Adalast

@Adalast@lemmy.world

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨DayZ creator reveals a "Kerbal Space Program killer" with kittens and challenges license owners to sue him⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  This. I was so pissed when I saw the EULA for KSP2. I love KSP more than probably any game that has ever been released, due in no small part to the vibrant modding community. The fact that they decided to abuse the very people who made KSP great is disgusting and short slighted.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Cognitive Biases⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  You hit the nail on the head for the conservative agenda, though that is not as impressive as it once was since they all have started saying the quiet parts out loud. Anyone with enough brain cells in close contact to notice that Jesus was about as anticapitalist as you could possibly get is appalled and concerned for their safety. At least all of the ones I know are.

  To your point on the authority of a postdoctoral level person who assumes they are right in hubris, I feel like they have kinda earned it. It is also likely that their “wrong” is going to be far closer to right than that of a lay. I am personally a polymath, so I don’t find lay topics for myself very often, but when I do, I do listen to topical experts and respect what they say, while checking the voracity of things that feel off to me using reputable journals and prepublication articles on the likes of arXiv.

  If someone is lay and they are either unable of unwilling to do the diligence to verify the person claiming topical authority, then they really need to just take what is said at face value and not enter the more global conversation aside from trying to learn more (eg asking questions). I am so tired of my numbskull uncle claiming that Anthony Faucci doesn’t know how viruses work of some distant relation bitching about how student loan forgiveness is theft from taxpayers. My uncle knows nothing about virology and my distant relation couldn’t parse economic principles to save his life, but there they sit, acting as counter-authorities to people with doctorates and 40+ years of professional experience. That is the part I want to see stop. If you have a Masters degree, fine, argue with the expert, but if you have never stepped foot inside a classroom where that topic was being taught, just don’t. Your opinion is woefully uninformed and thus not worth the CO2 you expended to voice it.

  I do like your take on the societal and philosophical underpinnings for the Death of Expertise. It gels well with some things and gives me some avenues to investigate should I finally get fed up with this world enough to write it. Until that time, I will just keep Farnsworthing it. Dr. Farnsworth meme: I don’t want to live on this planet anymore.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Cognitive Biases⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Fair enough argument. I do wonder who, in your opinion, is someone who can justifiably have authority on a topic if not a topic expert? Who is reasonable to be educated by?

  As for the book, at this point I have not put pen to paper as it were, but the premise is the observation that there is a concerted effort on the part of some political parties to sew so much doubt in subject experts as to render their knowledge meaningless to the general populace and how dangerous that becomes when the situation is something that has potentially dire consequences. I have seen it happening for a long time, but it really came to a head for me in 2020 when I saw entirely lay politicians and pundits undermining warnings from virologists, epidemiologists, and statististians and sewing distrust in public health organizations essentially to trade people’s lives for political points. Since then I have been seeing an ever escalating trend for people in category 1 of authority to push the populace away from category 3 on topics which really only category 3 should be talking at all. The rest of us should be shutting up and taking notes, asking questions for clarification, and learning.

  Abortion, gender identity, climate change, economics geopolitics, etc. Essentially every topic that has been politicized into a hot button issue is really somerhing that is so beyond complex that we should not be arguing with the people who have dedicated their entire adult lives, sometimes 40+ years, to studying.

  My father has the perfect microcosm anecdote from his working days. He worked for a garage door manufacturer who hired some fresh faced MBAs into middle management. They were all sitting in a meeting one day and thought they came up with an amazing idea, so they took it to the veteran engineers who had been designing garage door openers for decades, some of them essentially since the damn things were invented, and told them to make their hairbrained idea. The enginners looked over what they were given and told them that they had had the idea decades earlier and that it did not work and that materials science and engineering had not progressed to the point that it would be feasible. Did the MBAs who were trying to make waves and make a name for themselves listen? Nope, they fired all of the veteran engineers and hired in a bunch of fresh faced engineers who had never actually designed a garage door opener and told them to build their hairbrained idea. The engineers, only knowing what they had learned in school and a couple of years in other jobs got excited by this revolutionary idea and dove into it. Fast forward about 2 years, and millions in R&D, and we find the fresh faced engineers, now not so fresh, somberly telling the MBA dickheads exactly what the veteran engineers had told them initially. This, along with a few other boneheaded schemes to make earnings sheets look better for the MBAs actually ended up tanking the company and it was sold like 10 years later.

  Subject expertise matters. Respecting subject expertise matters. Being able to recognize when you are sitting atop Mount DK is one of the finest skills we could ever teach our children.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Cognitive Biases⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Even with the somewhat incorrect examples, I want to print this out and hang it as a poster on my wall.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Cognitive Biases⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I have to respectfully disagreed with your example. Ostensibly the researcher should be an authority. I think the example given in the chart is not quite right either. I think the confusion comes from the three definitions of “Authority”.

  1. the power or right to give orders, make decisions, and enforce obedience. “he had absolute authority over his subordinates”

  2. a person or organization having power or control in a particular, typically political or administrative, sphere. “the health authorities”

  3. the power to influence others, especially because of one’s commanding manner or one’s recognized knowledge about something.

  In your example the “Authority” is definition 3, someone with specialized knowledge of a topic that should be listened to by those who are lay on the topic.

  In the chart I think they were trying to go for 1, which is the correct source of Authority Bias, but they didn’t want to step on toes or get political. The actual example is someone who has decision authority like a police officer or politician or a boss at a workplace who says things and a listener automatically believes them regardless of the speakers actual specialized knowledge of the topic they are speaking on. A better example would be “Believing a vaccine is dangerous because a politician says it is.”

  This all feeds into a topic I have been kicking around in my head for a while that I have been contemplating attempting to write up as a book. “The Death of Expertise”. So many people have been so brainwashed that authorities in definition 3 are met with a frankly asinine amount of incredulity, but authorities in the first are trusted regardless of education or demonstrable specialized knowledge.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Nobel Prize 2024⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I forget the exact quote or who said it, but the gist is that a species cannot be considered sapient (intelligent) on an interplanetary/interstellar stage until they have discovered Calculus. I prefer to use that as my bar for the sapience of those around me as well.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨PS5 Homescreen Now Replaces Unique Video Game Art With Annoying Ads You Can’t Turn Off⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  What, you don’t want to pay another 80 bucks for what could have been a content patch to last year’s game? Pshhh… You’re not a real fan.

  Is what I would say if I were the type of guy who should take a long walk off a short pier.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨California’s new law forces digital stores to admit you’re just licensing content, not buying it⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Other way around. Require sales of licenses to games to be perpetual. The way you phrased it means that the license holders can charge way more.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Steam does the opposite of forcing Arbitration on its users⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Same. I initially had the sinking dread then I saw that they actually fixed the arbitration clause and I became quite elated.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Some subreddits could be paywalled, hints Reddit CEO⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  You assume that the governments of which you speak are not assisting intentionally. These companies did not write the EULA legal frameworks that allow them virtual carte blanch to take and do whatever they want just because the population is trapped in the endless cycle of coercion that is our life.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Some subreddits could be paywalled, hints Reddit CEO⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Why do all of these companies decide they are so tired of existing?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Updates to Free Demos on Steam⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  That is actually intentional. They do it to restrict refunds on Steam and consoles.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Gen Z job seekers should be willing to work for free, long hours, ‘willing to do anything,’ says Squarespace CMO⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Your estimate seems a few orders of magnitude low. I once had an Econ 101 professor who said she recognized that I should think about going into marketing as I would be good at it. I responded “Nah, I prefer my soul right where it is.” Little did she know it was already on the short bus headed for hell as I am agnostic and will enjoy the conversation with other righteous nonbelievers.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨‘Death Occurs in the Dark’: Indie Video Game Devs Are Struggling to Survive⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I play Rimworld and Factorio. Those are 200 hours per playthrough each and I do about 2 a year for them. My Steam Deck helps a lot with the latter though. The UI for the former unfortunately does not lend itself to the smaller screen even though the game plays well.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What are your plans for when the Milky Way galaxy collides with Andromeda?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I’m going to enjoy making up new constellations every so many years and using them to mess with people who are into Astrology.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Five Men Convicted of Operating Massive, Illegal Streaming Service That Allegedly Had More Content Than Netflix, Hulu, Vudu and Prime Video Combined⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  When cops only legal responsibility is to enforce the law, and the laws are written to protect corporate interests, of course they will stand outside the school and arrest protesters. SCOTUS has ruled that way so many times that “to serve and protect” is literally gaslighting.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Choose your Fighter⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Ankylosaurs please. Give me an armor plated tank with a built in beat stick that could knock a midsized car several feet with a single swing.

  If we are going ancient life in general I will always pick Dunkleosteus. A swimming arrangement of thick bone plates the size of a medium bus with a set of Jaws of Life (Death?) for a mouth. The damn thing could slice through or crush literally anything in the ancient oceans and shallow seas. If it weren’t for the Hangenberg event Sharks and Orca would definitely be having some competition.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Consumers are so demoralized by inflation and high rates they've given up on saving for the American Dream and are spending money instead, economist says⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Don’t spend. That is what they want. Spending is just transferring the money into the pockets of the greedy.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨This Week in AI: OpenAI considers allowing AI porn | TechCrunch⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Just train a couple LoRAs and you can add in the vectors needed for doing whatever you want. “Circumventing” “safeguards” in this case means using a feature built into the system already. I have been making AI porn from the start. The day in installed their local framework for using it and got a Rick Astly image instead of anime tits I went and found their censorship function and neutered it. It is just python code, super easy to do.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Marvels Rivals requires creators to sign a contract that removes your right to give a negative review to access the playtest⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I saw that line and immediately thought “oh ho ho, we have a loophole. This wasn’t a subjective review, it was entirely objective. The game is objectively shit.”

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Streaming is cable now | Seventeen years after Netflix and Hulu kicked off a streaming revolution, it’s looking more like cable than ever.⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  My hot take, in the digital age, all direct marketing should be opt-in with the platform. Opt-in for industries with the ability to ban specific advertisers.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Streaming is cable now | Seventeen years after Netflix and Hulu kicked off a streaming revolution, it’s looking more like cable than ever.⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Yo ho ho my friend. Yo ho ho.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Take-Two Interactive shuts down the Studios behind Kerbal Space Program and Rollerdrome⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  As far as I’m concerned the inclusion of the “anti-DoTA” clause in their EULA murdered it for me. I was so excited. KSP is one of my favorite games of all times, largely as a result of the vibrant and very technically advanced modding community. Same goes for essentially all of my favorites; Rimworld, Backpack Hero, Factorio. The free labor that expands the games in major ways extends the value of my money and let’s me have fun forever in them.

  Putting in a clause in a EULA which automatically and irrevocably assumes all ownership and rights to any code or assets that are created for a game is just too far. Assuming rights at all is a huge issue for me, but I can accept that it is beneficial to assume royalty free licenses to the mods, I’ll even begrudgingly accept clauses that allow developers to gaffle features and optimizations from mods without giving remuneration or even acknowledgment. But wholesale ownership that revokes all rights and licenses for the independent 3rd party creator. Fuck that. I will never support a game that I find out is treating the people who keep games alive and relevant for decades for free like that.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Explain yourselves, comp sci.⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  As a mathematician this genuinely hurts. Lol.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨If people from the US love the imperial system so much, why are their musicians using metronomes instead of footonomes?⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  My brother! I literally came to comment “If musicians love the metric system so much, why do they still use fractional notes?”

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Adobe's new generative AI tools for video are absolutely terrifying⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Their Creative Cloud license

  That little “derivative works” bit in the middle gives them license to use the files stored in Creative Cloud to train AIs. So yes, they are using their data sets that they have license for. It just happens to be our data that they took the license on and we paid them to do it.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Adobe's new generative AI tools for video are absolutely terrifying⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  That’s fun, glad to see they are paying people now. I didn’t see in there when in the multi-years long process it takes to develop tool-sets and train checkpoints they paid for the rights to create derivative works. The article is dated a few days ago and it is present tense. They are NOW paying. The AI is trained. The tool is built. It takes tens of thousands of images to train a generative model from scratch, I would expect decades of footage for a video model. So if the model is trained, and them paying is new…?

  Also, they don’t have to ask, or pay… They already have the rights for all content stored in Creative Cloud (EULA Link). Adobe Creative Cloud EULA

  Legally, an AI training is a “derivative work”, so I would need a letter from the lead engineers on the AI dev team at Adobe, signed by every dev who has worked on it, stating that they only used paid training material at every stage of development of the tools, disseminated separately from any official Adobe channel before I would believe that the greedy gaping maw that is Adobe did not just use the millions of images and thousands of years of footage they have legal right to use that THEY are actually PAID for. They know they can pay now because it is a drop in the bucket compared to the Creative Cloud fees and is great PR and an even better smokescreen. There is precisely 0 chance they are going to receive enough good, usable footage through this program to train an AI from scratch.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Adobe's new generative AI tools for video are absolutely terrifying⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Can we take a minute and stop to assess where Adobe is obtaining its training data? Everyone is all up in arms about the OpenAI devs scraping DA and such, but Adobe is 100% training on the entirety of Behance and the Adobe Cloud. Things that are not public, our personal files that we never intended others to be seen. Our private albums of our children, or our wives/husbands/partners, or parts of NDA restricted projects that are stored in Adobe Cloud automatically that are supposedly not in violation of our NDAs.

  Where are the pitchforks? Where is the outrage? This is 1000x worse than some desperate AI engineer staring at a publicly visible and available training set that is already tagged and described in detail that was begging to be used. People lost their shit over that one. Why does Adobe get a pass?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Sex-ed content creators discuss shadowbanning and censorship on Meta platforms⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Eh, its more of an oligopolistic cohort, but yeah. There is a strong argument to be made to classify all communication technology broadly as a utility under the telecom umbrella. That way it can cover all past and future technologies.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Or we could do metric time⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Sometimes I really hate the modern world. Especially working remotely doing what could be asynchronous work with colleagues, why the hell can’t we just sleep whenever we want, as long as the work gets done.