mountainriver

joined 2 years ago
[–] mountainriver@awful.systems 11 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

I have written observations on how I see the nonsense crest peaking. Just the other day a collegue remarked that they had been at a conference and it was less AI than last year.

Today, however, I was at an audio / video trade show. I don't usually go to such, but it could be a good opportuinty to update on what is availble, and was close by, it was free and you got a free lunch. There was some interesting stuff in the monters, Yealink had some new stuff for conference rooms. Then just before lunch everyone headed to the key note adress. And it was horrible. It was a CEO who bragged how he had got ahead in life thanks to his "entrepreneurial mindset", though I would more say he bragged about bullshitting his way through life. And then it got worse when he got into AI. He quoted AIs answer on why AI acted in certain ways ("Just ask it!"), he claimed AI would cause at least 5 "penicillin-events" in the next 10 years, raising life spans to 180 and wiping out disease. At this time I just stood up and left, and skipped the free lunch.

It had just been 15 minutes out of an hour, and while he hadn't touched the topics of audio or video, he had established that nothing he would say about that could be trusted, which means it wouldn't matter what he said about their actual products. No great surprise that a bullshit artist likes the bullshit machine, I am a little surprised more people didn't leave, but then again social norms and free lunch.

[–] mountainriver@awful.systems 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I think this is correct.

Nokia managed to push Ericsson out of their dominant position because Nokia were more of a consumer products company, including consumer electronics. But because Nokia did phones as consumer electronics, they didn't think about them in terms of a platform and had a poor position to compete with smart phones. Their best bet would probably have been to make hardware that ran Android, and at the time I was a bit surprised that they didn't. Their hardware reputation was stellar.

Elop's and Microsoft's actions were still scummy, though from Nokia's perspective they sold a failing part of their business for billions. Microsoft of course continued to run the phone sales into the ground.

[–] mountainriver@awful.systems 12 points 1 month ago

the game memorizes these moments, what you say, how they react, and creates story arcs based on it

LLMs famously can't be consistent, so your fantasy game would have story arcs that doesn't fit together, brings back characters that are already dead as if nothing happened, and everyone would have a son named Dorian.

[–] mountainriver@awful.systems 2 points 1 month ago

Throwing rocks into an increasing pile and after each throw burning offerings to evaluate how much closer we are getting to having a cathedral.

Possibly the worst way of building a cathedral, except it doesn't really qualify as "building a cathedral". Some workmen may take the pile of rocks and build an actual cathedral, but that doesn't mean that the step of throwing rocks was necessary or desirable.

[–] mountainriver@awful.systems 5 points 1 month ago

Good point.

Heinlein is a bit tricky because on one hand he clearly has a Point of View, but on the other he tends to reuse material, which includes prodding at earlier systems until they get sufficiently dystopian to demand a strong Individualist Man to step up. Don't know if he set that up on purpose or if it was a consequence and set up things, or just the need to churn out new books. Sometimes I got the feeling that he tried ideas on for size.

[–] mountainriver@awful.systems 3 points 1 month ago

Oh no, the AIs are replacing us!

[–] mountainriver@awful.systems 8 points 1 month ago (2 children)

I didn't know that uwu news influencer was a thing. Kind of a clash between style and topic there, but hey whatever gets the word out.

[–] mountainriver@awful.systems 9 points 1 month ago (2 children)

I think he means "mass sterilisation of a population" Vs "mass murder of the same population", which is genocide either way, and then he would opt for the faster method.

Or something. Feels extra creepy discussing which genocide is better with the ongoing genocide in Gaza.

[–] mountainriver@awful.systems 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I know you mean sovereign citizens, but reading "sovcit" my first thought goes to Eastmeg One (and my second thought goes to Eastmeg Two, obviously).

[–] mountainriver@awful.systems 5 points 1 month ago

Sounds like getting a professional to file it (at least the first time) will in the end cost less.

But congratulations on the move!

[–] mountainriver@awful.systems 5 points 1 month ago

So now I won't have to search for places to buy my rocks when Google tells me to eat rocks? Now it can just tell me that Bedrock Gravel and Quarry has all the stones for a balanced diet.

[–] mountainriver@awful.systems 12 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Overheard my kids, one of them had some group project in school and the other asked who they had ended up in group with. After hearing the names, the reaction was "they are good, none of them will use AI".

So as always kids that actually does something in group projects doesn't want to end up in a group with kids that won't contribute. Difference is just that instead of just slacking off and doing nothing they will today "contribute" AI slop. And as always the main lesson from group projects in school is avoid ending up in a group with slackers.

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