I’m taking some time away from Comma • Hacker News Board

Re: I’m taking some time away from Comma

#231

Post by kortex » Mon, Oct 31, 2022, 5:01 PM UTC

altarius wrote: post #201

conradev wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but the fact it’s not far more pervasive in our every day The joke I heard was that AI only refers to technology in the future, and not the past. We use plenty of machine learning models every day: - Every time you use dictation - Every time you use biometrics, like face scanning, to unlock your phone - Every time you use any sort of search engine, news feed, or see an ad - It is an integral part of the field of co…

Some would call that "machine learning". I know it's hard to make a distinction, but the term "AI" is too ill-defined to argue about what constitues "real AI" and what is mere machine learning. Are those examples "thinking machines" (~= "artificial _intelligence_"? I'd say no, they are very good statistical pattern matchers without any understanding of the subject matter for the most part. GPT-3 and image generators…

Intelligence is a Heap Paradox and trying to define where the boundary between Artificial "Intelligence" and "really good pattern matching" is a fool's errand. Intelligence is a continuum from the simplest bang-bang thermostat all the way up to the human brain.

Re: I’m taking some time away from Comma

#232

Post by fuckstick » Mon, Oct 31, 2022, 5:02 PM UTC

Rezwoodly wrote: post #66

agentultra wrote: post #33

I used to like watching his streams but he seems to have become somewhat unhinged in recent years. Perhaps he is believing too much about what people have said about him. The arrogance and aggrandizement was the turn-off for me. Well that and his belief, while at comma, that how fast you can code is the most important metric when assessing software engineers. Competition programming is fun to watch but a poor indicat…

Oh yeah. I've met more than a couple of engineers who spent their teens and twenties coding like that was the meaning to life, all suffer from deep regret, burnout, resentment, depression. They are better than average technically, but their social skills fail them. Which in a paid employment situation carries a lot of weight. I feel sorry for these guys

> all suffer from deep regret, burnout, resentment, depression

Nonsense. John Carmack is the most obvious counterexample. But pretty much anyone that works in gaming.

While the stories of resentment of specific employers abound — your general thesis is nonsense.

Re: I’m taking some time away from Comma

#233

Post by stale2002 » Mon, Oct 31, 2022, 5:03 PM UTC

shafyy wrote: post #188

stale2002 wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, people aren't really understanding the motivations that Geohotz has for looking into this stuff. He is being a bit cryptic about it. Here is a basic summary though. The atheist world, of no life after death, is scary. We have not invented immortality. And even if we do, well there is an even scarier thing called entropy, that will end the universe anyway. There is no escape from death, as far as we know, and this…

> Because if the current atheist world is the real one, then we are doomed. We are in the death world. Game over. Thats it. All evidence points that this is true so far. What is wrong with that? It doesn't mean life doesn't matter. This passage from Carl Sagan's Pale Blue Dot comes to mind: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wupToqz1e2g

> All evidence points that this is true so far. What is wrong with that?

This is unfortunately an axiomatic philosophical disagreement.

For those with my viewpoint, of nothing mattering to you, once you are dead and gone, this is basically unfalsifiable, as are most axiomatic disagreements.

And the quotes and arguments that you link in that video, basically just come off as a nice sounding cope, made by people who are distracting themselves from the horror of the reality of our situation. It is an emotional play, and humans are great at tricking themselves with emotions.

I don't really blame people for that though. My perspective really is pretty terrifying. It makes sense why people would hide from it. And the only way that recognizing it helps me, is that I am informed about fringe technologies, like cryonics, that currently are pretty unlikely to work.

Re: I’m taking some time away from Comma

#234

Post by bombcar » Mon, Oct 31, 2022, 5:03 PM UTC

andrewmcwatters wrote: post #49

George’s insights on self-driving cars remind me of when you get the rare exceptional engineer in your company who knows 100% what he or she is talking about down to the exact implementation level and all of the alternatives, and leadership totally ignores them because they foolhardily believe this kid can’t possibly be right—without asking engineering questions to test to see if they’re right about the engineer bein…

> spending billions of dollars

This is usually the problem; once you're in the many millions of dollars you find that other things are way more important than actually being right or even delivering a product. Time and time again the story is told.

Re: I’m taking some time away from Comma

#235

Post by dekhn » Mon, Oct 31, 2022, 5:03 PM UTC

Kbelicius wrote: post #183

thepasswordis wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is so frustrating to me. People hear "the bible is foundational" and I think they're hearing "the magical stories in the bible are literally true. God sat on a cloud and poofed western civilization into existence!" What I'm saying is that, the Dawkins sense, The Bible was an extremely successful meme. I don't think that's even up for debate. >Not everyone eats everything Jordan Peterson says. People need to find…

Just because a book and an institution were present for the last 2000 years doesn't mean that they were the foundation of a society that exists today. Especially a society that most likely exists despite of them then because of them.

I think the 30 Years War, which tore apart Europe for decades over a disagreement over details in the interpretation of Christianity (and the Protestant and Catholic bibles differ).

I would say at the very least the bible is one of the most important pieces of literature in the world, has had a tremendous impact in all its forms, played a role in the formation of the modern world's moral codes, and at the same time, is not the unique, one, and only "foundational" document leading to the modern western world- there isn't one.

(FWIW, I really do respect the King James bible as a world of literature, even though I am agnostic and consider the Silmarillion to be a more enjoyable origin story)

Re: I’m taking some time away from Comma

#236

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Oct 31, 2022, 5:04 PM UTC

giancarlostoro wrote: post #83

Fatnino wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"recent years"? This guy has always been like this, going all the way back to ios hacking days or even wii hacking days.

I used to talk to him on one of those IRC networks for iOS hacking, forgot the name, but a good old friend of mine was involved in the scene, so I dropped in. He is definitely a skilled individual, but he lacks the key thing I think all true senior engineers need: humility. Without humility you're going to find yourself bikeshedding and wasting time and effort on things that may actually not be attainable within your…

[deleted]

Re: I’m taking some time away from Comma

#237

Post by wiseowise » Mon, Oct 31, 2022, 5:05 PM UTC

RcouF1uZ4gsC wrote: post #14

p0wn wrote: post #11

One of my favorite tech articles of all time involved this guy. He was showing off the self driving capabilities of his framework and took a reporter out on a drive. Everything went well and while they were wrapping up the interview the reporter said "Well I bet you're just driving around all the time hands free, it must be amazing" and Hotz says "Oh well I just got it working this morning". Classic. I love it. My ki…

That kind of attitude is great for editor or compiler or game development. It is absolutely the wrong attitude for self-driving cars or anything that is safety critical.

You do understand that this is joke, right?

Re: I’m taking some time away from Comma

#238

Post by Apocryphon » Mon, Oct 31, 2022, 5:05 PM UTC

Barrin92 wrote: post #143

thepasswordis wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've seen this change dramatically in the last few years. The people I knew 10 years ago who were the sortof frighteningly brilliant hackers have almost all become religious (mostly traditional Catholics). I'm not saying this is an objective truth, just that this has been my experience.

Peter Thiel / Curtis Yarvin adjacent folks have in recent years heavily pushed these kinds of views in certain parts of the tech scene, Hotz tends to quote them frequently. It's not really religious Catholicism as much as an aesthetic for reactionary politics because you're more likely to find many of these newly minted Catholics at an 'Eyes White Shut' party than at mass. His syncretism of Christianity with Bronze A…

A lot of these guys (not Hotz but the Moldbug-adjacent Orthosphere bloggers) were big fans of Eastern Orthodoxy a decade ago, not sure how that trend diminished while tradcath got so big, especially with the current pope being a conciliatory figure.

Re: I’m taking some time away from Comma

#239

Post by fuckstick » Mon, Oct 31, 2022, 5:05 PM UTC

melony wrote: post #222

jocker12 wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"I have had a completely autonomous waymo come to my location, pick me up, and take me to another location." - Waymo uses 3d mapping, limited geofencing, remote operators and mobile roadside assistance teams because those cars are not even close to any type of autonomy. Those cars are "mice" in a well designed and designated (inch mapped) maze. The car without a driver in the driver's seat is like David Copperfield f…

Does it matter? They are functional and safe enough for most sunbelt cities. We may not have FSD from day one but what we do have is leagues ahead of what's possible 5 years ago.

Waymo in its current form in Arizona launched about 5 years ago.

Re: I’m taking some time away from Comma

#240

Post by Dylan16807 » Mon, Oct 31, 2022, 5:05 PM UTC

jocker12 wrote: post #148

thepasswordis wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>autonomous cars are no closer to reality today than they were 5 years ago Why do people keep printing things like this, which are objectively wrong? I have had a completely autonomous waymo come to my location, pick me up, and take me to another location. That didn't exist five years ago, it does exist now. How is this not "closer" than it was 5 years ago when it literally exists now, and didn't exist then?

"I have had a completely autonomous waymo come to my location, pick me up, and take me to another location." - Waymo uses 3d mapping, limited geofencing, remote operators and mobile roadside assistance teams because those cars are not even close to any type of autonomy. Those cars are "mice" in a well designed and designated (inch mapped) maze. The car without a driver in the driver's seat is like David Copperfield f…

Anyone can use 3d mapping and geofencing. That's not a disqualifier.

As long as the remote operators and assistance teams are an order of magnitude smaller than putting a driver in every car, then it's close enough to autonomy to count as "closer" and to be useful.