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Ask HN: What fields or technologies are you excited about?

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71–79 of 79 posts

Re: Ask HN: What fields or technologies are you excited about?

#71
post #15

I don't like playing prophet, so this is a very personal hunch: I believe we're at a social dead end. Whichever new trends we'll see in the next twenty years will come after some kind of mindset switch flipping. If that sounds too abstract: less safetyism. We could see new kind of vehicles, sports and space exploration.

>We could see new kind of vehicles, sports and space exploration.

So long as we ditch "safetyism" - OSHA, et al, have their place ... but they have become massive bureaucratic nightmares no one can fully "comply" with, and whose regulations are a confusing mishmash of contradictory 'advice'

Re: Ask HN: What fields or technologies are you excited about?

#72
post #23

Networking capabilities for WASM could make it the ultimate polyglot platform.

As long as they don't succumb to the pressure to make it Posix compatible by throwing away capabilities, you're right.

Nothing wrong with "Posix compatible"

If you are "Posix compatible" plus 'This Other Thing' ... you have the makings of a great platform

Re: Ask HN: What fields or technologies are you excited about?

#74

> the software industry, and in particular SaaS, has seen immense growth and it's unlikely to see that kind of growth again Inshallah. I hope you're right. > interesting fields and industries that might see huge growth The porn industry

>The porn industry

Honestly ... I think the rise of [almost breaking the uncanny chasm] AI-generated images and video is going to both help and hurt the porn industry

How will it 'help'? Generate, on-demand, whatever form of sexual fantasy the user can prompt

How will it 'hurt'? Generate, on-demand, whatever form of sexual fantasy the user can prompt

When actual, IRL humans are involved, there are always limits to what can be produced

When that limitation is gone ... the cuffs will be off!

Is AI-generated 'underage' sex still "pedophilia"? When those 'engaging' in whatever activity the prompter has suggested 'do not `exist`'?

What about so-called 'extreme' BDSM/pain/fetish/etc? If the 'actors' are all AI-generated ... is it still [potentially] `wrong`?

There are a HOST of ethical and legal issues that are about to hit the porn industry ... and those who want to - rightfully - prosecute those who want grossly-illegal/-unethical material!

Strictly by the letter of the law ... it 'cannot' be `kiddie porn` if the images are not of real people.

Yet ... by the spirit of the law ... it most certainly is `kiddie porn` if the images are of obviously `underage` individuals!

Or what about so-called 'snuff videos'? It is actually a beheading if the `beheaded` is AI-generated?

The legal system is going to have a LOT of work in front of itself in this dawning era, to be sure!

Re: Ask HN: What fields or technologies are you excited about?

#75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, in a field. Try it, it can be quite exciting and certainly helps to create a better future. I'd even go so far as to state that without that there is no future.

Can you expand on that? Are you an adult and where was the field you had this 'quite exciting' experience?

This not being an adult outlet I will not go into detail about which fields are suitable for such activities. What I can say is that you nick - CyberDildonics - is apt for one who asks this question and that the activities alluded to tend to negate the need for anything related to it, especially when it comes to the Cyber part.

Re: Ask HN: What fields or technologies are you excited about?

#76

Don't laugh. I am really, really excited about Bash and vanilla PHP. I landed myself in a shop that sells, essentially, tiny locally-networked systems of specialized Linux boxes. Yes, our core offering is running on the JVM, but all along the edges there is just so much Bash and PHP . I don't think I'll ever work in a place again where I have this much opportunity to become a genuine old school shell and webshell wiz…

I once pair programmed (w/@tobinfekkes) a file browser in PHP and bash. PHP would receive the request, exec some bash scripts to cd and ls it's way around the server, then it would output those file names as html buttons to a web page. It was a fun. Bash and PHP are the frowned upon bastard step children of programing languages, but somehow I wish I had your job

Re: Ask HN: What fields or technologies are you excited about?

#77

Don't laugh. I am really, really excited about Bash and vanilla PHP. I landed myself in a shop that sells, essentially, tiny locally-networked systems of specialized Linux boxes. Yes, our core offering is running on the JVM, but all along the edges there is just so much Bash and PHP . I don't think I'll ever work in a place again where I have this much opportunity to become a genuine old school shell and webshell wiz…

Sounds like a dream come true! Any jobs going?

Maybe, if you're able and willing to move to Finland!

Pay is probably under 50k a year though. Can't win em all.

Re: Ask HN: What fields or technologies are you excited about?

#78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds like a dream come true! Any jobs going?

Maybe, if you're able and willing to move to Finland! Pay is probably under 50k a year though. Can't win em all.

Thank you, but I'm afraid I can't move.

I'd love to hear more about the product though! Without giving too much away, what does the product/company do? :)

Re: Ask HN: What fields or technologies are you excited about?

#79
post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Regarding your point 3, the challenge is that at present, so many incentives are aligned against that. I'd love to do hard science, rather than my current meaningless consumer webapp job. But it'd mean... giving up 5-6 years of tech salary to go back and get a phD, and then post-phD my job prospects would be geographically limited to a couple locations where all the science/research jobs are, with worse hours, worse…

> my golden handcuffs I never got this frame of mind. You chose to wear them. You like your golden bracelets. You can take them off any time you want. You are making the choice of staying. At the very least assume the responsibility.

I'm not sure where your confusion is, maybe it's just the terminology. I'll address your points individually and see if maybe that helps you understand what people mean by the "golden handcuffs" framing.

>You chose to wear them. Correct. Because it is the least-bad option that I see as a possibility.

>You like your golden bracelets I do not. I dislike my handcuffs. I just recognize that the other handcuffs I'm allowed to replace them with are worse.

>You can take them off any time you want. You are making the choice of staying I can replace them with different, worse handcuffs. I'm unhappy about being in handcuffs, but if someone suggests I replace my golden ones with the sharp, rusty ones, I will decline and choose to stay in my current ones.

>At the very least assume the responsibility I am? In fact the degree of agency here is central to the whole point. If you tell a prisoner they can choose between death by lethal injection or death by being burned at the stake, they can make the choice of lethal injection and "assume the responsibility" for that, but it's not like it's what they actually want-want. It's what they want under the constraints of the circumstances.

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