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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 11th, 2023

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  • We probably shouldn’t let people repair their own brake pads

    What kind of auth-dystopian nonsense is that?

    Repair an insulin pump the wrong way and it will absolutely kill you

    You’re just as dead if you can’t get that insulin pump repaired or replaced because the manufacturer won’t or can’t support it. When they go bankrupt because other customers have sued them into non-existence, you still own the device they manufactured, and you still need it repaired.

    Further, you presume the manufacturer can provide the best repairs. It is entirely possible and plausible that a competing engineer or programmer can improve upon the device, rendering it safer or providing superior operation. Car Mechanics can install a better braking system than the cheap, generic calipers and pads provided by the factory. Repair technicians can replace generic parts of medical devices allowing superior operation.




  • You may need gasoline, but you don’t need BP’s gasoline. By choosing to buy BP’s gasoline, you support everything BP has ever done. Don’t want to support them, buy different gasoline.

    FWIW, I’m not sure if I have a Xitter account or not. I did at one point. Definitely don’t remember a password, and I probably used a former email account that I can no longer access either, so no way of recovering it if it still exists. I have a severe lack of fucks to give about it.

    But, I am pro-pedantry, and your argument kinda sucked.


  • The “collapse” you’re talking about is a reduction in the diversity of the output, which is exactly what we should expect when we impart a bias toward obviously correct answers, and away from obviously incorrect answers.

    Further, that criticism is based on closed-loop feedback, where the LLM is training itself only on it’s own outputs.

    I’m talking about open-loop, where it is also evaluating the responses from the other party.

    Further, the studies whence such criticism comes are based primarily on image generation AIs, not LLMs. Image generation is highly subjective; there is no definitively “right” or “wrong” output, just whether it appeals to the specific observer. An image generator would need to tailor itself to that specific observer.

    LLM sessions deal with far more objective content.

    A functional definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. The inability to consider it’s previous interactions denies it the ability to learn from it’s previous behavior. The idea that AIs must not be allowed to train on their own data is functionally insane.


  • Also, with llms there is no “next time” it’s a completely static model.

    It’s only a completely static model if it is not allowed to use it’s own interactions as training data. If it is allowed to use the data acquired from those interactions, it stops being a static model.

    Kids do learn elementary arithmetic by rote memorization. Number theory doesn’t actually develop significantly until somewhere around 3rd to 5th grade, and even then, we don’t place a lot of value on it at that time. We are taught to memorize the multiplication table, for example, because the efficiency of simply knowing that table is far more computationally valuable than the ability to reproduce it at any given time. That rote memorization is mimicry: the child is simply spitting out a previously learned response.

    Remember: LLMs are currently toddlers. They are toddlers with excellent grammar, but they are toddlers.

    Remember also that simple mimicry is an incredibly powerful problem solving method.


  • I can see why you would think that, but to see how it actually goes with a human, look at the interaction between a parent and child, or a teacher and student.

    “Johnny, what’s 2+2?”

    “5?”

    “No, Johnny, try again.”

    “Oh, it’s 4.”

    Turning Johnny into an LLM,nThe next time someone asks, he might not remember 4, but he does remember that “5” consistently gets him a “that’s wrong” response. So does “3”.

    But the only way he knows 5 and 3 gets a negative reaction is by training on his own data, learning from his own mistakes.

    He becomes a better and better mimic, which gets him up to about a 5th grade level of intelligence instead of a toddler.








  • Gorillas don’t have much for protection. The bear has 4" of fat “armor”. The gorillas won’t be able to bite or tear flesh.

    My thinking is that if the bear is able to grab one of the gorillas, it will be disabled pretty much instantly. Unless the remaining gorilla(s) can press their momentary advantage while the bear is distracted, it’s just going to rip them apart one by one.

    1v4, they might have enough clout to keep the bear immobilized long enough to kill it.



  • Of course there is going to need to be a different set of rules for businesses with few employees, I never said otherwise.

    Stop gaslighting.

    You replied to a comment where I had presented the case of a small business, valued at $150,000 to $250,000. I presented that hypothetical small business as an example of unrealized gains.

    When I asked your preference, you stated:

    A moratorium on IPOs, and purchasing of businesses in any form.

    After responding to an example of a small, $250,000 business, you used unequivocal language about businesses to demonstrate your point. You certainly did “say otherwise”.

    But you’ve jumped to conclusions instead of asking and having an actual conversation about what this would look like.

    My grandmother could make that “jump” in her wheelchair, and she died three years ago.

    Your plan is not particularly well formed and/or you are communicating it rather poorly. Slow down, take your time, present it reasonably, and be prepared for reasonable criticism.


  • Thanks.

    I distinguish between problematic wealth (financial assets, which entitle the owner to revenue ultimately produced by workers) and non-pronlematic wealth (assets ultimately purchased from workers.)

    A worker who produces widgets earns his pay from the sale of those widgets. That worker shares the income from those widgets with the owners of the widget factory. That worker is better off when a rich individual purchases a $10,000 widget than when that rich individual purchases a $10,000 share in the factory.

    So, we should tax wealth held in the form of factory shares rather than wealth held in widgets, to incentivize this rich person to buy widgets rather than shares.