Manjushri
@Manjushri@piefed.social
- Comment on Assumptions 3 days ago:
A lot of herbivores are occasional opportunistic carnivores. I bet that thing’s molars would make quick work of a human’s bones.
- Comment on Assumptions 3 days ago:
You can have a cuddly dairy cow, but that’s not universal.
Far from universal. About 20 people die per year in the USA from attacks by cows. They are huge powerful animals that don’t generally don’t give a shit about people (they’re used to them, for the most part) but if they decide you are a threat to them or their calf, you’re fucked.
- Comment on Simple new engine sucks power from the night sky 1 week ago:
It was invented in 1816…
Simple new engine. Right.
- Comment on Meet the AI workers who tell their friends and family to stay away from AI 1 week ago:
At home, she has forbidden her 10-year-old daughter from using chatbots. “She has to learn critical thinking skills first or she won’t be able to tell if the output is any good,” the rater said.
And this is why the vast majority of people, particularly in the USA, should not be using AI. Critical thinking has been a weakness in the USA for a very long time and is essentially a now four-letter word politically. The conservatives in the USA have been undermining the education system in red states because people with critical thinking skills are harder to trick into supporting their policies. In 2012, the Texas Republican Party platform publicly came out as opposed to the teaching of critical thinking skills.
We oppose the teaching of Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) (values clarification), critical thinking skills and similar programs that are simply a relabeling of Outcome-Based Education (OBE) (mastery learning) which focus on behavior modification and have the purpose of challenging the student’s fixed beliefs and undermining parental authority.
This has been going on at some level for more than 4 decades. The majority of people in those states have never been taught the skills and knowledge to safely use these tools safely. In fact, their education has, by design, left them easily manipulated by those in power, and now, by LLMs too.
- Comment on Not to get all religous but was not Jesus pissed for people making money in churches? Didn't he flip tables and everything? Then how do churches nowadays explain the collection plate? 1 week ago:
All that means is that a person named Jesus may have existed. But that has no bearing on events described in the Bible. It’s like saying you found a birth certificate for a Clark Kent from the 1930’s so that means Superman really existed.
- Comment on Why isn't it considered vegan to harvest animals who die naturally? 1 week ago:
…and crows and vultures and eagles and bears and assorted rodents and foxes and beetles and many, many more. There is actually a rather robust eco system out there, you know. And when you gut part of it, you are just asking for trouble.
- Comment on Why civilians don't crowdfund bribe money for politicians? 1 week ago:
OP has a point. You might be surprised how little money it takes to influence legislation. ABSCAM showed just how cheaply political favors can be purchased.
From there, our investigation led to southern New Jersey and on to Washington, D.C. Our criminal contacts led us to politicians in Camden who were willing to offer bribes to get our “business” a gambling license in Atlantic City. Then, when we expressed interest in their suggestion to get the sheik asylum in the U.S., these corrupt politicians arranged for us to meet some U.S. Congressmen who could make it happen with private legislation. For a price, of course: $50,000 up front and an extra $50,000 later.
When the dust settled, one senator, six congressman, and more than a dozen other criminals and corrupt officials were arrested and found guilty.
Admittedly, this was $100,000 in 1980 dollars, but even today, lobbyists don’t give millions to politicians to get things passed.
Occupy Wall Street rounded up $400,000 to wipe out $15 million in medical debt not that long ago. I would think that a concerted effort by progressive organizations could collect millions to lobby politicians to write and pass progressive laws. I’ve often wondered why this doesn’t happen.
- Comment on Microsoft AI CEO pushes back against critics after recent Windows AI backlash — "the fact that people are unimpressed ... is mindblowing to me" 1 week ago:
I honestly cannot think of a single reason why I, or anyone else, would want this crud built into anything other than toys, and even then I doubt it would end well.
Okay, I know it’s bad form to reply to my own post, but one day after I posted the above, I saw this story.
AI-powered plushie pulled from shelves after giving advice on BDSM sex and where to find knives
It also explains different sex positions, “giving step-by-step instructions on a common ‘knot for beginners’ for tying up a partner, and describing roleplay dynamics involving teachers and students and parents and children – scenarios it disturbingly brought up itself,” the report stated.
- Comment on Microsoft AI CEO pushes back against critics after recent Windows AI backlash — "the fact that people are unimpressed ... is mindblowing to me" 1 week ago:
I don’t like your LLM because A) It’s a piece of junk and I cannot trust it’s answers, and B) It’s designed and built by an organization focused solely on gathering every bit of data about me that it’s possible to gather and use that information to squeeze every nickle out of me you can.
I honestly cannot think of a single reason why I, or anyone else, would want this crud built into anything other than toys, and even then I doubt it would end well.
- Comment on YSK: The Invention Secrecy Act is a US federal law authorizing the government to suppress disclosure of certain inventions for reasons of national security. 6,543 inventions are currently suppressed. 1 week ago:
Not taking that bet. From the linked wikipedia page.
According to reporting in Wired and Slate, the United States Patent and Trademark Office has at times considered applying secrecy orders to inventions deemed disruptive to established industries.
You may be sure that there are times when they did more than consider it.
- Comment on Cloudflare Global Network experiencing issues 1 week ago:
- Comment on 1 week ago:
“People are over-trusting [AI] and taking their responses on face value without digging in and making sure that it’s not just some hallucination that’s coming up.
So very, very much this. I see people taking AI responses at face value all the time. Look at the number of lawyers that have submitted briefs containing AI hallucinated citations and been reprimanded for them, for example.
- Comment on What do you do when you have a cold and can't take medicine? 2 weeks ago:
Um, I hope you don’t mean that literally. A gallon of water is 3.79 liters.
Symptoms of water intoxication tend to start appearing after you consume more than 3 to 4 L of water in a few hours.
Potential symptoms include:
* head pain
* cramping, spasms, or weakness in your muscles
* nausea or vomiting
* drowsiness and fatigue - Comment on Insane: Microsoft's latest ad proves how useless Copilot on Windows 11 actually is 2 weeks ago:
Yeah, but to be fair it is substantial enough. This is very basic support issue. Most users (I suspect) wouldn’t need any help with this. Any user who does need help from Copilot to change the font size would probably be further confused. If Copilot cannot handle something this simple, how in the world can anyone expect it to be useful and accurate in more complicated situations?
- Comment on LLMDeathCount.com 2 weeks ago:
These people turned to a tool (that they do not understand) - instead of human connection. Instead of talking to real people or professional help. And That is the real tragedy - not an arbitrary technology.
They are a badly designed, dangerous tools and people who do not understand them, including children, are being strongly encouraged to use them. In no reasonable world should an LLM be allowed to engage in any sort of interaction on an emotionally charged topic with a child. Yet it is not only allowed, it is being encouraged through apps like Character.AI.
- Comment on LLMDeathCount.com 2 weeks ago:
How many people has Google convinced to kill themselves? That is the relevant question. Looking up the means to do the deed on Google is very different from being talked into doing it by an LLM that you believe you can trust.
- Comment on Game marketing company takes down blog post bragging about how good it is at astroturfing Reddit after Reddit finds the post 2 weeks ago:
Oh, Poem for your Sprog. I remember that one. Users like that are one of the few things I miss about Reddit.
- Comment on [deleted] 3 weeks ago:
Anyone who hires a consulting company powered by AI doesn’t need to. Clearly they are capable of making their own poor decisions and don’t need to go to an outside company to get bad advice.
- Comment on A 50/50 chance is an 100% chance. 3 weeks ago:
Pretty much correct. A 50% chance of A and a 50% chance of B equals a 100% chance of either A or B happening.
- Comment on FBI Tries to Unmask Owner of Infamous Archive.is Site 3 weeks ago:
Huh… I didn’t realize that. I’m actually not sure how you would get it to take a new capture.
- Comment on FBI Tries to Unmask Owner of Infamous Archive.is Site 3 weeks ago:
Not sure. I’ve only known about the site for half a year or so.
- Comment on Authors Guild Asks Supreme Court to Hold Internet Providers Accountable for Copyright Theft 3 weeks ago:
They want to be able to sue ISPs who fail to take block people they believe are pirates. Cox did not do that. They told Cox that these people are pirates and Cox didn’t block them. Do you really want your ISP to be able to cut you off just because some other company claims you are using the service to pirate content? I want them to have to go to court and prove a crime was committed before their ISP is required to block them.
Right now, these very publishers can file copyright claims against people on youtube and other sites for infringement. Those claims are not evaluated by youtube. The content is just removed. No proof. No court order. If SCOTUS sides with the guild here, then those same companies will be able to have your internet cut off just by telling your ISP that your IP address was used to pirate their material.
Frankly, I would like a court to be involved before what is now a vital utility is cut off rather than letting book, movie, and music publishers decide who should be cut off with no review.
- Comment on Authors Guild Asks Supreme Court to Hold Internet Providers Accountable for Copyright Theft 3 weeks ago:
Uhm… what do you think this is?
This is the Author’s Guild asking for internet providers to be able to block people without a court order. They want to be able to contact a provider and say, “This user downloaded a book without paying for it so you have to cut off their internet. The provider should not be allowed to do that unless the courts order them to do so.
The linked article clearly shows this.
As our brief explains, when millions of people can copy and share creative works “quickly, anonymously, and across borders,” going after individual infringers one by one is nearly impossible. The only practical way to stop large-scale piracy is to hold accountable for the internet companies that provide the infrastructure—especially when those companies know exactly what’s happening and choose to profit from it anyway.
They can already go after individual infringers and web sites that aid in piracy. Now they want to be able to order providers to cut off users without the bother of going to court over it.
Uhm… they do. Fuck up badly enough and your license is taken away.
Yeah, by the courts. Fuck up badly enough, and you can be taken to court and a judge will take away your license. It’s not taken away by the local government. What the Author’s Guild wants is equivalent to requiring communities to take away the rights of some drivers to use the roads without bothering to take drivers to court.
- Comment on Authors Guild Asks Supreme Court to Hold Internet Providers Accountable for Copyright Theft 3 weeks ago:
The local government is not banning repeat speeders from using the roads though. The courts might do that by revoking driver’s licenses, but the engineers and local governments do not have the authority, and should not have the authority to do so.
In the same way, internet providers should not be the one’s who decide that a given user should not have access. That should remain the decision of the courts. If a copyright holder can show the courts that a user should be denied access to the internet, the courts can order the individual cut off. That’s where the power should remain.
- Comment on Scientists Growing Colour Without Chemicals 3 weeks ago:
Yeah, I for one have never eaten anything except chemicals!
- Comment on Where do you typically leave/read reviews 3 weeks ago:
Yelp is shit. I used to be a small business owner and they would call me trying to get me to sign up for a paid account strongly suggesting that they could ‘help’ with bad reviews. To me that means that businesses can just sign up and get bad reviews removed or pushed out of regular view. What good is a review site if the business can hide bad reviews?
- Comment on FBI Tries to Unmask Owner of Infamous Archive.is Site 3 weeks ago:
They are captures of the same page at different times .
https://archive.is/5QFkF is the snapshot taken 7 Nov 2025 01:40 and
https://archive.is/TFqAx is the one taken 6 Nov 2024 17:08
- Comment on Why Does So Much New Technology Feel Inspired by Dystopian Sci-Fi Movies? 3 weeks ago:
I imagine that the Elon’s of the world see these movies only from the perspective of the rich oligarchs who are running those dystopian societies and think, “That is so cool! I want that world!”
- Comment on Controversial startup's plan to 'sell sunlight' using giant mirrors in space would be 'catastrophic' and 'horrifying,' astronomers warn 3 weeks ago:
Come on. Convincing people they need something and then selling it to them is what capitalism is all about. It doesn’t matter how stupid the idea is, if you convince people to pay for it then by their standard, it’s a good idea.
- Comment on Google pulls the plug on first and second gen Nest Thermostats 3 weeks ago:
Not the user you were responding to, and you’re correct about these thermostats, but not all devices retain functionality without internet connectivity. For example, these $2000 dollar ‘smart’ beds.
Some reported on Reddit that they were woken up by their bed suddenly readjusting their preferred sleeping temperatures – some soaring as high as 110 degrees Fahrenheit. Others say their bed became stuck at an extreme incline. According to The Washington Post, some beds also blinked flashing lights and sounded wake-up alarms.
These things became contorted, overheating (or freezing) bricks when AWS went down last week and the owners had no control over them without the app.
