randcraw

28 ms·

361.
by randcraw 3y ago
I've noticed the same transition away from wrenching your own low-level code to making high-level calls to routines written by others. Maybe that's partly because my employer (a big pharma) tends to attract either IT types or ben
362.
by randcraw 3y ago
But does the cut-and-paste model of coding scale to 30+ years of developing code? I don't know of any problem domain that's so deep and compelling that I could stay engrossed in solving high-level tasks for that long. Either I h
363.
by randcraw 3y ago
Debugging. If you don't know how your code is translated into CPU ops, you won't be able to recognize the clues that malfunctions almost always provide when code misbehaves. Translators, compilers, libraries, and new code routin
364.
by randcraw 3y ago
Easier still: - Prewrite essay with ChatGPT. - Ask ChatGPT to rewrite the essay in the voice of someone 5 years younger. - Submit the juvenile copy as your rough draft.
365.
by randcraw 3y ago
> We need to decide as a society that the physical and mental health of all citizens is more important than maximum economic output and enact laws that enforce these limits. And how does AI fit into that equation? Will we regulate the u
366.
by randcraw 3y ago
I'd agree that the evangelism emphasizes “anti-“ cars rather than “pro-“ alternatives. If it were the latter, I'd see far more constructive suggestions on how to better adopt and improve alternatives to cars — rail, buses, motorc
367.
by randcraw 3y ago
True for supervised learning and maybe unsupervised clustering. But the same isn't true of all LLMs and other AI systems based on observational mimicry. Nobody trained ChatGPT to hallucinate answers or suggest that Kevin Roose leave
368.
by randcraw 3y ago
Like all proprietary AI software, I'm sure this app will generate battle plans without explaining why they make sense or what intel they were based on. The results will be predicatable, and commanders will then simply blame the system
369.
by randcraw 3y ago
Nice article. It engagingly tells the 30 year evolution of Rushkoff's Philosophy of Technology from enthralled technophile to jaded techno-revile... one Rushkoff book at a time. At the same time, Malcolm Harris' able writing inev
370.
by randcraw 3y ago
Yes, if you're doing what the patient and the regulators want you to do, that ain't cheating.
371.
by randcraw 3y ago
I think computing in the 1980s was a very different enterprise than it is today. Back then it was about exploring a new world whose horizons were expanding fast, as processor speed and O/S capability grew seemingly without bound. IMH
372.
by randcraw 3y ago
I wonder if Americans' history of seeing cheating as dishonorable grew from our roots in Puritanism, where principle always trumps pragmatism. If so, then perhaps our ongoing devaluation of principles (and our rising mistrust in other
373.
by randcraw 3y ago
Sony stopped selling rootkit-infested CDs when buyers 'objected'.
374.
by randcraw 3y ago
Then you can expect the carmaker to jerk you around indefinitely. This month, 300 HP costs $5. Next month it's $10. One month, your wipers won't go intermittent unless you pay an extra $3. Want ABS to function? Uh oh, your su
375.
by randcraw 3y ago
While you're attuned to his cymatics, I'd like to recommend Stanford's music. I was blown away by his Automatica video (basically, his music is accompanied by the vigorous movement of industrial robots playing instruments).
376.
by randcraw 3y ago
Of course those permits are only for drilling new wells. Existing wells have already dewatered nearby farms. New remedial action is needed to reverse the continuing damage.
377.
by randcraw 4y ago
Early PCs lacked two things that made smartphones a whole new ballgame: a network, and software. When the Altair 8800, IBM PC, Apple II, Commodore PET, and Tandy TRS-80 shipped (1975-1980), there was no way to communicate with other people
378.
by randcraw 4y ago
Or a high-dimensional word-to-vec that can represent compound / complex objects?
379.
by randcraw 4y ago
Nothing more to say about variation arising from geography around the US, such as urban vs rural, high vs low education, by age, etc, etc. And have other developed countries seen similar shifts? It's like the authors overheard a singl
380.
by randcraw 4y ago
For mobile, "Introduction to Autonomous Mobile Robots" by Siegwart et al. For motion, "Principles of Robot Motion: Theory, Algorithms, and Implementations" by Choset, et al. It's telling that few new robotics textbo
381.
by randcraw 4y ago
From the OP's blog, his thoughts on AI safety: https://wp.nyu.edu/arg/why-ai-safety/
382.
by randcraw 4y ago
Yeah, I think a primary challenge with LLMs is to somehow identify them. If we can't, the net will become swamped by fake humans bent on distorting human reality in whatever ways serve their masters' whims. Frankly, I think ident
383.
by randcraw 4y ago
Because we're all going to interact with LLMs a lot more soon, I suspect many more of us will learn how unrewarding it is to converse with computers, except for assistance in accomplishing a task. Knowing that the other speaker unders
384.
by randcraw 4y ago
Has anyone tried to update Norvig's Lisp popularity metrics? (Though counting Usenet articles ain't what it used to be.) I'd love to see how it's aged after another 20 years.
385.
by randcraw 4y ago
Another explanation is that the average new house costs more than it used to. Housebuilders have chosen to build bigger homes at a higher finish level because there's more profit in it. New affordable housing is becoming rarer.
386.
by randcraw 4y ago
It's a shame you can't post that list and invite others to add their experiences to it. IMO, transparency is the best way to fight tyrants.
387.
by randcraw 4y ago
Sounds like you attended a bad school. I earned a MS in CS at age 30 atop my BS in zoology and 6 years of work as a programmer. My MSCS program introduced me to many new and useful concepts and techniques that have informed all the nontri
388.
by randcraw 4y ago
But would academic wisdom have avoided the rise of Pol Pot? The German people were pretty well educated and recently had been reminded of the cost of letting political forces spin out of control given the debacle and horrors of of WWI, yet
389.
by randcraw 4y ago
Look into the history of drum machines. When they arrived in the late 70s, they sounded terribly mechanical. In the next couple of decades, small amounts of variation were added to make them sound more natural, the way many photographers
390.
by randcraw 4y ago
Not if creators are paid nothing for their work. I think inescapably, the profession of writing is about to take a big hit from GPT-X, with the few remaining journalists paid considerably less than before. There will be an exodus of talen

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