TranquilTurbulence
@TranquilTurbulence@lemmy.zip
- Comment on Saying "over" on the radio is like the null byte at the end of a string. 1 day ago:
<comment>
Did you know that HTML has something similar.
</comment>
- Comment on Someone had to mine all the metal for the coins that end up in jars 2 days ago:
The amazing thing is, there are so many ways the metals could have ended up in the coins. For example, iron is pretty simple, you just heat up the rocks and molten iron begins to leak out. Aluminium is really weird, because finding it in a metallic form is very rare. However, there are aluminium containing minerals pretty much everywhere. Turns out, you can dissolve those rocks with some chemicals, and separate the aluminium from all the other junk with electricity.
- Comment on If we replace most plastic with a non plastic alternative and would that really be better? 2 days ago:
There’s plenty of variety within that term. Also, recycling some of them requires very precise conditions.
- Comment on If we replace most plastic with a non plastic alternative and would that really be better? 2 days ago:
In the beginning, things would suck, because low prices come from economies of scale, and the petrochemical industry certainly has scale. Once you’ve ramped up glass, paper and metal packaging factories, it should be tolerable.
There are also new materials such as biodegradable plastic and even mycelia. That would be useful.
If we also ramp up various carbon capture technologies, you could technically turn that carbon into plastics, so you won’t need any more oil. Obviously, that wouldn’t solve the climate crisis. You need CCS for that. Probably not going to happen within the next century, but it’s technically possible.
- Comment on If you're having difficulty figuring out how to pronounce "data," say database. 3 days ago:
/ ˈdeɪ tə/, /ˈdæt ə /
/ ˈdeɪ təˌbeɪs /
Source: dictionary.com
- Comment on When a person follows you and watches your every move, it's called stalking. When companies like Meta do it, it's just called collecting user data. 4 days ago:
Fortunately for you, LLMs are obnoxiously friendly, so why not generate a few slops of happiness for Meta every now and then. As a bonus, you’ll be polluting their next model too. It’s a win-win situation!
- Comment on Are some people too stupid to feel depressed? 4 days ago:
I’m going to ignore clinical depression for now, and focus more on milder symptoms like doomscrolling induced sadness, hopelessness and mild anxiety. Some people are resistant to these effects because they practice some form of optimism or stoicism. Other people just close their eyes and ignore the horrors around them. Either way, neither of these approaches tells you anything about intelligence.
- Comment on When we're home, we want people to think we're away. When we're away we want people to think we're home. 1 week ago:
I’m sorry, we are currently in a superposition of being simultaneously at home and elsewhere. If you’re here to sell something, the superposition will collapse into the state of not being at home. If you’re here to rob us, we definitely are at home and ready to call the cops.
- Comment on Would AI replacing humans in every workplace eventually make it easier for an advanced civilization from outer space to colonize us? 1 week ago:
I’ve thought about the way an excavator moves huge rocks and ant hills like they’re nothing. The driver doesn’t care about the ants, because he is focused on the construction site and staying on schedule. Maybe humans on Earth will one day be nothing more than an ant hill in the bucket of an excavator.
If super advanced aliens can carry out galaxy wide construction projects, one planet won’t matter at all.
- Comment on [deleted] 1 week ago:
It’s like one of those pitch meetings where the conversation goes something like this:
- That would be a bad idea.
- Yes, but money.
- I’m not going to do it. Your idea sucks.
- Yes, but money. Also, I’ll just hire another director who will bend to my will.
- Oh, ok then. Money it is then.
- Comment on You have been in a prison of bone for your entire life 1 week ago:
Well, at least some parts of you are outside the bone prison. Insects don’t have such luck, since the chitin is on the outside and everything else is permanently locked inside the exosekeleton. It’s even in the name: exo = outside. Jellyfish, octopuses, squids, worms, slugs, snails and some sea creatures are pretty lucky in this regard.
- Comment on Star Trek systems should use IPv6 1 week ago:
So, maybe Randall assumed that the nanobots had already devoured all the outer other planets completely before finally stopping with Earth.
- Comment on what's the word for a leg elbow? 1 week ago:
To which the answer is: “As high as a kite… No, wait. Higher. A GPS satellite? No. Even higher. Voyager 1 should be about right.”
- Comment on what's the word for a leg elbow? 1 week ago:
Those orange and brown stripes remind me this Minecraft cat. Such a beautiful color.
- Comment on Some popular sayings i combined: Evil is smart but kindness is naive, It's easy to give into evil but being Kind is hard 1 week ago:
Some popular sayings I’ve smashed together: “Don’t count your chickens before putting all your eggs in one basket and making an omelette.”
Bonus saying: “We’ll burn that bridge when we come to it.”
- Comment on What are the ethics behind purchasing a book from an author you don't agree with? 2 weeks ago:
- Comment on I probably interact with people who are at the pinnacle of their chosen skill but I'd never know because that skill isn't something that generates fame. 2 weeks ago:
A best selling author probably isn’t the best writing one. Actually, when the back cover of a book has various praises like that, I consider them a red flag.
Many highly praised business books like that are actually just mostly trash and useless fluff. Good books don’t necessarily get much fame or popularity.
- Comment on [deleted] 2 weeks ago:
Kelvin Farad, a unit for measuring something exotic related to capacitance and absolute temperature…. Sounds like something you could use to measure the performance of a hyper-space jump gate in a sci-fi story.
Either that, or simply potassium fluoride. Seriously toxic stuff BTW.
- Comment on The term carrot and stick doesn't sit well with me. If you hit a donkey with a stick then it's likely it won't trust you enough to accept a carrot later. 2 weeks ago:
Pro tip: you can also ride a pig that way.
- Comment on 1955 was as old in 1990 as 1990 is in 2025. 2 weeks ago:
You could be there too. Are you good at surviving through famine or avoiding violent people?
- Comment on 1955 was as old in 1990 as 1990 is in 2025. 2 weeks ago:
We’re working on those. Just a little bit more tyrannical dictatorship and a whole lot more smoke should do the trick.
- Comment on 1955 was as old in 1990 as 1990 is in 2025. 2 weeks ago:
In 2060, people look back at the good old days of 2020s. Doomscrolling, AI generated images, brainrot, existential dread, LLMs, those were the days…
- Comment on Would racism in the USA still exist if humans had automated robots in the 1800s? 2 weeks ago:
See what’s going on in European countries that haven’t used significant numbers of African slaves. You know, it’s possible to enslave your own population too. Anyway, there’s definitely racism in Europe, even though the history with regard to using African slaves is completely different. Nowadays, racists hate all foreigners regardless of skin color.
Actually, people seem to gravitate towards this weird sort of tribalism when the in-group and out-group are pretty arbitrary concepts. It doesn’t even have to be based on skin color, language or religion. People just hate other people because they were born in the wrong town.
If America never used any African slaves at all, normal human tribalism would still be there to mess things up. There would be groups based on arbitrary things that slang, facial features, dietary preferences, fashion choices etc. Racism wouldn’t disappear. It would just be aimed at some other group.
- Comment on Maybe Facebook, Spotify, Twitter and the like are scamming Advertisers about interaction stats thanks to AI-powered Bots. 2 weeks ago:
Also the incentives of this setup are pretty screwed up. The advertising agency gets money as long as they are able to convince the advertiser that their services are worth it. But how do you really measure that? Sure, we have lots of fancy tracking technology, but not all consumers click ads to buy stuff. Whats the role of those purchases? Who knows. The agency will undoubtedly claim that all the sales were a direct result of an advertising company, and they have every incentive to say that. Do they really have any incentive to be completely honest about the effectiveness of their ads. I doubt it.
- Comment on I had a truly inspired "showerthought" 2 weeks ago:
If you duelly note something, remember to use training swords.
- Comment on I had a truly inspired "showerthought" 2 weeks ago:
The term you’re looking for is “community”.
- Comment on A shapeshifter standing in front of a mirror for hours making subtle adjustments to their disguises like a gamer in the character creator. 2 weeks ago:
Next step: choose a name
The shapeshifter lets out a deep sigh filled with dread and anxiety, knowing it’s going to take the whole day.
- Comment on Why don't these code-writing AIs just output straight up machine code? 3 weeks ago:
Debugging AI generated code is essential. Never run the code before reading it yourself and making a whole bunch of necessary adjustments and fixes.
If you jump straight to binary, you can’t fix anything. You can just tell the AI it screwed up, roll the dice and hope it figures out what went wrong. Maybe one day you can trust the AI can actually write functional code, but that day isn’t here yet.
Then there’s also security and privacy. What if the AI adds something you didn’t want it to add? How would you know, if it’s all in binary?
- Comment on [deleted] 3 weeks ago:
Kids can also be considerate of they care about you. Once they know the rules of the game, they will follow the rules just to make their favorite adult happy.
- Comment on There are people who are still using toilet paper purchased during the pandemic. 3 weeks ago:
That was a bizarre time period. I wonder why moms didn’t start hoarding baby diapers at the time. Can you imagine what happens if the supply chain collapses and you run out of diapers? Having enough toilet paper will be the last of your worries at that time.
Fortunately, all of those fears were unfounded, but they were also directed towards some weird items too. If you want to worry about something, toilet paper isn’t really very high on that list.
