5 ms·

I don't seem to get it.

KeplerBoy 2y ago
Steel made before atmospheric tests of nuclear bombs were a thing is referred to as low background steel and invaluable for some applications. LLMs pollute the internet like atomic bombs polluted the environment.
cdman 2y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-background_steel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-background_steel
ziddoap 2y ago
Steel without nuclear contamination is sought after, and only available from pre-war / pre-atomic sources. The analogy is that data is now contaminated with AI like steel is now contaminated with nuclear fallout. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-background_steel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-background_steel >Low-background steel, also known as pre-war steel[1] and pre-atomic steel,[2] is any steel produced prior to the detonation of the first nuclear bombs in the 1940s and 1950s. Typically sourced from ships (either as part of regular scrapping or shipwrecks) and other steel artifacts of this era, it is often used for modern particle detectors because more modern steel is contaminated with traces of nuclear fallout.[3][4]
- umvi 2y ago
  > and only available from pre-war / pre-atomic sources. From the same wiki you linked: "Since the end of atmospheric nuclear testing, background radiation has decreased to very near natural levels, making special low-background steel no longer necessary for most radiation-sensitive uses, as brand-new steel now has a low enough radioactive signature" and "For the most demanding items even low-background steel can be too radioactive and other materials like high-purity copper may be used"
  - sergiotapia 2y ago
    reading stuff like this makes me so happy. no matter how fucked up something may be there is always a way to clean right up.
    - felbane 2y ago
      glances nervously at atmospheric CO2
      - genewitch 2y ago
        the easiest solution is growing dense vegetation including trees, then using that for things[0] or burying it until we have a better mitigation strategy for atmospheric carbon. Another solution, and one that, if i weren't such a lazy, is ocean based carbon binding. You can run electricity directly through ocean water and precipitate the carbon out as calcium carbonate, which is both: useful to humans as is and after processing; and useful to the coral reefs and crustaceans/mollusks or whatever in the oceans. If anyone wants to kick me about a million US dollars, i can make a POC on a used barge with solar panels and as much recycled material as possible, and have that just run off the coast of florida or something. I figure the total cost to get a barge is around a quarter million, all-in[1], the electronics and seawater stuff is about another $150-200 thousand, and the rest is mine for the idea and the lawyers' to get this approved and left alone to do the research. [0] burning it for heat is fine, as the net CO2 levels will remain constant, but i mean things like houses and boardwalks and boats, furniture, and so on. [1] could be more, now, the last time i was researching seaworthy barge costs it was between $100,000 and $200,000. I'm hoping there's someone that can donate the barge so i can make the rest more fit for purpose - redundancy, better solar, better mppt, better batteries, better materials for the electrodes (it takes platinum and titanium iirc, i haven't looked at my documents for a long while.)
      - heavensteeth 2y ago
        The earth will recover. We may not, but earth will.
        2y ago
- swyx 2y ago
  and I applied to LLMs here: https://www.latent.space/p/nov-2023 https://www.latent.space/p/nov-2023
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
AlphaAndOmega0 2y ago
It's a reference to the practise of scavenging steel from sources that were produced before nuclear testing began, as any steel produced afterwards is contaminated with nuclear isotopes from the fallout. Mostly ship wrecks, and WW2 means there are plenty of those. The pun in question is that his project tries to source text that hasn't been contaminated with AI generated material. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-background_steel https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-background_steel
ms512 2y ago
After the detonation of the first nuclear weapons, any newly produced steel has a low dose of nuclear fallout. For applications that need to avoid the background radiation (like physics research), pre atomic age steel is extracted, like from old shipwrecks. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-background_steel https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-background_steel
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
GreenWatermelon 2y ago
From the blog > Low Background Steel (and lead) is a type of metal uncontaminated by radioactive isotopes from nuclear testing. That steel and lead is usually recovered from ships that sunk before the Trinity Test in 1945.
voytec 2y ago
To whomever downvoted parent: please don't act against people brave enough to state that they don't know something. This is a desired quality, increasingly less present in IT work environments. People afraid of being shamed for stating knowledge gaps are not the folks you want to work with.
- umvi 2y ago
  I feel like there's a minimum "due diligence" bar to meet though before asking, otherwise it comes across as "I'm too lazy to google the reference and connect the dots myself, but can someone just go ahead and distill a nice summary for me"
  - waveBidder 2y ago
    modern polite way of saying rtfm
  - voytec 2y ago
    In this particular case, I was out of the loop regarding the clever analogy myself. I'm now a tad smarter because someone else expressed lack of understanding, and I learned from responses to this (grayed due to downvotes) comment.
    - PhunkyPhil 2y ago
      The problem is that the answer was a really easy google. I didn't know what low background steel was and I just googled it.
      - cwillu 2y ago
        A person asking the question here means there are now several good succinct explanations of it here.
    - input_sh 2y ago
      But it's right there in the header, you could just click the link and find out on the top of the webpage.

Steel made before atmospheric tests of nuclear bombs were a thing is referred to as low background steel and invaluable for some applications. LLMs pollute the internet like atomic bombs polluted the environment.

cdman 2y ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-background_steel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-background_steel

ziddoap 2y ago

Steel without nuclear contamination is sought after, and only available from pre-war / pre-atomic sources. The analogy is that data is now contaminated with AI like steel is now contaminated with nuclear fallout. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-background_steel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-background_steel >Low-background steel, also known as pre-war steel[1] and pre-atomic steel,[2] is any steel produced prior to the detonation of the first nuclear bombs in the 1940s and 1950s. Typically sourced from ships (either as part of regular scrapping or shipwrecks) and other steel artifacts of this era, it is often used for modern particle detectors because more modern steel is contaminated with traces of nuclear fallout.[3][4]

umvi 2y ago
> and only available from pre-war / pre-atomic sources. From the same wiki you linked: "Since the end of atmospheric nuclear testing, background radiation has decreased to very near natural levels, making special low-background steel no longer necessary for most radiation-sensitive uses, as brand-new steel now has a low enough radioactive signature" and "For the most demanding items even low-background steel can be too radioactive and other materials like high-purity copper may be used"
- sergiotapia 2y ago
  reading stuff like this makes me so happy. no matter how fucked up something may be there is always a way to clean right up.
  - felbane 2y ago
    glances nervously at atmospheric CO2
    - genewitch 2y ago
      the easiest solution is growing dense vegetation including trees, then using that for things[0] or burying it until we have a better mitigation strategy for atmospheric carbon. Another solution, and one that, if i weren't such a lazy, is ocean based carbon binding. You can run electricity directly through ocean water and precipitate the carbon out as calcium carbonate, which is both: useful to humans as is and after processing; and useful to the coral reefs and crustaceans/mollusks or whatever in the oceans. If anyone wants to kick me about a million US dollars, i can make a POC on a used barge with solar panels and as much recycled material as possible, and have that just run off the coast of florida or something. I figure the total cost to get a barge is around a quarter million, all-in[1], the electronics and seawater stuff is about another $150-200 thousand, and the rest is mine for the idea and the lawyers' to get this approved and left alone to do the research. [0] burning it for heat is fine, as the net CO2 levels will remain constant, but i mean things like houses and boardwalks and boats, furniture, and so on. [1] could be more, now, the last time i was researching seaworthy barge costs it was between $100,000 and $200,000. I'm hoping there's someone that can donate the barge so i can make the rest more fit for purpose - redundancy, better solar, better mppt, better batteries, better materials for the electrodes (it takes platinum and titanium iirc, i haven't looked at my documents for a long while.)
    - heavensteeth 2y ago
      The earth will recover. We may not, but earth will.
      - 2y ago
swyx 2y ago
and I applied to LLMs here: https://www.latent.space/p/nov-2023 https://www.latent.space/p/nov-2023

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

AlphaAndOmega0 2y ago

It's a reference to the practise of scavenging steel from sources that were produced before nuclear testing began, as any steel produced afterwards is contaminated with nuclear isotopes from the fallout. Mostly ship wrecks, and WW2 means there are plenty of those. The pun in question is that his project tries to source text that hasn't been contaminated with AI generated material. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-background_steel https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-background_steel

ms512 2y ago

After the detonation of the first nuclear weapons, any newly produced steel has a low dose of nuclear fallout. For applications that need to avoid the background radiation (like physics research), pre atomic age steel is extracted, like from old shipwrecks. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-background_steel https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-background_steel

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

GreenWatermelon 2y ago

From the blog > Low Background Steel (and lead) is a type of metal uncontaminated by radioactive isotopes from nuclear testing. That steel and lead is usually recovered from ships that sunk before the Trinity Test in 1945.

voytec 2y ago

To whomever downvoted parent: please don't act against people brave enough to state that they don't know something. This is a desired quality, increasingly less present in IT work environments. People afraid of being shamed for stating knowledge gaps are not the folks you want to work with.

umvi 2y ago
I feel like there's a minimum "due diligence" bar to meet though before asking, otherwise it comes across as "I'm too lazy to google the reference and connect the dots myself, but can someone just go ahead and distill a nice summary for me"
- waveBidder 2y ago
  modern polite way of saying rtfm
- voytec 2y ago
  In this particular case, I was out of the loop regarding the clever analogy myself. I'm now a tad smarter because someone else expressed lack of understanding, and I learned from responses to this (grayed due to downvotes) comment.
  - PhunkyPhil 2y ago
    The problem is that the answer was a really easy google. I didn't know what low background steel was and I just googled it.
    - cwillu 2y ago
      A person asking the question here means there are now several good succinct explanations of it here.
  - input_sh 2y ago
    But it's right there in the header, you could just click the link and find out on the top of the webpage.