own motivation.

[flekk @flekkm0]

@RupertEuwe @letclaudiatweet lots of insecure people, especially in sf/tech spaces, have convinced themselves that they are in a righteous crusade against "the academic establishment". a juvenile sort of rebelliousness.

[flekk @flekkm0]

@hohenzollernrin @cozenom @damienics it's as simple as it gets, bugging all 9 planes without detection is harder than bugging 1. not sure what your source is for the latter.

[flekk @flekkm0]

@hohenzollernrin @cozenom @damienics yes, planes are kept secure. so they, for example, aren't tampered with and fall out of the sky.
they pick a random 747 out of a bigger fleet so that if a well-resourced adversary wanted to eavesdrop, they'd have to bug all the planes to guarantee success, which makes it harder.

[flekk @flekkm0]

@star_excelsior @redfish_47 it obviously is still a major issue to deliver actual *hardware* to the PRC, but as the saying goes, don't export anything you aren't comfortable getting stolen...

[flekk @flekkm0]

@hohenzollernrin @cozenom @damienics all planes are kept secure lmao

[flekk @flekkm0]

@CNSpaceflight why the slop post? or translated?