Ari Gesher

feeling exposed // #photography

This is where journalists fail us. They can only manipulate the symbols of the argument without interrogating, whether the symbols are real, correct, or appropriate for the argument.

Preserving our might is unfortunately necessary work to defend free places from warlords.

But just being the biggest warlord is how everyone loses.

Glee over violence is spelled “barbarism” not “dynamism”.

Feeling patriotic about this war - even if one judges the Iranian regime evil - is to completely misunderstand what is actually special about the United States.

If you think it’s our might, let me explain to you the difference between “necessary” and “sufficient”.

Heel (professional wrestling) - Wikipedia

They’ve really leaned into being the heel.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heel_(p...

Which is great in a morality play but less so when we’re talking real life - a distinction that apparently seems lost on them.

We should have never legitimized gambling or outsourced our thinking.

A metal plaque with raised lettering spelling out the phrase, "In a dream you saw a way to survive and your were full of joy."

Jenny Holzer, Untitled ("In a Dream..."), from The Survival Series, 1983–85

She is just an amazingly bright talent!

And such an inspirational figure doing things her own way.

The Model Is The Message | NOEMA The debate over whether LaMDA is sentient or not overlooks important issues that will frame debates about intelligence, sentience, language and human-AI interaction in the coming years.

The larger point in this clarification is that we've reached the limits of some of existing language, where the meanings have not been tested until now.

I found this piece to be very illuminating on that front:

www.noemamag.com/the-model-is...

You communicate with brains. Everything else isn’t communication.

My point is semantic and drawing a distinction between the nature of these activities that both transmit information.

Brains don’t store. They integrate new understandings and associations.

Alternatively, you interact with rather than communicate with the machine.

Machine is extension of brain in this scenario. And we’re seeing that as SWEs become managers and architects commanding bit armies.

How much of the nuance and essence of the problem can you keep straight is the whole game.

Related to a thought I’ve been kicking around!

The real wisdom of Brook’s “Mythical Man Month” is this:

Communication between brains is expensive and lossy. Solve the problem with the minimum number of brains.

AI promises to lower the number of brains you need on problem dramatically.

Strange colourful cyclops with curtain holding yellow bells, textural mixed media painting

Pantomime cyclops with bells

Use Unpredictable Rewards to Keep Behavior Going If you want people to keep doing a certain behavior, then don't reward them every time—the research shows that an unpredictable reward keeps a behavior going, even after you stop giving the reward.

www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/brai...

Banger!

without the ability to document requirements, shepherd the llm coding agent, verify its outputs, consistently test the software ui for functional reqs, fix its mistakes, and scan for security flaws etc,

it’s not coding of any kind, it’s just pulling a slot machine lever and hoping code falls out

if the logic of this piece is correct, every day small businesses etc should have been succeeding for years at creating custom software

they could just hire a developer and TELL the developer what to do, right?

and yet these projects are 97% doomed.

and it’s not bc code is rare and hard.

The man just owns any room he’s in.

It’s exquisite.

Photo of a big new moon on the top-left of frame, shot at 500mm, with a red dot in the center of frame (Mercury) and the Griffith Observatory on the bottom-right corner.

Moon and Mercury setting next to the Griffith Observatory just moments ago. Found a good spot to take photos.
#Photography #Astrophotography

A young girl leaps over a tidal stream on a beach illuminated by an orange sunset.

Sunset stream skip

#photography #q343

La Jolla Shores, San Diego, CA

Have we not eaten while another starved? Will you punish us for that? Will you reward us for the virtue of starving while others ate? No man earns punishment, no man earns reward. Free your mind of the idea of deserving, the idea of earning, and you will begin to be able to think

... published and printed on demand, with the text magically tailored to your personal tastes via AI-helper context transfer!

Also, it will not have a byline, just a corporate copyright.

I took Saturday Morning Physics there. Such a wonderful facility.

education.fnal.gov/program/satu...

I’ve been sitting on this picture from LaBagh Woods since last May. It’s always been ready to post. But I wasn’t ready to post *it*.
// #photography

I like how you slipped “bear“ in there.

Polar sequences #sciart

The Constitution needs an upgrade. Trump has made clear that the US Constitution & overall system have significant security flaws + traits that benefit extremism. We need structural changes, inc. multiple Constitutional Amendments, to improve resilience to future authoritraians. A starter list: 🧵

Is liberal democracy in terminal decline? The old system worked under a set of conditions that are no longer present

If you can jailbreak this piece, it's worth reading. Basically, the best evidence we have suggests that the ongoing health of liberal democracy depends on steady economic growth.

Have any of the degrowthers grappled with this directly?

Co-sign