andrewrgross
@andrewrgross@slrpnk.net
- Comment on [deleted] 1 week ago:
Respectfully, this title gets under my skin.
Why so doomer? He might veto it. It wouldn’t be surprising. But why are you declaring a loss prematurely?
Don’t hope for things there’s no chance of. Fight to change the chances of things, and if you fail try and fight again and again until you win.
- Comment on Germany Is Using AI to Erase Pro-Palestinian Speech 1 week ago:
This headline reads like 2025 news Mad-Libs:
“<Proper noun> is using <Latest fad> to <Verb> <Ideological alignment adjective> <Conceptual noun>”
Try it:
“OpenAI is using Hydroflasks to destroy Catholic exceptionalism”
“Mark Cuban is using cryptocurrency to monetize white supremacist hope”
Good times./s
- Comment on Lara Croft games are the nightmare of any real archaeologist, biologist and paleontologist. 1 week ago:
Thanks, I think so too.
I’m trying to expand on it a bit, because I think what’s still missing is a sense of stakes and grandeur.
What if the backdrop is that Croft (or similar protagonist) is working with a team that is uncovering new and valuable discoveries that reveal the art and culture of ancient people that were largely absent from history. It’s showing that some earlier group had settled an ancient valley prior to the arrival of a group that is culturally significant to a current regime. And as they’re making these discoveries, it’s becoming increasingly contentious politically among some faschy nationalist government (a la Orban, Erdogan, etc.)
Over time, they begin to face mounting pressure to secure the sites quickly before a rival team is sent in specifically with the goal of damaging them and stealing artifacts so that these finds aren’t able to be studied. And the protagonist, as the first person who the team relies on to safely document and preserve the site, is soon persued by a goon squad, allowing us some urban platforming levels as you work towards a final confrontation.
- Comment on Lara Croft games are the nightmare of any real archaeologist, biologist and paleontologist. 1 week ago:
I wonder what it would look like to try and resolve some of these problems in a way that still provides a satisfying platformer experience.
Like, what if instead of these ruins being a bunch of traps with some key magical artifact that she heavily disturbs while passing through, what if the game was a platformer where you had to essentially erect scaffolding and lay down tarps in advance of a bunch of the rest of a team? And the goal is to basically use climbing and athleticism to navigate the environment without disturbing an incredibly fragile environment?
- Comment on Does noise from different nearby sources 'add up'? Or do the different sources cancel each other out? In any case, please provide a formula and an example 2 weeks ago:
Can you demonstrate how you would have composed the question?
- Comment on What are the ethics behind purchasing a book from an author you don't agree with? 2 weeks ago:
I think people overthink spending money on things they don’t support. I think stealing it is justified, but If you’re doing academic studies or learning how to deprogram people, go ahead and buy a Nazi’s book if you have to.
That said, if you’re looking to argue with Holocaust deniers, trying to defeat them by studying their arguments is a classic blunder.
Conspiratorial thinking is rooted in social maladies, and attachment to a theory is a downstream effect. You can no more talk a Holocaust denier out of their belief with evidence than you can fix a broken watermain by sand bagging the street. If you’re trying to deprogram someone, you’ve actually got to learn how to get them to open up about the background experiences that led them to look for these answers and then find ways to help them find alternative hobbies that obviate their need for the conspiracy.
It’s a much slower process, but if that’s what you want to do, read up on that and don’t bother wasting money on Irving’s book.
- Comment on "Stringy" parts 2 weeks ago:
Agreed.
There’s also not much reason not to use supports. A tree support wouldn’t as much time or material at all.
Everyone needs a little support sometimes.
- Comment on The U.S. Just Ran a Solar Storm Emergency Drill. The Real Deal Would Be a Catastrophe 3 weeks ago:
Oy. I really don’t want to see what happens when we’re faced with an actual challenge. This is… yikes.
- Comment on Microsoft says it provided AI to Israeli military for war but denies use to harm people in Gaza 3 weeks ago:
Also: this article omits serious context about what the IDF does with the information Microsoft is describing!
Over a year ago, 972 wrote an explosive expose on IDF ai targeting. It’s all pretty blunt. A general name Yossi Sariel wrote a book describing how AI could automate industrialized killing, and these plans were put into practice to deliberately target civilian infrastructure when entire families were sitting down to meals. The tools included Lavender, which composed target lists that pretty much included any male over 14 and Daddy’s Home, which tracked targets generated by Lavender and generated strike plans when it determined that the target was at their home.
There’s no good reason why the Independent left this out. A general literally wrote a book about this, and it’s been a year since this information came out.
- Comment on Nextcloud cries foul over Google Play Store app rejection 4 weeks ago:
Yo I self host a Nextcloud server and I don’t know what an apk is. Please stop being a gatekeeper. Grandma Ruth deserves alternatives to big tech just like the rest of us.
All freedom to all the people. These tools aren’t supposed to be some special privilege for 1337 hackers. They should be ubiquitous.
- Comment on Behind the Scenes Bloopers from The Making Of 'Patrick Starship Enterprise' 5 weeks ago:
Okay, thank you.
- Comment on Behind the Scenes Bloopers from The Making Of 'Patrick Starship Enterprise' 5 weeks ago:
I’m confused. What’s this a blooper reel for?
- Comment on Eggs 5 weeks ago:
This is an amazing shower thought.
- Comment on What is the evolutionary benefit of loving a pet so much you melt into a puddle when they are around? 1 month ago:
I think animal affection – particularly for cute, non useful animals – is an extension of our infant protection drive.
- Comment on It’s game over for people if AI gains legal personhood 1 month ago:
The same ones listed in the article. Property ownership, speech, privacy, etc.
- Comment on It’s game over for people if AI gains legal personhood 1 month ago:
I feel like the rise of corporate personhood is the elephant in the room this article seems to avoid acknowledging.
- Comment on bewCloud is a modern and simpler alternative to Nextcloud and ownCloud written in TypeScript 1 month ago:
I just set up a Nextcloud server this weekend, and this is the second time since I’ve heard people complaining about it.
I guess I should try some of the alternatives.
- Comment on Elon Musk, Jack Dorsey Call For Abolition Of All Intellectual Property Laws, Arguing There Are 'Much Greater Models To Pay Creators' 1 month ago:
I specifically said I wasn’t.
- Comment on Elon Musk, Jack Dorsey Call For Abolition Of All Intellectual Property Laws, Arguing There Are 'Much Greater Models To Pay Creators' 1 month ago:
I find this surprising, because frankly I agree.
I don’t know much about Dorsey, but in Musk’s case, I think this is another case of him espousing a good idea he’d never actually honor.
I think that anyone should be able to make movies with Mickey Mouse and no one should need to license code. But I suspect that like with free expression, these are values most proponents only like when it’s benefiting them.
Also, as for the alternatives to support creatives, I would say start with universal services. Universal housing, universal healthcare, universal education, universal food. We would have so much more art if we recognized that no one should have to “earn” their survival. Once that’s guaranteed – and abolish billionaires and extreme wealth inequality too – I think discussions over how to support creatives would take place from a much more favorable starting point.
- Comment on China Halts Critical Rare Earth Exports as Trade War Intensifies. 1 month ago:
Wow!
That’s good world building.
- Comment on Governments are just groups of strangers who happen to be in positions of power. 1 month ago:
Yeah. I went to a friend’s birthday hangout at a local pizzeria, and there were five of us around a table, and one guy was a city council member. The good ones are not that inaccessible.
- Comment on [deleted] 2 months ago:
This isn’t a question most of us have had in the shower. I think that transferring guardianship of children for profit is largely considered unethical. I believe it is legal in some circumstances. I’ve been told that orphanages can sell orphans to other orphanages. I’m not really sure what context you’re asking about, though.
- Comment on Sergey Brin says AGI is within reach if Googlers work 60-hour weeks 3 months ago:
I’m a materialist, so I think digital consciousness is totally possible. But then I’m also a bit of an animist too, so maybe you’re right.
I agree overall, though. It’s so much more epistimology than actual technology, and the field seems to be half grifters and half cultists. Which doesn’t really inspire confidence that this is in any way a genuinely useful commercial venture.
- Comment on Sergey Brin says AGI is within reach if Googlers work 60-hour weeks 3 months ago:
What is the point, though?
If you made AGI, you’d have a computer that thinks like a person. Okay? We already have minds that think like a person: they’re called people!
I get that there is some belief that if you can make a digital consciousness, you can make a digital super-conciousness, but genuinely stop and ask what the utility is, and it’s equal parts useless and evil.
First, this premise is totally unexamined. Maybe it can think faster or hold more information in mind at one moment, but what basis is there for such a creation actually exceeding the ingenuity of a group of humans working together? What problem is this going to solve? A “cure for cancer”? The bottleneck to cutting cancer isn’t ideas, it’s that cell research takes actual time and money. You need it synthesize molecules and watch cells grow, and pay for lab infrastructure. “Intelligence” isn’t the limiting element!
The primary purpose is just to crater the value of human labor, by replacing human workers with workers with godlike powers of reasoning. Good luck with that. I’m sure they won’t come to the exact reasoning as any exploited worker in 120 nano-seconds.
It’s like Jason’s problem-solving advice in “The Good Place”:
“Any time I had a problem, and I threw a Molotov cocktail… Boom, right away, I had a different problem.”
Sure. Let’s work ourselves to death forTHIS.
- Comment on Are conservatives mad about trans people or they just mad they get walk around out of the closet while they have to leave the white sheets at home? 3 months ago:
I sincerely mean this with no disrespect: while that sounds quite reasonable, it is thoroughly sophomoric and misinformed.
I think your impressions sound like very rational assessments that happen to be unfortunately based on bad underlying information.
Before I elaborate, would you mind telling me: what has been your personal first-hand experience meeting transgender people who are out to you? And what state do you live in?
Also, if you’re comfortable, what would you cite as a source of news and information that has guided your thinking on this issue?
- Comment on Amazon’s killing a feature that let you download and backup Kindle books 3 months ago:
Yep. Not to gloat, but I never touched Amazon’s ebook marketplace.
My current e-reader is a second-hand Kindle that has a permanent message asking if I would just please connect to a WiFi network just one time just for a moment PLEEEEEASE.
I get my books from libgen, Gutenberg, or Kobo, and keep them on my computer. They’re organized in Calibre, and I transfer them over on a USB cable.
- Comment on Poll: What's the cross-over between fans of Trek and solarpunk? 4 months ago:
Oh, you’re right. On my desktop it shows up, but I originally replied on mobile. That explains it.
- Comment on Poll: What's the cross-over between fans of Trek and solarpunk? 4 months ago:
I generally agree, although the use of replicators is a point of departure.
Solarpunk typically emphasizes degrowth and an end to scarcity that comes from a move away from endless consumption.
It’s not a criticism. Just an artistic difference responding to the 60s vs the new century.
- Comment on Poll: What's the cross-over between fans of Trek and solarpunk? 4 months ago:
I would also say that in general, Star Trek seems to steer slightly around discussing the actions needed to proactively achieve their society. It’s an end point, and you can find some info here and there about how they got there, but it’s really treated as the result of a magical tech breakthrough that resolved class conflict with the wave of a hand.
Anyway, solarpunk and Trek are definitely fellow travelers. But their tones aren’t identical.
- Comment on Poll: What's the cross-over between fans of Trek and solarpunk? 4 months ago:
Oh. They’re different servers! That’s actually a very clever joke. I’m sorry I didn’t pay close enough attention to appreciate it.
That got a chuckle out of me. Heh.