northernscrub

@northernscrub@lemmy.world

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨School phone bans don't boost grades or wellbeing, study suggests⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  I, too, am aware of zlib and librera reader. But there’s a difference between a curated selection of books in physical form in front of you, and deciding to read a book on an electronic device. The former dissuades the reader-to-be from abandoning the idea over too wide a selection, and removes other electronic distractions from asserting themselves over the reading material - I refer here to notifications that flash over the current window.

  Plus, there’s plenty of people who choose not to read, despite the option being available. Having the option physically there in front of you is far more encouraging, in my opinion. And once they start reading, they might go on to seek titles outside of that curated selection. Great success!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Robot packers and AI cameras: UK retail embraces automation to cut staff costs⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Artificial merely implies manmade, as opposed to naturally developed IMO.

  As for the hypothesis, a few years ago I took a crack at designing a system like that as an on-paper exercise. The vast majority of it was just…pushing data around and using existing data to suggest new data. Not all that dissimilar to how human beings think, to be honest. The big hurdle was optimisation and context, and allowing the platform to “grow” without letting it metastasize and without improperly restricting it. There are some hardware limitations to consider too - a storage backbone, for one, and interlinking every thread as opposed to having them wholly isolated from each other. There’s the potential for thread interruption too, which as far as I’m aware is not something that any microcode packages support.

  But despite all that, I’m still fairly certain one could build an approximation therein. The complexity of inter-stimuli input (read: input from audio, visual, and potentially sensatory endpoints, replicating vision, hearing and touch) isn’t to be underestimated, though.

  Perhaps one day I might take a crack at it - but its also a morally gray area that has quite a few caveats to it, so… uh… maybe.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Robot packers and AI cameras: UK retail embraces automation to cut staff costs⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  On the contrary, I’d argue that its entirely feasible to create an artificial intelligence. “All” you need do is replicate the concept of thought - which is a never ending train of relational contexts that are entirely dependent on the individuals life experiences. Putting that into practise is a huge job, but arguably not an impossible one. Such a creation, presuming it could create new concepts along the way, would certainly be deserving of the title “AI”.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨School phone bans don't boost grades or wellbeing, study suggests⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  I’m neurodivergent. Wanna know what would a been great? Easier access to the library and more books.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What is everyone using as a HTPC?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  I have an SFF PC currently running Mint, with Bello and steam as well as xemu and a few other goodies. The flexibility is great, if something is a bit borked I can usually just play it in VLC, and the compute allows me to run pretty much any emulator besides Xenia or that PS3 one. Once I plug a GPU into it, those should be fine too. Not bad for a cheap i5 system.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Robot packers and AI cameras: UK retail embraces automation to cut staff costs⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  They’re not intelligent, though. The only thing they can do is repeat patterns according to prompt. That’s literally all an LLM is - a massive relational database hooking up words and phrases, or repeating the laws of physics on a vast scale, or copying out design principles. Its nothing more than a stochastic parrot. It has no sentience, and sentience cannot be romanticised into it.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Digital driving licences to be ‘put on phones this year’⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  LaNd Of ThE fReE

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Digital driving licences to be ‘put on phones this year’⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Fuck no. Not happening.

  It was already a monumentally stupid idea to bank with your phone. This is catastrophic.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Robot packers and AI cameras: UK retail embraces automation to cut staff costs⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  AI

  Its. Not. Fucking. AI.

  Jfc this muck is going to make us as blind as a bat when an actual artificial sentience appears. An LLM does not an intelligence make.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Broadband boss hits out at rivals over mid-contract price rises⁩ ⁨⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Mr Tang said: “Typically broadband customers will pay for 13 months in a year rather than 12, thanks to inflation linked mid-contract price rises.

  Zen has never done this in its 28 years of trading.

  Sure about that? My broadband just went up by a quid. It’s not a lot, and it’s mostly thanks to upstream costing, but come on. Don’t fuck around with blatant lies.

  I’d still go with Zen like. Can’t beat user-configurable rDNS.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Schools given new guidance on stopping phone use⁩ ⁨⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Not hard to keep to the same policy we had in the 00’s. Off or silent, and it doesn’t come out in lessons. If it does, it goes in the teacher’s desk, and they get it back half an hour after school ends. Job done.