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ramblejam commented on The case against conversational interfaces   julian.digital/2025/03/27... · Posted by u/nnx
shubhamjain · 5 months ago
I had the same thoughts on conversational interfaces [1]. Humane AI failed not only because of terrible execution, the whole assumption of voice being a superior interface (and trying to invent something beyond smartphones) was flawed.

> Theoretically, saying, “order an Uber to airport” seems like the easiest way to accomplish the task. But is it? What kind of Uber? UberXL, UberGo? There’s a 1.5x surge pricing. Acceptable? Is the pickup point correct? What would be easier, resolving each of those queries through a computer asking questions, or taking a quick look yourself on the app?

> Another example is food ordering. What would you prefer, going through the menu from tens of restaurants yourself or constantly nudging the AI for the desired option? Technological improvement can only help so much here since users themselves don’t clearly know what they want.

[1]: https://shubhamjain.co/2024/04/16/voice-is-bad-ui/

ramblejam · 5 months ago
> since users themselves don’t clearly know what they want.

Knowing what you want is, sadly, computationally irreducible.

ramblejam commented on When imperfect systems are good: Bluesky's lossy timelines   jazco.dev/2025/02/19/impe... · Posted by u/cyndunlop
ramblejam · 6 months ago
Nice problem to have, though. Over on Nostr they're finding it a real struggle to get to the point where you're confident you won't miss replies to your own notes, let alone replies from other people in threads you haven't interacted with.

The current solution is for everyone to use the same few relays, which is basically a polite nod to Bluesky's architecture. The long-term solution is—well it involves a lot of relay hint dropping and a reliance on Japanese levels of acuity when it comes to picking up on hints (among clinets). But (a) it's proving extreme slow going and (b) it only aims to mitigate the "global as relates to me" problem.

ramblejam commented on When imperfect systems are good: Bluesky's lossy timelines   jazco.dev/2025/02/19/impe... · Posted by u/cyndunlop
NoGravitas · 6 months ago
The funny thing is that all of the centralization in Bluesky is defended as being necessary to provide things like global search and all replies in a thread, things that Mastodon simply punts on in the name of decentralization. But then ultimately, Bluesky has to relax those goals after all.
ramblejam · 6 months ago
True. In context though Bluesky can tweak the volume knob as and when they see fit, whereas for Mastodon it's stuck where it is.

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u/ramblejam

KarmaCake day6February 9, 2025View Original