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Man people who complain about cryptocurrencies need to stop calling it "crypto". Crypto is cryptography. People who evangelize cryptocurrencies won't stop calli
by mort96 3y ago
Man people who complain about cryptocurrencies need to stop calling it "crypto". Crypto is cryptography. People who evangelize cryptocurrencies won't stop calling it "crypto", but the rest of us shouldn't just give that word to them.
- gklitz 3y ago> Crypto is cryptography No. And astrology isn’t astronomy. And cryptography isn’t crypto. Cryptography is a legitimate field of science, crypto is not.
- mort96 3y agoThe word "crypto" means cryptography. Always has. The scam currencies are called cryptocurrencies, not "crypto".
- SuchAnonMuchWow 3y agoWait til you learn what "web 3" meant before cryptoscams started to also use this term.
- t-writescode 3y agoI don't remember accurately. What did Web3 mean prior to cyptoscams?
- thecosmicfrog 3y agoThe Semantic Web: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semantic_Web?wprov=sfla1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semantic_Web?wprov=sfla1
- dhaavi 3y agoI feel you, but, sadly, I came to the conclusion that this war is lost. If I speak to an audience I want them to understand exactly what I mean. So, I only use "cryptography" and "cryptocurrency" explicitly.
- mdaniel 3y agothat, and "confabulation" versus "hallucination" :-( > to fill in gaps in memory by fabrication <https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/confabulation https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/confabulation> I mean, come on, perfect. But, it seems even M-W has done what a reasonable dictionary should(?) do and has updated the entry to add a "3: (computing)" entry to reflect its modern usage https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hallucination https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hallucination
- mort96 3y agoNo, hallucination is a better term. It conveys the important fact -- "these chatbots will just confidently state things as facts even though they're completely made up" -- in a way that everyone understands. If you used the term "confabulation" you'd have to start by explaining what "confabulation" means any time you wanted to talk about a chatbot making something up. It's not even more accurate. The problem with hallucinations isn't a "gap in memory". The fundamental problem is that the chatbots are "plausible English text" generators(*), not intelligent agents. As such, no existing term is going to fit perfectly -- it neither hallucinates nor confabulates, it just generates probable token sequences(*) -- so we may as well use a word people know. (*) I know it's slightly more complicated, especially with RLHF and stuff, but you know what I mean.
- mort96 3y agoYeah, I think that's the best solution in practice; use "cryptography" and "cryptocurrency". Certainly don't use "crypto" for cryptocurrency.
- snapcaster 3y agoIt's over and lost, get over it. this is such a tired point and people have been saying it for 10 years now
- mort96 3y agoPeople have correctly been saying it for 10 years now, it's time people start listening.
- snapcaster 3y agoUgh let it go, pick another battle it's OVER
- mort96 3y agoI'm not limited to one battle at a time :)