andrewrgross

@andrewrgross@slrpnk.net

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Elon Musk’s Grok Goes Haywire, Boasts About Billionaire’s Pee-Drinking Skills and ‘Blowjob Prowess’⁩ ⁨⁨20⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago⁩:

  I think this is the main story. I don’t think it’s new info, but it confirms the issue persists: this LLM is so heavily trained to fawn over Musk that it doesn’t exercise any application of context or attempt to find truth.

  Which is sad.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Sam Altman and husband reportedly working to genetically engineer babies from having hereditary disease⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  The other issue I have is that this is an example of a recurring issue in which the tech obsessed ultra wealthy declare their plan to solve a problem for which a very straightforward policy solution already exists.

  We don’t need tech to extend lives or feed the hungry. We just need to remove the paywalls to existing resources.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What if tRump is Secretly bisexual but forced to be deeply ashamed of it like the rest of his generation?⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  It’s an amusing premise, but I think of you actually pay attention to the arc of his life and evening e said by the people who understand him (Mary Trump’s book is perhaps the best on this), it doesn’t bear out.

  By all evidence, Trump doesn’t really experience romantic attraction, and his sexual appetites have always been primarily for power and attention. He doesn’t really like getting sweaty. During the years he was a famous lothario, he widely faked this image despite having an enormous fear of STIs, especially HIV.

  He does seem to enjoy bodies, but almost always through the thrill of conquest: he likes taking something he considers a prize.

  Does he secretly long for cock? Has he suppressed urges under social pressure? Almost certainly not. He’s always revelled in being sexually deviant, and thrilled in violating social norms. It’s highly likely that he’s gotten sexual service from men or femboys, because that fits the profile. But suck a dick? No. Never.

  Not because it’s gay, but because it’s giving. This is a guy who has almost certainly never given oral service to anyone, man or woman.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Creation Entertainment have announced ENT cast members for STLV 2026⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Neat.

  I’ve been listening to the podcast Greatest Gen, where they’ve been doing a watch-through of Enterprise, and it’s fun to listen to. It sounds like a better show than the reputation gives it, but also really unbalanced in terms of cast attention.

  Is that universal on Star Trek? I feel like Data was the show mostly centered on Picard, Ricker, or Data, and then Troi and Geordi got to be in it through being associated to Riker and Data, and then Worf was almost always in the background. From the watch through on Greatest Gen, it seems like Trip Tucker was one of the three main characters, Phlox was a constant presence even if rarely the main character, and then Mayweather and Hoshi they joke are lucky if they get a line, and a few times per season they actually enter into the plot of an episode at all.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨If AI was all it was cracked up to be, it wouldn't be shoved in your face 24/7⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I really love your analogy. I’m imagining early 90s Windows and AOL bombarding folks with pop ups that say ‘want to take this with you? Print it!’ and ‘Did you know you can print anytime you like with our new dedicated keyboard print button?’ and ‘Try our new cassette music player, now printer-powered to give you the best sound you’ve ever heard!’

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The word "meme" had been hijacked by ignorants.⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I understand your irritation when the word is used for any and all text on images, but can you appreciate that for most memes, the word is being used for it’s intended purpose?

  I’m thinking primarily of jokes that use templates. Mark Grayson asking a question and having his dad enthusiastically reply “That’s the neat part: you don’t!” contains a highly transmissible concept, and acts as a vector for transmitting a whole bunch of ideas that fit within that concept. Any time something feels like an elder or authority figure responding to concern or confusion in this unconcerned way, you can summarize the feeling with this simple hieroglyph.

  Linguistically, I think that’s pretty awesome.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why do seemingly all politicians (and no one else) do that hand gesture when they talk, the one where it looks like they're holding an invisible fishing rod?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Yeah. You kinda had to be there for it to make sense, but after Obama became president the right wing media went absolutely bonkers creating a five-alarm fire every day over any and everything. One of these was that one day he didn’t wear a standard boring white-guy suit in dark blue: en.wikipedia.org/…/Barack_Obama_tan_suit_controve…

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why do seemingly all politicians (and no one else) do that hand gesture when they talk, the one where it looks like they're holding an invisible fishing rod?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Oh that’s right!

  And now I’m remembering his scandalous tan suit!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why do seemingly all politicians (and no one else) do that hand gesture when they talk, the one where it looks like they're holding an invisible fishing rod?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Yeah.

  Although I recently heard him on Marc Maron’s podcast, and was rather disappointed.

  He’s still far, far more lucid than most other politicians, but he came off as wildly out of touch, which I didn’t recall him being 10 years ago.

  Oh well, that’s the match of time for you.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Foggy Nelson was wrong in most of the arguments with Matt Murdock in Daredevil⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  This is an interesting observation, but I watched Daredevil like a decade ago and I’ve never seen Superman & Lois so I don’t really know what you’re talking about.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨OpenAI valued at $500B in new deal with Microsoft — too big to fail?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Deal removes constraint on OpenAI’s ability to raise capital

  I think they mean “raze”…

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨how do you deal with those characters fully convinced a job is something you have to enjoy?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I think the question is easier to answer if you remove the specific reason this coworker is annoying.

  How do you deal with someone who bothers you with annoying, unwanted conversation about job satisfaction? The same way you deal with someone who bothers you with annoying, unwanted conversation about CrossFit or astrology. You answer every question with some version of ‘Huh, I don’t really know. I’m really busy, though, so I can’t talk. Have a good day.’

  The whole careerism element seems largely immaterial.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Luke Cage is way to overpowerd to be a "street level" hero⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I don’t think his strength is within an order of magnitude of theirs. I don’t think his durability is either.

  Granted, I wouldn’t be surprised if you showed me a comic showing otherwise. There’s probably a comic where he goes inside a star or something stupid, because there are always those kinds of writers. But based on his typical portrayal, I think he’s more of a brush off a car crash and pick it up guy than a survive a nuke and crush coal into diamonds guy.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Luke Cage is way to overpowerd to be a "street level" hero⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  You know, sometimes when the Avengers announce a new inductee I’m like, ‘Really?! You think that’s a good strategic addition?? This feels more like a popularity contest!’

  Their choices kind of look to me more like a publisher’s idea of what will sell books & toys than a cooperative of gifted public servants. But I’m probably just being silly.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Sam Altman Says If Jobs Gets Wiped Out, Maybe They Weren’t Even “Real Work” to Start With⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Agreed. His comments are so bizarrely stupid on so many levels.

  They’re not just “wrong”: they’re half-right-half-wrong. And the half that is wrong is idiotic in the extreme, while the half that is right casually acknowledges a civilizational crisis like someone watching their neighbors screaming in a house fire while sipping a cup of coffee.

  Like this farmer analogy: the farmers were right! Their way of life and all that mattered to them was largely exterminated by these changes, and we’re living in their worst nightmare! And he even goes so far as acknowledging this, and acknowledging that we’ll likely experience the same thing. We’re all basically cart horses at the dawn of the automobile, and we might actually hate where this is going. But… It’ll probably be great.

  He just has a hunch that even though all evidence suggests that this will lead to the opposite of the greatest good for the greatest number of people, for some reason his brain can’t shake the sense that it’s going to be good anyway. I mean, it has to be, otherwise that would make him a monster! And that simply can’t be the case. So there you have it.

  It’ll be terrible great.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Sam Altman Says If Jobs Gets Wiped Out, Maybe They Weren’t Even “Real Work” to Start With⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  100%.

  Peter Frase deconstructed this in an article a decade ago (and subsequent book) “Four Futures”.

  It’s really not complicated. Saying 'the rich want to make us all obsolete and then kill us off ’ sounds paranoid and reactionary, but if you actually study these dynamics critically that’s a pretty good distillation of what they’d like to do, and they’re not really concealing it.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Uh… @DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works ?

  I think it sounds like you might be a danger to yourself.

  I don’t know your situation, but I just want to point out two things:

  1. The belief that those around a depressed person secretly don’t want them around or would appreciate them more when they’re gone is wildly untrue. It kind of sounds like your brain is trying to convince you of this, and you should know that your brain is almost certainly lying. Lots of people know folks who are depressed that we love very much and are grateful to have in our lives.

  2. People who survive suicide attempts consistently express regret and a sense of terror during the act that felt like someone else was trying to kill them.

  I know that during depression, negative thoughts can make a convincing case that you cannot expect anything to get better, but there are A LOT of people alive today who enjoy their lives who felt the same way at some time in the past. I hope that with support you can perhaps be one of these people.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Move Fast and Break Nothing | Waymo’s robotaxis are probably safer than ChatGPT.⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  I love buses too, but a van pool is materially different. Buses travel fixed routes. A van pool can act as a shared taxi that shuttles people directly between points of immediate departure, transit stations, and final destinations.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Move Fast and Break Nothing | Waymo’s robotaxis are probably safer than ChatGPT.⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  This article is a little light on thesis, but legit.

  Personally, I’d like to tie a vision of autonomous vehicles to a broad rethinking of transit and public ownership. What if training data was shared, so instead of allowing Google to create another monopoly we deliberately cultivated a diverse market? What if we designed roads to accommodate autonomous van pools and also bikes and more light vehicles?

  We can dream better than this.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The Jobs AI Is Replacing the Fastest⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Researchers following the adoption of AI predict around 92 million jobs are projected to disappear by 2030, even as roughly 170 million new roles are expected to emerge, McKinsey & Company has found.

  What in the fuck does this mean?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨95% of Companies See ‘Zero Return’ on $30 Billion Generative AI Spend, MIT Report Finds⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Return? /s

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Also: from a practical perspective, how on earth does one keep this a secret?

  ‘Alright sweetie. Dinner is on the counter. If you need anything Becca next door said to just knock. Promise me you won’t stay up to late, okay?’

  ‘Sure Mom. But where are you going?’

  ‘I’ve told you sweetie: don’t ask questions. Bye!’

  That makes no sense.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Most people tend to overestimate how universal their own experiences and reactions are.

  And to clarify, this applies to you AND to the people you’re disagreeing with (and myself as well!).

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Good advice is context-aware. Is often about offering guidance to help someone assess their situation from a third-party view.

  For instance, if you asked me how to give good advice to a stranger I wouldn’t say “tell them to get more sleep and exercise”. I’d say to focus on helping them figure out what their goal is and what their options are. You see the difference?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Growing up, my mom owned a women’s lingerie store on the main commercial street in the heart of our neighborhood. My teachers and classmates bought their bras and panties from my mom, and everyone knew this. Obviously, this isn’t exactly the same as sex work, but I can tell you I was served well by the fact that I never grew up inheriting want awkwardness or discomfort.

  Live a truth you’re not ashamed of and share that truth with your kids at an age appropriate level. You don’t need to be graphic, but tell your kids you work at a club. Tell them you’re a stage performer. If they say, “do you strip?” You can say yes or you can say that stage performances are for an adult audience and you would rather not discuss the details. But of you acted ashamed, you’re giving your kid that shame. As a parent, one of the most important things is that we be the kind of people we want them to be. If you don’t want your kid to be brave/confident/proud/kind/patient/etc. you gotta try and live it.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Do you mind me asking if you’re a parent or caregiver and if so what age you interact with?

  I think your take is pretty moderate and reasonable, but as a dad to a five year old I feel that trying to preserve a child’s “innocence” feels misaligned with trying to preserve lifelong hope and faith in goodness. I feel like preservation of innocence implies growing up is an inevitable process of disillusionment. Does that make sense?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  What’s your point, though?

  Do you think op is making up salacious posts for attention? Do you thick they’re overly sexual, and should curtail that?

  I’d like to know what you’re thinking specifically.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I don’t believe you could really meaningfully deter their operations through casual poor performance. I think either you’d have to directly sabotage them or you’d have to be complicit.

  I do think everyone should flood their applications systems with time-wasting fake applications, but actually interviewing and getting hired is unlikely to be productive.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What is wrong with being "Black Pilled"?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I want to set aside my skepticism that this philosophy can be separated from misogyny.

  Even if it could, it hurts the practitioner. This is a philosophy of nihilistic abandon and self-harm. If someone has adopted a radical belief in their own hopelessness and worthlessness, and the associated beliefs that life for them can hold nothing but suffering, that person is in crisis and needs help. There isn’t a healthy version of that, and we should consider those people at great risk and in need of assistance.

  It does hurt someone. It hurts the person who is adopting these views.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨‘The vehicle suddenly accelerated with our baby in it’: the terrifying truth about why Tesla’s cars keep crashing⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Also, not only do they rely on “just vision”, crucially they rely on real-time processing without any memory or persistent mapping.

  This, more than anything else is what bewilders me most.

  They could map an area, and when observing a construction hazard save that data and share it with other vehicles so they know when route setting or anticipate the object. Not they don’t. If it drives past a hazard and goes around the block it has to figure out how to navigate the hazard again with no familiarity. That’s so foolish.