> I learned to accept the fact that HN reached a critical mass point that made it fill up with people who market themselves as "product-oriented engineers", which is a way to say "I only build things when they lead to products".
This is a mentality I am working extremely hard to get rid of, and I blame HN for indoctrinating me this way.
That said, these days I don't view this place as filled with "product-oriented engineers", but it's become like any other internet forum where naysayers and criticism always rises to the top. You could solve world hunger and the top comment would be someone going "well, actually..."
It's not HN that killed the hackers, it's the Internet snark that put the final nail in the coffin.
Id argue its already even greater. The amount of botting and astroturfing happening now means that a good chunk of the content people are consuming on those social media sites is generated by LLMs. Social media is the vector, but its the content thats the virus and OpenAI et al control what that virus contains
That's a really good point. Even if social media is and remains the medium over chat assistant apps (likely imo), all the content everywhere will be AI slop.
In many ways it's worse, because with social media you know -- or think you know -- the source, and you use that to judge accordingly how open you are to what you're reading or how much you trust its veracity, or what biases it might have. Whereas with LLMs most people inherently trust because the LLM is supposedly objective and unbiased.
Not if nearly every company I attempt to interact with has their way. As other commenters have said, smart phones used to be a choice as well. Now people look at you funny if you won't install an app or don't have a data plan.
That seems like a naive take on technology to me. Once having/using a smartphone was a simple matter of personal choice. Once, having a car was a choice. If society as a whole adapts to something it's hard to be against it.
I choose not to use any LLM, but technologies should still be judged on their potential for evil even if they are a choice.
And choice is a very loaded concept that does not take us anywhere: if the market is creating a world where LLM usage is central to a more productive future, or so they want us to believe, the choice quickly becomes between participating in the brainwashing and subtle advertising, or having a hard time finding a job that depends on LLM usage.
Ultimately, humans depend on habit and lowest friction. You cannot expect everyone to make a ‘virtuous’ choice and it is dishonest to even expect that. I dislike that many of my clothes are made my underpaid people in third-world countries, but at this point I don’t really have time and energy to choose not to unless I make that my life goal, as does the rest of the world.
This reminds me of the discussion about gun control by the way.
Hard to maintain a balance when the State, by definition, has monopoly over violence, and State interests have the propaganda machine of mass-media on their side; the media with their pathetic justification that "we're only reporting the news!" just repeat and perpetuate bullshit rhetoric.
The real problem is that the State tends to grow like a cancer. When it gets to a point that it lords over tens or hundreds of millions of souls, it's already impossible to control and contain.
Until someone implements Jim Bell's ideas using encryption algorithms, distributed networks, and the cryptocurrencies, then there will be no government. Perhaps there won't be one anywhere. Perhaps we'll really miss the good old days.
Fever is thought to contribute to host defense, as the reproduction of pathogens with strict temperature requirements can be hindered, and the rates of some important immunological reactions are increased by temperature. Fever has been described in teaching texts as assisting the healing process in various ways, including:
- increased mobility of leukocytes
- enhanced leukocyte phagocytosis
- decreased endotoxin effects
- increased proliferation of T cells
[...]
Studies using warm-blooded vertebrates suggest that they recover more rapidly from infections or critical illness due to fever.
---
Fever makes your immune system work better, and many pathogens don't like the higher temps.
Right. But it's not essential to the immune system. The immune system doesn't shut down completely just because you temporarily bring the fever down.
It's one thing to avoid overusing painkillers, and while I personally can appreciate that sentiment, over the counter painkillers are pretty well tested and you should not be afraid to use them, without reasonable limits. Denying children painkillers when they ask for them sounds dangerously close to going a step too far!
There are no studies that indicate you can "harden" your immune system by denying pain killers in the long run. You shouldn't be afraid of painkillers, just as you shouldn't be afraid of having fever.
It's a numbers game - even if you kill only a part of the pathogen with fever, it actually makes a big difference in the end, since in the initial phase it grows exponentially. Also, another indirect benefit is that when you have a fever, you tend to rest more rather than pretending everything is rosy, and when your immune system works best, it is when you sleep. In the States, I've seen many irresponsible sick people who go to work and take Tylenol so that they can cope better at work, essentially spreading the disease.
In many cultures, instead of giving you Paracetamol/Acetaminophen at the onset of fever, they would actually warm you up to give it a boost.
I know, stoicism is gone - people can't tolerate any pain, any discomfort, any trouble nowadays.
Laymen actually do care. But mass media does the sanewashing, and you can’t blame the average Joe of not having a deep understanding of what this entails and that it is not to protect the children.
Governmental interests benefit if we blame ourselves and other citizens for this shit passing. It is clear that modern democracies are people in power (which includes the media) vs the masses.
Palantir sells software for analyzing data, like Excel but on a large scale. If "Chat Control" passes, they will need software to analyze the data they collect, which is exactly what Palantir sells. It is just business.
I don't know about Thorn but it looks like the same: they sell software that may be of use for implementing "Chat Control".
"It is a just a business" is crazy to say if your founder was Peter Thiel and you ostensibly merged already halfway with the operating goverment (US, DoD)
I do the same. Fever is a feature, unless the infection is so pervasive the fever itself becomes a health hazard (at which point you need to see a doctor ASAP, not lower your fever)
Taking an antipyretic for a regular flu completely defeats the purpose. Let your immune system do its thing, it is pretty good at it.
This is a mentality I am working extremely hard to get rid of, and I blame HN for indoctrinating me this way.
That said, these days I don't view this place as filled with "product-oriented engineers", but it's become like any other internet forum where naysayers and criticism always rises to the top. You could solve world hunger and the top comment would be someone going "well, actually..."
It's not HN that killed the hackers, it's the Internet snark that put the final nail in the coffin.
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