[deleted]
Urbit
161–170 of 309 posts
Re: Urbit
#162Idle question for whatever tlon'ers are reading this: have you considered putting a bitcoin in an urbit and challenging the world to get it out, as a publicity stunt slash bug bounty? To me, the most interesting thing about Urbit is the explicit design goal of (eventually) becoming so simple and straightforward that it needs no further updates, as described in Toward a Frozen Operating System[0]. So, urbit is suppose…
Love this idea, but as things stand, it very well might turn out to be trivial. Urbit is theoretically much more easily secured than today's popular systems, but not yet hardened.
Re: Urbit
#163Earlier quoted context omitted.
>the One True Way" never works, It works for Apple.
Apple doesn't have a One True Way -- they have a relatively-simple and relatively-uniform product line that represents their interpretation of human-computer interaction. They focused on building systems that everyone could use and love immediately, and it turns out that a lot of people appreciate that emphatic commitment to the human over the machine. Jobs insisted on elegance and simplicity throughout, creating pro…
We haven't lost him out of misfortune, as many other things he made horribly wrong and nobody talks about anymore, because, you know, survival bias, he also thought cancer could be cured with diets.
He was man that even his daughter despise for being inhuman with his own flesh and blood, for denying she was her child for years.
Having interacted with Apple users since 1984, the only common trait they have is exactly believing there is only one true way, not that their way is better thanks to the sum of well though technical factors, but because it's a faith, that, as any other faith, is impenetrable to critics and doubts.
The fact that the failure of Next is still told as a great success speaks volumes.
Another famous example is the Apple III, costed a fortune to build, sold poorly and the people who worked at it remember that
"The Apple III was designed by a committee headed by Steve Jobs, who would demand one thing one day then the opposite the next."
Jobs built a cult, not a technical revolution.
Re: Urbit
#164About the author, Curtis Yarvin: > Curtis Guy Yarvin (born June 25, 1973), also known by the pen name Mencius Moldbug, is an American far-right political theorist, blogger, and computer scientist.[1][6] He is known, along with fellow "neo-reactionary" thinker Nick Land, for developing the anti-egalitarian and anti-democratic ideas behind the Dark Enlightenment. Yarvin and his ideas are often associated with the alt-r…
Wikipedia has an unfortunate habit of labelling anything as "far right" that is described as such by left wing or gullible journalists in left of centre mainstream publications. Mencius Moldbug may be far right, but he may alternatively just be a thinker not afraid to challenge liberal received wisdom. It's ok to disagree and fervently oppose but it's unfortunate when we descend into soundbite mud-slinging in service…
Yarvin claimed himself that he is “not allergic to white nationalism”.
Re: Urbit
#165The goal is noble, but Urbit is destined to become a case study in the dangers of isolation and obstinacy. This project has gone so deep into its own inner sanctum that they've lost tabs on wider reality. While the result may have glimmers of technical excellence for brave souls to excavate some day, the impact of the juxtaposition between latent expertise and overwhelming derangement is enough to scare away (literal…
>the One True Way" never works, It works for Apple.
Really? Last time I checked Apple had folded on the whole issue of having native apps on their phones.
Adapt and embrace has worked _very_ well for Apple.
Re: Urbit
#166Earlier quoted context omitted.
Wikipedia has an unfortunate habit of labelling anything as "far right" that is described as such by left wing or gullible journalists in left of centre mainstream publications. Mencius Moldbug may be far right, but he may alternatively just be a thinker not afraid to challenge liberal received wisdom. It's ok to disagree and fervently oppose but it's unfortunate when we descend into soundbite mud-slinging in service…
I'm on the left. I think Urbit is quite neat as a technology. Yarvin has very unusual political views, so I'm not sure where to put them, or if you'd consider this "sound-bite mudslinging" (if you do, please suggest a more palatable way of providing evidence:) He seems pro-monarchy: Was royalism a perfect system? It was not. But if we imagine a world in which the revolutions and civil wars of the last four centuries…
His views are all just hand wavey fascism. At no point does he make a tractable argument.
As a counterpoint: take all countries today that have functioning (i.e. non-figurehead) monarchies and compare them with democratic, capitalist countries. You can use prosperity, GDP per capita, average literacy - whatever as a metric and monarchies will fail.
Re: Urbit
#167I have seen Urbit a couple times but never really understood it. From the "Understanding Urbit" page - >Imagine that you can login from anywhere with one name and password. >And when you do, your entire OS appears. >Inside is your whole digital life. All of your communities, conversations, and connections. All of your biometric data and devices. Your entire personal archive in one place that’s secure, private, and de…
> The page "Understanding Urbit" also says that Urbit OS "can never show you ads".
I don't understand this dogma that "ads = bad". At most, they're an annoyance. Not evil. They can influence purchases, but the final act of consumption is solely the individual's.
They're an easy target, but attacking them distracts from the much larger problem of government data collection and censorship.
Re: Urbit
#168So if I buy my "last computer" from Urbit a "senate" made up of people who paid them money early on can do whatever they want to my data --- ahem "upgrade the logic" --- without my having any say? I'm not sure if I want some ChromeOS-analogue with automatic updates from the Reddit/4Chan --- ahem early cryptocurrency adopter --- hive mind. > We want everyone to own their own identity and wallet. One way to do this wou…
I'm not sure how you got your first assumption from the rest of your quotations. "[the Urbit] "senate" can do whatever they want to my data" No. The urbit senate can do nothing with your data. Your server holds your data. It is not distributed on the block chain. It is not mirrored by your peers. No one has any access to your data, except where you give them permission. Your final quote refers to the power the senate…
Wait, so how is it better than a trusty OpenBSD box?
Re: Urbit
#169Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's certainly not "random" as you say - the subject is the founder of the project. The entire project is politically charged. The software was literally modeled after monarchy and fascism. IMO this doesn't belong on HN.
> The software was literally modeled after monarchy and fascism. Show me a software project modeled after liberal democracy.
Any trading system? Bittorent?
Re: Urbit
#170Earlier quoted context omitted.
It may be marketing genius if the goal is to appeal to the type of nerd who loves obscure systems and occult jargon... the kind that geeks out on the complexities of D&D while chatting you up about the rococo details of Eastern Orthodox dietary restrictions and how they may have impacted renaissance fashion. Everything about Urbit seems designed to be candy to these types.
I'll admit, it did appeal to me in that way. But the other part of me just felt like it was snake oil. Being intentionally vague in order to not reveal some crucial flaw. I've learned a bit more about it from these comments and I don't think it's snake oil, but it is 100% not what I was expecting from the language used in the copy. So yeah, seems like a good project that foregoes familiarity in order to create someth…
In fact, most of the naming in Urbit is deliberately meaningless and bizarre in order to prevent the project from congealing too soon. The intention is to keep things provisional and annoying enough that future programmers won't forget to revise past temporary decisions.