Need to let loose a primal scream without collecting footnotes first? Have a sneer percolating in your system but not enough time/energy to make a whole post about it? Go forth and be mid: Welcome to the Stubsack, your first port of call for learning fresh Awful you’ll near-instantly regret.

Any awful.systems sub may be subsneered in this subthread, techtakes or no.

If your sneer seems higher quality than you thought, feel free to cut’n’paste it into its own post — there’s no quota for posting and the bar really isn’t that high.

The post Xitter web has spawned soo many “esoteric” right wing freaks, but there’s no appropriate sneer-space for them. I’m talking redscare-ish, reality challenged “culture critics” who write about everything but understand nothing. I’m talking about reply-guys who make the same 6 tweets about the same 3 subjects. They’re inescapable at this point, yet I don’t see them mocked (as much as they should be)

Like, there was one dude a while back who insisted that women couldn’t be surgeons because they didn’t believe in the moon or in stars? I think each and every one of these guys is uniquely fucked up and if I can’t escape them, I would love to sneer at them.

    • Soyweiser@awful.systemsEnglish
      1·
      2 months ago

      This does suck for all the non-LLM ML stuff that has actual usage. (Even if a percentage of that was also snake oil, or had dubious success rates).

      • otherstew@awful.systemsEnglish
        1·
        2 months ago

        Ehh, if you’re calling your ML stuff AI then that’s on you (and you’re probably not technically serious about what you’re doing anyway). Other people are pointing out that AI isn’t a term that many compsci/software people would use, and neither the article (or afaict the study) or my experience suggest that ML has the same negative association as AI.

        • V0ldek@awful.systemsEnglish
          1·
          2 months ago

          AI has been and always will be the term for making the computer play a game against you. A search tree with some prunning is not ML, but if you use it to implement a chess bot then it is AI in the game sense.

          If you’re not doing video games then the term is essentially meaningless

    • Mii@awful.systemsEnglish
      1·
      2 months ago

      Well, history sure does fucking repeat itself again, doesn’t it?

      At its low point, some computer scientists and software engineers avoided the term artificial intelligence for fear of being viewed as wild-eyed dreamers. (New York Times, 2005, at the end of the last AI winter.)

      • BlueMonday1984@awful.systemsEnglish
        1·
        2 months ago

        At its low point, some computer scientists and software engineers avoided the term artificial intelligence for fear of being viewed as wild-eyed dreamers. (New York Times, 2005, at the end of the last AI winter.)

        I expect history to repeat itself quite soon - where previously using the term “artificial intelligence” got you looked at as a wild-eyed dreamer, now, using that term’s likely getting you looked at as an asshole techbro, and your research deemed a willing attempt to hurt others.

  • Soyweiser@awful.systemsEnglish
    1·
    2 months ago

    Rumor, but lol if true “A former coworker worked in campaigns for a while and the thing he told me about doing that which has stuck with me is that everyone on campaigns is doing insider trading on betting markets” Source. Campaigners making money scamming Rationalists basically.

  • Architeuthis@awful.systemsEnglish
    1·
    2 months ago

    Here’s a quick and dirty vanilla js script that highlights all posts in a thread according to how recent they are, the brighter the newer, and alse separately highlights new posts, to make long running threads easier to follow. I’m posting it in the stubsack because it’s the thread I had in mind when writing it.

    Pasting it in the browser’s console and pressing enter should be enough for the page you have open, not that I’ve cross tested it any… Worst case scenario it does nothing or it colors the posts wrong and you just reload the page, I swear it won’t steal your crypto, or mine any new.

    In Firefox you can find the console by pressing F12 and selecting the console tab.

    edit: Also if you prepend javascript: to the code and store it as a bookmark you can just invoke it by calling the bookmark, like a macro, see https://awful.systems/comment/4173451

    Note: longer threads don’t load all comments at once, so you’ll have to rerun the script if you scroll down far enough.

    edit: fixed for Edge, because why wouldn’t it show dates differently there.

    edit: updated it to check if there’s a (xx New) notice in the post count in the OP and use the number to highlight the latest xx posts, i.e. all post made since the last time you were here. Change the value of variable newPostColor if you don’t like the lovely shade of lavender I picked. Depending on if edited posts are counted as new or not the count might be off, and like, what if there’s a new post that’s also been edited? Solving that seems to mean moving away from the warmth and comfort of the quick and dirty territory, and also is there a public philthy repository somewhere?

    edit: here’s how it looks in the SAP thread:

    edit: NEW: added some legibility changes and also consecutive executions now toggle old post highlights.

    Code now in spoiler:

    spoiler 
    (() => {
    function getHighlightedColor(min, max, value) {
        const percentage = (value - min) / (max - min);
        return `rgba(0,0,255,${percentage})`
    }

    const newPostCount = (() => {
        const text = document.querySelector("span.fst-italic").textContent;
        return text.includes("New") ? parseInt(text.match(/\d+/)[0]) : 0;
    })();
    const newPostColor = "#783AFF";

    const timestampNodes = [...document.querySelectorAll("span.moment-time")]
        .map(x => {
            return {
                Node: x,
                PostBox: x.closest('.ms-2'),
                Date: Date.parse(
                    x.dataset.tippyContent
                        .split('\n').at(-1)
                        .replace(/Modified |at /g, "")
                        .replace(/(?<=\d+)(st|nd|rd|th)/g, ""))
            };
        })
        .filter(x => x.PostBox != null)
        .sort((x1, x2) => x2.Date - x1.Date);

    const minDate = timestampNodes.at(-1).Date;
    const maxDate = timestampNodes.at(0).Date;
    const hl = (dt) => getHighlightedColor(minDate, maxDate, dt);

    timestampNodes
        .forEach((x, i) => {
            if (i < newPostCount) {
                x.PostBox.style.backgroundColor = newPostColor;
                x.PostBox.querySelector('.person-listing').style.textShadow = '1px 1px 0.75px #FFFFFF';
                x.PostBox.querySelector('.comment-content').style.paddingLeft = ".5em";
            }
            else if (x.PostBox.style.backgroundColor == "") {
                x.PostBox.style.backgroundColor = hl(x.Date);
                x.PostBox.querySelector('.comment-content').style.paddingLeft = ".5em";
            } else {
                x.PostBox.style.backgroundColor = "";
                x.PostBox.querySelector('.comment-content').style.paddingLeft = "";
            }
        });
})()
    • nfultz@awful.systemsEnglish
      1·
      2 months ago

      In the spirit of “worse is better”, here is a ublock filter I just threw together to highlight all the comments less than a day old:

      ! Jul 31, 2024 https://awful.systems
awful.systems##.comment article.comment-node :has-text("hours ago"):style(background-color:#7700AA)

      EDIT: fix bug with 1 hour and 20 minutes ago. regex is even worse is better.

      ! Jul 31, 2024 https://awful.systems
awful.systems##.comment article.comment-node :has-text(/(hour|minute)s? ago/):style(background-color:#7700AA)
    • hrrrngh@awful.systemsEnglish
      1·
      2 months ago

      This is really cool!

      I was just thinking it would be cool to have something like RES’s ‘Previously Read’ feature that only shows the new comments, and everything else is darkened or collapsed. This does a similar thing though and it’s great for these weekly threads

    • froztbyte@awful.systemsEnglish
      1·
      2 months ago

      other handy thing you can do: make a bookmark that has the URL be javascript:(function() { function bits go here} )();, and stick it in your bookmark bar

      • Architeuthis@awful.systemsEnglish
        1·
        2 months ago

        Yes, do this if your browser allows it, it’s way better. Just paste the code in the OP prepended by “javascript:” without quotes in place of the url and as far as i can tell it works.

        • froztbyte@awful.systemsEnglish
          1·
          2 months ago

          I only now saw how badly the syntax on my post is fucked, that’s what I get for trying to snip things in a dodgy textentry rather than a real editor 😅

          leaving it up for posterity tho.

    • skillissuer@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
      1·
      2 months ago

      wait wait wait wait this it not substack of some deranged fash techbro ghoul like balaji srinivasan, that’s JAMA, are you sure these are actual MDs and not three techbros in a stolen labcoat

      one of them - first author - has three fluff pieces on genai in similar tone to their name, the other two, it seems to me, didn’t wrote a thing about ai earlier

      then again scott siskind exists, but this is not something that i’d expect even from him

        • skillissuer@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
          1·
          2 months ago

          anything newer than 2022? won’t be on scihub, because scihub got in a court case in india, that they hope they can win and secure reasonably stable place where they can operate from

          tho it seems to me that the entire article is that three screens of text

    • mlen@awful.systemsEnglish
      1·
      2 months ago

      Ugh, just reading the summary made me want to puke. What the fuck is wrong with those people. Who the fuck thinks that delegating the responsibility to computers is a good idea. Can’t they cope with the outcomes of their choices and need to outsource that responsibility to some magick software

  • o7___o7@awful.systemsEnglish
    1·
    2 months ago

    This new trend of describing the American right wing as weirdos sure is something, isn’t it? What used to be our little hobby has escaped containment, largely due to the surfacing of JD Vance and his backers during the RNC. As recently as last month, when NRx and Rationalist oddballs came up in a news item, the response of the average reader would be to shrug and dismiss them as a small minority of sweaty nerds and assume that “regular” Republican politicians wouldn’t have anything to do with them. Things have changed; now there’s many an NPR-loving granny googling “what is a yarvin” and getting wound up about it in her group chats.

    We’ve all heard of the Overton Window, which according to Wikipedia is, “the range of policies politically acceptable to the mainstream population at a given time.” I therefore propose a new thing, the “Yarvin Window,” which we can define as “the range of insane policies that it is politically acceptable to ascribe to your ideological opponents.”

    This is the price they pay for grabbing the wrong end of the poo stick.

    • Soyweiser@awful.systemsEnglish
      1·
      2 months ago

      What amazes me, as a sort of US politics watcher from the outside, just how badly the various republicans weirdos are reacting to this. Esp Vance, posting his dolphin fucker stuff in the middle of the jokestorm about him being into furniture. But not just him, the GOP going ‘don’t be racist about Harris’ and then all the racists doubling down on their racism, etc etc. The weird lashouts re weirdness. “how dare you call me weird! Grabs calipers I can see from your skull shape that you are …”

  • saucerwizard@awful.systemsEnglish
    1·
    2 months ago

    The whole space scene really depresses me now. The Musk cult and TESCREAL and more overt ideologies (I’ve seen claimed old time L5 people throw around ‘spiteful mutant’ and other stuff). The whole thing just seems to be going nasty.

    Astronomy thankfully is still chill.

    • sc_griffith@awful.systemsEnglish
      1·
      2 months ago

      the ad alone should be a thread it’s the most insane thing I’ve seen in years

      the yt comments are brutal btw definitely check them out

    • self@awful.systemsEnglish
      1·
      2 months ago

      “It’s real! Premium domains are expensive, but it’s worth it,” Schiffman told me in an email after I reached out to ask if it was true.

      […]

      “People just don’t get consumer, I view this as saving money. Much less money needs to be spent on marketing, it’s a one time thing,” Schiffmann said.

      there’s an entire type of startup guy embodied by Schiffmann, and I can’t be the only one who’s met this type more than once

      The company advertises the device as “always listening” when connected to bluetooth. “When connected via bluetooth, your friend is always listening and forming their own internal thoughts. We have given your friend free will for when they decide to reach out to you.”

      presented without comment

  • o7___o7@awful.systemsEnglish
    1·
    2 months ago

    Riffing on this fun subthread:

    • Will AI invent the Philosopher’s Stone?
    • Can AI duck the Zuck?
    • WIll AI divide by zero?
    • Can AI give you diarrhea?
    • Will AI make “fetch” happen?
    • Will AI have a second helping?
    • Does AI unlock the secret to making the Moon happy again?
    • Can AI stop eating after only one marshmallow?
    • YourNetworkIsHaunted@awful.systemsEnglish
      1·
      2 months ago

      You know, I feel like it’s only a matter of time before someone in the overlapping griftoverse tries their hand at immanentizing the eschaton by creating their own second coming - the MessAIah.

      • o7___o7@awful.systemsEnglish
        1·
        2 months ago
        • Will AI die for our sins?
        • Will AI break the Wheel?
        • WIll AI serve the Antichrist?
        • Will AI accept acausal trade bribes from Freeman Dyson so that he was right after all?
        • V0ldek@awful.systemsEnglish
          1·
          2 months ago

          I’d much rather have a technology that allows some specific people to keep their shit inside, without spilling it for all of us to see. @TheBigYud

    • cornflake@awful.systemsEnglish
      1·
      2 months ago

      Tangent: I had assumed nitter was dead and buried by now, glad to see there are still some functioning mirrors. I’ve found it impossible to share threads without.

      • earthquake@lemm.eeEnglish
        1·
        2 months ago

        https://status.d420.de/ there’s a few nitters post-rebirth, all of them probably using a fleet of real accounts and anti-bot protection instead of the guest accounts that first-age nitter used.

    • YourNetworkIsHaunted@awful.systemsEnglish
      1·
      2 months ago

      The proud tradition of “no really, Trump isn’t that bad if you pretend he’s a normal libertarian who happens to be an asshole instead of listening to the words that come out of his mouth”

    • Sailor Sega Saturn@awful.systemsEnglish
      1·
      2 months ago

      Matt Yglesias argued that “Different Places Have Different Safety Rules and That’s OK” following the deadly collapse of a garment factory in Bangladesh. And yet his arguments were perfectly correct, if maybe a bit “too soon.”

      Jesus.

      Roe v. Wade cannot be overturned twice

      Where are your Bayesian priors now, asshole?

      Siri, how can I unread a post?

      Also look at this dude in the replies advocating for mask-off right-wing sexist / racist / fascist EA: https://x.com/diegocaleiro/status/1729715617945788773 … if you dare 😱

    • gerikson@awful.systemsEnglish
      1·
      2 months ago

      Realistically, most EAs will vote for the white male over the non-white female anyway, but it’s on-brand for them to post a giant substack with reasons why.

    • o7___o7@awful.systemsEnglish
      1·
      2 months ago

      So many fully-cooked brains in that thread.

      BTW, ever notice how easy it is to replace “robot overlords” in TESCREAL stuff with literally anything else? Compare this gem from the linked thread, “The Authoritarian Peril”:

      https://nitter.poast.org/pic/orig/media%2FGUAQszqWkAAGFRb.jpg

      with this version where Tolkein stuff is seamlessly swapped in for evil sentient gaming rigs with no loss of generality:

      A dictator who wields the power of the One Ring would command concentrated power unlike any we’ve ever seen. In addition to being able to impose their will on other countries, they could enshrine their rule internally. Millions of orcs could police their populace; mass surveillance would be hypercharged; dictator-loyal Ring Wraiths could individually assess every citizen for dissent, with advanced near-perfect lie detection rooting out any disloyalty. Most importantly, the orcish military and police force could be wholly controlled by a single political leader, and programmed to be perfectly obedient—no more risk of coups or popular rebellions. Whereas past dictatorships were never permanent, Isildur’s Bane could eliminate basically all historical threats to a dictator’s rule and lock in their power (cf value lock-in). If the CCP gets this power, they could enforce the Party’s conception of “truth” totally and completely.

      • V0ldek@awful.systemsEnglish
        1·
        2 months ago

        with advanced near-perfect lie detection

        how the fuck would that work mate, just give me a glimpse of your notes on how a legendarily useless and unworkable forensic technique would become “near-perfect” with GPUs.

        • o7___o7@awful.systemsEnglish
          1·
          2 months ago

          Ya know, it’s funny that you point this out, it’s a thing about their style of argument that’s been nagging at me for a while.

          There’s a pattern in the promptfondlers’ propaganda where they claim that they they’ve identified a path to improve their technology recursively and infinitely, but their strategy relies on the invention of what is essentially a “truth oracle” in the compsci sense of the word “oracle.” If they had a machine that could reliably decide the truth value of an arbitrary proposition, then they could foof us all to roboheaven ASAP.

          I guess that’s true, since anyone could use a truth oracle to implement a binary search on The Akashic Records or whatever to discover new useful truths about life, the universe, and everything. Any new route of investigation would end in a game of 20 questions with your infinite knowledge genie.

          Naturally, LLMs are never going to be a truth oracle; you just can’t get there from here, but try telling them that.

          • V0ldek@awful.systemsEnglish
            1·
            2 months ago

            If they had a machine that could reliably decide the truth value of an arbitrary proposition, then they could foof us all to roboheaven ASAP.

            Damn bro, they’re gonna hate this Turing fellow once they learn he crushed their dreams OVER SEVEN EIGHT DECADES AGO

            EDIT: someone pointed out I suck at arithmetic

    • imadabouzu@awful.systemsEnglish
      1·
      2 months ago

      It’s the same story as has ever been. “Smart People”'s position on anything is often informed by their current economic relationship wrt to the things they care about. And maybe even Yud isn’t super happy about his profession being co-opted. What scraps will he have if his own delusions became true about GPT zombies replacing “authentic voices”?

      No one is immune to seeing a better take when it’s their shit on the line, and no is immune from being in a bubble without stake.

      • YourNetworkIsHaunted@awful.systemsEnglish
        1·
        2 months ago

        I’ve read enough of the Yudster’s work to recognize that he is particularly vulnerable to being replaced by a small shell script that outputs a massive volume of text that says very little of substance, and what little there is is weirdly racist.

        • Soyweiser@awful.systemsEnglish
          1·
          2 months ago

          You are mistaken in my reasoning, I’m saying a person with a well paid university position (which gives him access to money and the university library, which I assume pays for access to their books/papers and doesn’t libgen or equivs them) should understand that a lot of training material is indeed not free. This being in addition to the university paying him for his own research, and him prob being pretty annoyed if he was replaced with an iSandberg bot and now was homeless. (This is in addition to what Yud said).

          Turns out making papers about replacing the earth with fruit is something Anders-GPT can do perfectly well on its own.

          • froztbyte@awful.systemsEnglish
            1·
            2 months ago

            which I assume pays for access to their books/papers and doesn’t libgen or equivs them

            wrong assumption tbh. the open-access fight is happening because the publisher cartels are extortionate and access is extremely uneven. I (personally/directly) know more than a few people presently in academia who roll libgen on a daily basis because it is easier/quicker/the only option/the only actually working option for the things they need

            • Soyweiser@awful.systemsEnglish
              1·
              2 months ago

              Fair enough, my bad. No idea it had gotten that bad. But still, I wasn’t intending to rag on libgen, just his idea that these things (which also includes education) are free already.

              • froztbyte@awful.systemsEnglish
                1·
                2 months ago

                if you want to get really mad, shibboleth “elsevier”. it’ll be a speedrun of learning some of the worst of what’s fucked atm

            • sc_griffith@awful.systemsEnglish
              1·
              2 months ago

              it’s often easier to pirate the published version of your own paper than to access it by official means