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#51

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

Last post by Josquius - December 31, 2025, 05:57:14 PM

AI is a worry yeah.
LLMs are clearly heavily marketing. They're not capable of half as much as is presented.
But even before the current "AI" fuss data was a big thing. Totally agreed about having the raw processing power to piece everything together being a concern.
I can't help but find the big data centre (probably) being built at the white house very worrying.

Though I do admit there is a tinfoil hat part of me going "this is the stuff they let the public know about. Theres some much worse stuff they just aren't telling us"... But then I remember what trump is like and he absolutely would blah about that.

Again I think the key forces here are globalisation and the rise of Asia. But I think part of the consequences of that, especially with Trump, is that there is going to be a decoupling of Europe and America. Which will be transformative and I think is already relevant in how Europe orients itself towards Russia and China as I think we're moving back to Eurasia after a few hundred years of a Euro-Atlantic with the Americas as European hinterland, then s shaed Atlantic, to Europe as an American frontier. Again I think it maybe feels like apocalypse if you're in - and a believer in - that Euro-Atlantic, but possibly not if you're from, say, China or India within living memory of profound absolute rural immiseration and seeing vistas and possibilities opening that were impossible to imagine a generation ago. Again I think for a lot of the world the "rules based liberal order" is not something to mourn because it never looked rules based, liberal, or orderly for them

I would say though that even from an Indian or Chinese perspective things are looking very dodgy indeed.
India is really being destroyed by homegrown fascists and China has been backsliding for some time.
Oh sure, when you remember actual food shortages and other such mega poverty then you can forgive a bit of fascism if it gives you an ok quality of life.
But that's not a good thing. Not a sustainable thing.

#52

Off the Record / Re: The AI dooooooom thread

Last post by Josquius - December 31, 2025, 05:51:34 PM

Once upon a time it made sense. Books were scarce. Remembering had value. Even without AI this hasn't been so for a while.
It would be nice to see a change in how things are done to encourage more application even at undergrad.

Life would be impossible without remembering.  We use basic math every day.  We use language every day.

Well obviously yes.
Do you really think the core concept of memory could be objected to?
What is not so necessary these days however is remembering the specifics of vast amounts of university level knowledge.
Learning how to apply the knowledge is far more key

#53

Off the Record / Re: The Off Topic Topic

Last post by crazy canuck - December 31, 2025, 05:42:08 PM

Jesus Christ man.

I mean fuck that rapist guy but that is some pretty blood chilling shit.

We are all going to have to choose to live in the dark ages just to avoid constant control and monitoring aren't we?

Granted even if the government couldn't do that without a warrant, everybody else can already do it so maybe it doesn't really make that much of a difference. It is always just depressing to be reminded of it.

I wouldn't call the time before search engines the dark ages.  I think it was preferable in many ways.

Yeah but all the analog infrastructure that made that work is mostly gone.

I don't think so, the books haven't been burned yet

#54

Off the Record / Re: What does a TRUMP presiden...

Last post by crazy canuck - December 31, 2025, 05:38:33 PM

Institutional integrity is quite a bit different from an individual having a mental break with reality for a short period of time.

Institutions are made up of many people, and many people have been terminated from important positions within those institutions.  It will take generations for the United States to recover, if at all.

#55

Off the Record / Re: What does a TRUMP presiden...

Last post by DGuller - December 31, 2025, 05:23:05 PM

A general observation: many US government organizations have historically been heavy hitters globally, their regulations and assessments have carried some weight worldwide in many industries. That prestige is starting to evaporate, since US government is a joke now.

My hope is that the obvious insanity going on now will actually mitigate the reputational damage to some extent, because the world knows that the stupid tweets are not really coming from the same agencies that earned the prestige, even if they carry the same name. 

It's like if a widely respected man goes down the street naked yelling obscenities:  the behavior is so obviously crazy that you know it's not the same man doing it, even if the body is the same.  You know a mental health crisis is behind it, and it doesn't erase the man that was there before.  Of course, all this makes a difference only if you can treat the mental health crisis and return the man to what he was;  if the crazy guy persona is the new normal for him, then it gets bleak.

#56

Off the Record / Re: What does a TRUMP presiden...

Last post by The Minsky Moment - December 31, 2025, 04:54:11 PM

 

Travail, Famille, Patrie

#57

Off the Record / Re: The AI dooooooom thread

Last post by Sheilbh - December 31, 2025, 04:18:07 PM

Sure - although I think there are spontaneous acts of creation/thought within seminars and tutorials (as a student, I imagine less so for the academic ). I agree in regards to lectures or set texts.

I don't disagree with that. I just disagree that academia is teaching "what we already collectively know".

#58

Off the Record / Re: The AI dooooooom thread

Last post by Admiral Yi - December 31, 2025, 04:14:11 PM

I'm not so sure on academia being we're taught what we collectively know, but the contemporary take or interpretation of it. We are taught not the past but the present - which is built on those foundations.

The contemporary take on a matter is not a spontenous act of creation during the lecture; it is the result of *past* reflection and analysis and writing.  And thus searchable by LLMs.

#59

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

Last post by DGuller - December 31, 2025, 04:13:07 PM

Nobody's brought up AI, either. I really don't think we can underestimate the potential danger of this.

[edit] Yes, I know there's an entire thread about it.

I did bring up AI in my post, and I'm scared of it for many reasons.  I think people get so caught up about measuring ChatGPT's IQ that they don't think about the scalability of knowledge aspect, and how dangerous it can be all on its own. 

When you have access to a whole world of knowledge, including private knowledge that's generally not of interest to more than a few people, you don't need to be a genius to connect the dots.  Most dots in the world don't get connected not because people are too dumb to connect them, but because they don't have them in the first place due to human limits.  Our privacy and agency relies on a lot of dots staying unconnected that an AI will connect to our detriment, intentionally or not.

#60

Off the Record / Re: The Off Topic Topic

Last post by Valmy - December 31, 2025, 04:02:31 PM

Jesus Christ man.

I mean fuck that rapist guy but that is some pretty blood chilling shit.

We are all going to have to choose to live in the dark ages just to avoid constant control and monitoring aren't we?

Granted even if the government couldn't do that without a warrant, everybody else can already do it so maybe it doesn't really make that much of a difference. It is always just depressing to be reminded of it.

I wouldn't call the time before search engines the dark ages.  I think it was preferable in many ways.

Yeah but all the analog infrastructure that made that work is mostly gone.