Readit News> If we were referring to writing a recipe book or creating a novel it doesn’t have its own “hip” phrase to go with it. Many people would simply call it “stealing”.
> LLMs don’t miraculously know how to create code – it’s learning from what’s available to it online already. Do you think it’s learnt from closed code such as Microsoft software, or anything from Apple? No. It’s taking advantage of the generosity and sharing spirit of the open-source community.
So if I learn from open source community, pick up good coding habits, patterns etc., and then apply what I've learned to write new code - does this also constitute stealing? While IP laws are without doubt not without fault, I'm rather more used to people claiming that they are too strict, if anything. Now, the author essentially claims that we need to introduce on top of copyright also "trainingright" (or "learningright"?), essentially extending the definition of "derivative works" to plus infinity. This doesn't sit right with me.
dpq commented on Coronal mass ejection impact imminent, two more earth-directed CMEs spaceweatherlive.com/en/n... · Posted by u/gnabgib
Are these type of events problematic for putting nuclear weapons in space or is it just fine and you could never get accidental detonations or even just large amounts of uranium burning up in the atmosphere because military satellites are shielded so well!?
In a word, no. There is no risk of an "accidental detonation" caused by a magnetic storm, and there wouldn't be one even if you put the warhead upstream the bow shock directly in the path of the CME.
On the other hand, if a LEO satellite's electronics get fried, sooner or later it will burn up in the atmosphere since it cannot maneuver anymore, and if it carries a load of weapons-grade uranium it's going to be a somewhat unpleasant event, as you imagine.
dpq commented on Is the Sun Conscious? (2021) [pdf] sheldrake.org/files/pdfs/... · Posted by u/bookofjoe
I think the author took Pohl's Starchild (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starchild_Trilogy) books too seriously.
This guy was one of the greats. A deepness in the sky (the sequel) is one of my favourite sci fi books of all time, and even better than Fire upon the deep imo.
I second that. Re-read it multiple times and enjoyed every minute and every page. The creative concepts making up this book such as localizers/smart dust or the Focus captivated by their plausibility, and the unsolved mystery of the onOff bothered me as much as it did Pham Nuwen.
R.I.P. dear friend, you will be missed and remembered.
dpq commented on Are any words the same in all languages? blog.duolingo.com/words-s... · Posted by u/spansoa
One of their main candidates [coffee] is incorrectly selected: it is something like "sourch" in Armenian (սուրճ)
[https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%D5%BD%D5%B8%D6%82%D6%80%D5%B...].
Also, in Hebrew an orange is a "tapuz" (תפוז), which is short for "tapuach zahav", or a "golden apple" [https://he.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D7%AA%D7%A4%D7%95%D7%96]. A pity that this isn't highlighted, given that Hebrew is supported in Duolingo.
Doug was one of my childhood heroes, thanks to a certain book telling the story of his work on AM and Eurisko. My great regret is that I never got the chance to meet him or contribute to his work in any way. RIP Doug, you are a legend.
dpq commented on A good measurement culture where numbers don’t replace common sense blog.promaton.com/how-to-... · Posted by u/atorok
Goodhart's Law: “when a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.”
It sounds like a profound wisdom and on a very surface level it does make sense, but think of this: if you can assess that a measure is a bad one, this means that you have your own intrinsic preferences, otherwise you wouldn't be able to tell that!
Therefore, if you are unhappy with a measure, it means solely that it doesn't capture all of your preferences properly. Which is a technical problem rather than a philosophical one.
dpq commented on Feynman Lectures on Physics (1964) feynmanlectures.caltech.e... · Posted by u/sethbannon
What sets physics apart from the other physical sciences that there are no "X Lectures on Chemistry" or "Y Lectures on Biology"? Surely if there was a will, there would be a way. Genuine question. Feynman's work may not be the be-all, end-all of physics, but it covers every base. Would it be possible to do that for other fields?
I would recommend Eric Lander's introduction to biology course at MITx as the perfect counter-example. It is about as good as Feynman's lectures, whether one chooses to refer to it as "Lander's lectures".
> As particles from the sun hit the atmosphere, they excite the atoms in the air. These excited atoms start to glow, creating brilliant displays of light called auroras.
The process is a bit more nuanced than that. The modern mainstream understanding is that the growing pressure of the solar wind makes the tail of the magnetosphere "contract" (sort of pushing it inwards from the sides), which leads to reconnection of magnetic field lines. Once the reconnection occurs, the magnetic field lines that remain bound to the geomagnetic dipole accelerate the particles on them towards the Earth => they slam into the atmosphere, exciting the atoms and generating the aurora.