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Thanks for this. In another strange internet coincidence, I was asking ChatGPT to break down the fundamentals of the Peano axioms just yesterday and now I see t

Thanks for this. In another strange internet coincidence, I was asking ChatGPT to break down the fundamentals of the Peano axioms just yesterday and now I see this. Thumbs up!

burnt-resistor 1y ago
I suspect in the near future (if not already) ChatGPT data will be sold to data brokers and bough by Amazon such that writing a prompt will end up polluting Alexa product recommendations within a few minutes to hours.
- lmpdev 1y ago
  Oh for fuck sake Can we not ruin every technology we develop with ads?
  - ccppurcell 1y ago
    Watch Adam Curtis Century of the Self. I don't think he set out to explain ads in tech, but to my mind it answers a lot about how ads specifically came to power.
    - blipvert 1y ago
      Might be of interest - new AC series: https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2025/jun/14/shifty-review-adam-curtis-new-show-bbc-iplayer https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2025/jun/14/shifty-...
  - brookst 1y ago
    Let’s also not ruin every discussion with speculation about how someone will eventually ruin everything with ads.
  - smoyer 1y ago
    We need to make ads cost more than they are worth - here's one small way (what are others?): https://adnauseam.io/ https://adnauseam.io/
    - Incipient 1y ago
      Haha that's brilliant. Does it actually 'work'? I expect there is more to recording ads than simply a click? Also is this somewhat not just lining Google's/ad networks pockets? They won't care about even a large-ish number of people using this add on.
      - 0_gravitas 1y ago
        So, this works only for a subset of ads, specifically, ads that are CPC (cost-per-click) (sometimes called CPL -> cost-per-link), this wouldn't work for CPA campaigns (cost-per-action), which only pay out when a sign up or some other arbitrary action is performed by the user. The larger adtech companies will have some form of bot-activity-detection, _but_ plenty will let it all just slip on by. (I've personally written a Babashka script at $job that checks performance of our publishers, and flags any fraudulent-seeming activity)
      - smoyer 1y ago
        Somewhat ... But it's not just about costing the advertised money but also obfuscates my actual interests with lots of noise.
  - chii 1y ago
    when there's a need to make money, but there's noone who wants to pay (but they want to use the service), then it naturally falls onto being ad-driven.
    - tshaddox 1y ago
      Turns out that it doesn’t matter whether people want to pay. Many paid services also include advertising.
    - louthy 1y ago
      > no one wants to pay Fewer people went to pay. That’s the crux. Companies wanting mass market penetration, rather than just accept the natural size of the market.
- random3 1y ago
  I suspect that in the near future nobody will directly read product recommendations.
im3w1l 1y ago
Well there was a post on mathmemes a day ago about teaching kids set theory as a foundation for math with some discussion of PA. So maybe related ideas are echoing across the intertubes in this moment?
- kjellsbells 1y ago
  > teaching kids set theory as a foundation for math Very reminiscent of the New Math pedagogy of the 1960s. Built up arithmetic entirely from sets. Crashed and burned for various reasons but I always had a soft spot for it. It also served as my introduction to binary arithmetic and topology.
Art9681 1y ago
I've noticed this too. I will be researching a topic elsewhere and then it seems to pop up in HN. Am I just looking for patterns where there are none, or is there some trickery happening where HN tracks those activities and mixes in posts more relevant to my interests with the others?
- nemomarx 1y ago
  HN has a single front page for everyone, so it's a recency illusion. You pay more attention to details and skim over titles you haven't been thinking about.
  - gjm11 1y ago
    It may also be that there's some common cause for (1) a topic being on HN's front page and (2) someone researching it elsewhere. E.g., maybe a couple of days ago there was an interesting social-media post related to it, and (1) one person saw it and wrote up something interesting enough to get on HN and (2) another person saw it, started digging around to find out more, and then read HN. (I am not suggesting that that very specific sequence of events happened in this case. It's just an example of how "I was looking this up for other reasons and then I saw something about it on HN" could genuinely happen more often than by chance, without any need for weird tracking-and-advertising shenanigans.)
RcouF1uZ4gsC 1y ago
This proves that ChatGPT sells your data to HN which then decides which posts to put on the front page.
- billyjmc 1y ago
  Incidentally, this also proves that GP is the main character.

Thanks for this. In another strange internet coincidence, I was asking ChatGPT to break down the fundamentals of the Peano axioms just yesterday and now I see this. Thumbs up!

burnt-resistor 1y ago

I suspect in the near future (if not already) ChatGPT data will be sold to data brokers and bough by Amazon such that writing a prompt will end up polluting Alexa product recommendations within a few minutes to hours.

lmpdev 1y ago
Oh for fuck sake Can we not ruin every technology we develop with ads?
- ccppurcell 1y ago
  Watch Adam Curtis Century of the Self. I don't think he set out to explain ads in tech, but to my mind it answers a lot about how ads specifically came to power.
  - blipvert 1y ago
    Might be of interest - new AC series: https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2025/jun/14/shifty-review-adam-curtis-new-show-bbc-iplayer https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2025/jun/14/shifty-...
- brookst 1y ago
  Let’s also not ruin every discussion with speculation about how someone will eventually ruin everything with ads.
- smoyer 1y ago
  We need to make ads cost more than they are worth - here's one small way (what are others?): https://adnauseam.io/ https://adnauseam.io/
  - Incipient 1y ago
    Haha that's brilliant. Does it actually 'work'? I expect there is more to recording ads than simply a click? Also is this somewhat not just lining Google's/ad networks pockets? They won't care about even a large-ish number of people using this add on.
    - 0_gravitas 1y ago
      So, this works only for a subset of ads, specifically, ads that are CPC (cost-per-click) (sometimes called CPL -> cost-per-link), this wouldn't work for CPA campaigns (cost-per-action), which only pay out when a sign up or some other arbitrary action is performed by the user. The larger adtech companies will have some form of bot-activity-detection, _but_ plenty will let it all just slip on by. (I've personally written a Babashka script at $job that checks performance of our publishers, and flags any fraudulent-seeming activity)
    - smoyer 1y ago
      Somewhat ... But it's not just about costing the advertised money but also obfuscates my actual interests with lots of noise.
- chii 1y ago
  when there's a need to make money, but there's noone who wants to pay (but they want to use the service), then it naturally falls onto being ad-driven.
  - tshaddox 1y ago
    Turns out that it doesn’t matter whether people want to pay. Many paid services also include advertising.
  - louthy 1y ago
    > no one wants to pay Fewer people went to pay. That’s the crux. Companies wanting mass market penetration, rather than just accept the natural size of the market.
random3 1y ago
I suspect that in the near future nobody will directly read product recommendations.

im3w1l 1y ago

Well there was a post on mathmemes a day ago about teaching kids set theory as a foundation for math with some discussion of PA. So maybe related ideas are echoing across the intertubes in this moment?

kjellsbells 1y ago
> teaching kids set theory as a foundation for math Very reminiscent of the New Math pedagogy of the 1960s. Built up arithmetic entirely from sets. Crashed and burned for various reasons but I always had a soft spot for it. It also served as my introduction to binary arithmetic and topology.

Art9681 1y ago

I've noticed this too. I will be researching a topic elsewhere and then it seems to pop up in HN. Am I just looking for patterns where there are none, or is there some trickery happening where HN tracks those activities and mixes in posts more relevant to my interests with the others?

nemomarx 1y ago
HN has a single front page for everyone, so it's a recency illusion. You pay more attention to details and skim over titles you haven't been thinking about.
- gjm11 1y ago
  It may also be that there's some common cause for (1) a topic being on HN's front page and (2) someone researching it elsewhere. E.g., maybe a couple of days ago there was an interesting social-media post related to it, and (1) one person saw it and wrote up something interesting enough to get on HN and (2) another person saw it, started digging around to find out more, and then read HN. (I am not suggesting that that very specific sequence of events happened in this case. It's just an example of how "I was looking this up for other reasons and then I saw something about it on HN" could genuinely happen more often than by chance, without any need for weird tracking-and-advertising shenanigans.)

RcouF1uZ4gsC 1y ago

This proves that ChatGPT sells your data to HN which then decides which posts to put on the front page.

billyjmc 1y ago
Incidentally, this also proves that GP is the main character.