Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Marshall Brain has died

wral.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 176 posts

Re: Marshall Brain has died

#61

Post by zackangelo »

So grateful that HSW existed when I was younger. As a teenager, I couldn't afford to get the timing belt and water pump replaced on my car so I had to figure out how to do it myself. I bought the service manual from AutoZone but I needed something to closer to an introduction to even be begin to understand it. He seemed to love explaining how car engines work and that series of articles was exactly what I needed at that time to get started.

RIP Marshall, I hope you knew what an inspiration you were.

Re: Marshall Brain has died

#62

Post by nashashmi »

slfnflctd wrote: post #54

A gut punch for me. He was influential in many ways, as multiple comments here have already attested-- in particular the 'Manna' story that has been mentioned several times, which definitely knocked my socks off. Since no one else has brought it up yet, I want to say that one of his websites, "Why Won't God Heal Amputees" ( https://whywontgodhealamputees.com/ ) was very important in my world. It may not exactly be th…

Obviously someone who has come to atheism is not going to speak well of prayer. The guy ends each section with more questions than answers. And each of those questions comes from a highly confused state about what religion is, about what prayer is, about what God is. And maybe even what your purpose is.

In the words of the Bible, “ the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. ...” meaning his guide will only take him to further darkness and misguidance.

Re: Marshall Brain has died

#63

Post by robertlagrant »

marcosdumay wrote: post #34
simpaticoder wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very cool story, quite impactful on my thinking, although I will caution that the dystopia is better conceived than the utopia, mainly because the later requires inventing fantasy technology while the former does not. Indeed it's not clear at all what forces might destabalize the dystopia, since the power structures are immortal and self-replicating, and physics and biology (at least) prevents the utopia from existin…

The only clear distinction between the utopia and the dystopia is on wealth distribution. All the rest of it is a narrative about consequences. Anyway, the AI there isn't like our LLMs either. It's an AGI capable of long term societal prediction.

> The only clear distinction between the utopia and the dystopia is on wealth distribution.

A utopia where everyone is starving vs a dystopia where some people are fabulously wealthy but almost everyone has basic healthcare and education and opportunity to succeed? Inequality isn't anywhere near as important as the baseline of what most people have available to them.

Re: Marshall Brain has died

#64

Post by robertlagrant »

vineyardmike wrote: post #36
monocasa wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which physics and biology prevent the utopia from existing?

They have some chips they insert into your spine to read your thoughts and other similar stuff. But personally the “dystopia” to me feels very much like something we could end up with -it’s much more a warning. Meanwhile the fantastic nature of the utopia doesn’t really matter in contrast, because the idea of sharing society’s abundance with everyone is clearly possible.

> the idea of sharing society’s abundance with everyone is clearly possible

It is possible. If we stopped at the invention of fire we'd all have equality by now. The problem is that people keep inventing new stuff.

Re: Marshall Brain has died

#65

Post by dredmorbius »

schiffern wrote: post #14
BadHumans wrote: post #9

Given the amount of dystopian content he was posting on his website and subreddit lately, he seemed to be despairing quite a bit regarding the direction of society.

I noticed that. He made several subreddits, here's a (likely incomplete) list. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42224139 His commentary near the end of this interview is also telling. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BA5v2cfJp1o An optimist in (increasingly) a cynic's world. Be at peace, Marshall Brain.

Do you have an approximate time point for that comment?

Brain makes a comment beginning at about the 30 minute point, I'm listening to that now, though it doesn't seem to match your description.

The bit a couple of minutes later (32m) beginning "I have four children now in college..." seems closer.

I have to comment that the song about how bright the future was (by Timbuk3) was absolutely satiric and ironic, though that point is often missed. As is often the case, in music and otherwise (Beastie Boys "Fight for your Right", Bruce Springstein "Born in the USA", Neal Stephenson Snow Crash & the Metaverse, etc., etc.).

Re: Marshall Brain has died

#66

Post by tomrod »

verisimi wrote: post #58
chgs wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which utopia? I saw two dystopias. One the likely future of western society, another being one where your very thoughts are programmed

Do you think that this is not already the case? If not, what was the point of 15+ years of government education?

Red herring, I think. There are many goals for education outcomes, some noble and some base.

Re: Marshall Brain has died

#67

Post by nyc_data_geek »

slfnflctd wrote: post #54

A gut punch for me. He was influential in many ways, as multiple comments here have already attested-- in particular the 'Manna' story that has been mentioned several times, which definitely knocked my socks off. Since no one else has brought it up yet, I want to say that one of his websites, "Why Won't God Heal Amputees" ( https://whywontgodhealamputees.com/ ) was very important in my world. It may not exactly be th…

No higher power ever wrote anything though. That's all human writing, human promises, human propaganda.

Re: Marshall Brain has died

#68

Post by vineyardmike »

robertlagrant wrote: post #64
vineyardmike wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They have some chips they insert into your spine to read your thoughts and other similar stuff. But personally the “dystopia” to me feels very much like something we could end up with -it’s much more a warning. Meanwhile the fantastic nature of the utopia doesn’t really matter in contrast, because the idea of sharing society’s abundance with everyone is clearly possible.

> the idea of sharing society’s abundance with everyone is clearly possible It is possible. If we stopped at the invention of fire we'd all have equality by now. The problem is that people keep inventing new stuff.

Why is innovation and sharing mutually exclusive?

Re: Marshall Brain has died

#69

Post by cipheredStones »

slfnflctd wrote: post #54

A gut punch for me. He was influential in many ways, as multiple comments here have already attested-- in particular the 'Manna' story that has been mentioned several times, which definitely knocked my socks off. Since no one else has brought it up yet, I want to say that one of his websites, "Why Won't God Heal Amputees" ( https://whywontgodhealamputees.com/ ) was very important in my world. It may not exactly be th…

I wonder how long that site will be up, given his death. Hope someone mirrors it.

It's interesting to read the Nicholas Kristof op-ed from 2006 (https://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/03/opinion/03kristof.html) which he links because it mentions the site (in its incarnation as "whydoesgodhateamputees.com") as "part of an increasingly assertive, often obnoxious atheist offensive", and essentially argues that the New Atheists should back off and stop being so mean.

While the New Atheists were definitely sharp-tongued (another page on the site asserts that there's no such thing as an 'atheist', for the same reason that someone who doesn't believe in leprechauns wouldn't be called an 'aleprechaunist', and atheists should instead call themselves 'rational people'), I think they had some excellent points about how the religious point of view is treated as the default in public discourse - and one of the ways that manifests is that arguments for religion (and more nebulous spirituality) are seen as expected and ordinary, while arguments against religion are seen as inherently aggressive and mean-spirited.

Re: Marshall Brain has died

#70

Post by norir »

cipheredStones wrote: post #69
slfnflctd wrote: post #54

A gut punch for me. He was influential in many ways, as multiple comments here have already attested-- in particular the 'Manna' story that has been mentioned several times, which definitely knocked my socks off. Since no one else has brought it up yet, I want to say that one of his websites, "Why Won't God Heal Amputees" ( https://whywontgodhealamputees.com/ ) was very important in my world. It may not exactly be th…

I wonder how long that site will be up, given his death. Hope someone mirrors it. It's interesting to read the Nicholas Kristof op-ed from 2006 ( https://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/03/opinion/03kristof.html ) which he links because it mentions the site (in its incarnation as "whydoesgodhateamputees.com") as "part of an increasingly assertive, often obnoxious atheist offensive", and essentially argues that the New Atheis…

This is an extreme dichotomy between fundamentalists and new atheists. I personally believe that both worldviews are wrong and inconsistent with lived reality.
Post reply on HN