FBT

18 ms·

31.
by FBT 10y ago
Isn't it better to have robots fighting and dying than humans? War sucks, and I do wish that we could have world peace. But if war is going to happen, I'd rather it be robots that are the ones in harm's way.
32.
by FBT 11y ago
> Unlike Python, short one line blocks can be expressed after the colon as a form of syntactic brevity The author might not be aware of it, but Python does actually have this syntax feature, for this exact purpose.
33.
by FBT 11y ago
Why does the United States constitution grant the president the power to grant pardons and reprieves? I'd argue that it's for cases exactly like this one. Where someone indeed broke the law, but did the right thing in doing so. We
34.
by FBT 11y ago
Well, then let's see what we can agree on. I hope that you can agree that if one was to consider superintelligence a serious threat which needs dealing with, then AI boxing isn't the way to go in dealing with it? That's wha
35.
by FBT 11y ago
I think you're rather fixated on a certain conception of "rationality" which is more like Mr. Spock than like what Yudkowsky uses it to mean. The Yudkowskyian definition of rationality is that which wins , for the relevant d
36.
by FBT 11y ago
> You or I would surely just put a drinking bird on the "no" button à la homer simpson, and go to lunch. Well, if you read the rules the game was played under, this is explicitly called out as forbidden: > The Gatekeeper mus
37.
Protecting against Google phishing in Chrome(schneier.com)
4 points by FBT 11y ago|0 comments
38.
by FBT 11y ago
Well, it needs 2/3 of Congress to propose it, and then 3/4 of the states to ratify it, so it's a bit harder than that, but your point stands. The constitution does indeed have provisions to change with the times, provided the
39.
The Origins of the <blink> tag (2008)(montulli.org)
53 points by FBT 12y ago|9 comments
40.
by FBT 12y ago
Say what you like, there is an incentive in the opposite direction in the case of a blockchain used as a trust-store, which does not exist in the other cases you described. One could make a lot of money subverting a trusted blockchain,
41.
by FBT 12y ago
It was perhaps badly put, but the author is obviously aware of that, as shown by the paragraph immediately thereafter, in which the possible correlation of the variables is discussed. It is true that there is a certain amount of informality
42.
by FBT 12y ago
But we have patents, as well. If a major US drug company invents a new superdrug, and spend decades and billions of dollars to get it approved, they can at least be sure that if it gets approved they will get the royalties from its sale. Bu
43.
by FBT 12y ago
> What this article somewhat mentions and what seems really weird for people that like Pen and Paper and want to play this new edition is that they are releasing the CORE books over the span of a few months. It's kind of weird for p
44.
by FBT 12y ago
Alternative link for lazy people, which gets you directly to the article's content: https://archive.today/8NKco
45.
by FBT 12y ago
A quick read of the title left me rather confused: Are they seriously asking the question "Is Bitcoin worth 1฿?" A tautology indeed. Only upon reading the article itself did I realize I misread the title: I had both skipped over t
46.
A Cover Letter in Brainfuck(myownfortune.wordpress.com)
148 points by FBT 12y ago|45 comments
47.
by FBT 12y ago
The title is misleading, but subtly so: Interest is most definitely charged, just in a far more indirect method than most banks. To take a loan you are required to have kept a proportionate amount of money in the bank,without being paid int
48.
by FBT 12y ago
The same thing that happened to horsewhip manufacturers when automobiles were developed. Take whatever moral insight from this you want, but the key insight here is that it would be ridiculous to hold back technology for fear of people losi
49.
by FBT 12y ago
I... guess this is the obvious next step. All we need now is "one click purchasing" for twitter, where you can just send a single tweet, and then lie back and have the product delivered straight to your doorstep. That's the n
50.
by FBT 12y ago
I strongly recommend you don't use any TTS at all. If I want TTS I can do it myself. I have no need of an app to do it for me. That said, with actual human readers this could go very well. I would like, though, to point out the possibl
51.
by FBT 12y ago
Libre is a prerequisite, gratis isn't. This is an important distinction to make. While it is true that this software seems to be neither, it is important to note when we try to convince them to release it free, we mean libre and
52.
Combinator Parsing(goodmath.org)
69 points by FBT 12y ago|9 comments
53.
by FBT 12y ago
This prototype had a single arbiter per transaction, but there is no reason why you couldn't have N arbiters on each transaction, for as high an N as you want. Imagine having, say, three arbiters for each transaction, and two of the th
54.
by FBT 13y ago
Yeah, we know already that the US isn't a civilised country, you don't have to rub it in.
55.
by FBT 13y ago
Well, in theory , Bitcoin is deflationary: By holding it it goes up in value, not down, over time. This has its own problems, and it yet remains to be seen if those problems are insurmountable. We shall see. But insofar as Bitcoin is wha
56.
by FBT 13y ago
> for 99.9999999% of us, that outcome will never happen Note: As a fraction, the number you give for this is that it will happen to one in a billion people. You are claiming that there are 8 people in the world that this outcome will h
57.
by FBT 13y ago
The analogy between the spying government and the spying parent is a good one, and I am interested to hear how you say that it's different. In both cases, a figure of authority (legitimate authority!) spys on you, pro[poradly for your
58.
by FBT 13y ago
"Wink, wink, nudge nudge; I'm not telling you you to spy on this list of people, but it sure would be convenient..."
59.
by FBT 13y ago
Once upon a time "Escalator" was a trademarked brand name. Kleenex fought hard to retain it's trademark, and Coca-Cola lost the battle for the word "Cola", keeping only "Coke". It happens. It's part o
60.
by FBT 13y ago
Because I don't feel that an author should be allowed to restrict the distribution of his or her works, at all. It's exactly the concept of Death of the Author [1], just on a slightly different level. If the author forbade, say, t

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