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ysavir commented on AGI is an engineering problem, not a model training problem   vincirufus.com/posts/agi-... · Posted by u/vincirufus
tshaddox · a day ago
> We don't know if AGI is even possible outside of a biological construct yet. This is key.

A discovery that AGI is impossible in principle to implement in an electronic computer would require a major fundamental discovery in physics that answers the question “what is the brain doing in order to implement general intelligence?”

ysavir · a day ago
Seems the opposite way round to me. We couldn't conclusively say that AGI is possible in principle until some physics (or rather biology) discovery explains how it would be possible. Until then, anything we engineer is an approximation as best.
ysavir commented on AI-induced dehumanization (2024)   myscp.onlinelibrary.wiley... · Posted by u/walterbell
AlexandrB · 10 days ago
I can't tell if I'm just getting old, but the last 2 major tech cycles (cryptocurrency and AI) have both seemed like net negatives for society. I wonder if this is how my parents felt about the internet back in the 90s.

Interestingly, both technologies also supercharge scams - one by providing a way to cash out with minimal risk, the other by making convincing human interaction easier to fake.

ysavir · 10 days ago
A large part of it is that we maxed out a lot of how communication tech can impact daily life, at least in terms of communication, but economically and culturally got in the habit of looking for new and exciting improvements to daily life.

The 19th and 20th centuries saw a huge shift in communication. We went from snail mail to telegrams to radio to phones to television to internet on desktops to internet on every person wherever they are. Every 20-30 years some new tech made it easier, cheaper, and faster to get your message to an intended recipient. Each of these was a huge social shift in terms of interpersonal relationships, commerce, and diminishing cycle times, and we've grown to expect these booms and pivots.

But there isn't much of where to go past "can immediately send a message to anyone anywhere." It's effectively an endstate. We can no longer take existing communication services and innovate on them by merely offering that service using the new revolutionary tech. By tech sectors are still trying to recreate the past economic booms by pushing technologies that aren't as revolutionary or aren't as promising and hyping them up to get people thinking they're the next stage of the communication technology cycle.

ysavir commented on Streaming services are driving viewers back to piracy   theguardian.com/film/2025... · Posted by u/nemoniac
aceazzameen · 10 days ago
I'd argue Netflix productions started out almost as great as HBO, but quickly took a dive when they started pushing quantity over quality. Now finding a quality Netflix production is about once a year. Maybe that's the same rate as it use to be?
ysavir · 10 days ago
I agree that the quality went down, but I think it might be part of their strategy.

I think when they first started, they tried the HBO strategy of putting big money into big shows that try to win over broad audiences. But over time shifted to focusing on low budget shows that appeal to specific, smaller audiences. Which makes sense, if your goal isn't to have 70% of the total market as paying users but rather 90% of the market as paying users.

ysavir commented on Streaming services are driving viewers back to piracy   theguardian.com/film/2025... · Posted by u/nemoniac
at-fates-hands · 10 days ago
In the beginning, Netflix was great. Then they became a media company and suddenly EVERYTHING they push on you is THEIR stuff. Gone are the days where you could remember a cool movie and pull it up on Netflix like Fandango or Corvette Summer. I remember going back and watching several seasons of the original Miami Vice back when nobody knew who Michael Mann was.

Not its exactly as you say, you want to watch something but its not on any of the streaming services you're already paying for. I've started to just think of a movie I want to watch, go out to Pirate Bay, download it and then stream it. When I'm done? Delete it.

Its good to know I'm not the only one who has gone back to downloading movies.

ysavir · 10 days ago
My understanding is that this isn't Netflix's fault. They were king when they were the first major streaming service, and studios and networks were happy to get extra income from hosting their content on Netflix. But Netflix knew that any success it has would be mimicked by those same studios and networks, and that they would pull their own content to their own services as soon as they have them up and running, and so Netflix started making its own content in preparation for that day. And that bet paid off.
ysavir commented on Trump Just Militarized the Capital – What Comes Next?   onegex.com/trump-just-mil... · Posted by u/Vivaed
Bender · 12 days ago
What's your take on the article saying that D.C.'s crime rate is at a 30 year low?

I do not believe crime is accurately tracked [1]. Calling in the guard is not overreach when a city is demanding it through inaction.

[1] - https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/dc-police-commander...

ysavir · 12 days ago
Thanks for sharing the link, I hadn't seen that before! Very serious allegations there.

> Calling in the guard is not overreach when a city is demanding it through inaction.

Is the city calling for protection, though? There's a big difference between police departments fabricating data and a need for intervention, whether through taking control of the city police or bringing in the national guard. What's the actual situation? Why is the Trump administration militarizing the city instead of running statistics to get actual crime numbers?

ysavir commented on Trump Just Militarized the Capital – What Comes Next?   onegex.com/trump-just-mil... · Posted by u/Vivaed
ysavir · 12 days ago
What's your take on the article saying that D.C.'s crime rate is at a 30 year low? Do you feel that things in big cities are so bad that an overreach of powers is justified in an attempt to fix it?
ysavir commented on Let's get real about the one-person billion dollar company   marcrand.com/p/lets-get-r... · Posted by u/bizgrayson
preommr · 12 days ago
I am curious which of the following (if any) you would define as alone:

1) one person but they take VC funding

2) one person but they use open source solutions

3) one person but they live with their parents

4) one person that lives completely off of what they earned themselves previously, but they did get government funded student loans that let them make money in the first place.

ysavir · 12 days ago
Don't forget:

5) One person with a copper mine and a soldering gun.

ysavir commented on Return of wolves to Yellowstone has led to a surge in aspen trees   livescience.com/animals/l... · Posted by u/geox
bluGill · a month ago
> Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says, not a weaker one that's easier to criticize. Assume good faith.

regaurdless of what was intended your downvote and reply shows a lack of good faith.

ysavir · a month ago
It wasn't a criticism of what they were saying (a point on which I agree with that poster), but whether the comment itself was contributing to the discussion or not. It was a very low-effort comment that offered no reflection on what the parent said, doesn't tie into the original post, and lacks depth towards its own point.
ysavir commented on Return of wolves to Yellowstone has led to a surge in aspen trees   livescience.com/animals/l... · Posted by u/geox
hagbard_c · a month ago
It's incredible how much good we have done to ourselves in the past 250 years, and how much good we can do in the now and the future.
ysavir · a month ago
Downvoted as this comment feels like it's trying to be witty/upshowing the parent comment without actually engaging with it or offering anything of substance. If the comment was along the lines of "yes, but we've also done a lot of good, let's reflect on both", great. But that's not what it was. Instead it feels like a statement that's trying to argue with the parent comment despite the parent comment never saying we haven't done any good.
ysavir commented on AccuWeather to discontinue free access to Core Weather API   developer.accuweather.com... · Posted by u/TerribleTurnout
greenavocado · a month ago
I can see it already:

In other news, AccuWeather servers overwhelmed with requests after shutting down Weather API

ysavir · a month ago
Nah. We just need one source to scrape them and make the results available for others.

u/ysavir

KarmaCake day3513August 26, 2014
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