skohan

23 ms·

301.
by skohan 4y ago
Yeah I think Zig in particular is trying to be just exactly a "better C". I don't know if transpiling will get you there, because for instance if you're transpiling a dynamic language, you're going to have to output
302.
by skohan 4y ago
I remember the moment I realized how fast computers are at uni. I was in an algorithms course, and one of our projects was to make a program which would read in the entire dataset from IMDB of films and actors, and calculate the shortest
303.
by skohan 4y ago
That’s a realization that made me a better programmer. I think when I was younger, I thought of programming as very open ended. I.e. I wanted to build abstract, general solutions which would be able to handle any future case. Over time I r
304.
by skohan 4y ago
> There is enough evidence to show it is sufficiently high probability for consideration. Agree to disagree.
305.
by skohan 4y ago
So your statement was this: > There must be something "turing complete-ish" about neural nets. As in although the primitive element of a human neuron is complex, you can achieve identical computational power with a much simpler
306.
by skohan 4y ago
> One thing that seems missing from this discussion is that even if LLMs are sentient, there is no reason to believe that we would be able to tell by "communicating" with them. Or, more horrifyingly, our own subjective experien
307.
by skohan 4y ago
Ok let me present the following evidence: 1. Biology can produce things which are incredibly smart and efficient. It can also produce things which are dumb and inefficient. 2. Human intellect and consciousness is one of the most complex nua
308.
by skohan 4y ago
So it's not safe to keep in an exchange and not safe to keep outside of an exchange. Future of finance alright.
309.
by skohan 4y ago
I can think of many of exchanges pausing withdrawals in times of extreme volatility - either close to peaks or during massive selloffs. I think Binance probably doesn't have enough liquidity to cover their withdrawals and you probably
310.
by skohan 4y ago
But biology has also produced systems which are far beyond what we've been able to engineer. For example, look at cellular reproduction. Just imagine if your phone could produce a smaller phone, which would develop into a fully functi
311.
by skohan 4y ago
But it's a massive leap of faith to assume that the massive and varied array of information processing modalities in the brain are mostly unnecessary, or even that the "important" part of how the brain processes information c
312.
by skohan 4y ago
But is there any evidence that the totality of what the human brain does can be modeled as a mathematical function?
313.
by skohan 4y ago
Diverse yes, messy no. Brain structure is extremely specific and tailored to function. Actually "messy" neural structure is tied to serious disorders like schizophrenia. If your point is, that something approximating back propag
314.
by skohan 4y ago
Which networks? There are dozens, or maybe hundreds of different mechanisms the brain uses to adapt the signaling of neural networks. Back propagation might resemble some of them, but others not at all. Back propagation assumes a synapse c
315.
by skohan 4y ago
Wait are you saying you can achieve identical computational power to a biological neural network with an ANN? How do you justify that assumption?
316.
by skohan 4y ago
What makes you think an ANN has very much in common with neurons at all? The model of activation as a weight times a simple activation function is laughably simple compared to what's actually going on in the brain.
317.
by skohan 4y ago
It's more complicated than one neurotransmitter == 1 float. For instance you can have more than one receptor type for each neurotransmitter. And each one might be sensitive to different concentrations of that neurotransmitter, and ha
318.
by skohan 4y ago
I discovered Nausicaa on Netflix last year, and was so impressed! Incredible world building, and you can see so much of its DNA in other media which has come after. Rey from the new Star Wars for example seems almost directly lifted from
319.
by skohan 4y ago
Counter argument: Some synapses contain multiple receptor sub-types. Dopamine, for example, has some receptors which are inhibitory, and others which are excitatory. Each receptor is sensitive to different concentrations of dopamine. Thi
320.
by skohan 4y ago
> getting back into a routine is hard - but in a way it's also not hard, because you put in the same amount of physical effort the day you're back into the routine, as the next day and every other day and so on. A bit of a tang
321.
by skohan 4y ago
At what level of fidelity? 1 synapse == 1 16-bit floating point value? It may be enough (emphasis on may), for a specific brain region which is very directional in nature but I'm not sure if that calculation will generalize.
322.
by skohan 4y ago
That's a very good point - a key feature of the brain is that it's a highly dynamical system with a huge number of variables. Neurons are all giving each-other feedback in real time, which leads to emergent behavior. To really
323.
by skohan 4y ago
I have my doubts about whether just scaling a model of V1 would be sufficient to reproduce consciousness. Structure and function are extremely closely linked in the nervous system, and neural circuitry is highly specialized in terms of s
324.
by skohan 4y ago
A computer is a pretty bad analogy for a brain. But even so, 1 synapse is much much greater in complexity than 10 or 100 transistors. Each synapse is a complex system unto itself, which interacts with all kinds of cellular mechanisms whic
325.
by skohan 4y ago
It's a massive example of how Apple inserts themselves as a toll collector on an entire industry which they are largely unrelated to. Let me pose it to you this way: if you are developing an IoT product, the only way to have a UX com
326.
by skohan 4y ago
Access to NFC is a huge one. This has a ton of use-cases in for instance IoT and smart home, and Apple limiting access prevents a lot of innovation in that space which might compete with their offering. Another example is Apple's pr
327.
by skohan 4y ago
Does anyone seriously think the performance of the M2 processor will have any meaningful impact on Apple's success? They made a big splash with the M1 macbook air, which was at the time an incredible value, and the clear best laptop on
328.
by skohan 4y ago
I agree, reading this it just seems like this author has found a market for people who want read news about how AAPL is going to drop tomorrow
329.
by skohan 4y ago
Reads like FUD to me
330.
by skohan 4y ago
No, regret is a valid reason to withdraw from a contract if that option is stipulated in the contract. It's an execution of the contractual terms, not an annulment of the contract.

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