Viewing profile — thaumasiotes

> But even the first agricultural revolution had a lot of people moving out of the country and to the cities because they could no longer work on the land. The first agricultural r…

> I mostly agree, except for the Messiah part. What do you think people are talking about when they refer to "the singularity"?

Note that Perseus considers itself end-of-life; there is an analogous project that's supposed to have succeeded it, but I don't remember what project that is.

What was stopping the British from taking their pelts directly across the Pacific? It can't have been American control of the region if this is the explanation for how America got …

> More abundance per person does seem generally better (albeit there's eventually diminishing marginal utility), but that's not the same thing as society as a whole producing more …

I know that. They define an additional dimension to the tabs. Most dimensions aren't spatial.

> What happens if you put all your browser tabs in two dimensions? > Answer: you get a mess. > That's why browsers weren't built like that But people frequently go out of their way…

> LLM translation is shit but it's borderline free I don't think this is true. LLM translation will generally satisfy the core goals of (1) communicating the information that's pre…

Huh. This article is about the issue of picking which translation of a word to use according to what the word means in context... a task that LLMs should ace. I was hoping this was…

I probably wouldn't try to adjust for both of those at once. You could ask whether inflation-adjusted revenue is up, you could ask whether per capita ticket sales are up, but I don…

> For each of those films, at least one company was and is earning $$$, but the talent doesn't get to make a revenue sharing deal with those companies. That doesn't sound right. Tr…

I don't really understand what you're trying to measure. I can make some comments about different things you might mean: --- 1 --- Say you are presented with a politician's speech …

> If you have a document in front of you, would you rather have to look up every word in a dictionary, or only every other word? I've been in this situation. There's no real differ…

Yes, but that was a process of over a year that involved being repeatedly presented with real-life scenarios accompanied by verbal descriptions. If you were to just listen to all t…

> This is like pointing at the monitor of a desktop computer and saying, "that's the computer". Referring to an atom feed as an "RSS feed" is exactly equivalent to bringing Hydrox …

Yes, obviously it will.

> To extend the metaphor though. An RSS reader that works with atom is the same as a VHS player that also has a beta max player. An RSS reader that works with atom is the same as a…

> While if you are living somewhere, it's really important to know a lot of basic supermarket items that you wouldn't prioritize for other usages. Why? Having spent a good amount o…

What? Not at all. RSS is a product category. Many RSS feeds are, if you look into them, Atom. Your RSS reader just doesn't bother to tell you, because why would you care? Try putti…

> It takes 600 to 3,000 years for 6 inches of topsoil to develop naturally, as it generally requires 100 to 500 years to form just a single inch. I very much doubt those statements…

> (There is a reason it is common to drop the century when talking about years, Yep. > humans are less skilled at numbers over 100) No, the reason is that the century is constant a…

Was the question more about ability to hunt, or ability to chew?

Conservation is basically defined as being unused by humans.

> These sabre toots seem to get in the way of feeding and chewing. Why? They don't stop the mouth from closing. Presumably they don't stop it from opening either. Compare walruses,…

> Imagine being an author and paying to publish your novel. That is... completely normal. > Also btw the editor is another author but has to proofread your book for free. That woul…