maxander

31 ms·

121.
by maxander 7y ago
Check out the price tags on most infrastructure projects these days. As badly needed as they are, the US government currently doesn’t have re ability to execute them for less than the mid-horizon returns, if that.
122.
by maxander 7y ago
I haven’t read Gould, but from what you describe- the people running the studies aren’t dumb, they’re aware of these difficulties! That’s why they use all sorts of means (statistical control, twin studies, etc etc) to get around them, in a
123.
by maxander 7y ago
Generally “strong AI” means general intelligence, such as a human’s ability to figure out the solution to problems in general, as opposed to the single-purpose AI tools that we have today. So solving Linear A (by a method like this one)
124.
by maxander 7y ago
Remember the square-cube law; for two things of different sizes, the difference in surface area is proportional to the square and the difference in volume is proportional to the cube of the difference in sizes. So, compared to any Earth-b
125.
by maxander 7y ago
It serves a purpose, though, since weather is more relevant to day-to-day experience than most news stories. E.g., Boston is going to hit just about 100F this Saturday; that’s enough to potentially hurt someone not expecting it, and there’
126.
by maxander 7y ago
“Spending too much on medicine” isn’t like spending too much on clothes or nice houses. If the consumer goods you buy are crummy and don’t improve your life you can do without them, but we’re essentially unable to decide we can do without
127.
by maxander 7y ago
With respect, your doctor’s response seems entirely reasonable. Spontaneous remissions, as this sort of thing are called, are known to happen, but the tools to understand why and how basically don’t exist, or at best are the purview of ser
128.
by maxander 7y ago
Remember that Arxiv is not a scientific journal. Anyone* can post whatever they want there. It’s full of proofs of P=NP and zero-point energy designs and whatnot. Looking at their argument itself, they seem to be saying that increased tem
129.
by maxander 7y ago
Location: Boston, MA Remote: Yes Willing to relocate: No Technologies: Python, Haskell, R, C/C++/C#; machine learning and general statistics Resume/CV: https://www.linkedin.com/in/william-max-alexander-89
130.
by maxander 7y ago
If done only ~3 times, and only considering outcomes that manifest within a day or so. On possible harms beyond that the study is silent.
131.
by maxander 7y ago
Well, yes, in that no one has lived forever yet. :) But that he has established a substantial research foundation and normalized a subject that was virtually fringe science a few decades ago is tremendous success in itself.
132.
by maxander 7y ago
Sure it does, if a large chunk of the volunteers are in the US. The division of the open source world into the “US part” and the “Chinese part” would be a roughly 50% cut in the efficiency of the FOSS ecosystem, and is on the table given th
133.
by maxander 7y ago
You’ve got to admire Japan- they face a problem for the welfare of their citizens, but they’re grappling with it in an intelligent and informed manner. They’re not particularly close to solving the underlying issues but, from the sound of
134.
by maxander 7y ago
A quirk of an old, badly implemented database... from before the days of databases.
135.
by maxander 7y ago
Slightly smaller-scale than most suggestions here, but for the average nonscientific HNer, the best way to help scientists is to improve their programming tools. In the Python ecosystem, for instance; numpy/scipy, scikit-learn, and ma
136.
by maxander 7y ago
An old XKCD is, as usual, highly relevant: https://xkcd.com/1217/ Granted, this is actually a trial in humans, so that's good! But if you look at the study, the focus is on detecting circulating cancer cells; att
137.
by maxander 7y ago
Several bars of CO2 are inhospitable to life evolved in an atmosphere of several hundred ppm of CO2, sure, but are there arguments that high levels of CO2 would be detrimental most possible lifeforms out there? (CO is much more reactive, bu
138.
by maxander 7y ago
I strongly second this- its a well-studied and well-resourced organization that has spent most of a decade investigating the precise kind of question you're asking (namely, how one can best position oneself in life to have a positive i
139.
by maxander 7y ago
I thought the "climate change is really produced by a dozen CEOs, all we need to do is eat them" idea was restricted to cheap memes. Now it's on HN? Yes, corporate activities produce the bulk of human carbon emissions. But
140.
by maxander 7y ago
And yet, (almost) everyone has Facebook. There isn't one facebook for techie types and another for evangelicals and another for the elderly and so on, they're all on Facebook. It's a more comprehensive consolidation of it&#
141.
by maxander 7y ago
I didn't say it was a reflection; that was an analogy. Obviously I don't think a bunch of qualified military personnel would be fooled by something that trivial. I think you're reading opposing viewpoints with an agenda.
142.
by maxander 7y ago
It makes perfect sense- in the same way that your reflection in a mirror "demonstrates awareness of your presence." An illusion generated by a sensor glitch or interference is entirely liable to move around when the sensors and i
143.
by maxander 7y ago
This is interesting in large part as a demonstration of how bizarre/indefinite the idea of being "from" a place is. For instance, Cambridge, MA isn't headlined by a famous MIT/Harvard academic, or local political f
144.
by maxander 7y ago
From a minute of googling, there’s roughly 5k satellites in orbit right now. Most of those are in a slightly higher orbit than Starlink’s (LEO) so they’re incrementally farther away, but would be in a better position to catch sunlight in t
145.
by maxander 7y ago
What does it even mean to “search directly for intelligence”? Intelligence isn’t visible stuff. You can see things that are done or made through intelligent action, and in this context that would constitute technology.
146.
by maxander 7y ago
By Stross, yes. And it’s online: http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/fiction/accelera...
147.
by maxander 7y ago
As someone whose (bog-standard American-style) last name is also a common first name, this convention would save me a lot of trouble as well. It’s a consistent source of confusion for secretaries, receptionists, and so on.
148.
by maxander 7y ago
10k you mean? Although it sometimes feels like people have smaller brains just lately, too... It’s plausible that early humans broke into the “success through smarts” niche by a sudden expanded brain mutation that left them with a horrendo
149.
by maxander 7y ago
I'm generally in favor of nuclear power, but I recognize that there's some reasonable ground for opposing its development on grounds of potential catastrophe or radiation leakage risk. What gets me, rather, is that while we as a
150.
by maxander 7y ago
I’m glad you personally know all personnel involved in the US security apparatus so well that you can so happily vouch that none of them will use details of your private life in a way that you would disapprove of. Even that you can wholehe

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