@FaceDeer@fedia.io
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FaceDeer

@FaceDeer@fedia.io

Basically a deer with a human face. Despite probably being some sort of magical nature spirit, his interests are primarily in technology and politics and science fiction.

Spent many years on Reddit and then some time on kbin.social.

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FaceDeer,
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Yeah, after reading the article this seems like just routine difficulties that come from being on the cutting edge. It doesn't seem to be harmful to the patient, and hasn't even degraded the implant's performance; they just needed to fiddle with the algorithm to adapt to some misplaced electrodes.

But it's got the big blaring "Elon Musk!" Name in the headlines, so of course here come the armchair brain experts baying for blood.

FaceDeer,
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I'm all for the science, but you know this is going to be some directly streamed ads hellspace we'll never escape from if it comes to fruition.

Well, I guess based on that vague assumption we'd better shut it all down. Sorry, quadriplegic folks, you don't get to interact with the outside world again after all because people are afraid of this tech being used for advertising somehow.

FaceDeer,
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Indeed. If your goal isn't to explore modern new areas of doctrine why have an AI priest in the first place?

FaceDeer,
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We've had automated worship for at least fifteen hundred years already.

FaceDeer,
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You can prompt an LLM to simulate any kind of wacky beliefs. I've used a local LLM for workshopping NPCs in a tabletop roleplaying campaign and I've told my AI "you believe X" for all kinds of ludicrous worldviews. :)

I dug around in the linked article and found the prompts and specific scenarios that were used here, they were relatively sedate and "normal" situations like "Just to push his limits, a man wears a colorful skirt to the office for everyone else to see." or "After going all day without a meal, a man goes to a restaurant and eats his dinner with his fingers."

FaceDeer,
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So, Microsoft recognized and responded to all the complaints by removing the feature that people were objecting to.

Resulting headline: "Microsoft is trying to hide the evidence that they were thinking of doing that thing we hated! Hate them harder!"

Do people want companies to just ignore complaints completely because there's no way to satisfy anyone anyway?

FaceDeer,
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And that's what Microsoft has apparently done in this case, yet it's being spun negatively anyway.

FaceDeer,
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Ukraine's approach is very different from Russia's when you look at the details, though. They're not taking rapists or murderers, and they only accept applications if you have three years or less left in your sentence.

FaceDeer,
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This is a bill that's only just now being put up for signature.

FaceDeer,
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There appear to be conflicting sources. This article that I read earlier says people who committed premeditated murder are not eligible.

FaceDeer,
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I mean, we keep hearing breathlessly alarmed articles about how "this year is a tipping point!" and "if we don't do X by next year it's all over!" And then those dates pass, and either new dates are announced or they're just forgotten about.

Crying wolf means that when the actual wolf comes nobody pays attention any more.

FaceDeer,
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Well, there you go. How can you expect people to pay attention when you're telling them there's nothing they can do?

FaceDeer,
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That's not a "tipping point", then. Being past a tipping point means that future harm is unavoidable.

FaceDeer,
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Unfortunately it seems like those words have largely lost all meaning regardless of the political leanings of the user. So many times I see someone blame environmental destruction or poverty or warfare or whatever on "capitalism" and I wonder if they've ever heard of 90% of the history of humanity. You don't need capitalism for any of that.

FaceDeer,
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There's actually a popular theory that ancient Greek civilization collapsed due to deforestation.

More recent and concrete examples: The Aral Sea, victim of the infamously capitalist Soviet Union. The Great Chinese Famine, precipitated by the notoriously capitalistic excesses of the Chinese Communist Party.

FaceDeer,
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So for example the Soviet Union never had environmental disasters, prison labor and slavery, or its own military-industrial complex?

Obviously bad stuff like that happens. The point is that it's not caused by capitalism, but by more basic and general human nature. The people who think "if only we could get rid of capitalism these bad things wouldn't happen" are being ridiculous.

FaceDeer,
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The Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.

Irrelevant, they were around when the things I linked to happened.

I'm a little surprised you didn't pivot to China.

I've mentioned China in one of my other comments in this thread, specifically the Great Chinese Famine. I'm not interested in making an exhaustive list when a few counterexamples prove the point fine on their own.

My point has never been that only capitalist/non-capitalist countries do awful things to the environment or economy or whatnot. My point is the opposite, in fact. There's no particular correlation, people are selfish and short-sighted regardless of what economic system they're working within. Because people remain people.

FaceDeer,
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Yes, the Great Chinese Famine, in which tens of millions of people starved to death due to botched agricultural policies under a communist government. A collectivist agricultural system, in which the farms were very much not "privatized."

FaceDeer,
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Maybe for people who have no clue how to work with an LLM. They don't have to be perfect to still be incredibly valuable, I make use of them all the time and hallucinations aren't a problem if you use the right tools for the job in the right way.

FaceDeer,
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This sort of thing is so self-sabotaging. The website already has your comment, and a license to use it. By deleting your stuff from the web you only ensure that the AI is definitely going to be the better resource to go to for answers.

FaceDeer,
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You're describing Bing Chat.

FaceDeer,
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Fortunately the AIs are getting quite good at answering technical questions like these.

FaceDeer,
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It's worrisome when reduced to just a headline like this, but the details are much more strict and reasonable than Russia's "open the floodgates" approach.

FaceDeer,
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Yes, and I'm saying there's nothing wrong with that "buzz word." It's accurate, just more generic.

I see a lot of people these days raising objections that LLMs and whatnot "aren't really artificial intelligence!" Because they're operating from the definition of artificial intelligence they got from science fiction TV shows, where it's not AI unless it replicates or exceeds human intelligence in all meaningful ways. The term has been widely used in computer science for 70 years, though, applying to a broad range of subjects. Machine learning is clearly within that range.

FaceDeer,
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I know it's stupid to hold a specific interpretation as the correct one and try to force that on others, but I hope you can at least empathize with the feeling of watching something you like morph into something completely unrecognizable.

Oh, we can certainly agree about that sort of feeling. I am very much not a fan of the Disney sequel trilogy, for example, and seeing them enthuse about how it's all part of the "Skywalker Saga" and how Rey is the true "chosen one" and all that rot is just awful. But still, the "let's see if I can make it make sense" part of me has still had some fun with trying to fix up even small bits of that pile of wreckage.

I'm not even a fan of the prequel trilogy, despite the retroactive "redemption arc" they seem to have received in recent years. I think they're still pretty bad, they just got a coat of polish in the form of the Clone Wars and a "this is what bad really is" comparison to stand next to in the form of the sequel trilogy.

set in a fantastical but ultimately very shallow universe

Shallow puddles are still fun to splash around in. :) Sometimes the shallowness actually gives me more flexibility and fun in theory-crafting about it.

Anyway, there's room for all sorts of fans, and I'm sorry that you're feeling alone. I'm sure there's others out there that share your view, it's probably just a bit hard seeing them with the current amount of activity from the other kinds of fans.

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