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dmfdmf

1,308 karmajoined vor 18 Jahren

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dmfdmf
·vor 4 Tagen·discuss
This is an interesting development. I think trying to program a computer to be "intelligent" without a valid theory of concepts is a fool's errand.
dmfdmf
·vor 9 Tagen·discuss
Unless things change we are going to end up like Cuba keeping old '57 Chevys running into the 80's. From what I've read nobody wants these modern ipads on wheels and used car prices of pre-2015 cars, regardless of miles, will continue to rise. The most telling thing is that the industry knows that if their customers knew about all the spying and there was an off switch then 99% would choose off. Perhaps they should think about something other than money.
dmfdmf
·vor 12 Tagen·discuss
Yes, this is the same argument used when the Biden admin during covid pressured the media companies to cancel people and news they did not like for "misinformation" instead of calling it censorship. This and LEOs buying data from Big Corp is just end-running the 1st and 4th amendments which is ultimately fascism.
dmfdmf
·vor 14 Tagen·discuss
I am old enough to remember when the fax machine first became ubiquitous in the 80's and read about how the Soviets were threatened by it. Unauthorized use was a crime and they stationed guards at fax machines to prevent mis-use. Perhaps I naively fell for CIA propaganda at the time but if true we can hope/estimate that California Commies will fall in less than 10 years since things are moving much faster in today's world.
dmfdmf
·vor 15 Tagen·discuss
So everyone is on the same page on this issue. The First Amendment is the right to anonymous free speech. I doubt they teach it in the govt schools but the Federalist papers, which argued for the US Constitution, was published anonymously.
dmfdmf
·vor 16 Tagen·discuss
Good point. I don't know how liability works in the Waymo case.
dmfdmf
·vor 17 Tagen·discuss
I think the human "driver" of that car will be charged with at least recklessness. Even if you are in a botcar you still have ultimate responsibility for safe operation. From the vids I've seen and the damage to a brick wall it had to be going at least +60 MPH in a residential neighboorhood. If he was paying attention he would have disconnected auto mode and hit the brakes long before it crashed. He was probably on his phone at the time or asleep.
dmfdmf
·vor 23 Tagen·discuss
>Now, to be sure, the end product of science is supposed to be science, not grants or tenure.

"To be sure" and "supposed to be" are doing some heavy lifting here. I am not so sure about that so I suppose that for many "scientists" the end product is not science at all. I'm not impugning the whole field as there are many good and honest scientists but the SYSTEM is corrupt. I think a significant portion are gaming the system for status or money or sinecures. P-hacking, fake data scandals, the replication crisis and various fake articles getting published in top journals are omens that something isn't quite right in the science world.

My own view is that it is all due to govt funding of science and especially the NSF which should be closed ASAP. Ayn Rand discusses the problem in her article "The Establishing of an Establishment" in her anthology "Philosophy:Who Needs It". Handing out govt grant money invariably locks in the status quo, i.e. an establishment. She also points out that under such terms it is impossible even for an honest man to make good choices which is why such rackets attract scammers and con artists, even fully credentialed PhD's.

Here is an excerpt from her article; https://aynrandlexicon.com/lexicon/government_grants_and_sch...

Or buy and read the whole article and the anthology.
dmfdmf
·vor 24 Tagen·discuss
FYI, En effet = Indeed. Toutefois = However. I had to translate so I thought I'd share.
dmfdmf
·letzten Monat·discuss
> we made the intentional decision to not include email on the dumbphone 2 to stay aligned with our values. we created a communication device with essentials that help guide you off your smartphone screen, while still being able to operate in the modern world.

I'm looking for a dumb phone and this looked promising until no email. Email is underrated as a time saver, if you aren't getting hundreds of emails daily which is a choice. Email is not as urgent as text or phone calls and its main advantage is that it separates the sender/receiver schedule or timezone.

People need to learn to guard their time and schedule like a hawk and not operate in chronic reaction mode, i.e. someone else setting your priorities for the day.
dmfdmf
·vor 2 Monaten·discuss
So far, so good. I just let Kagi renew after my first year. The nicest thing is getting relevant search links on the first page or two and not pages of SEO links or ads masked as links that are irrelevant to my search. I haven't even used the advanced features yet but just using it in base mode is a huge time (and frustration) saver for me.
dmfdmf
·vor 3 Monaten·discuss
My working hypothesis has always been that Satoshi was a CIA or NSA working group partly to fund black ops. Also, it could be that Bitcoin was a psyop to get people used to digital currency followed by the bait and switch to CBDC. Seem to be working.
dmfdmf
·vor 4 Monaten·discuss
Now do Onedrive.
dmfdmf
·vor 4 Monaten·discuss
> And besides, when I make phrases, is it really me who is speaking? How can anyone ever say anything original, personal, unique to him, when by definition language obliges us to draw from a well of pre-existing words?

You need to learn the distinction between a word (the symbol) and the concept (the meaning) of language. By your standard a Frenchman could never communicate with an Englishman but we know that is not the case.
dmfdmf
·vor 4 Monaten·discuss
>Scientists define the stages of life in biological, societal, and chronological terms—but none of them quite capture what it’s like to grow up.

Because unlike the lesser animals, for a human adulthood is not a biological, societal or a chronological question but an epistemological question. The answer is that you become an adult when you learn to think for and by your self. Most people are not adults by that standard.
dmfdmf
·vor 4 Monaten·discuss
As is tradition, HN has downvoted your legit comments to the twilight realm. I agree with everything you say. Onedrive should be flagged as a virus. Why do they get a pass for things any other app would be blocked for doing?

I think the real issue is that MS doesn't view Windows primarily as an OS that should be invisible, out of the way -- with minimal "innovation" geared to sell MS products. The problem is that MS views Windows as a sales/marketing channel for their ads/apps/services.
dmfdmf
·vor 5 Monaten·discuss
Setting aside i, math symbols that stand for irrational numbers can be treated as numbers in theorems or derivations or proofs but one needs to be careful that a symbol such as Pi or SQRT[2] actually designates an infinite series to calculate a rational number. This distinction is important when math equations are actually used to calculate or measure something specific which is the whole point of math. All valid measurements can only result in a rational number. It is the distinction between doing math and doing physics or engineering (i.e. applied math) which has to be integrated, they are not separate fields with regards to measurement.

The imaginary number i=SQRT[-1] is the base solution to the polynomial equation -y= x^2. If you read the history it was invented to solve certain types of cubic equations, i.e. as a heuristic of method. So not only is it not a number it is a bare contradiction. While i was useful to solve some subclass of all cubics it did not lead to a general solution to cubic equations. Nevertheless the mathematicians ran with it and added complex numbers to the definition of number so that the number system could solve all possible polynomial equations.

In my opinion imaginary numbers are a kludge and deadend and it is masking the real issues in math, i.e. the ghosts of departed quantities. In math some symbols stand for an infinite series but you can't just choose any arbitrary series for Pi or e or SQRT[2], they all have to be defined as part of a system of measurement with clearly defined and globally defined epsilon/delta (i.e. precision) of measurement to get valid results.
dmfdmf
·vor 5 Monaten·discuss
Yes, you can call it "finitist" if you like but that is an error too. Define "exist".

Not "most" but all real numbers are similar to Pi, i.e. they are symbols that stand for an infinite process to calculate a rational number. Both irrational numbers like Pi, e, etc. and reals exists and are legit and useful math concepts but infinite precision does not exist "in the wild" only in your mind as an abstraction. In any actual calculation or measurement your infinite series must stop and the dedekind cut must be made.

The ghost of departed quantities still haunts math. Is Pi 3.14 or 3.1416? Mathematically, it is neither and both because math intentionally abstracts from the precision of the ratio of the circumference to the diameter of a circle. These open-ended (infinite) processes are ultimately used to define a rational number, a ratio of integers.The finitist -vs- infinitist is a false binary which ignore that actual measurement must use rational numbers.
dmfdmf
·vor 5 Monaten·discuss
Pi is not a number, it stands for a method (i.e. infinite series) to calculate a number. Conceptually it is the ratio of circumferance to the diameter of a circle which are incommensurate quanties, i.e. can't be represented as a rational number.

It is a subtle distinction but important. We define the exact value based on the context. If I am tiling my circular patio then 3.14 is fine to calculate how many tiles I need. If I going to the moon or mars then I need more decimals or I will miss the target.
dmfdmf
·vor 5 Monaten·discuss
>Infinity invites resistance. Aristotle rejected the existence of the infinite entirely; to him, infinity was simply a limit that could never be reached, not a true mathematical entity.

Off to a bad start. Aristotle was not making a mathematical point but a metaphysical one. Infinities do not exist and is not a number. For example, Pi is not a number but a symbol that stands for an open-ended (infinite) process to calculate a rational number and is a perfectly valid mathematical concept that, I am sure, Aristotle would agree. On any computer, despite protestations by the mathematical platonists, Pi is ultimately a rational number in all use cases involving actual measurement or calculations.

The error is illustrated in the first image in the article.

https://www.quantamagazine.org/wp-content/themes/quanta2024/...

The third set in this example is an invalid and undefined set by including Pi since Pi is indeterminent and thus cannot be an object to be counted. All of Cantor's nonsense rests on this type of error, i.e. treating a mathematical process as a number. All of these errors are implicit in Newton's calculus and Berkeley's Ghost of Departed Quantities critique still needs to be answered. Hint; there is no such thing as infinite precision and epsilon/delta needs to be defined in a consistent way, not arbitrarily as it is now.