I’m very bought in to the idea that raw coding is now a solved problem with the current models and agentic harnesses. Let alone what’s coming in the near term. That being said, I think we’re in a weird phase right now where people’s obvious mental health issues are appearing as “hyper productivity” due to the use of these tools to absolutely spam out code that isn’t necessarily broadly coherent but is locally impress…
Gas Town Decoded
101–110 of 245 posts
Re: Gas Town Decoded
#102The idea of gas town is simultaneously appealing and appalling to me. The waste and lack of control is wild, but at the same time there's at least a nugget of fascinating, useful work in there. In a world where compute is cheap and abundant and the models are a notch smarter, I think it's the start of a useful framework for what the future of augmented work might look like. I have no interest in using gas town as it…
Re: Gas Town Decoded
#103I’m very bought in to the idea that raw coding is now a solved problem with the current models and agentic harnesses. Let alone what’s coming in the near term. That being said, I think we’re in a weird phase right now where people’s obvious mental health issues are appearing as “hyper productivity” due to the use of these tools to absolutely spam out code that isn’t necessarily broadly coherent but is locally impress…
I think the kids would call this "getting one-shotted by AI"
Re: Gas Town Decoded
#104I’m very bought in to the idea that raw coding is now a solved problem with the current models and agentic harnesses. Let alone what’s coming in the near term. That being said, I think we’re in a weird phase right now where people’s obvious mental health issues are appearing as “hyper productivity” due to the use of these tools to absolutely spam out code that isn’t necessarily broadly coherent but is locally impress…
I have a suspicion that extensive use of LLMs can result in damage to your brain. That's why we are seeing so many mental health issues surfacing up, and we are getting a bunch of blog posts about "an agentic coding psychosis".
It could be that llms go from bicycles for the brain to smoking for the brain, once we figure out the long term effects of it.
Re: Gas Town Decoded
#105Re: Gas Town Decoded
#106This looks familiar to people who have seen how the more elaborate NPC systems work in major multiplayer games. There are lots of semi-independent NPCs, with some degree of overall coordination. Groups of cops or soldiers may have a commander program for tactical coordination, and there may be a higher level system deploying units for strategic purposes. In games, what the NPCs can do is usually rather dumb. Move and…
What games are notable in this regard? The classic Majesty series comes to mind. UO aspired to complex NPC systems. Fable as well. I always dreamt of a more advanced Sim City-meets-MMO that just went all in on that.
Re: Gas Town Decoded
#107I’m very bought in to the idea that raw coding is now a solved problem with the current models and agentic harnesses. Let alone what’s coming in the near term. That being said, I think we’re in a weird phase right now where people’s obvious mental health issues are appearing as “hyper productivity” due to the use of these tools to absolutely spam out code that isn’t necessarily broadly coherent but is locally impress…
There is a lot of research on how words/language influences what we think, and even what we can observe, like the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis. If in a langauge there is one word for 2 different colors, speakers of it are unable to see the difference between the colors. I have a suspicion that extensive use of LLMs can result in damage to your brain. That's why we are seeing so many mental health issues surfacing up, and w…
Perhaps you mean to say that speakers are unable to name the difference between the colours?
I can easily see differences between (for example) different shades of red. But I can't name them other than "shade of red".
I do happen to subscribe to the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, in the sense that I think the language you think in constrains your thoughts - but I don't think it is strong enough to prevent you from being able to see different colours.
Re: Gas Town Decoded
#108Earlier quoted context omitted.
We are perpetually just months away from software jobs being obsolete. AGI was achieved internally at OpenAI a year ago. Multiple companies have already re-hired staff they had fired and replaced with AI. etc.
Your problem is thinking that hype artists, professionals and skeptics are all the same voice with the same opinion. Because of that, you can't recognize when sentiment is changing among the more skeptical.
You're also presuming too much about what I'm thinking and being dead wrong about that.
Re: Gas Town Decoded
#109I actually love the idea of totally new naming schemes for experimental software. Certain name types are so normalized (agent, worker, etc) that while they serve their role well, they likely limit our imagination when thinking about software, and it's a worthwhile effort to explore alternatives.
I do too, but you can take things too far, which I'd argue has happened the moment "figuring out what the names mean" becomes enough of an intellectual challenge to provide a dopamine hit; at that point, you've (intentionally or otherwise) germinated a cult. It's human nature: people will support the design not on its merits but rather as loss aversion for the work they put into decoding it.
Re: Gas Town Decoded
#110Earlier quoted context omitted.
There is a lot of research on how words/language influences what we think, and even what we can observe, like the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis. If in a langauge there is one word for 2 different colors, speakers of it are unable to see the difference between the colors. I have a suspicion that extensive use of LLMs can result in damage to your brain. That's why we are seeing so many mental health issues surfacing up, and w…
> If in a langauge there is one word for 2 different colors, speakers of it are unable to see the difference between the colors. Perhaps you mean to say that speakers are unable to name the difference between the colours? I can easily see differences between (for example) different shades of red. But I can't name them other than "shade of red". I do happen to subscribe to the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, in the sense that…
EDIT: I have been searching for the source of where I saw this, but can't find it now :(
EDIT2: I found a talk touching in the topic with a study: https://youtu.be/I64RtGofPW8?si=v1FNU06rb5mMYRKj&t=889