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taurath commented on Why are there so many rationalist cults?   asteriskmag.com/issues/11... · Posted by u/glenstein
Jtsummers · 11 days ago
> Many of them also expect that, without heroic effort, AGI development will lead to human extinction.

> These beliefs can make it difficult to care about much of anything else: what good is it to be a nurse or a notary or a novelist, if humanity is about to go extinct?

Replace AGI causing extinction with the Rapture and you get a lot of US Christian fundamentalists. They often reject addressing problems in the environment, economy, society, etc. because the Rapture will happen any moment now. Some people just end up stuck in a belief about something catastrophic (in the case of the Rapture, catastrophic for those left behind but not those raptured) and they can't get it out of their head. For individuals who've dealt with anxiety disorder, catastrophizing is something you learn to deal with (and hopefully stop doing), but these folks find a community that reinforces the belief about the pending catastrophe(s) and so they never get out of the doom loop.

taurath · 11 days ago
Raised to huddle close and expect the imminent utter demise of the earth and being dragged to the depths of hell if I so much as said a bad word I heard on TV, I have to keep an extremely tight handle on my anxiety in this day and age.

It’s not from a rational basis, but from being bombarded with fear from every rectangle in my house, and the houses of my entire community

taurath commented on Phenome-wide analysis of diseases in relation to sleep traits   spj.science.org/doi/10.34... · Posted by u/alex77456
searine · 25 days ago
Lately I've just been posting who is funding studies posted on HN. Usually taxpayers via government foundations/institutes.

A lot of people on HN seem unaware of how innovative research is paid for and are even cheering the cuts in the US. China certainly isn't cutting research.

taurath · 25 days ago
Cheers, understood. I think I assumed it was to call into question the results of the study. The US is definitely ceding the intellectual and international diplomacy realm to china
taurath commented on Study mode   openai.com/index/chatgpt-... · Posted by u/meetpateltech
taurath · 25 days ago
Its pretty awfully telling the state of things that this is a Product - not an expansion of base capability. You can do this with any LLM with simple bounds on the prompts.

> Under the hood, study mode is powered by custom system instructions we’ve written in collaboration with teachers, scientists, and pedagogy experts to reflect a core set of behaviors that support deeper learning including: encouraging active participation, managing cognitive load, proactively developing metacognition and self reflection, fostering curiosity, and providing actionable and supportive feedback.

I'm calling bullshit, show me the experts, I want to see that any qualified humans actually participated in this. I think they did their "collaboration" in ChatGPT which spit out this list.

taurath commented on Phenome-wide analysis of diseases in relation to sleep traits   spj.science.org/doi/10.34... · Posted by u/alex77456
searine · 25 days ago
Supported by the National Key R&D Program of China, the National Natural Science Foundation of China, and the Beijing Municipal Health Development Research Fund.
taurath · 25 days ago
Please explain the subtext you're trying to say by mentioning that
taurath commented on Visa and Mastercard are getting overwhelmed by gamer fury over censorship   polygon.com/news/616835/v... · Posted by u/mrzool
arcfour · a month ago
The payment provider has the right to refuse service to anyone for any reason, being forced to do business with someone is the same thing as compelling someone to speak (or not speak).

Two wrongs don't make a right.

taurath · a month ago
The payment provider does not have that right, in fact.
taurath commented on Danish Study: No link between vaccines and autism or other health conditions   en.ssi.dk/news/news/2025/... · Posted by u/healsdata
rany_ · a month ago
This is exactly why the whole "vaccine causes autism" got started. We need to improve science literacy before we could say things like that to the general public.

When a layperson hears this, they'll think that there's a small but possible chance that vaccines do cause autism; when what the scientist means to say is that "it's highly unlikely that vaccines cause autism."

taurath · a month ago
I think it’s okay to mean what you say. Part of improving literacy is also respecting the intelligence of your audience and not talking down to them. Treating everyone like buffoons makes people act like them - treating them as beings capable of thought and reason tends to show the better side.
taurath commented on US AI Action Plan   ai.gov/action-plan... · Posted by u/joelburget
softwaredoug · a month ago
Obviously AI is a massive and important area for economic growth. But so is clean energy. And both right now are at an inflection point.

It seems the US is going to thrive with the former but naively stick our heads in the sands with the latter.

We’ll cede economic leadership, and wonder in 20 years what happened as other countries lead in energy. Even worse, the administrations stance will encourage US energy companies to pursue bad strategies, letting them avoid transforming their business. In 10-20 years they'll be bankrupt and the US will probably have to bail them out for strategic reasons.

taurath · a month ago
The US is not naively sticking our heads in the sand, our leadership is making direct choices to make sure that they rule over the ashes rather than let a future happen where they have less power.
taurath commented on AI overviews cause massive drop in search clicks   arstechnica.com/ai/2025/0... · Posted by u/jonbaer
jordanb · a month ago
Google could have cut down on this if they wanted. And in general they did until they fired Matt Cutts.

The reality is, every time someone's search is satisfied by an organic result is lost revenue for Google.

taurath · a month ago
Which is the stupidest position ever if Google wants to exist long term.

Unfortunately there are no workable alternatives. DDG is somehow not better, though I use it to avoid trackers.

taurath commented on What can I do differently to find employment?    · Posted by u/javajosh
taurath · a month ago
I just finished a multi-year career break and was able to navigate the market and land 2 offers - every company is dealing with a massive deluge of fake applicants. The front door is poisoned right now - do not funnel your job search through it.

You need to prove you're a real person now - the first way is to get a referral from someone you worked with in the past. Literally anyone - if you're not reaching out to everyone at any company that even may be hiring for a role you want, you should be.

Another way is to be posting somewhat regularly, having some online presence, showing your looking for work, are a person, and have a positive mindset.

Your resume should be tailored for the role, but not generated by AI (it'll get flagged) - spend less time messing with your resume though and more time networking. If you as you say have been in the industry 25 years, there absolutely will be someone who will give you referrals.

Companies are hiring, but the way you and I have gotten roles in the last decade+ is mostly shut.

taurath commented on The current hype around autonomous agents, and what actually works in production   utkarshkanwat.com/writing... · Posted by u/Dachande663
a_bonobo · a month ago
That's what Claude Code does - it constantly stops and asks you whether you want to proceed, including showing you the suggested changes before they're implemented. Helps with avoiding token waste and 'bad' work.
taurath · a month ago
Except when it decides it doesn’t need to do that anymore or forgets

u/taurath

KarmaCake day12271November 2, 2012
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