api

8 ms·

391.
by api 4mo ago
I'm old enough to remember when grey goo and nanotechnology was the apocalyptic scenario du jour for a short time after some guy at MIT wrote a book, and because he was at MIT people took it seriously even though it was ridiculous. If
392.
by api 4mo ago
Have to point out one boring thing though: this will use a lot more electricity than newer things. So it'll work, but it'll run up your electric bill.
393.
by api 4mo ago
Something like your takeover scenario already happened, but not through AI. It happened through atomic weapons. Nations who have them are in a different class from nations who don’t. Nations who have a lot of them, delivery systems, and sys
394.
by api 4mo ago
It has no volition. Why would it do this unless someone told it to?
395.
by api 4mo ago
It’s also true in every other realm. Governments, think tanks, political parties, and activist groups use propaganda because it works. I sometimes wonder how much of what I believe is bullshit I was fed through intentional propaganda. I do
396.
by api 4mo ago
I have always found this field, especially in the last 10-15 years, to be incredibly fad driven to the point that it reminds me of things like fashion more than an engineering field. It’s one of the things I don’t like about it. All humans
397.
by api 4mo ago
I think they may be talking about math algorithm heavy code, where C++'s looser almost-just-a-substitution generics system (really "templates" not even quite generics) can be used to create abstractions that compile everythin
398.
by api 4mo ago
If you have red flag symptoms you should get checked out. This type of cancer is often not caught until stage 3-4, at which point even if you do survive you may end up with a colostomy bag or other serious issues. You're also looking a
399.
by api 4mo ago
City land owners use their political power to block new construction to force real estate to appreciate in value. This can be overridden but it's hard. Most cities with good economies have unaffordable real estate.
400.
by api 4mo ago
I like to put it this way: The automobile, at least insofar as it impacts the urban landscape, is only incidentally about transportation. It's really about leverage in real estate markets. I think there's a tie-in between suburban
401.
by api 4mo ago
I kind of think today's air travel is in an uncanny valley. I'd prefer either: just as uncomfortable or even more so but very fast, like multiple mach numbers fast. I live in the Midwest and go to the West Coast often, and it usua
402.
by api 4mo ago
It’s basically saying that good engineers are better at using the tool. Because of course they are. This is true of every tool up to AI and it’s true for AI. If you know what you’re doing you’re going to do a better job of getting the AI to
403.
by api 4mo ago
It also refers to a wide range of different policies that need to be evaluated on their merits. These policies are not all the same. It’s become a thought stopping cliche. Modern discourse is absolutely loaded with thought stopping cliches
404.
by api 4mo ago
The US committed massive IP theft in the 19th century when we industrialized.
405.
by api 4mo ago
Does it allow newbies to install it and have something like the Apple “it just works” experience? If so then that’s your answer. Why isn’t this obvious? Giving someone a box of parts vs an assembled product is a huge difference. Yes there a
406.
by api 4mo ago
Off another power bank probably. Tip: if you plug two power banks into each other in a loop you can create infinite energy and destroy the universe.
407.
by api 4mo ago
This assumes the chips don’t get exponentially better. GPUs are actually bad for AI. TPUs too. They’re available and general purpose but what you really want is something like a specialized tensor FPGA that can be loaded with the model. Mem
408.
by api 4mo ago
Yes, even today it’s rare. Docking with the ISS or initiating the trans lunar burn on the most recent mission were all completely automated. The pilot arms the engine and authorizes it to proceed. I can imagine it being possible to grab the
409.
by api 4mo ago
The books are more realistic than the show. The show takes liberties to look cool, I think, which is okay. Not only does it mess with scale a lot but it also adds a lot of sound and visual effects that would not be there.
410.
by api 4mo ago
Agreed. It's not "rock-hard sci-fi." It's "medium-hard sci-fi." The background world building was pretty good from a hard SF point of view. Fusion rockets are possible and the high performance ones in the serie
411.
by api 4mo ago
Only if exponential growth continues, but population growth is already falling off a cliff and that is the ultimate driver. If population stabilizes or contracts, then the only way this could happen is if per capita energy use continued to
412.
by api 4mo ago
Even sci-fi writers that try to get this right have a hard time wrapping their heads around it. "It's called space for a reason." When I saw the series adaptation of The Expanse, it was really obvious they played a lot of art
413.
by api 4mo ago
If we tame fusion at scale this could become an actual issue in the far future. As it stands we have nothing that can out-scale solar or wind. Fission maybe if we went all in on breeders and stuff but that would not be cost competitive wi
414.
by api 4mo ago
That’s what solar energy does when it hits the ground or the oceans. It turns into heat or evaporated water. The latter is why it rains. Harnessing it and piping it through extra steps only to end up as heat does nothing to the planet’s hea
415.
by api 4mo ago
OP did not say this is what we were doing. Said this is what we should do. What we are doing is attempting to hold back progress on generation while subsidizing demand, which is literally the absolute dumbest possible thing. Unless you are
416.
by api 4mo ago
One of my big gripes with the film Oppenheimer was the blast itself, obviously a climactic moment in the film. It looked like someone set off a bunch of chemical explosives. That’s not how it looked in real life. Totally bizarre decision. I
417.
by api 4mo ago
Are those things because of speech? Or would they be worse if America did not have free speech? Imagine if Trump could outright ban criticism of him or his policies, or if protests against unjust wars could be banned, or if we had UK style
418.
by api 4mo ago
Ahh but it requires the laws of physics as a runtime.
419.
by api 4mo ago
I think part of the answer is that AI shows that intelligence and consciousness are unrelated phenomena. Humans happen to be both. I think this has been obvious from the other side of the argument forever. Animals obviously have consciousne
420.
by api 4mo ago
A lot of people think the “great silence” from SETI means something, unfortunately. A civilization using only low power radio wouldn’t be detectable in the Centauri system.

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