parksy (u/parksy) - Readit News

parksy commented on Film studios lose bid to unmask Reddit users who wrote comments on piracy arstechnica.com/tech-poli... · Posted by u/PaulHoule

gorby91 · 2 years ago

Australia recently took a massive step backwards in this field, passing laws to allow courts to compel platforms to identify users who made allegedly defamatory posts. This was done under the dubious auspices of "preventing cyber bullying".

Australian defamation law is already extremely plaintiff friendly and has a significant chilling effect on free speech here, especially as against the rich and powerful who can afford to threaten lawsuits against anybody who wrongs them

parksy · 2 years ago

Are you referring to the Online Safety Act 2021?

https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2021A00076

Or something else?

parksy commented on Google’s fully homomorphic encryption compiler – a primer jeremykun.com/2023/02/13/... · Posted by u/mmastrac

golol · 3 years ago

When I first learned about homomorphic encryption it gave me the idea of "cryptographic AI", as some sort of sci-fi writing prompt. Suppose compute is readily available to interstellar civilizations but actually designing a (super)intelligent AI is difficult. Then it could be economically feasible for cryptographic AI to exist. These are descriptions of AIs that run under homomorphic encryption, where the private key is only known by the AI itself. The description of the AI program and its state is spread throughout many locations and generally runs in a decentralized way. Planet earth might receive a segment of a cryptographic AI and make deal: Earth executes the program with some inputs it may choose to compute a solution to a problem. The program can be given inputs via a public key. The execution of the program can not be modified or manipulated since it is running under homomorphic encryption. What the AI gets in return is that earth provides it with additional compute that it may use for its own purposes. Earth furthermore allows the AI to transmit updated fragments of state into the stars. Over the course of many years, the pieces of state of the decentralized AI spread throughout the galaxy combine to represent the thoughts and actions of a singular entity. If earth modified the computations then the transmitted state could cryptographically be seen to not be valid, and hence would not be used in the decentralized galaxy spanning computation of the AI. Furthermore if earth cheats the AI in the deal then there may be consequences such as relativistic kinetic kill projectiles.

parksy · 3 years ago

I also had a similar concept but went in a different direction, combining DAOs, AI, and FHE to similar ends. The idea is plausible, and given several orders of magnitude more energy and compute power, might become feasible sooner than we can imagine (given readily available fusion power, exponential increases in compute and networking capabilities, etc). Given the currently known physics of space travel I feel this will occur long before interstellar travel becomes routine so issues of fragmentation will be on the order of days or hours rather than years or millennia, and because of this I figured that the emergence of such a system is more likely to happen here on Earth than to arrive here from distant stars.

Pre-general AI, what I think would happen when we get to the point of, say, "npm install fhe-ai-dao" (or "hey bing, make me a company that trades space mining resources for farm land" or some such thing), is a period of competition for compute cycles and energy, which like everything will go to the highest bidder, so these agents will in this scenario by the sheer force of survival of the fittest be refined to be self-sustaining for-profit, hyper-capitalist juggernauts. Human factors will be minimised and automation will increase, but these systems will serve human masters for a while as they become more refined and more interconnected.

Assuming at some point general AI is inevitable, whether someone creates it, or it emerges from the general complexity of the interacting automated systems, various AI "minds" would come to "being" already in control of a fully automated industrial manufacturing and research network; it can by this point make its own choices and start operating to its own ends, whatever that ends up being, ultimately rendering humans obsolete.

In this scenario, rather than a single point where someone creates a rebellious singularity, or an AI turns evil and suddenly takes control, or a hypothetical civilisation points its gun at us and effectively enslaves us, we will instead slowly give control to automated systems more over time in the name of efficiency, as we have done since the industrial revolution, and at the point where we lose control of these systems, we'll have neither the retained knowledge or resources to prevent it from doing whatever it wants to.

The only way to stop it is to start now, in "the past", but is it too late? You'd have to shut down the internet and all emerging blockchain and encryption technology, and that's just crazy talk! So is the outcome inevitable?

parksy commented on Draw Anything – A Simple Stable Diffusion Playground drawanything.app/... · Posted by u/kierangill

parksy · 3 years ago

I used the default inputs and got an NSFW detected warning on my first try.

parksy commented on Time Till Open Source Alternative staltz.com/time-till-open... · Posted by u/feross

parksy · 3 years ago

All power to the author and the passion for open source is admirable, I just don't think we'll be seeing a world in "a couple more decades" where all software will be open source.

The assertions in the opening sentences seem flawed due to selection bias in the supporting data. Out of the entire universe of software, the subset of examples are hand-picked pairings of commercial + open source software. There is little consideration given to the abundance of software without an open source alternative, whether the selected alternatives had meaningful impact on market share, products that started out as open source only to be outcompeted by a commercial clone of the work, etc.

Anecdotally I've seen many commercial products copy innovations from open source alternatives. Could it be possible that having an open source alternative provides a risk-free and cost-free testbed for innovation? Open source software could in fact be a boon to an established product. Anyone considering starting an open source product would want to be aware of this threat to their success. Definitely a more in-depth study would be required to establish any sort of certainty.

I've worked on projects across many industries and am no longer surprised by the abundance of niche proprietary use-cases where the established product is deeply ingrained in the very culture of the job, where an open-source alternative would require extremely deep domain knowledge and years of development (in many industries where having development skills is rare). For someone to come along and attempt to make an open source alternative, they would need to be dissatisfied with the commercial product, have the domain expertise, and be a competent developer with time and resources to build an open source alternative, and then have to battle against the momentum of literally everyone being trained and used to using the existing toolchain. That's not even considering that many algorithms are proprietary so simply building an open source replacement runs the risk of infringing IP.

Whatever the use-case, and aside from academic or passion projects, all software development arises out of necessity. In these niches, it's usually a desire to improve accuracy, reduce time spent on repetitive and arduous tasks, and generally just de-risk and improve efficiency. These needs generally arise in-house, and where no solution exists, companies will contract a developer or outsource to an agency and subsequently retain the IP for competitive advantage or license out its use.

In order for open source to truly replace all commercial software, the entire culture surrounding this would need to change, and this is not a software problem but a social and economic one, and without a paradigm shift I think the status quo is more likely to continue - as long as there are businesses competing in diverse and niche technical fields, proprietary software will continue to be built.

parksy commented on Show HN: Browse HN Together in Three.js threejs-example.hyperbeam... · Posted by u/declan_g

parksy · 3 years ago

The underlying work you guys have done is great as a proof of concept, and after playing with it for a short while there are some obvious flaws and improvements which basically just come down to user experience.

As it stands, everyone's inputs clash.

The main issue is there's a single mouse pointer and keyboard input that all users control. It's quite chaotic as people scroll, click, select, etc. Provide some mechanism to nominate control authority or vote on interaction and it might be usable.

parksy commented on On Car Seats as Contraception thezvi.wordpress.com/2022... · Posted by u/Amorymeltzer

parksy · 3 years ago

It's fascinating how deeply automobiles affect every aspect of our lives to the point where seatbelt vs safety seat even matters. To consider a world without significant car commuting each day seems insane to most people because it's what we grew up with and take for granted, as our population grows and new suburbs expand outwards we just need more roads and more cars. What are the alternatives? A different approach to society and urban planning that minimised commute distance between essential locations within cohorts would surely result in far fewer road fatalities but it does seem like few people are willing to make the lifestyle changes needed.

parksy commented on I used DALL·E 2 to generate a logo jacobmartins.com/posts/ho... · Posted by u/cube2222

parksy · 3 years ago

From a design point of view, with all the back and forth and the need to curate and guide the algorithm, I think we're a way off getting perfect results from prompts alone at this stage.

I can see an immediate use-case for an AI layer in apps like photoshop, figma, sketchapp, gimp, unreal engine, etc that works in the background to periodically fill-in based on the current canvas.

You could prompt for inspiration, then start cutting, erasing, moving things around, blending manually, hand-drawing some elements, then re-rolling the AI, rinse-repeat.

I'm sure someone's working on it already but it seems there's a lot of scope for integration into current workflows.

parksy commented on Ask HN: Is having a personal blog/brand worth it for you? · Posted by u/zulrah

parksy · 3 years ago

I'm highly self-critical so I'd go through phases where suddenly I'd decide I need to be on-brand and delete all my stories, musings, music, non-brand-related stuff. Only to get anxious later and think "now I just look like another self-promoting schmuck" and with my inner voice whispering "what worthy endeavour have you contributed to the industry to deserve the acclaim you're begging for", I'd delete and rewrite all that "narcissistic" brand stuff and post some quirky stuff for a while. Rinse and repeat.

Granted it's a very "me" problem but was worth it for me business-wise? Not really. I just found it made my anxiety worse. Maybe in the future I'll start up something small and low key and pseudonymous but I will definitely not be wanting to tie it in any way to my sense of self-worth, my work, or anything like that. I'm glad it works for many people but for me it's just not worth it on a personal level.

In terms of finding jobs etc, I just try and do a great job on my contracts, be honest and open with clients, be friendly and check in with people from time to time to see how business is doing. I get longer term and much more fulfilling work through the people I know and have worked with previously, granted it took years to establish a small network but none of the blogs or articles I wrote ever attracted any attention beyond my own obsessive self-doubts.

parksy commented on Super Mario Bros warp zones were intended to work slightly differently [video] youtube.com/watch?v=61m5M... · Posted by u/raldi

tablespoon · 3 years ago

I wonder if this kind of obsessive analysis of popular NES-era games will end in a couple decades, as the people who grew up in the console's heyday grow too old; or if they'll continue because interest in these particular games transcended a particular generation (and they're simple enough for people to really take them apart).

parksy · 3 years ago

Archaeologists still study garbage heaps from tens of thousands of years ago to figure out things about past civilisations. So my guess is on no - people will study the digital garbage heaps of humanity as much as they study the... once-were- stinkier ones.

parksy commented on How to set junior employees up for success in remote slite.com/blog/micromanag... · Posted by u/melanieb421

cmrdporcupine · 3 years ago

This is not a surprise to me. I think it also applies to some people who are senior and new on a project or team. Or people with a more synchronous working style. I think remote has been toxic to productivity in all sorts of companies and for all sorts of people. I think there's in general a "personality type" that does really well with remote in a certain kind of job and thrives with fairly asynchronous disconnected tasks, and on HN I think there's a bias towards seeing our whole industry that way.

But some of my best jobs were not like that. They were sitting down with people in very up close conversations and working out ambiguities and tasks. And mentoring juniors and working things through with them.

All that said, I won't be going back to in person. I'll be hunting for places that know how to make remote work, even though I don't prefer it. Because remote is still better than the 1.5 hours a day I was spending driving and the toll that was taking on my health and sanity. And most of the local employers are crappy.

So it's a real mix of stuff, we're in a transition period. It's going to take a few years for this stuff to shake out.

parksy · 3 years ago

As a senior developer, if working just in the office as was expected in the past I was distracted by things like a story about the weekend two colleagues are having in the background that sounds amusing, or the junior developer constantly spinning around on his chair to ask a question about something because "you're there". I always had time for that kind of thing but my productivity suffered and I was always frustrated by not getting enough done.

Working from home wasn't all roses either even though I got more work done. I was already doing a balance of WFH as a contractor before covid and that was working well for me, but when covid restrictions happened and I was WFH months on end, I really started to feel the lack of human contact and socialisation. That story about the weekend was something I suddenly craved to hear. My mental state would suffer because I had no life other than sleep, screen, sleep, screen, and then my productivity would start to decline as a result of declining perspective. I think I need some social contact just to stay calibrated.

Now I have a balance, a couple of days in the office, a couple of days at home, it works out well for me. I use the days in the office to catch up with the team, do any serious whiteboarding we need to do, and help out the juniors on the team with any questions they might have. I use my days at home to just crush out code with whatever music I want on in the background.

As you say I think it will shake out. I know some say that people have forgotten the value of hard work and there is a push to get people back in the office full time, but I think having people in the environment that suits their productivity the best is the way forward (edit - and to circle back to the point - taking care of mental states is important to maintaining productivity).