Recent posts

#21

Off the Record / Re: The AI dooooooom thread

Last post by Admiral Yi - January 01, 2026, 06:16:34 PM

In academia, at least when it is working properly, books and articles are used as a touchpoint for discussion and further analysis.  The purpose is not to train people to just reproduce back what is written but to spark ideas, to build upon existing knowledge and push further.  That is very different from building a probability engine to predict the next set of characters based on a matrix of how those characters have been used in past publications.

I think I see the source of the confusion.  When I said that's all of academia, I meant all of academia contains facts, wisdom, knowledge acquired  in the past.  Not that academia consists of nothing but facts.

#22

Off the Record / Re: Football (Soccer) Thread

Last post by Sheilbh - January 01, 2026, 05:30:21 PM

Just looked at the results - four games, four draws, two goals.

Feel like fixture congestion maybe having a bit of an impact.

#23

Off the Record / Re: Football (Soccer) Thread

Last post by Zoupa - January 01, 2026, 05:20:18 PM

I watched Spurs-Brentford today. What a drab affair. My 2 cents: Spurs will not achieve anything under Thomas Frank. Spurs have tried this kind of coach before, with Nuno, Conte, Mourinho. It's incredibly boring and does not fit the club culture. Pocchetino and Ange fit the mold much more yet got sacked right after major achievements. Infuriating.

Oh, and we're apparently selling our top scorer last season, the one who actually got us the Europa League win. Because the issue with Spurs is definitely that we score too many goals 

#24

Off the Record / Re: TV/Movies Megathread

Last post by The Brain - January 01, 2026, 04:35:35 PM

So, based on social media latest season of stranger things sucks, huh?

Have only seen a couple of episodes yet. So far it's just more of the same. My impression is that the season won't add anything significant, and that they could have ended the show after S4. But I'm ready to be surprised.

I wasn't surprised.

#25

Off the Record / Re: TV/Movies Megathread

Last post by Josquius - January 01, 2026, 03:47:50 PM

Maybe I figured out why I don't like Stranger Things.
It's too dark.
Everything happens at night. With crap lightning.
I never like things where you can't see why is going on.
I rated the batman films less than many others do too.

#26

Off the Record / Re: Vote in the New York City ...

Last post by Josquius - January 01, 2026, 03:30:39 PM

He's sworn in. Found this out today and it made me giggle a bit. He has to pay $9 to be mayor.
Now is it just me or is that such an American weird little institutional tradition?
https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2026/01/01/zohran-mamdani-mayor-nine-dollars-filing-fee/87983627007/


Like having to recite the last round of cricket scores whilst sitting bare bummed on a picture of the pope, holding a white cat and a wellington boot- sure. As a brit that sounds like a perfectly normal tradition.

Having to pay some guy $9 to get your papers.... That's just so cute and American. I can imagine this holding even in some glorious far future world without money in the way many of our traditions have outlasted them making any sense.

#27

Off the Record / Re: The AI dooooooom thread

Last post by The Minsky Moment - January 01, 2026, 03:19:35 PM

Sounds like all of academia.  We're taught  what we already collectively know, which was acquired in the past.  Libraries are full of books that were written in the past.

In academia, at least when it is working properly, books and articles are used as a touchpoint for discussion and further analysis.  The purpose is not to train people to just reproduce back what is written but to spark ideas, to build upon existing knowledge and push further.  That is very different from building a probability engine to predict the next set of characters based on a matrix of how those characters have been used in past publications.

#28

Off the Record / Re: The Off Topic Topic

Last post by The Brain - January 01, 2026, 02:25:19 PM

Happy New Year!

#29

Off the Record / Re: Are we in the opening scen...

Last post by Sheilbh - January 01, 2026, 01:19:30 PM

But I don't think it's good to lean too far in this  "anti imperialist" direction.
Looking at the big picture global trends are not great this past decade.
And not at all thinking about what is best for me /Britain  here but humanity overall (in which I do think there's a huge overlap in a lot of things except the very particular stuff about me becoming a little bit rich)

I've said before but on a lot of stuff I am basically an old school Third Worldist (Edit: I went on holiday to Indonesia and literally visited Bandung to see the museum of the Bandung Conference and was, weirdly, interviewed by Japanese journalists who were there because it was the 70th anniversary ) But I take your point and I'm not necessarily celebrating this or saying that what's coming is better. I'm saying that the perspective from Europe is of an ending (which I think is happening) and of threat - but I don't think that's the sense everywhere.

But in terms of apocalypse I think do fundamentally fall on the line that it's not apocalypse it's regime change, it's a period of transition which is inevitably destabilising. Part of mourning the loss should also be that we're clear eyed about the iniquities it was built on as that allows us to have a way of approaching the new. I think the big failure of our system was that it was a closed shop - with the unique exception of post-Communist Europe - we never had a development model that could help the poor or the rest of the world and we never democratised power in the institutions we built to manage the world order. It was always 1990 (at best) which in turn reflected the flaws of the previous order (such as Europe's privileged position).

Although FWIW if I was to go full Copernicus (please don't quote this at me in the future ) I actually think the era we're heading into will be one of a fusion of state and corporate power. In some areas, I think that will proceed through the dismantling of state power and subjugation of political power to the economy and corporate interests (who are delivering the objectives of the "state" in its place). In other areas I think it'll take the form of a minimal state delivering needs to a level necessary to maintain some popular consent, accompanied with looting by political-corporate elites. I think in others, primarily the Communist party states like China, there will still be a mid-20th century vision of the state and political power which will subjugate corporate power to political ends but that the top ends of all three will be exceptionally blurred.

My hope is, as ever, popular sovereignty and the assertion of the supremacy of politics (Edit: and building state capacity) - but I'm not sure I see much sign of it happening.

#30

Off the Record / Re: Are we in the opening scen...

Last post by Jacob - January 01, 2026, 01:04:49 PM

Too bad we can't ignore the US impact on climate change.

I saw an article the that claimed that more than 90% of the US' new energy capacity in 2025 was renewable, in spite of Trump's efforts.