31–40 of 196 posts
His idea is that there is a pretty high standard of cleanliness in a bakery, just not the obvious one. A similar "hidden rule" presumably applies to cities etc.
Hmm, I thought that Amazon was famous for how they standardized their cross-company software? (With AWS as a side effect.) Or is this not the case anymore?
"When a God-level AI takes over in a science fiction book, it often remakes the world in its image: full of straight lines, smooth acceleration rates, and lots of chrome (AIs love that stuff). But as we start using algorithms to design things, we get results that look a lot more chaotic than that..." It would be interesting to see a movie where an AI takes over and turns reality in to a Rube Goldberg machine.
Huge corporations and governments are kind of like hybrid silicon/meat AIs and that's exactly what they've done. I think this is the most likely outcome.
> London's tube map only uses 45° angles to aid its human readers. Now can you see the humanness in mainboard design? What was that russian electronic board design software where nothing is vertically/horizontally aligned, no trace is straight?
> London's tube map only uses 45° angles to aid its human readers. Now can you see the humanness in mainboard design? What was that russian electronic board design software where nothing is vertically/horizontally aligned, no trace is straight?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TopoR#Features
TopoR, destroy all autorouters:
Yes, because the computer assumes they're not going to change. The "tensile structure" looks cool now, but throw it in the back of a truck for 3 months and see if it's still algorithmically perfect. Parts get beat up. Tabs get bent a little. Maybe we'll want to grind off one of those tabs that we're not using because it's in the way, or weld on a new one. With the old structure, I can see which parts are relevant to maintaining the integrity of the system.
It looks like an un-optimized binary, which is very close to its source code. That's a feature. I can reason about the parts on their own.
The "topologically optimized" one is like an optimized binary. It's great for saving a few grams as long as you never have to change anything. The downside is that it's impossible to reason about. If one tab gets a little bent, that may be harmless, or it may cause the entire structure to lose its strength. You don't know.
Similarly, the truss on the catwalk over the crazy-looking Wendelstein 7-X is made of nice even rectangles and right triangles, and I guarantee that's not because it's a topologically optimal shape for this truss.
"When a God-level AI takes over in a science fiction book, it often remakes the world in its image: full of straight lines, smooth acceleration rates, and lots of chrome (AIs love that stuff). But as we start using algorithms to design things, we get results that look a lot more chaotic than that..." It would be interesting to see a movie where an AI takes over and turns reality in to a Rube Goldberg machine.
"When a God-level AI takes over in a science fiction book, it often remakes the world in its image: full of straight lines, smooth acceleration rates, and lots of chrome (AIs love that stuff). But as we start using algorithms to design things, we get results that look a lot more chaotic than that..." It would be interesting to see a movie where an AI takes over and turns reality in to a Rube Goldberg machine.
You can also see them in wear patterns on old handles and stairs.
Hence why I think before you try and change a system it's important to know what your baseline outcomes are and then instrument the system to measure where these "desire paths" exist in complex systems like computing.