Hamartiogonic
@Hamartiogonic@sopuli.xyz
- Comment on Belgium will ban sales of disposable e-cigarettes in a first for the EU 23 hours ago:
Many years ago, I went to see a doctor. He smelled like he had just smoked a pack of cigarettes during his last break. I found it very difficult to take any of his words seriously since the smell was so disturbing.
- Comment on Taliban leader bans windows overlooking women's areas 1 day ago:
That’s exactly what I thought until I read the headline for the third time. The autocorrect in my head seems to be highly biased.
- Comment on Caffeine content in filter coffee brews as a function of degree of roast and extraction yield 5 weeks ago:
That was an interesting article to read, and it looked pretty scientific too. Using Fahrenheits and splines totally sticks out, but the rest looks pretty good to me.
- Comment on Scientists find lesser mealworm's potential to combat plastic waste 1 month ago:
Maybe one day plastic processing plants could use larvae to eat the waste. We’re already using microbes in this way, so why not extend the same idea to larger creatures.
- Comment on xkcd #3004: Wells 1 month ago:
Fair enough. We’re going to assume it’s completely safe until proven otherwise. Vulcanologists can tell you that the viscosity can be pretty high, so there could be a choking hazard though. Further study would be needed to determine the exact nature of potential hazards.
- Comment on xkcd #3004: Wells 2 months ago:
Be careful though. If you keep on digging deeper and deeper, you’ll find magma. That’s not a bad deal either, because you can use that heat to run a geothermal power plant.
- Comment on xkcd #3001: Temperature Scales 2 months ago:
At least that follows some mathematical logic. Mohs scale of hardness is pretty close to pT scale in that sense, but there’s no mathematics or logic involved. It’s just a list of standard materials that define specific points on the scale. When you compare the results with a more logical scale, it looks neatly non-linar at first glance, but the closer you look, the less sense it makes. It’s just a list of exceptions to whatever rule you may have had in mind.
Doesn’t mean it’s a useless scale. You can totally use it for qualitative assessment of hardness, but steer clear of it when numbers and decimals actually matter.
- Comment on xkcd #3001: Temperature Scales 2 months ago:
It’s only fair to give credit when credit is due. Doesn’t mean I like that unit, but I can see where they’re coming from.
- Comment on xkcd #3001: Temperature Scales 2 months ago:
You could totally make an extra cursed temperature scale. Randall proposed the °X scale, but maybe we can do better than that. That was pretty cursed because it defines three points based on statistics observed on of Earth and uses linear interpolation to connect the dots.
I propose an extra cursed system that uses completely fictional values. Let’s take -π as the melting point of unicorns and +GrahamsNumber as the peak temperature in the core of the hypothetical planet Vulcan. Between the two points you can fit any seventh degree polynomial you like in order to get the values that fit your needs. On Wednesdays you can use a sine wave too.
- Comment on xkcd #3001: Temperature Scales 2 months ago:
I think it’s about time we switched to using seconds as the universal time unit. I really hate the messy base 60 conversions we inherited from the Babylonians. Also, month is such a broken unit, and it just makes many calculations unnecessarily complicated.
- Comment on xkcd #3001: Temperature Scales 2 months ago:
In the Middle East, the winters are brutally cold and the locals suffer. Tourists from colder regions come there to enjoy their winter vacation in December or January, because it’s paradoxically quite warm. They only pack their normal spring clothes because it isn’t really that cold in their opinion. You know, a thin coat, maybe a thin summer beanie. You’ll probably be ok without any mittens. Also, you can wear normal shoes which is nice.
- Comment on xkcd #3001: Temperature Scales 2 months ago:
I don’t really use the Fahrenheit scale for anything, but when I bump into it, I prefer to think of those values as: 0°F is a cold winter and 100°F is a hot summer weather. Makes sense for the human experience, which makes it a very practical unit. The original definition was more technical than that, but it was also severely limited by the technology at the time, so it had some flaws.
You also have to look at these units in the proper historical context. Measurements were a complete mess, so having at least something that sort of makes some sense and is somewhat repeatable, is a clear improvement. Both, Fahrenheit and Celcius scales totally addressed those concerns, and that makes them both good enough. Absolute zero and plank temperature weren’t even known back then, so what can you expect.
When it comes to using these units in serious scientific and engineering applications, you run into problems, but the kelvin scale addresses those pretty well. It’s not exactly elegant, but at least it’s functional. Because of historical baggage, we’re pretty much stuck with these units, but it could be worse.
- Comment on xkcd #3001: Temperature Scales 2 months ago:
Yeah, well that’s a cultural thing really. Celcius and fahrenheit scales are both quite arbitrary. The kelvin scale uses absolute zero, which totally makes sense, but the other fixed point is pretty arbitrary when you think of it. The fahrenheit scale makes sense for the human experience of weather, while the celcius scale makes sense for generally life on Earth where water plays an important role. Neither of them are particularly universal.
- Comment on xkcd #3001: Temperature Scales 2 months ago:
LOL, the original Celsius scale really is 10/0 cursed.
- Comment on xkcd #2992: UK Coal 2 months ago:
Clearly illustrates the role of politics and economy. If you want to change things, you should make sure laws and regulations facilitate it.
- Comment on xkcd #2987: Tectonic Surfing 3 months ago:
Was it Randall or someone else who mentioned in a speech that infinite patience could be a superpower? Like, when you arrive at the store just when it closes, you would just stand there outside the locked door until it opens again. Anyway, this one connects beautifully with that idea.
- Comment on xkcd #2983: Monocaster 3 months ago:
There’s also a huge 0-wheels market. Just think how cool wheel-free skates and boards are.
- Comment on xkcd #2978: Stranded 3 months ago:
I think we could send robot farmers there to grow some food for the people living in orbit. Maybe low-G carrots could be nicer than the ones grown on earth.
- Comment on xkcd #2978: Stranded 3 months ago:
Humans are very picky. Must have certain amount of gravity, need to see green stuff, can’t handle radiation etc. it’s is if they were built to be on a specific planet and nowhere else.
- Comment on xkcd #2976: Time Traveler Causes of Death 4 months ago:
The universe seems pretty infinite when viewed with our current tools and from our perspective. I would still argue that we can’t really be sure just yet. However, we can say it’s effectively infinite just like a lot of things in physics are effectively massless, effectively frictionless etc. You totally can make your calculations work really well even though your model cuts some corners here and there.
In many cases, you can even assume the Earth is flat and simple maths still works well enough. However, when you zoom out and start doing more complex calculations, you run into trouble and need to upgrade to a more sophisticated model. I would argue that the current assumption of the universe being infinite can fall into the same category.
- Comment on xkcd #2976: Time Traveler Causes of Death 4 months ago:
If we can’t find the cosmic frame of reference, then how do we know it even exists? Sure, you can assume it exists, and call that a hypothesis. If only someone had a way to test that hypothesis.
- Comment on xkcd #2974: Storage Tanks 4 months ago:
Good point. Sounds like it would be a good idea to replace the RNG chip with a weather station. This way, sunshine, wind, rain, temperature and other conditions control the frequency of the motor. Anyone who can predict that deserves a Nobel Price.
- Comment on xkcd #2974: Storage Tanks 4 months ago:
Add a long pipe so narrow it will cause turbulence and loose an unpredictable amount of energy that way. The mathematician who can predict how that mess works out gets a noble prize and a pack of drill bits.
- Comment on xkcd #2974: Storage Tanks 4 months ago:
Just add a pump in the bund to pump the liquid back into the tank. In order to deter mathematically inclined terrorists, use a variable frequency drive and make that frequency change every second. The problem becomes unsolvable.
- Comment on xkcd #2962: President Venn Diagram 5 months ago:
Best thing is, those changes would not upset anyone in the slightest. It’s just physically impossible.
- Comment on What if you tried to print Wikipedia? 5 months ago:
- Comment on Could I get an autopsy done on myself while I'm alive? 7 months ago:
That’s a good point. “Determining the cause of death” implies that the person is dead. It’s like braiding the hair of a bald guy.
- Comment on xkcd #2933: Elementary Physics Paths 7 months ago:
At school, I thought our understanding of chemistry was really good. Years later, I realized that complicated solutions aren’t covered by any of the equations we have. You’re can do fancy calculations, but you’re always stuck with simple solutions and standard conditions. In real life, you have to deal with super messy non-standard stuff all the time.
Top scientists end up developing semi-empirical models, or even particle simulations, and that’s the best we can do right now. Nobody fully trusts those predictions, so we’re still going to need lab experiments before making any big decisions.
The good news is that there’s still so much to discover.
- Comment on What is a good eli5 analogy for GenAI not "knowing" what they say? 7 months ago:
Remember when you were 10 and had to give a presentation about something? Well, you just memorized some stuff word for word (or simply read off a paper), gave the presentation and hoped nobody had any questions. Well, LLMs did the same, but they memorized several libraries worth of books and half the web.
No matter how much you memorize, it doesn’t change the fact that a 10 year old still doesn’t really understand how water circulates on Earth or how plants make seeds. Sure, you can give a convincing presentation about it, but everything falls apart as soon as anyone asks a question.
With LLMs, the scale is just bigger, but essentially they’re still playing the same game. Instead of having a half page presentation, you can think of LLMs as if they have prepared a 6000 page presentation, of which they only share a half page summary with you. If you ask questions, the LLM will “scroll to the relevant page” and look up the answer. As you keep poking and prodding, you’ll eventually find out that it’s all memorized, and the LLM understood none of it. This house of cards doesn’t fall apart immediately because LLMs have memorized so much.
One obvious difference is that your average 10 years old doesn’t have unshakable confidence in what they memorized, whereas LLMs tend to present everything as hard facts. If you point out a mistake, it’s usually going to be just another exercise in futility.
- Comment on How rental ‘libraries of things’ have become the new way to save money 7 months ago:
That’s true. If something doesn’t directly make money, it can still exist because of taxes or another arrangement like that.