3 ms·

seems like a rube-goldberg esque way to consume 10x tokens. is this really where the industry is heading?

by 33MHz-i486 4mo ago

derac 4mo ago
Why is it Rube Goldbergesque? The process doesn't seem arbitrary.
- OJFord 4mo ago
  Rube Goldberg machines (or Heath Robinson contraptions) aren't arbitrary, they're complicated or contrived ways of achieving the process; often a very literal interpretation of how an automatic machine might imitate an otherwise manual action – a robotic hand movement for example. I think it's quite a good analogy, even if agentic Goldberg works well.
  - sdfsdssdfsdf 4mo ago
    Those machines are, to quote Wikipedia, "designed to perform a simple task in a comically overcomplicated way". This implies there is a much simpler way that works just as well. I don't think the Rube Goldberg analogy works if the agentic meandering is essential complexity required to get at the results. Rube Goldberging it would be something like putting this loop inside some comically overengineered enterprise microservice web which is then found out to be running inside a Window 98 emulator or what have you.
    - Orygin 4mo ago
      > This implies there is a much simpler way that works just as well Yes there is: Write the code yourself
      - hk__2 4mo ago
        This is not any simpler
  - ymolodtsov 4mo ago
    Seems to me the route that these agents took is sort of exactly how a group of people would collaborate on building an RTS?
e12e 4mo ago
I like to think of it like the difference between dropping a ball on a roulette wheel (get one random number/sequence of repeated) - vs dropping a ball on a carved topographic map, where valleys guide the ball to a particular outcome. If you can stand a little AI expansion - here are a few points Gemini came up with - I think the idea has some merit: https://g.co/gemini/share/b5b97867eeb1 https://g.co/gemini/share/b5b97867eeb1 (Maybe the better analogy is roulette vs pinball machine)

seems like a rube-goldberg esque way to consume 10x tokens. is this really where the industry is heading?

derac 4mo ago

Why is it Rube Goldbergesque? The process doesn't seem arbitrary.

OJFord 4mo ago
Rube Goldberg machines (or Heath Robinson contraptions) aren't arbitrary, they're complicated or contrived ways of achieving the process; often a very literal interpretation of how an automatic machine might imitate an otherwise manual action – a robotic hand movement for example. I think it's quite a good analogy, even if agentic Goldberg works well.
- sdfsdssdfsdf 4mo ago
  Those machines are, to quote Wikipedia, "designed to perform a simple task in a comically overcomplicated way". This implies there is a much simpler way that works just as well. I don't think the Rube Goldberg analogy works if the agentic meandering is essential complexity required to get at the results. Rube Goldberging it would be something like putting this loop inside some comically overengineered enterprise microservice web which is then found out to be running inside a Window 98 emulator or what have you.
  - Orygin 4mo ago
    > This implies there is a much simpler way that works just as well Yes there is: Write the code yourself
    - hk__2 4mo ago
      This is not any simpler
- ymolodtsov 4mo ago
  Seems to me the route that these agents took is sort of exactly how a group of people would collaborate on building an RTS?

e12e 4mo ago

I like to think of it like the difference between dropping a ball on a roulette wheel (get one random number/sequence of repeated) - vs dropping a ball on a carved topographic map, where valleys guide the ball to a particular outcome. If you can stand a little AI expansion - here are a few points Gemini came up with - I think the idea has some merit: https://g.co/gemini/share/b5b97867eeb1 https://g.co/gemini/share/b5b97867eeb1 (Maybe the better analogy is roulette vs pinball machine)