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

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

#431

Post by capableweb »

ryanisnan wrote: post #364
ubermonkey wrote: post #290

Well, this is far afield from the normal discussions here, but: 8 years ago, I had a pretty bad cycling crash and broke my hip -- which, if you're not aware, means I broke the "femoral neck", or the narrow bit of bone between the long part of the femur and the "ball" that goes into your pelvis. Post-repair, my x-ray looked like this: http://i.imgur.com/gRqg50J.png Anyway, with that much hardware in a repair, you're p…

This is incredible. I have heard that surgeons are effectively carpenters of the human body, which minimizes their skills I think a bit unfairly. This is technology at its finest. Congratulations on the speedy recovery!

Sounds to me that you are minimizing the skills of carpenters rather :) I meant that mostly in gist, but they are really essential, just like surgeons, only that the objects the manipulate happens to be different, and mistakes by surgeons tend to be more "costly" in terms of human life.

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

#432

Post by capableweb »

raphar wrote: post #423
jiggawatts wrote: post #404

A hobbyist made a 2x2 angled LEGO brick with a computer and an OLED display embedded into it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wBrOV2FJM8 This is a mind blowing level of miniaturization, especially considering that this was assembled by someone at home with commercially available off-the-shelf parts! The fact that he used a cheap, readily available 3D printer to manufacture the jigs and mould parts is the icing on th…

Where do I get one? Ps: yes it runs doom: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TJHSMpYi8bg&t=0s

At some point I'll be more interested in what kind of computing device you cannot make Doom run on.

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

#433

Post by throwaway675309 »

lqet wrote: post #118
jvanderbot wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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. Even if you are right, you still acknowledge that ChatGPT is on the level of a non-specialist bullshitting human you can have a meaningful conversation with. This alone would be enough to freak me out. If you would've told me that this is possible 10 years ago I would've called you crazy.

I know a lot of people are vividly impressed by this but to me "writing in the style of" (Victorian sonnets, poems, hip hop lyrics) is the equivalent of transfer learning and feels more like a cheap parlor trick.

While I wont deny that it has impressive summarization abilities in terms of making excellent Q&A if you're willing to vet the information, I wouldn't exactly say that chatGPT is capable of meaningful conversation. It has great powers of recollection but its capacitive powers to produce new interesting information feels highly formulaic.

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

#434

Post by markus_zhang »

tootie wrote: post #425
markus_zhang wrote: post #417

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just curious is it a political issue (risky and who to sue) or a technical issue (ai has far worse judgement)?

Mostly that it faired poorly against human doctors. Real-world medical data is too messy to feed into a machine. https://www.theregister.com/2022/01/31/machine_learning_the_...

Thanks! I wonder what is the most advanced automatic technique right now. I also think it's difficult to replace nurses -- even though basic nurse work is even easier comparing to a family doctor who needs to diagnose. I figure the reason is that to replace nurse we need a lot of automatic hardware, which needs a lot of investment, unlike ChatGPT which can really replace a service agent given enough training because it doesn't involve hardware.

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

#435

Post by unsupp0rted »

antipotoad wrote: post #338

The yaybahar. It really sounds like there are electronics involved, but no: > Yaybahar is an electric-free, totally acoustic instrument designed by Gorkem Sen. The vibrations from the strings are transmitted via the coiled springs to the frame drums. These vibrations are turned into sound by the membranes which echo back and forth on the coiled springs. This results in an unique listening experience with an hypnotic…

This would be ideal for the next Dune film(s)

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

#436

Post by capableweb »

wolframhempel wrote: post #189

"Petmiglia" - a 360 degree automated pet drying chamber I came across at IFA. If your dog is scared of a hairdryer, why not put him in the hairdryer? http://en.petmiglia.com/

How many times do you wash your pet in order to having to put that huge machine in your house? A cat would need be washed very infrequently and a dog something like once a quarter. Maybe people tend to keep some others pets? Although the video just showed cats and dogs.

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

#437

Post by unsupp0rted »

alistairSH wrote: post #207
LeonM wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately, the EU country I live in does not allow them. And that is unfortunate, because whenever I visit another EU country I find them very useful.

I doubt many people would argue against their usefulness. The problem is management of the scooters when not in use. Even out in the suburbs, the local sidewalks have them discarded haphazardly. Not in a charging stand, not in a group, just ad hoc lying across the sidewalk. The bike share has dedicated stands for groups of 10-20 bikes - this makes far more sense to me than users just dropping them in the sidewalk or…

It's moot to me because I find the 0.0001% of space around me taken up by electric scooters vs the 99.9999% of space around me taken up by cars to be more egregious.

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

#438

Post by unsupp0rted »

capableweb wrote: post #436
wolframhempel wrote: post #189

"Petmiglia" - a 360 degree automated pet drying chamber I came across at IFA. If your dog is scared of a hairdryer, why not put him in the hairdryer? http://en.petmiglia.com/

How many times do you wash your pet in order to having to put that huge machine in your house? A cat would need be washed very infrequently and a dog something like once a quarter. Maybe people tend to keep some others pets? Although the video just showed cats and dogs.

Millionaire dogs can afford to pamper themselves

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-leona-helmsley-will-idUSN...

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

#439

Post by unsupp0rted »

ladberg wrote: post #307

I was at the airport recently and the TSA had 3D x-rays which shocked me! Looked like a normal x-ray but the agent was able to orbit around and zoom in on their computer screen.

I always opt for the manual pat-down, just in case. Who knows how well the machine is configured to blast me with the right amount of x-rays and not too much. Who knows how carefully it was transported to the airport, assembled at the airport, tested at the airport, etc.

Half the time, everybody there looks at me like I'm wearing a tinfoil hat when I politely request the manual pat-down.

The other half the time nobody bats an eye.

Depends on the airport and culture, I guess.

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

#440

Post by capableweb »

unsupp0rted wrote: post #438
capableweb wrote: post #436

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How many times do you wash your pet in order to having to put that huge machine in your house? A cat would need be washed very infrequently and a dog something like once a quarter. Maybe people tend to keep some others pets? Although the video just showed cats and dogs.

Millionaire dogs can afford to pamper themselves https://www.reuters.com/article/us-leona-helmsley-will-idUSN...

Washing a dog/cat too often is not "pampering", it's causing harm to the animal. They need the natural oils for their skin and furs.
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