emtel

13 ms·

121.
by emtel 3y ago
> People that would not be able to tell a copper wire from an aluminum one are talking about superconductors i know this was hyperbole, but I think the fact that it is almost certainly false is important. I think the reason that people a
122.
by emtel 3y ago
I think we are witnessing that animosity right now, and if I understand correctly, it seems to be the result of (allegedly) fraudulent claims that people got excited about, e.g. Ranga Dias. But I have seen absolutely no evidence that anybod
123.
by emtel 3y ago
There seems to be a group of people who have appointed themselves the science police. If you are excited about a tantalizing phenomenon that has yet to withstand expert scrutiny, you can expect to hear from them! I do not understand this me
124.
by emtel 3y ago
It's rare for it to be strong, from what i've seen. Based on the videos that have been shown, it appears that it would be the most strongly diamagnetic substance (other than superconductors) known by a wide margin. In comparison,
125.
by emtel 3y ago
> if the twitch/Twitter streamers don't produce a semiconductor, it says nothing If you're referring to Andrew McCalip, he's been very clear that he is not claiming to be doing a serious replication attempt, but he al
126.
by emtel 3y ago
I used capnproto years ago as the network serialization format for a multiplayer RTS game. Although the API can be quite awkward, it was overall a joy to use and I wish I was able to use it in more projects.
127.
by emtel 3y ago
Not GP, but The Joke changed my conception of what a novel could be. It was the first Kundera I read, nothing after that came close, including ULOB. But The Joke was so good I had to read everything else he wrote just in case.
128.
Safe Enough?(astralcodexten.substack.com)
94 points by emtel 3y ago|70 comments
129.
by emtel 3y ago
When HN discussed https://www.safe.ai/statement-on-ai-risk (thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36123082 ) a few weeks ago, many people were adamant that the many experts who signed this statement w
130.
by emtel 3y ago
This is correct, although its not unheard of for people who join a team very early to be called "founders" even if they aren't there from day 1.
131.
by emtel 3y ago
You're saying that AI researchers are not immune to the power of incentives. I'm saying that there is no evidence that this sort of incentive has ever caused this sort of behavior before.
132.
by emtel 3y ago
Are there any previous cases you can think of where an industry exaggerated the dangers of their technology in order to increase profits? It seems to me that, if that is what is going on, its the first time this strategy has ever been attem
133.
by emtel 3y ago
Please don't neglect to mention that a large number of very accomplished AI researchers share their concerns, or at the very least do not believe they should be dismissed out of hand.
134.
by emtel 3y ago
Why not both: a clear argument for concern written by an expert? https://yoshuabengio.org/2023/05/22/how-rogue-ais-may-arise/
135.
by emtel 3y ago
Just off the top of my head: - Longer permitting delays, including structural engineering work and electrical design work to tie into the existing warehouse electrical system. - Need to rent cranes or lifts to hoist equipment onto roof. - W
136.
by emtel 3y ago
Think a little bit deeper about what it means to be able to predict the next token. Think about what a predictor has to do in order to do this extremely accurately across a very large corpus of text. There is a big difference between being
137.
by emtel 4y ago
One time, I was driving at night in the Sierra after a storm - roads were covered in snow. It's a drive I've made close to 100 times without incident. Going around a bend, I saw a car in the ditch on the outside of the curve. I st
138.
by emtel 4y ago
That stuff is cool, but nothing has ever blown my mind like seeing the spruce goose. It’s at the evergreen aviation museum outside of portland, and it’s impossible to believe how big it is.
139.
by emtel 4y ago
That’s not the standard definition of censorship. From Wikipedia: > Censorship is the suppression of speech, public communication, or other information. This may be done on the basis that such material is considered objectionable, harmfu
140.
by emtel 4y ago
I don’t think that explanation is correct. The torque curve of a steam engine peaks at 0rpm and slopes down from there. The engine is simply decelerating to the point where it’s torque is balanced with the force of gravity on the incline.
141.
by emtel 4y ago
This is true in some situations, but I think is mostly a just-so story told about JITed languages. Here's the problems: 1) Often, you have lots of code that only runs once (e.g. UI initialization), or runs rarely (click handlers). By t
142.
by emtel 4y ago
Point source capture is pointless: We need the capacity to reduce the atmospheric CO2 concentration. Capturing every molecule of CO2 emitted at its source wouldn’t solve global warming.
143.
by emtel 4y ago
It’s not gas vs electric. It’s gas vs induction vs everything else. An induction cooktop is more powerful than any residential gas range, and responds instantly when you change temperature. The only two problems I’ve encountered are a) the
144.
by emtel 4y ago
BTC already lost 50% from its peak, so I guess this has been answered.
145.
by emtel 5y ago
I don't know anything about BEAM, but I don't think single-threading of any form really addresses the underlying problem. If you go to allocate something, and the system decides a GC is necessary in order to satisfy your allocatio
146.
by emtel 5y ago
My argument against GC (and which applies similary to JIT-basd runtimes) is that the problems caused by GC pauses have non-local causes. If a piece of code ran slowly because of a GC pause, the cause of the pause is in some sense _the entir
147.
by emtel 5y ago
The $1K christmas bonus started no later than 2002. You say those times are gone, but have you seen what FAANG pays people now?
148.
by emtel 5y ago
Here’s a pretty good summary, with annotated versions of the Facebook slides. https://www.theverge.com/2021/9/29/22701445/facebook-instagr...
149.
by emtel 5y ago
His Master's Voice, not Solaris, should be the novel Lem is known for, imo.
150.
by emtel 5y ago
I don't think Solaris is Lem's best book, although that is the conventional wisdom. I highly recommend Fiasco and His Master's Voice. Fiasco starts with quite a long intro vignette that has little to do with the rest of the s

More ›