Skip Navigation

User banner

antlion

@ antlion @lemmy.dbzer0.com

Posts
2
Comments
381
Joined
3 yr. ago

  • Python Performance: Why 'if not list' is 2x Faster Than Using len()

    Jump

  • But the first example does the same thing for an empty list. I guess the lesson is that if you’re measuring the speed of arbitrary stylistic syntax choices, maybe Python isn’t the best language for you.

  • Python Performance: Why 'if not list' is 2x Faster Than Using len()

    Jump

  • Could also compare against:

     
            if not len(mylist)

    That way this version isn’t evaluating two functions. The bool evaluation of an integer is false when zero, otherwise true.

  • TIL: US pays $20k/year per detainee sent to El Salvador.

    Jump

  • But then poor people would vote, which could be dangerous.

  • 80,000 pounds of beef stolen from Tennesee meat processing facility

    Jump

  • 40 tons

  • occupy the mansions

    Jump

  • Just pull down their fences and walls.

  • US honeybee deaths hit record high as scientists scramble to find main cause

    Jump

  • The bees were just lazy and couldn’t pull themselves up by their bootstraps. The survivors will surely be stronger.

  • Deleted

    Permanently Deleted

    Jump

  • The article mentioned Danish language children’s programs specifically. In some countries children’s shows are partially funded by the government, which if that’s the case it’s an insult to the monarchy as well.

  • Battery breakthrough as 99.99% of lithium extracted from old cells

    Jump

  • There’s probably a lot that could be recovered from my urine. Fun fact when phosphorus was first discovered they had to boil off gallons of urine to get a useful amount, so they collected barrels of urine from mining camps.

  • Earth’s atmosphere is shrinking and thinning, which is bad news for Starlink and other LEO Sats

    Jump

  • Bernie Sanders gets fact checked

    Jump

  • Dictators are good when they steal resources from the people and share them with us.

  • Gov. Newsom orders state workers to return to office 4 days a week

    Jump

  • Canada to cut off electricity to US states: "Need to feel the pain"

    Jump

  • Canada and US are in negotiations to renew the Columbia River Treaty, where the US pays Canada for flood control upstream. They protect the cities along the Columbia River, and the hydroelectric infrastructure on the River, and the bridges. If Canada decides to play hardball, there’s a lot at their mercy.

  • What's easier to shoot, a bow or a firearm?

    Jump

  • As a former 8 year old Cub Scout, bows are incredibly hard to use. I was an excellent marksman with a rifle.

  • Sergey Brin says AGI is within reach if Googlers work 60-hour weeks

    Jump

  • Free will comes from the “heart”, not the brain. It doesn’t fit in the materialistic view of science. Our bodies are quantum electric fields, and those fields interact. In my own experience I would say emotions or intentions don’t translate fully from video, but in person I can feel them.

    Maybe if they add a quantum processor to the computer it can gain free will (disguised as random chance). But I think we have more to learn about the nature of consciousness before AGI is anywhere close to having free will.

    And why is free will necessary for intelligence? New discoveries require curiosity. Scientific breakthroughs require new connections and discernment of truth. If the computer is doing research, it needs to decide when to stop looking, who to ask questions to, how far to dig, designing further experiments. Without free will you just have a big fancy encyclopedia.

    The dangerous side of free will is manipulation, subversion, exploitation, deception, etc. So yeah I hope they don’t figure it out.

  • Sergey Brin says AGI is within reach if Googlers work 60-hour weeks

    Jump

  • Free will is what sets us apart from most other animals. I would assert that many humans rarely exert their own free will. Having an interest and pursuing it is an exercise of free will. Some people are too busy surviving to do this. Curiosity and exploration are exercises of free will. Another would be helping strangers or animals - a choice bringing the individual no advantage.

    You argue that wants, preferences, and beliefs are not chosen. Where do they come from? Why does one individual have those interests and not another? It doesn’t come from your parents or genes. It doesn’t come from your environment.

    It’s entirely possible to choose your interests and beliefs. People change religions and careers. People abandon hobbies and find new ones. People give away their fortunes to charity.

  • Sergey Brin says AGI is within reach if Googlers work 60-hour weeks

    Jump

  • AGI requires a few key components that no LLM is even close to.

    First, it must be able to discern truth based on evidence, rather than guessing it. Can’t just throw more data at it, especially with the garbage being pumped out these days.

    Second, it must ask questions in the pursuit of knowledge, especially when truth is ambiguous. Once that knowledge is found, it needs to improve itself, pruning outdated and erroneous information.

    Third, it would need free will. And that’s the one it will never get, I hope. Free will is a necessary part of intelligent consciousness. I know there are some who argue it does not exist but they’re wrong.

  • People complain that it's poor design that humans eat and breath through the same pipe(throat). Are there any animals which don't though?

    Jump

  • Not really inhale-exhale, since they don’t have lungs. Kinda like when you sweat and you can feel the breeze cooling you under your arms. But instead of under your arms it would be on your neck, and instead of cooling you’d be respirating. But yes as the water moves past the gills, the blood is receiving oxygen and expelling CO2.

  • DoorDash to pay NY delivery workers $17 million for using their tips to cover wages

    Jump

  • What about the other states?

  • Algorithms are breaking how we think - Technology Connections

    Jump

  • Yeah, I’m here for a reason. It takes a lot of blocking/filtering too. But the reason I am here is my desire for “algorithmic complacency”. I like to spend some time mentally wandering.