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Ask HN: What is the weirdest or most surreal recent technology you have seen?

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51–60 of 512 posts

Re: Ask HN: What is the weirdest or most surreal recent technology you have seen?

#51
post #11

Maybe not weird or surreal enough for HN. But I am amazed by the stability and quality of videos from my drone. It's just amazing that I could easily fly a kilometer away whilst having a live feed of the footage being streamed back to my controller. I have a sub 250g drone, so it's so light yet easily able to withstand pretty strong winds and the videos look great on a big 4K TV afterwards!

Do you worry about losing it though?

Re: Ask HN: What is the weirdest or most surreal recent technology you have seen?

#53
post #42

ChatGPT. This is the only technology that truly freaked me out in my lifetime (I am 35). It competently explained to me the difference between Dijkstra's algorithm and A* in a psalm-like poem [0]. It was able to find misspelled words in a long text I just made up, list them in alphabetical order, and explain to me why I misspelled them. It correctly simulated a ChatGPT instance which was accessible via a HTTP API, an…

That's wrong. It's poetic, but incorrect. These tools are about as good as a non specialist with time to undertake some bullshitting.

> These tools are about as good as a non specialist with time to undertake some bullshitting.

You’re not wrong, but AI being passably good at bullshitting (while mostly keeping a rhyme/meter) is still mindblowing to me.

Re: Ask HN: What is the weirdest or most surreal recent technology you have seen?

#55
ChatGPT. I'm 33 and first time I've ever truly been blown away.

It's been really valuable as well not just a novelty. I'm certain it will change almost every aspect of our lives, starting with our children and how they learn in our current education pipelines. The bubble don' popped!

Re: Ask HN: What is the weirdest or most surreal recent technology you have seen?

#56
post #42

ChatGPT. This is the only technology that truly freaked me out in my lifetime (I am 35). It competently explained to me the difference between Dijkstra's algorithm and A* in a psalm-like poem [0]. It was able to find misspelled words in a long text I just made up, list them in alphabetical order, and explain to me why I misspelled them. It correctly simulated a ChatGPT instance which was accessible via a HTTP API, an…

That's wrong. It's poetic, but incorrect. These tools are about as good as a non specialist with time to undertake some bullshitting.

"confidently wrong"

That's chatgpt right now. To get it to confidently right will take years and years more

Re: Ask HN: What is the weirdest or most surreal recent technology you have seen?

#57
post #42

ChatGPT. This is the only technology that truly freaked me out in my lifetime (I am 35). It competently explained to me the difference between Dijkstra's algorithm and A* in a psalm-like poem [0]. It was able to find misspelled words in a long text I just made up, list them in alphabetical order, and explain to me why I misspelled them. It correctly simulated a ChatGPT instance which was accessible via a HTTP API, an…

That's wrong. It's poetic, but incorrect. These tools are about as good as a non specialist with time to undertake some bullshitting.

I agree that the output is often wrong despite looking right, but in this instance I don't see anything wrong in this example.

Re: Ask HN: What is the weirdest or most surreal recent technology you have seen?

#58

Deep fakes certainly hit me wrong. Especially given how easy it is to do to celebrities. It started off with mundane stuff with a great message: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQ54GDm1eL0 Then South Park guys, Trey Parker, doing absolutely hilarious deep fake video. They make Al Gore and Trump say poop. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WfZuNceFDM But then basically the same time I saw deep fakes presented as true. T…

You should watch "the capture" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Capture_(TV_series) (spoilers in the wiki article).

Thanks for the tip and it does look good but I seem to be watching paw patrol and blippi lately and nothing at all I want to watch.

Re: Ask HN: What is the weirdest or most surreal recent technology you have seen?

#59
post #11

Maybe not weird or surreal enough for HN. But I am amazed by the stability and quality of videos from my drone. It's just amazing that I could easily fly a kilometer away whilst having a live feed of the footage being streamed back to my controller. I have a sub 250g drone, so it's so light yet easily able to withstand pretty strong winds and the videos look great on a big 4K TV afterwards!

I do a lot of kayaking (not white water kayaking) and fishing off my kayak in lakes, rivers, and the ocean on calmer days.

Does your style drone have any following features? Looking for something to fly around looking for fish and something that will follow me or do fly-bys when I’m doing something with the family.

Re: Ask HN: What is the weirdest or most surreal recent technology you have seen?

#60
post #51
post #11

Maybe not weird or surreal enough for HN. But I am amazed by the stability and quality of videos from my drone. It's just amazing that I could easily fly a kilometer away whilst having a live feed of the footage being streamed back to my controller. I have a sub 250g drone, so it's so light yet easily able to withstand pretty strong winds and the videos look great on a big 4K TV afterwards!

Do you worry about losing it though?

Yeah, I have insurance with 'Flyaway Coverage'. Still have to pay a fee and there's a limit to the number of claims you can make over a time period but it's a lot cheaper than buying a new drone.
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