honzabe's recent activity

  1. Comment on GPT-4o in ~tech

    honzabe
    Link Parent
    You described very well my first impressions from that demo. I use ChatGPT a lot, and I like how factual and "human, but not too much" it feels. The AI complimenting a guy on his hoodie gives me...

    As a human though, I don't think I'll have much tolerance for the personality and voices they've given it. Too bubbly and eager to pepper in one-liners, and at the same time so corporate vanilla. If I'm going to be having long conversations with an AI in the future, it'll need to come off a little more phlegmatic or risk being just exhaustingly tryhard. I guess this is officially the uncanny valley of voice synthesis.

    You described very well my first impressions from that demo. I use ChatGPT a lot, and I like how factual and "human, but not too much" it feels. The AI complimenting a guy on his hoodie gives me the creeps. Do I detect a slight hint of flirtiness?

    17 votes

  2. Comment on The disinformation machine: How susceptible are we to AI propaganda? in ~tech

    honzabe
    Link Parent
    Maybe this is what OP meant, but some people do think that AI itself can acquire "wants" in the sense I described - one "AI vs humans" doom scenario is based on it, the one often described using...

    Maybe this is what OP meant, but some people do think that AI itself can acquire "wants" in the sense I described - one "AI vs humans" doom scenario is based on it, the one often described using the metaphor with ants - "we don't mind killing ants if we want to build a house where they have their ant hill -> if AI treats us the way we treat ants, we are doomed". I keep asking about this scenario because I do not understand it... unlike the scenario you described; that one is clear.

    4 votes

  3. Comment on The disinformation machine: How susceptible are we to AI propaganda? in ~tech

    honzabe
    Link Parent
    Maybe I am missing something, but how will AI acquire wants? To convey what I mean, imagine if I said "F-35 is much stronger than the average human, it will win a fight with remarkable ease if it...

    Maybe I am missing something, but how will AI acquire wants? To convey what I mean, imagine if I said "F-35 is much stronger than the average human, it will win a fight with remarkable ease if it wants to". It is technically true, but I can imagine no plausible scenario how F-35 could want something. Sure, a human with a certain competency could use F-35 to harm other humans, but that is a very different scenario, right?

    So in this sense of the word "want", can you actually imagine some way how AI could want something, anything? Could you please describe such a scenario? I am not saying that this is impossible - I just do not see how and I am genuinely curious.

    3 votes

  4. Comment on Why VO2 max is the greatest predictor of lifespan | Dan's journey back to health and fitness (Pt. 2) in ~health

    honzabe
    (edited )
    Link Parent
    Don't we? I would swear I read something like that... but I cannot find it. And my memory is shit, so I am likely wrong. However, I would not be surprised at all. I am not disputing that exercise...

    We have no studies that show that someone who, say, is in the top 30th percentile for running 5ks but has comparatively poor vo2max is more likely to die.

    Don't we? I would swear I read something like that... but I cannot find it. And my memory is shit, so I am likely wrong. However, I would not be surprised at all. I am not disputing that exercise helps. But VO2max, although trainable to a certain degree, has a pretty big genetic component. There are people with relatively low VO2max who exercise and there are the lucky bastards with high VO2max who do not bother. Are you sure the first group is, on average, going to outlive the second? I am not. Honestly, if I had to bet, I would bet on the second group.

  5. Comment on Heat death of the internet in ~tech

    honzabe
    Link Parent
    The Luddites were members of a 19th-century movement of English textile workers. Why are you moving goalposts to the US specifically? This was not the context of this discussion. I do not know...

    The Luddites were members of a 19th-century movement of English textile workers. Why are you moving goalposts to the US specifically? This was not the context of this discussion. I do not know enough about the US history specifically to be sure there were not some differences, but generally speaking, I don't think it can be said that Luddites were "proven correct" or that automation decimated "large swaths" of the middle class. I believe my description of what happened during the industrial revolution is pretty mainstream interpretation of history and I would need a good explanation from a reputable source to be convinced otherwise. So, I remain skeptical.

    4 votes

  6. Comment on Heat death of the internet in ~tech

    honzabe
    Link Parent
    Can you point me to a historian who explains how the period we are discussing here - the period of unprecedented growth of the middle class - the money was "vacuumed up by the wealthy"? I am no...

    Can you point me to a historian who explains how the period we are discussing here - the period of unprecedented growth of the middle class - the money was "vacuumed up by the wealthy"? I am no historian, but that claim contradicts my elementary knowledge of history and I am skeptical.

  7. Comment on Heat death of the internet in ~tech

    honzabe
    Link Parent
    If we consider only their immediate circumstances and specific industries, their concerns were valid - automation did threaten their traditional jobs and livelihoods. However, looking at the...

    In the end their fears were proven correct. Automation made products more affordable for everyone but they came at the cost of decimating large swaths of the middle class.

    If we consider only their immediate circumstances and specific industries, their concerns were valid - automation did threaten their traditional jobs and livelihoods. However, looking at the broader economic development, the introduction of automation has generally led to increased productivity, economic growth, and eventually, job creation in new sectors. The industrial revolution actually led to the growth of the middle class.

    1 vote

  8. Comment on Heat death of the internet in ~tech

    honzabe
    Link Parent
    The economy is not a zero-sum game. There is no reason to assume that money was "vacuumed up by the wealthy" and one cannot simply assume that if the wealthy had less money, the poor would have...

    The economy is not a zero-sum game. There is no reason to assume that money was "vacuumed up by the wealthy" and one cannot simply assume that if the wealthy had less money, the poor would have more money.

  9. Comment on What are some of your favorite history books and why? in ~books

    honzabe
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    If I may include historical fiction... I love I, Claudius and Claudius the God by Robert Graves.

    If I may include historical fiction... I love I, Claudius and Claudius the God by Robert Graves.

    2 votes

  10. Comment on An equitable solution to a problem at work regarding sick leave and staffing? in ~life

    honzabe
    Link Parent
    Out of curiosity, do you want to share which company? Any chance it happens to be in Ostrava? I remember talking to a friendly cleaning lady in my previous job and even she made more than that. My...

    I know a software company that pays junior programmers 6 EUR (150 CZK) per hour, though.

    Out of curiosity, do you want to share which company? Any chance it happens to be in Ostrava? I remember talking to a friendly cleaning lady in my previous job and even she made more than that. My brother works as a project manager and I am constantly hearing stories how hard it is to find decent people under 100k/month (in Prague). Even juniors with zero experience want at least 50k.

  11. Comment on An equitable solution to a problem at work regarding sick leave and staffing? in ~life

    honzabe
    Link Parent
    That explains a lot, thank you for taking the time to write it. BTW, I was always kind of envious of people born in big countries, but I guess being from a tiny country has its advantages too. If...

    That explains a lot, thank you for taking the time to write it. BTW, I was always kind of envious of people born in big countries, but I guess being from a tiny country has its advantages too. If I moved from the border village to the capital, I could still easily visit my parents every weekend.

    3 votes

  12. Comment on An equitable solution to a problem at work regarding sick leave and staffing? in ~life

    honzabe
    (edited )
    Link Parent
    Thank you. This explains a lot. Are there any reliable estimates of what the actual unemployment rate is? What number would seem believable to you? I spent some time working in Spain (only a...

    Thank you. This explains a lot. Are there any reliable estimates of what the actual unemployment rate is? What number would seem believable to you? I spent some time working in Spain (only a couple of months) right around the time when the unemployment rate was around 18% and going up and I heard some stories. Also about the black economy - is that also happening in the US?

    1 vote

  13. Comment on An equitable solution to a problem at work regarding sick leave and staffing? in ~life

    honzabe
    (edited )
    Link Parent
    Hmm, that seems to be about people with basically zero qualifications, and that obviously comes with very little leverage. Sure, there are people like that in every society and we can discuss...

    Hmm, that seems to be about people with basically zero qualifications, and that obviously comes with very little leverage. Sure, there are people like that in every society and we can discuss whether it is just and how to remedy it. However, it seems unrelated to the problem I do not understand here - why is it that in the US, even highly qualified people do not have that leverage?

    And BTW, there is no doubt in my mind that there are jobs that are really hard and shitty - when I was at Uni, I tried various "brigády" and working assembly line is certainly no picnic; however, I never saw bosses forcing anyone work sick, work unpaid over-times or any of those really toxic things, that seem common in the US, even in jobs that require university degree. I am assuming you are Czech - here in Czechia, have you ever seen a tech-dude with a computer science degree working sick because he is afraid he would otherwise get fired and would not be able to find a job? In my experience, you would be more likely to have seen a unicorn.

    4 votes

  14. Comment on How do you take notes while reading? Do you have a “marginalia” process? What has helped you learn better and retain new knowledge? in ~creative

    honzabe
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    I don't. It seems to me that the process of note-taking interferes with how my brain works - it makes me slower and more distracted with no benefits. In theory, the 30 seconds habit seems like a...

    I don't. It seems to me that the process of note-taking interferes with how my brain works - it makes me slower and more distracted with no benefits. In theory, the 30 seconds habit seems like a good idea, but in reality, the additional process that my brain has to run to condense that 30sec note takes valuable brain CPU cycles away from the "natural" subconscious processing that knows best what to retain and what to throw away.

    The only problem I would really like to solve is re-finding sources. For example, I vividly remember an article by a Russian military analyst published in a Russian military magazine before the war in Ukraine explaining from a Russian point of view why it would be a really bad idea for Russia to invade Ukraine. A few days ago, I wanted to cite that article but I could not find it. That happens to me all the time - I vividly remember an article that I read 8 years ago that has exactly the argument I need, but I cannot find it. That is one of the things I hope to get from AI - that I will store all of those thousands of articles I read and an AI will be able to find an argument I describe even though I do not remember the name of the person who said it, the name of the magazine or anything specific.

    1 vote

  15. Comment on An equitable solution to a problem at work regarding sick leave and staffing? in ~life

    honzabe
    (edited )
    Link
    I am clearly missing something, so please forgive me if this is a stupid question... but how? I am assuming you live in the US, correct? There is currently 3.9% unemployment rate in the US, which...

    I am clearly missing something, so please forgive me if this is a stupid question... but how? I am assuming you live in the US, correct? There is currently 3.9% unemployment rate in the US, which is pretty low. I live in a country where the unemployment rate is almost the same - currently around 3%. That is considered very low - when it is under around 5%, it is generally more difficult to find employees, not jobs, which gives leverage to employees. If your situation happened to me, I would simply quit and easily find a better job... or more likely, this situation would not have happened at all because the employer would know that they would be without employees the next week. Why does it not work like that in the US? Clearly, you are not the only one - I hear story after story of a toxic work environment in the US and yet, people are not leaving... why? The leverage I would expect to be working is not being used and I cannot figure out why. What am I missing?

    I once asked a similar question somewhere else and it was pointed out to me that the unemployment rate in the US is measured differently than in the EU and the actual number of unemployed people might be a bit higher, but still, I do not remember this kind of stuff happening even when the unemployment rate in my country was around 8%. I could understand it in countries like Spain where it used to be above 20% - in this situation, the leverage is in the hands of employers. But the US is nowhere near that.

    This week was the sickest I have been in years, and it was the same for several other staffers as well. We couldn't call in, however, because none of us had fevers, vomiting, or diarrhea (the "big three" for what's acceptable to call in for).

    You cannot imagine how bizarre this sounds to me. Kind of like saying "we were in a car crash and some of us were hurt, but we could not call an ambulance, because wheels were still attached to the car"... huh? What the hell? BTW, in my country (and if I am not mistaken, in all EU countries), it is not up to the employer to decide if you are sick enough. If the doctor says you are sick - any kind of sick, not some weird subset of allowed kinds of sick - you are automatically registered as "protected" and your employer cannot force you to work, cannot fire you, and your sick leave is obviously paid.

    Any chance there is someone from any developed country that is neither EU nor the US? I would be curious how this works in their country. I always thought that some sort of protection of workers is normal in any developed country and the US is just some weird exception - am I being naive?

    5 votes

  16. Comment on Self published authors, how do you market your books? Nothing I've tried has had any success. in ~creative

    honzabe
    Link Parent
    Your comments are not only factually interesting but IMO exceptionally well written. Great, I will make sure not to miss them here then.

    Your comments are not only factually interesting but IMO exceptionally well written.

    Maybe I'll look through my drafts and do some rewrites and post straight to tildes.

    Great, I will make sure not to miss them here then.

  17. Comment on Self published authors, how do you market your books? Nothing I've tried has had any success. in ~creative

    honzabe
    Link Parent
    This is pure gold. Thank you. Do you have a blog?

    This is pure gold. Thank you. Do you have a blog?

    1 vote

  18. Comment on Kingdom Come: Deliverance II -- coming 2024 in ~games

    honzabe
    Link
    I check out the trailer... wait a minute, some of those places look strangely familiar, I know that place! I am not that much of a gamer and I did not know there was a game taking place in Czech...

    I check out the trailer... wait a minute, some of those places look strangely familiar, I know that place! I am not that much of a gamer and I did not know there was a game taking place in Czech lands - thank you for bringing that to my attention. It is cool to see a place I know in a game :-)

    3 votes

  19. Comment on The troubling trend in teenage sex (it's strangulation) (gifted link) in ~life

    honzabe
    Link Parent
    Of course, porn and kinkiness existed, but maybe this is not about existence, but about pervasiveness - is that the right word? When I was a teenager, of course, some of my buddies brought a...

    Of course, porn and kinkiness existed, but maybe this is not about existence, but about pervasiveness - is that the right word? When I was a teenager, of course, some of my buddies brought a magazine to school once or twice. But it was not so ever-present and it was not treated as a manual on how real sex should look like.

    And let me be clear - I did not try to express any objective value statement. I am not saying porn is bad or anything. I tried to share my personal feelings of nostalgia and being old (which is new to me - I am not even 50). If people want to choke themselves nowadays, that's none of my business.

    11 votes

  20. Comment on The troubling trend in teenage sex (it's strangulation) (gifted link) in ~life

    honzabe
    Link
    Very interesting article - thank you for sharing that; however, it is one of those that evoke the "I am too old for this world" feeling in me. I guess it explains why I started noticing this in...

    Very interesting article - thank you for sharing that; however, it is one of those that evoke the "I am too old for this world" feeling in me. I guess it explains why I started noticing this in porn. For me, it is an intense turn-off - when I see that, washing dishes instantly becomes a lot more appealing than porn. Am I the only one who misses the good old pre-internet days when actual women were not shaved down there and the raunchiest thing one could think of was slapping her butt? Those were simpler times.

    7 votes