mppm

13 ms·

121.
by mppm 2y ago
Once you get out of the atmosphere, lift is ~0 too.
122.
by mppm 2y ago
The minimum amount of work needed to pump some amount of heat Q from a temperature T0 to a higher temperature T1 is W = Q*(T1/T0 - 1). For example, if your ambient heat sink is at 20C (293K) you need at least 2.8W of electricity to run
123.
by mppm 2y ago
I wish I could agree with you. But have you read Aschenbrenner's "Situational Awareness" [1]? I am very much afraid that the big decision makers in AI do in fact think in those terms, and do not in any way frame this as fair
124.
by mppm 2y ago
> That sentiment calls for reflection - whoever ends up on top of the heap after the AI craze settles down is going to be someone that everyone objects to. I agree in principle. And realistically, there is no way Altman would not be part
125.
by mppm 2y ago
No, I was rather pointing out that getting into an altercation that you are likely (even if not guaranteed) to lose may not be the smartest of ideas. On occasion, humans have been known to fruitfully engage in cooperation and de-escalation.
126.
by mppm 2y ago
From what I've read about DeepSeek and its founder, I would very much prefer them, even with China factored in. At least if these particular Four Horsemen are the only alternative. On a tangential note, those who wish to frame this as
127.
by mppm 2y ago
Apart from my general queasiness about the whole AGI scaling business and the power concentration that comes with it, these are the exact four people/entities that I would not want to be at the tip of said power concentration.
128.
by mppm 2y ago
The way I think about effectful computation and IO in Haskell is as a kind of enforced metaprogramming. The actual language comprises a strongly typed meta-layer used to assemble an imperative program from opaque primitives. Like all powerf
129.
by mppm 2y ago
Maybe, but my point is that democracy is not even the rule of a mindless mob, more like mob rule theater. Ruling implies receiving information and performing complex actions and giving many and nontrivial orders. From a purely information-t
130.
by mppm 2y ago
I do find people's faith in Democracy, as opposed to Authoritarianism, somewhat exasperating. Two candidates, pre-selected by the powers that be to lead the nation, compete in inane televised debates, wave flags and make promises that
131.
by mppm 2y ago
Capitalism has finally come full circle :) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/From_each_according_to_his_abi...
132.
by mppm 2y ago
1. The countercurrent heat exchanger achieves exactly that: exhaust gases are cooled while the inflowing fuel mixture is heated up. 2. Thermophotovoltaics in general can operate with any heat source, though this device is clearly optimized
133.
by mppm 2y ago
xkcd.com/386
134.
by mppm 2y ago
Amen. Another fun one is logging into bank and government sites while roaming... with sms delivered intermittently and with a 5 minute delay.
135.
by mppm 2y ago
Yes, there really needs to be some margin for really big and costly changes. One of the main reasons for Brexit being such a clusterfuck was that, once the going got tough, majority support evaporated and the exit was pushed through by what
136.
by mppm 2y ago
All a matter of perspective. Those "engineering failures" were in fact a case of criminal negligence which, by the way, none of the actually responsible people has gone to jail for. As for "firing missiles at civilians",
137.
by mppm 2y ago
Americans [1][2] and pilots [3][4][5] are not that far behind, though. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lion_Air_Flight_610 2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethiopian_Airlines_Flight_302 3. https
138.
by mppm 2y ago
That's true, and it's certainly better than nothing, but engaging in some legal business activity is also one of the basic personal freedoms in the Western value system, one that is trampled on very badly by the recent rise of d
139.
by mppm 2y ago
There is a right for a personal bank account only.
140.
by mppm 2y ago
But do you actually disagree? Has the Crypto Revolution to date produced anything other than financial speculation and a slight warming of the Earth's surface?
141.
by mppm 2y ago
> Miele works well for us. That's what I would have said as well, until recently. Last year we had to replace ours, and its been an absolute nightmare. Cost us endless hours of wrangling with technicians and customer service to have
142.
by mppm 2y ago
> You can buy long lasting stuff just fine, if you are willing to pay. You can get eternal licenses (or an outright sale of rights), if you are willing to pay. Would that 'twere so simple. Most previously reliable premium manufactur
143.
by mppm 2y ago
Most commenters here focus on how fast and heavy Teslas are, while for me the overwhelmingly most likely explanation is Tesla's long-promised and still half-baked autopilot - either by directly getting drivers into sticky situations or
144.
by mppm 2y ago
Interesting hypothetical, though I would put my money on birds rather than cephalopods :) Octopi have impressive intelligence, but they are missing many other ingredients likely required for the rise of civilization: Intelligent bird specie
145.
by mppm 2y ago
Abacus AI has had a similar feature for quite a while: When you ask something it searches the web and uses an LLM to analyze and aggregate results. Though that sounds useful in theory, in practice search results are such garbage nowadays th
146.
by mppm 2y ago
The original 2048 was pretty cool, but damn, this improved version is just insultingly easy... and with a freemium option of course. I guess it captures the spirit of our times pretty well, though.
147.
by mppm 2y ago
I will add that costs are imposed not only on adversaries, but on everyone. Between reporting requirements, economic sanctions, anti-money-laundering and anti-tax-evasion provisions, perfectly legitimate businesses are probably losing clo
148.
by mppm 2y ago
Do you have a reference for that $17.2 billion cost? I've seen figures between 24-30 billion USD for the whole project -- solar farm, batteries, local infrastructure to supply Darwin and the subsea cable to Singapore. That would make t
149.
by mppm 2y ago
Maybe. But it's probably just Boeing :) This was a fairly young satellite, launched in 2016, and beset with propulsion problems from the start. It was also the second of a new series, and the first one has already failed as well.
150.
by mppm 2y ago
Their applications pages mentions wind turbines and automotive applications and promises increased efficiency vs conventional motors. That would require maintaining 90%+ efficiency at well over 1k RPM. But no specs anywhere, so hard to tell

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