tim f

I wish I had time to more scientifically test some of these ideas, because information theory quickly get so nebulous and esoteric. But this is the way I model it at present

And that’s where I think it is comparable to our minds. It’s not the totality of what our minds do, but I do think our neurons are being shaped by stimulus into a complex nth-dimensioned kaleidoscope-like device that ultimately then can receive information and transform it into our perceptions.

I hate arguing w / people about LLMs, it’s such a shitty feeling, but I think the autocorrect metaphor has ultimately misled people. Yes, that’s what it came out of, but it isn’t just chaining words together. It’s more like a kaleidoscope. Light passes through & is transformed in multiple dimensions

(Note: I realize they don’t “think”, nobody yell at me please, but I still think the similarities are more than happenstance)

It is easy for me to imagine myself trying to count the Bs quickly and getting it wrong but then noticing and fixing it all in one eyeblink. So fast that I’d never even think to wonder or worry about why it was two thoughts instead of one to get it right. LLMs only thought once, now they think twice

IIUC it’s basically impossible to tell why a model gets a specific thing wrong, even to researchers. But they have figured out ways to solve this problem, and they’re a lot like what a human mind would do to error correct, which is weird

Hugely important topic in media criticism

Via @brianstelter.bsky.social: The Financial Times recently dubbed it "the great crime paradox:" Violent crime rates are falling, both in the US and the UK, "but a growing share of people think levels are rising."
view.newsletters.cnn.com/messages/175...

​​🟡 D.C.’s dark bubble, and what happened to Pitchfork | Semafor What happened to Pitchfork

The Semaphore post: www.semafor.com/newsletter/0...

A Brian Stelter tweet from February 2024, quoting Semaphore: “Crime in Washington, D.C. really is out of control, creating a strange phenomenon: The nation’s political and media elite have a true, and grounded, belief that they are living amid a crime wave. But nationally, crime is receding..." https://www.semafor.com/newsletter/02/04/2024/dcs-dark-bubble-and-what-happened-to-pitchfork

It’s interesting — last year Stelter linked to this Ben Smith Semaphore post asking if this misperception / misbelief (“true and grounded”) was a product of crime spiking in proximity to power centers. Seems that wasn’t the explanation

A very harmful aspect of white supremacy is the incentives it creates, & means it offers, for lighter-skinned immigrants to assimilate.

“Keep your enemies closer” is another way to understand it.

Some % of people will choose to perform proximity to abusive power instead of risky organizing vs it.

It turns out that when you create a system that is guaranteed to seek growth by any available means, it will seek growth by any available means

I knew that a lot of corporations in Nazi Germany were complicit in Hitler's crimes, but I feel like I was given the impression that some would have held their ground and resisted the pressure to abet the government. Our corporations have no such feature, so I'm pretty skeptical theirs did either

I think it’s time to say out loud that the United States, when it was founded as a “democracy” with the 3/5ths compromise in its originating document, was never a democracy at all, but essentially a Liberal franchise of the British Empire at the height of chattel slavery and colonial violence

2,000+ Jews gathered in Columbus Circle this evening to say No More to starvation and ethnic cleansing.

Led by rabbis, they of them moved to the front of Trump Tower, read the names of Palestinian children killed, and said Kaddish.

The NYPD is currently arresting dozens of them.

It's good that Democrats are using tools that are normal in the history of liberal democracy in the US -- gerrymandering, denying quorum -- but casting them as some radical defensive move is silly and probably unstrategic. Save Mamdani, Democrats have yet to significantly innovate in the Trump era.

lmao. chef's kiss / releasing bees into my eyes

Has Trump ever explained how reciprocal tariffs are supposed to change the behavior of importers in other countries vis a vis where they buy products from? Is he expecting other countries to force their citizens to Buy American? Or does he just think that gap will close itself automagically?

I hope that all White-identified leftists understand, White privilege was designed to make us bad at revolution. Until we understand that, and have become part of a left that operates accordingly, it will continue to serve that purpose.

Screenshot of NPR story headline: Why a NASA satellite that scientists and farmers rely on may be destroyed on purpose The Trump administration has asked NASA staffers to draw up plans to end at least two satellite missions that measure carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, according to current and former NASA employees. Rebecca Hersher • August 04, 2025 05:30 AM EDT

Screenshot of text: “It is unclear why the Trump administration seeks to end the missions. The equipment in space is state of the art and is expected to function for many more years, according to scientists who worked on the missions. An official review by NASA in 2023 found that "the data are of exceptionally high quality" and recommended continuing the mission for at least three years. Both missions, known as the Orbiting Carbon Observatories, measure carbon dioxide and plant growth around the globe. They use identical measurement devices, but one device is attached to a stand-alone satellite while the other is attached to the International Space Station. The standalone satellite would burn up in the atmosphere if NASA pursued plans to terminate the mission.”

“It is unclear” why Oedipus sought to stab himself in his own eyes

Becoming suspicious that a large percentage of people online who call themselves communists are actually just rich liberals elaborately performing their guilt, and not people truly dedicated to winning the multidimensional, civilizational battle against the systems that exploit and oppress us

("This post" = the volt guy everyone's dunking on)

If you didn't like the original post, I maybe don't even sound like I'm echoing it. But I really feel like I am. We are incredibly fucked and I have no certainty whatsoever about our ability to overcome it. Admitting that makes my broken heart a bit less distracting while I keep trying anyway.

We're in a terrible situation, and many of us are in much worse situations than the median user here, and the cards are stacked against us, AND we can't give up. To me that's an exhortation to persevere smarter & harder & with more determination to overwhelm the odds, not a recommendation to quit.

It's important not to hold on to false hope. It only gets more important, as the stakes increase and the road gets more perilous, to stow the impulse to comfort ourselves, to not tell ourselves that we're entitled to a better day. I'm not capable of giving up hope to change course. Is anyone?

I feel compelled to defend this post to some degree. I don't think it's as nihilistic as it reads. I feel as much optimism as is appropriate, but I also think it's healthy to leave room for disillusionment, or even despair. A lot of people are in this place, and scolding isn't going to change that.

No spice on this one, didn't even interact, no idea why I would even care, it's just odd

I know it's not cool to complain about blocks, especially here, and generally I think the blocking culture here is a healthy defense against toxicity. But sometimes people are out here blocking instead of using their words, for any old thing, and it seems like a weird way to operate?

this is a good thread but I might actually take it further -- I don't think manosphere shit is actually about getting laid, I think it's literally about male loneliness, by which I mean, men addressing their loneliness via homosocial bonding through misogyny

Come on, you can't seriously think that's what was being mocked here. Can you?

There is a crisis of masculinity but w/r/t it trans people are nothing but a scapegoat, and other people's gender identities are not the thing that is leaving young men vulnerable to such demagoguery. If this is a serious problem for you I urge you to discuss what is actually substantially a cause