JonEFive

@JonEFive@midwest.social

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The theory that we live in a simulation involves simulants running their own simulations; wouldn't that require impossibly more resources for the main sim?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  You are in a coma. We’re trying a new technique to communicate with you. We aren’t sure where or when this message will appear to you. You’ve been in a coma for 20 years. Please wake up. We miss you.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The theory that we live in a simulation involves simulants running their own simulations; wouldn't that require impossibly more resources for the main sim?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  The fun thing about this is that we have evidence that this is how our reality works. The double slit experiment showed that particles change their behavior when observed. (Gross oversimplification and only under very specific circumstances but still extremely fascinating.)

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The theory that we live in a simulation involves simulants running their own simulations; wouldn't that require impossibly more resources for the main sim?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Yes, but not even close to as much as the alternative.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨xkcd #2932: Driving PSA⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I grew up in Michigan and this traffic pattern is insane to me. In intersections like that in Michigan, there is no left turn. You drive past the intersection, after which there will be an immediate turnaround. You get into the turnaround lane, go back towards the intersection, then approach the intersection from the opposite side so that you can turn right.

  It’s so common that it blows my mind how it isn’t more normal nationwide. Michigan left

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨xkcd #2932: Driving PSA⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Growing up, there was a four-way stop near my house that one of my friends absolutely hated. It was a pretty busy intersection, and he hated that drivers didn’t seem to follow the rules that the person to the right goes first or whatever.

  One time when I was driving, he was shocked like “what are you doing!? Its not your turn, you’re gonna cause an accident!” when I went. I was like “what are you talking about?” I had driven through that intersection hundreds of times and never really thought about it. When I payed attention to the way the intersection flowed, I figured out the unwritten understanding that I and everyone else approached it with. It was basically just “stop and wait for a car or two to go before proceeding”. There was no guaranteed order that I could come up with, it was just that everyone in the area seemed to understand.

  Written rules are great if everyone is following the written rules. If you follow the written rules at that intersection you’ll be fine, but you’re likely to annoy someone for a moment. Nobody is going to be confused if you wait, just impatient.

  I agree with you. More important than following rules is to pay attention and adapt as appropriate. If you’re the only one following the written rules, there’s a chance that you’re the one acting unpredictably.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨xkcd #2932: Driving PSA⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Yes, but there are also a lot of times where they don’t in my personal experience. If there’s a question about who technically got there first - like two cars approach at roughly the same time - the rules aren’t always followed as written by other drivers.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨xkcd #2932: Driving PSA⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  There is an on-ramp for the highway near me that’s pretty long. It’s long because it’s a very straight fast-moving section of highway. In other words, the on-ramp is designed to give you adequate space to get up to highway speed. The number of people who immediately merge into the first lane without getting up to speed is too damn high.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Roku has patented a way to show ads over anything you plug into your TV⁩ ⁨⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Try finding a dumb tv for sale of relevant size and quality. I know you don’t have to connect it to wifi… Usually. But I just want a TV that doesn’t have all this shit in it to begin with.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Roku has patented a way to show ads over anything you plug into your TV⁩ ⁨⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  They have become the evil they were once apart from.

  In a streaming landscape dominated by ad companies like Google and Amazon, Roku was once the viable alternative. Unfortunately, in the 21st century, enshitification comes for us all eventually.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Roku has patented a way to show ads over anything you plug into your TV⁩ ⁨⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Give me freedom from advertising or give me death.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Lemmy.world seems to have banned the largest piracy community on Lemmy.⁩ ⁨⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  It’s not as easy as moderating individual posts. Remember, Lemmy is decentralized. If you start your own Lemmy server and I federated with it, I’ll get all the stuff you post on my instance too (intentionally oversimplified).

  Its up to you to moderate communities on your instance the way you see fit, and up to me to moderate mine. Even though our instances are federated, I can’t moderate on your behalf. It just isn’t feasible both in terms of the technology and in terms of the sheer volume of content you would have to try to moderate.

  If you have a community that posts a mix of things I agree with and things I don’t, I really only have a couple options on my end. Basically I can block that community on my instance or block your instance altogether.

  The reason why someone might block a community may be more about the legal risk than any moral justification. Depending on where you are, it might be illegal to even host that information. And since Lemmy instances cache posts from other instances, it could be argued that because that community is federated with your instance, you’re responsible for the content posted there.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Users ditch Glassdoor, stunned by site adding real names without consent⁩ ⁨⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Just as venture capitalism demands.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why Charging Your Gadgets Over 80% Is Such a Bad Idea | iFixit News⁩ ⁨⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Waterproofing is a lame excuse that I won’t accept from these manufacturers. It may be not as easy as just permanently gluing the thing together, but it’s definitely possible to have a sealed battery compartment.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Microsoft in their infinite wisdom has replaced the Hide Desktop icon with Copilot.⁩ ⁨⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  So you’re just out here trying to start a riot, eh?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why do (desktop) PC have so few USB ports ?⁩ ⁨⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Exactly. USB is designed so that you can have multiple devices attached to one port. 7 slots on the PC is plenty.

  And in fact, they probably already have a hub. I can’t remember the last monitor that I bought that didn’t have a couple USB ports on it. Put that thing to use. Webcam, USB headset/mic, keyboard and mouse can all run perfectly well off a monitor hub as can most other accessories. Save the direct ports on the mobo for things that need the bandwidth like storage devices.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Bartender Qualifications⁩ ⁨⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Die Bart die

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The New York Times sues OpenAI and Microsoft for copyright infringement⁩ ⁨⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Just getting back around to this.

  My main reasoning is simply that authors and artists should be fairly credited and compensated for their work. If I create something and share it on the internet, I don’t necessarily want a company to make money on that thing, especially if they’re making money to my exclusion.

  So while I belive that IP as we know it today is probably not be the best way to handle things, I still think creators should have some say over how their works are used and should receive some reasonable share when their works are used for profit. Without creators, those works wouldn’t exist in the first place.

  Are there other jobs where it would be okay to take a person’s services without paying them? What would motivate people to continue providing those services?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The New York Times sues OpenAI and Microsoft for copyright infringement⁩ ⁨⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Prompting for a source wouldn’t satisfy me until I could trust that the AI wasn’t hallucinating. After all, if GPT can make up facts about things like legal precedent or well documented events, why would I trust that its citations are legitimate?

  And if the suggestion is that the person asking for the information double check the cited sources, maybe that’s reasonable to request, but it somewhat defeats the original purpose.

  Bing might be doing things differently though, so you might be right in your assessment on that front. I haven’t played with their AI yet.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The New York Times sues OpenAI and Microsoft for copyright infringement⁩ ⁨⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I tend to agree with your last point, especially because of the way the system has been bastardized over the years. What started out as well intentioned legislation to ensure that authors and artists maintain control over their work has become a contentious and litigious minefield that barely protects creators.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The New York Times sues OpenAI and Microsoft for copyright infringement⁩ ⁨⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Your argument poses an interesting thought. Do machines have a right to fair use?

  Humans can consume for the sake of enjoyment. Humans can consume without a specific purpose of compiling and delivering that information. Humans can do all this without having a specific goal of monetary gain. Software created by a for-profit privately held company is inherently created to consume data with the explicit purpose of generating monetary value. If that is the specific intent and design then all contributors should be compensated.

  Then again, we can look no further than Google (the search engine, not the company) for an example that’s a closely related to the current situation. Google can host excerpts of data from billions of websites and serve that data up upon request without compensating those site owners in any way. I would argue that Google is different though because it literally cites every single source. A search result isn’t useful if we don’t know what site the result came from.

  And my final thought - are works that AI generates is truly transformative? I can see arguments that go either way.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The New York Times sues OpenAI and Microsoft for copyright infringement⁩ ⁨⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Let me ask you this: when have you ever seen ChatGPT cite its sources and give appropriate credit to the original author?

  If I were to just read the NYT and make money by simply summarizing articles and posting those summaries on my own website without adding anything to it like my own commentary and without giving credit to the author, that would rightfully be considered plagiarism.

  This is a really interesting conundrum though. I would argue that AI isn’t capable of original thought the way that humans are and therefore AI creators must provide due compensation to the authors and artists whose data they used.

  AI is only giving back some amalgamation of words and concepts that it has been trained on. You might say that humans do the same, but that isn’t exactly true. The human brain is a funny thing. It can forget, it can misremember. It can manipulate. It can exaggerate. It can plan. It can have irrational or emotional responses. AI can’t really do those things on its own. It’s just mimicking human behavior at best.

  Most importantly to me though, AI is not capable of spontaneous thought. It is only capable of providing information that it has been trained on and only when prompted.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Dropbox removed ability to opt your files out of AI training⁩ ⁨⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  It’s honestly difficult for me to say because there are so many different ways to train AI. It really depends more on what the trainers configure to be a data point. Volume of files vs size of a single file aren’t as important as what the AI believes is a data point and how the data points are weighted.

  Just as a simple example, a data point may be considered a row on a spreadsheet without regard for how that data was split up across files. So ten files with 5 rows each might have the same weight as one file with 50 rows. But there’s also a penalty concept in some models, so the trainer can set it so that data that all comes from one file may be penalized. Or the opposite could be true if data coming from the same file is deemed to be more important in some way.

  In terms of how AIs make their decisions, that can also vary. But generally speaking, if 1000 pieces of data are used that are all similar in some way and one of them is somewhat different from the others, it is less likely that that one-off data will be used. It’s much more likely to have an effect If 100 of the 1000 pieces of data have that same information. There’s always the possibility of using that 1/1000 data, it’s just less likely to have a noticeable effect.

  AIs build confidence in responses based on how much a concept is reinforced, so you’d have to know something about the training algorithm to be able to intentionally impact the results.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Amazon Prime Video will start showing ads on January 29th unless you pay extra for ad-free⁩ ⁨⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  It’s more about where the host server is located. Server owners in the US can lose protection from law suits if they don’t actively moderate.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Amazon Prime Video will start showing ads on January 29th unless you pay extra for ad-free⁩ ⁨⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I’m a technically savvy average consumer, but I’m about ready to put on an eye patch and fly the Jolly Roger.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Amazon Prime Video will start showing ads on January 29th unless you pay extra for ad-free⁩ ⁨⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Yes, within reason. I’m actually not sure where that line is drawn though. Like whether sending a pre-paid shipping label and asking you to drop it off at a nearby UPS store is enough or if they actually have to have someone pick it up from your home or wherever it was shipped to.

  You might already know this, but be mindful that if a company sent you the wrong thing and it wasn’t a gift or solicitation, (i.e. an error - even if it was a preventable error) you do legally have to give it back if asked. Which is fair IMO. If I’m sending something expensive and fat finger the address, I’d want it back too.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Amazon Prime Video will start showing ads on January 29th unless you pay extra for ad-free⁩ ⁨⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Aye matey! In fact, they’re are entire communities right here in the Lemmyverse all about sailing the digital seas!

  Kind of interesting what can be done without the oversight of corporate overlords and monied interests.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Dropbox removed ability to opt your files out of AI training⁩ ⁨⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  It really depends on what the AI training is looking for. You can potentially poison an AI training model, but you’ll likely have to add enough data to be statistically relevant.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Dropbox removed ability to opt your files out of AI training⁩ ⁨⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  The latest stable diffusion base model will be trained 100% on Dropbox dick pics. Your dick’s likeness will be merged with that of thousands of other dicks and will be used to generate semi-realistic dick imagery.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Lemmy.world Should Defederate with Threads⁩ ⁨⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  And realistically, there’s nothing stopping them from setting up a bunch of nondescript shell instances to gather data anyway.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨New Study: At Least 15% of All Reddit Content is Corporate Trolls Trying to Manipulate Public Opinion⁩ ⁨⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  That’s the potentially nice thing about Lemmy though - if you’re savvy, you will probably start to identify which instances are more or less trustworthy than others. And if an instance tends to have a lot of untrustworthy activity, defederation is always an option. To what extent we’ll see those things play out, I don’t know yet, but it’ll be interesting to see.