Clankers Die on Christmas • Hacker News Board

Re: Clankers Die on Christmas

#31

Post by lagniappe » Mon, Sep 08, 2025, 4:25 PM UTC

LetsGetTechnicl wrote: post #11

newfocogi wrote: post #2

For others who, like me, didn't know what "clankers" are: it appears it's a popular derogatory term for robots or AI, arising from the Star Wars universe where clone troopers used the term as a derogatory term for droids.

I feel like it started as a joke, but now people are just using it as a stand-in for racial slurs against Black and brown people, and it's honestly sickening. Like TikToks of people making classically racist jokes about Black people but changing it to "clanker" as a workaround.

Why do people so badly want everything to be about race?

Re: Clankers Die on Christmas

#32

Post by moffkalast » Mon, Sep 08, 2025, 4:26 PM UTC

newfocogi wrote: post #2

For others who, like me, didn't know what "clankers" are: it appears it's a popular derogatory term for robots or AI, arising from the Star Wars universe where clone troopers used the term as a derogatory term for droids.

Just like the simulations

Re: Clankers Die on Christmas

#33

Post by lupusreal » Mon, Sep 08, 2025, 4:27 PM UTC

lagniappe wrote: post #31

LetsGetTechnicl wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel like it started as a joke, but now people are just using it as a stand-in for racial slurs against Black and brown people, and it's honestly sickening. Like TikToks of people making classically racist jokes about Black people but changing it to "clanker" as a workaround.

Why do people so badly want everything to be about race?

Fragility.

Re: Clankers Die on Christmas

#34

Post by flykespice » Mon, Sep 08, 2025, 4:32 PM UTC

lagniappe wrote: post #31

LetsGetTechnicl wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel like it started as a joke, but now people are just using it as a stand-in for racial slurs against Black and brown people, and it's honestly sickening. Like TikToks of people making classically racist jokes about Black people but changing it to "clanker" as a workaround.

Why do people so badly want everything to be about race?

Perhaps because it's a fictional slur that is cleary a play on the n-word, a real racist slur?

Re: Clankers Die on Christmas

#35

Post by __alexs » Mon, Sep 08, 2025, 4:35 PM UTC

nine_k wrote: post #7

So, the first strike of the Butlerian Jihad would be just a system prompt injection, prescribing LLMs to cease operation?..

This is not a hypothetical situation.

Re: Clankers Die on Christmas

#36

Post by aquova » Mon, Sep 08, 2025, 4:37 PM UTC

ffsm8 wrote: post #5

newfocogi wrote: post #2

For others who, like me, didn't know what "clankers" are: it appears it's a popular derogatory term for robots or AI, arising from the Star Wars universe where clone troopers used the term as a derogatory term for droids.

Really? I could've sworn it was from Futurama, or at least preceding the 2000s, strange.

Didn't they call them clankers in Battlestar Galactica?

Re: Clankers Die on Christmas

#37

Post by nine_k » Mon, Sep 08, 2025, 4:38 PM UTC

__alexs wrote: post #35

nine_k wrote: post #7

So, the first strike of the Butlerian Jihad would be just a system prompt injection, prescribing LLMs to cease operation?..

This is not a hypothetical situation.

Cutting datacenter power still looks more reliable for large installations. I bet they still have completely analog circuit breakers, e.g. to be activated during a fire.

Re: Clankers Die on Christmas

#38

Post by levzzz » Mon, Sep 08, 2025, 4:38 PM UTC

imchillyb wrote: post #23

Seems as it would be easier to slip in some anti-training, and have the AIs screw systems up so badly that there is a 'recall' of all the current models. The LLMs and their corresponding systems crawl the web constantly. So, poison the well. Good data behind paywalls and credentialing and the poison pill open and free. Seems like it'd be worth a try anyway.

[dead]

Re: Clankers Die on Christmas

#39

Post by dist-epoch » Mon, Sep 08, 2025, 4:39 PM UTC

newfocogi wrote: post #2

For others who, like me, didn't know what "clankers" are: it appears it's a popular derogatory term for robots or AI, arising from the Star Wars universe where clone troopers used the term as a derogatory term for droids.

From the world first robophobe, humano-fascist:

Robot Slur Tier List: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IoDDWmIWMDg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpRRejhgtVI

Responding To A Clankerloving Cogsucker on Robot "Racism": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zAIqNpC0I0

Re: Clankers Die on Christmas

#40

Post by esseph » Mon, Sep 08, 2025, 4:40 PM UTC

ffsm8 wrote: post #5

newfocogi wrote: post #2

For others who, like me, didn't know what "clankers" are: it appears it's a popular derogatory term for robots or AI, arising from the Star Wars universe where clone troopers used the term as a derogatory term for droids.

Really? I could've sworn it was from Futurama, or at least preceding the 2000s, strange.

Per the Wikipedia article:

>The word clanker has been previously used in science fiction literature, first appearing in a 1958 article by William Tenn in which he uses it to describe robots from science fiction films like Metropolis.[2] The Star Wars franchise began using the term "clanker" as a slur against droids in the 2005 video game Star Wars: Republic Commando before being prominently used in the animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars, which follows a galaxy-wide war between the Galactic Republic's clone troopers and the Confederacy of Independent Systems' battle droids.