LesserAbe
@LesserAbe@lemmy.world
- Comment on [deleted] 21 hours ago:
It’s not just the US. It’s pretty much every country with a high standard of living.
- Comment on [deleted] 21 hours ago:
Right, but we could have the same number of people while being ecologically sustainable. The problem seems like more one of distribution and technology, not total number of people. And besides, what’s the alternative? So I think it’s ok to say it’s a good thing the population outlook is downward while recognizing we’ve still got problems
- Comment on [deleted] 23 hours ago:
I could be mistaken but based on recent demographic trends I don’t think people are talking about overpopulation much these days. Seems to be a trend that industrialized countries population goes down. China is looking at falling below replacement rate. Of course there’s the argument that we already have too many people, but if everyone starts going down then hey problem solved
- Comment on [deleted] 5 days ago:
Besides what the other commenter replied, with Trump there’s a special value in controlling his agenda because often the last person he talks to will have the most sway. There have been stories about his appointees taking advantage of a rival appointee being away or in a meeting, and getting Trump to issue an order or even just tweet a position on something so it’s harder to walk back when someone else gets his ear.
- Comment on Anyone have one of these? 2 weeks ago:
I think what the other commenter was getting at is you can access a cellular connection (wireless) in a land line format
- Comment on Anyone have one of these? 2 weeks ago:
I think what the other commenter was getting at is you can access a cellular connection (wireless) in a land line format
- Comment on garden faries 2 weeks ago:
Good thing I can take personal credit for all these plants. Sort of like how I helped my local sports team win the championship.
- Comment on garden faries 2 weeks ago:
And potatoes and corn!
- Comment on garden faries 2 weeks ago:
I wasn’t familiar, they’re beautiful birds! That said, I read that they feed while perched, while I think the defining feature of hummingbirds is they feed while hovering. thisweekinpalestine.com/the-palestine-sunbird/
- Comment on It's rude to show AI output to people 2 weeks ago:
This is a good post.
Thinking about it some more, I don’t necessarily mind if someone said “I googled it and…” then provides some self generated summary of what they found which is relevant to the discussion.
I wouldn’t mind if someone did the same with an LLM response. But just like I don’t want to read a copy and paste of chatgpt results I don’t want to read someone copy/pasting search results with no human analysis.
- Comment on I totally missed the point when PeerTube got so good 3 weeks ago:
Besides the other commenter highlighting the specific nature of the linked study, I will say I’m generally doing technical queries where if the answer is wrong, it’s apparent because the AI suggestion doesn’t work. Think “how do I change this setting” or “what’s wrong with the syntax in this line of code”. If I try the AI’s advice and it doesn’t work, then I ask again or try something else.
I would be more concerned about subjects where I don’t have any domain knowledge whatsoever, and not working on a specific application of knowledge, because then it could be a long while before I realize the response was wrong.
- Comment on US | Two guys hated using Comcast, so they built their own fiber ISP 3 weeks ago:
Thanks for the suggestion. I did check with them, unfortunately it didn’t work, I think because our window wasn’t in their line of sight. Guy said he’d talked to other people in my building before.
- Comment on I totally missed the point when PeerTube got so good 3 weeks ago:
Could you try to understand what I’m saying instead of jumping down my throat?
If I want to turn off a certain type of notification in a program I’m using, I don’t need to sift through three forum threads to learn how to do that. I’m fine taking the AI route and don’t think I’ve lost my humanity.
- Comment on I totally missed the point when PeerTube got so good 3 weeks ago:
Lots of legitimate concerns and issues with AI, but if you’re going to criticize someone saying they used it you should at least understand how it works so your criticism is applicable.
It is useful. Chatgpt performs web searches, then summarizes the results in a way customized to what you asked it. It skips the step where you have to sift through a bunch of results and determine “is this what I was looking for?” and “how does this apply to my specific context?”
Of course it can and does still get things wrong. It’s crazy to market it as a new electronic god. But it’s not random, and it’s right the majority of the time.
- Comment on US | Two guys hated using Comcast, so they built their own fiber ISP 3 weeks ago:
Oh good to know. We moved before the date on that document though.
- Comment on US | Two guys hated using Comcast, so they built their own fiber ISP 3 weeks ago:
God bless em.
Fiber of course is preferable, but requires a lot of knowledge and up front investment to lay. In Philadelphia there’s a WISP - wireless internet service provider - that has their equipment up on a tower and can service a particular neighborhood: phillywisper.net
I was ready to use them but our apartment building had made a fucking exclusive agreement with Comcast. If we lived in a normal house at that same address we could have got FIOS or PhillyWisper.
- Comment on [deleted] 3 weeks ago:
Yeah! First, I don’t think it would be weird to ask it elsewhere, but definitely ok to ask it here.
- Comment on Bluesky is rolling out age verification in the UK 3 weeks ago:
Pretty concerning that a “western democracy” is doing this, because it gives cover for the next one and the next one.
It’s easy to say “oh I’ll just stop using such and such a service” but what happens when there are no more legal services to switch to?
- Comment on Half a million Spotify users are unknowingly grooving to an AI-generated band 5 weeks ago:
Even mass produced things require skill and sophistication. Pop music is more like a mass produced iphone than a mass produced frisbee.
Sure the lyrics aren’t saying something important or the singer isn’t the same person as the songwriter, but a lot of hours went into it. The average person on the street could not create a comparable song to what you hear on the radio without significant effort.
- Comment on Half a million Spotify users are unknowingly grooving to an AI-generated band 5 weeks ago:
It’s not exactly slop if the pigs eat it is it /s
I get what you’re saying, if people don’t detect ai music it must not be so bad. But in the original usage of slop, pigs don’t care, but humans wouldn’t eat the food. Same here, just because some people don’t mind doesn’t mean others can’t easily discern the difference
You could also make the argument that pigs would prefer better food if it was an option, but they have no choice, they’re only given access to slop.
- Comment on Half a million Spotify users are unknowingly grooving to an AI-generated band 5 weeks ago:
I get not liking it, and there are some real clunkers, but I think you’re dramatically underestimating the amount of craft and expertise that goes into some pop music.
- Comment on Socialism is the actual teaching of Jesus 1 month ago:
No sense imagining a hypothetical Jesus, but if you go by what the bible says, Jesus said “it’s easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom is heaven.” He said sell all of your possessions and then follow me. The bible talks about how people in the church shared what they had in common. If someone had a need someone would sell their property and distribute it to those who needed it.
Of course they also thought Jesus was going to return soon, within their lifetimes, and bring a perfect world. Not wait over 2,000 years
- Comment on Apple just proved AI "reasoning" models like Claude, DeepSeek-R1, and o3-mini don't actually reason at all. 1 month ago:
I think you’re misunderstanding the argument. I haven’t seen people here saying that the study was incorrect so far as it goes, or that AI is equal to human intelligence. But it does seem like it has a kind of intelligence. “Glorified auto complete” doesn’t seem sufficient, because it has a completely different quality from any past tool. Supposing yes, on a technical level the software pieces together probability based on overtraining. Can we say with any precision how the human mind stores information and how it creates intelligence? Maybe we’re stumbling down the right path but need further innovations.
- Comment on Apple just proved AI "reasoning" models like Claude, DeepSeek-R1, and o3-mini don't actually reason at all. 1 month ago:
Agreed. We don’t seem to have a very cohesive idea of what human consciousness is or how it works.
- Comment on Grok’s “white genocide” obsession came from “unauthorized” prompt edit, xAI says 2 months ago:
It’s from the show “I think you should leave.” There’s a sketch where someone has crashed a weinermobile into a storefront, and bystanders are like “did anyone get hurt?” “What happened to the driver?” And then this guy shows up.
- Comment on Grok’s “white genocide” obsession came from “unauthorized” prompt edit, xAI says 2 months ago:
- Comment on What can US citizens do to fight/prevent their country enabling genocide? 2 months ago:
Thanks for attempting an answer. I’ve got to say this feels laughable in light of what’s going on.
- Comment on Maybe Trump's Presidency Will Make Everything So Awful It Will Facilitate Actual Positive Change Nationwide 2 months ago:
I’ll quote my reply to the other person:
OP said “maybe something good will come out of this” and you said look at history, the best that will happen is some minor temporary improvement. I pointed out several significant long lasting advances. I don’t see where anything you said here disproves that.
As I said, yes, there are significant problems we need to address. But being negative to the point of denying reality isn’t some act of resistance, it’s capitulation. Telling people there’s no hope helps the enemy.
- Comment on Maybe Trump's Presidency Will Make Everything So Awful It Will Facilitate Actual Positive Change Nationwide 2 months ago:
OP said “maybe something good will come out of this” and you said look at history, the best that will happen is some minor temporary improvement. I pointed out several significant long lasting advances. I don’t see where anything you said here disproves that.
As I said, yes, there are significant problems we need to address. But being negative to the point of denying reality isn’t some act of resistance, it’s capitulation. Telling people there’s no hope helps the enemy.
- Comment on Maybe Trump's Presidency Will Make Everything So Awful It Will Facilitate Actual Positive Change Nationwide 2 months ago:
Have you read U.S. history?
Despite the land of freedom hype, we started as a country where only land owning white men could vote, and slavery was law. As flawed as things are now (and there will always be a need to improve and fight injustice) slavery has been abolished, all men and women can vote, child labor abolished, 40 hour work week, gay marriage legal.
We should be realistic and honest about the bad things happening right now. But if we don’t believe it’s possible for things to get better (doomerism) then it’s much less likely they will, and believing that ignores the actual historical evidence.
