this post was submitted on 12 Aug 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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Need to let loose a primal scream without collecting footnotes first? Have a sneer percolating in your system but not enough time/energy to make a whole post about it? Go forth and be mid: Welcome to the Stubsack, your first port of call for learning fresh Awful you’ll near-instantly regret.

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] 0 points 3 months ago

Tangentially related. In 1878, some asshole exhumed 25 human skulls from an abandoned cemetery in far Northern Sweden and took them to Helsinki, where he and his buddies measured them to "prove" that people from the region were less advanced.

Now the skulls are finally being re-interred thanks to pressure from the local community.

Here's a background on the cemetery and the skull-snatching (in Swedish):

https://kulturmiljonorrbotten.com/2023/09/29/akamella-odekyrkogard/

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (3 children)

OT: since we’ve occasionally featured a music thread and such, any interest in a music sub? it could be pair well with this, the awful pub.

the awful pub sub[0], if you will

this thought brought to you by prior threads as well as this that I’m listening to in late-afternoon 26C weather

[0] you know I had to, I couldn’t not

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

I would definitely make lots of extremely boring posts about old bands in a music sub. Hmmm, maybe it would be a bad idea....

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

On the topic of music, also linked here before is https://youtube.com/@Tantacrul

He doesn't mention genAI, but his video essays attack many of the common arguments, even the more awful anti-AI ones. I particularly like his demonstration in which the listener predicts what follows a chord, or melodic, sequence and subverting the expectation leads to more interesting music; Next-token predictors are completely orthogonal to this characteristic.

For the not awful music: https://wangleline.bandcamp.com/album/disaster-field A pretty good idm album.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago

I just discovered his channel last week and have consumed far too much of his content already, haha. I've been using Musescore forever, so those videos where extremely interesting as well.

So, +1 for Tantacrul

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I'd be happy to see it, this place could do have a notawfulmusic sub

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago

hmm, I’m partial to “awful pub sub” over “notawful”, because taste and such are wild (and maybe one may want to sneerpost alongside goodposts)

besides, someone may like/link country. you can never tell with some people!

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

In other news, someone caught a former NFT artist using AI. Not shocked in the slightest an NFT grifter jumped on the AI train.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago

The NFT "art" was already terrible procedurally-generated slop, so it fits the use case 100%.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Witnessed an AI doomer freaking out over a16z trying to deep-six SB1047.

Seems like the "AI doom" criti-hype is starting to become a bit of an albatross around the industry's neck.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (2 children)

What's SB1047 about? The post doesn't clarify that in any way.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

https://digitaldemocracy.calmatters.org/bills/ca_202320240sb1047

Have a AI regulation committee and also give the committee their own hardware so that they can use that hardware to regulate the other hardware. Maybe.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago

What makes me laugh (well, chuckle silently) is how this cult member obviously has not gotten the memo that all legislation is useless and the only thing preventing non-aligned hostile AI is long-ass LW posts.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago

It’s some proposed California legislation.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago

They shriek, endlessly, about their outgroups being cults while blocking anybody who disagrees with them (the actual cultiest thing you can do)

blocking anybody who disagrees with them (the actual cultiest thing you can do)

(the actual cultiest thing you can do)

the texture of a blade of grass is slightly rough. slightly ragged. it's impossible to describe to someone who has never experienced it

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Latest from Cyberstuck: Just see for yourself. I... I have no words.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Oh god it's real? I saw pictures and there was a lot of "it's AI" claims which I kind of hoped were true.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

AI would do a better job generating a giant head of Musk tbh

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Not if it is based on that famously bad drawing of musk. Anyway, the way the face seems to look at you constantly and then subtlety doesn't and the weird glossy moistness of the statue makes me think it is AI.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

Ugh you're probably right. I thought it looked weird but didn't really think about it.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

I could be wrong however, we will just have to wait and see if more pictures show up. They tend to do when somebody builds a Musk shaped golden calf to promote their cryptocurrency.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

that human-sandworm hybrid looks anemic af

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I think it is supposed to be a goat.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago

A golden calf, perhaps.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (4 children)

It's the weekend B) time to check in on the doomers w/ Dr. Torres...

Oh damn! I missed the irrefutable evidence of LLM reasoning. They must have done a series of replicable experiments that contradicts the overwhelming evidence that LLM reasoning is more or less a series of pattern matching heuristics. Let's take a look together at their data lads, let the scales fall from our eyes.

... this is their confirmation of reasoning? And they say we are the ones who are fucking coping, lmaou.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Is this list just a summary of a bunch of downvoted SCPs?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (2 children)

wait is that account serious? i thought it was satire

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago

it is a completely serious AI doomer

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago

which, aisafety? it's come up a few times here, from context it seems the owner of it has more and more "bought in" as time goes on

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago

I'm actively offended by 5. Would you forget Douglas Adams so blithely?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Look on the bright side - we at least got some potential sci-fi gadgets out of it.

The temporal echo chamber sounds like the seed of a good story - you could really get some character analysis out of it if used well.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago

Sounds like the exordium device from the Revelation Space books.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago

Different cults, one worries about Acausalrobotgods the other about Lord Xenu.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (3 children)

chechen warlord ramzan kadyrov brags about cybertruck technical and praises musk for allegedly giving him it in grozny (take it with a heap of salt, like everything that clown says). they want to send it to the frontline armed with nothing more than NSV (think soviet M2 Browning) https://xcancel.com/NOELreports/status/1824820843463000392#m

Kadyrov claimed that Elon Musk supposedly gave him a Cybertruck in Grozny. According to Kadyrov, he plans to send this armed vehicle to the "SVO" zone.

“I express my sincere gratitude to Elon Musk! This is, of course, the strongest genius of our time and a specialist. Great man! Well, the cybertruck turned out to be a powerful project. Undoubtedly one of the best cars in the world! I literally fell in love with this car.”

would be a nice future addition to oryx's list, if they actually put it outside of chechenya

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Given how it was marketed I'm surprised we didn't see cybertechnicals out of some stateside militia group somewhere, though I guess not currently having dictatorial power forces them to have better opsec.

Either way this things gonna light up FIRMS like it's a one-vehicle ammo depot if/when it goes up.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

cybertruck just plainly sucks as a base for technical. i'm almost certain that it can't stop 5.56 (or 5.45) or anything bigger, or bigger fragmentation, windows are not bulletproof, it will get mauled by AT mines and maybe even some AP ones, lithium battery can catch fire, it has limited range, can't be refueled quickly, can't haul anything, its frame is brittle, it rusts, it's shiny, it's probably quite loud in radio spectrum. kadyrov mounted 12.7mm HMG which itself is fine as a weapon but woefully underpowered alone for frontline service, at least needs some additional antitank weapon - maybe it won't ever see tanks, but it's still useful against fortifications, BMPs, MTLBs and the like

but this won't ever happen, because this thing is for celebratory joyrides in grozny and firing that 12.7mm hmg up in the air, as a local custom

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

it continues to be striking how much of a reference Lord Of War can manage to be at times

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

biggest difference is that kadyrovs teip (sorta like clan) is not independent, they're just paid off by putin to fuck off and not cause trouble. they're doing this since end of second chechen war, when kadyrovs were installed as chechen leaders sympathetic to putin. which is direct source of all these funds that he put into building a motherfucking palace with a moat (where that video is filmed)

but other than that, son of warlord from Lord of War is pretty similar to irl Kadyrov, down to armor piercing ammo belt he wears there (black tips)

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I did not have Musk x Kadyrov on my 2024 bingo card.

Not really sure if this is actionable sanctions-busting. It would be hilarious if so. Even more hilarious if Ukraine captures it and sticks into the victory museum.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago

maybe it's simply stolen

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago

this pathetic attempt at replacing toyota hilux will only leave these people deeply humiliated

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