I’ll clarify that it wasn’t my intent to defend the AI hype. I agree that LLMs are just predictive algorithms that use probabilistic and non-deterministic heuristics to extrapolate likely responses.

I was just pointing out that saying they can’t come up with anything original is maybe not the best angle because it opens up a can of worms about whether even humans can come up with anything truly original, which is philosophically fraught.

Yes the mathematician solved the equation. But he couldn’t have done so without spending years devoted to learning the state of mathematics today, including all the work and research and theorems and proofs from all the mathematicians who came before him.

Maybe he applied old concepts in new ways to solve a problem that hadn’t been solved before. I doubt he invented an entirely new form of mathematics not based in anything that existed before. And even if he did that, chances are he only knew how to do that because of what he’s learned from pre-existing systems of mathematics.

That’s the point I was trying to make

Playstations, vibrators, incense, camera batteries, you name it. Varios and sundry wares

Probably because vegans bludgeon anyone who calls themselves vegetarians, because apparently we’re worse than carnists because we see that there’s a problem yet only go partially through with the solution.

Like I’ve tried going vegan before, but after a few days I get really cranky and then the cravings start and I end up crashing. I never made it a full week, and it made it harder to even stick to vegetarian foods.

But apparently I’m a terrible person if I ever call myself a vegetarian within earshot of a vegan…

Also there are some obnoxious asses out there who insist that it’s really “ovo-lacto-vegetarian” because apparently vegetarians only eat plants? I’m like no, that would be vegan.

Not that it’s ever been convenient to be vegetarian. But now you get hit from both sides…

Some areas have a “swam list,” where beekeepers put their name on the list and whenever someone in the area finds a swarm on their property they call someone from the swarm list and they come out to get the bees.

It’s a lot better than the alternative, which is ignorant property owners spraying the swarm with wasp poison… :(

Is that Clue? Now that’s an oldie!

Greasy fingers and scalpels don’t really mix…

It’ll take them as long just to boot the program, and every time they change tools they’ll have to wait for it to catch up

then why shouldn’t the modern day church help muslim syrians.

A lot of Syrian immigrants in the US are christian…

The average american isn’t aware that arabic-speaking christian cultures have existed for well over a thousand years…

Do/can domesticated bees swarm/rewild?

It is possible. When a colony grows too large for the hive it produces a new queen and then splits itself in half. Usually beekeepers who monitor their colonies notice this and start a new hive, but if left to do their own thing (and if there’s not a queen trap on the entrance) then one of the queens will take half the colony and go search for a place to build a new hive.

If so it seems like it would be the best argument that bee keeping was mutually consensual.

I generally agree, but how do you define that? You can’t exactly get a bee to sign a legal document. Sure you could opt against using a queen trap, and make your hive as enticing as possible so they stay. A good apiary will provide ideal conditions, and cultuvate botanical and herb gardens in the immediate surroundings. Basically make it a paradise for bees, and give them medicine too.

Just because some people abuse their dogs doesn’t mean pet-keeping as a whole should be damned. Punish the abusers and prevent the abuse as much as you can. But don’t take away granny’s sweet little shitzu just because Dale down the street kicks his pit.

Are there apiary industry standards/certifications?

That unfortunately depends on the state. Some do a better job than others.

It seems unlikely most folks are buying the backyard chicken version of honey.

Yes but try asking a vegan “Is it fine if I only choose local honey?”

Honestly, I’m on Team Honey, but that argument has a glaring hole in it.

Which is that many apiaries put an object over the entrance to the hive which lets worker bees pass freely but blocks the queen from escaping. And worker bees bonded to a queen will literally die before abandoning her.

So they can’t just leave. Bees that do that in the while travel as a colony in what’s called a swarm (which is actually very docile because they have no hive to defend). A bee that gets separated from its colony dies.

I’d say it’s defined by the dominant group, but that group isn’t necessarily an ethnic group. For example, Sundar Pichai and Jensen Huang are certainly a part of that group. It’s not limited to white Anglo-Saxons anymore.

We really need to stop looking at the issue by pigeonholing it into racial, gender, or sexual categories, because that does not reflect the reality. There are gay oligarchs. There are women oligarchs. There are oligarchs of every skin tone.

These are counter-examples, of course; deviations from what we might consider the “norm,” which is cishetero white male oligarchs. Pointing out that it’s not limited to the latter isn’t a denial that the latter form a disproportionate majority of oligarchs. That’s the part a lot of people miss when I bring this up.

The fundamental issue though is class disparity, which we cannot lose sight of; even if there are other demographic trends within that disparity. Trying to make it about anything else is overly reductive and harmful.

Honey is an animal byproduct, so technically it is non-vegan, but I think that’s kind of pedantic because the bees (ideally) aren’t harmed by the apiaries, and the relationships is more of symbiosis rather than exploitation.

I’ve tried explaining this to vegans and they get really hostile about how apiaries are bee slavery and we need to abolish all forms of subjugation and exploitation, and that I’m a colonialist pig for not seeing it that way.

They also talk about some of the problems with large-scale apiary practices. But those problems are very much known within beekeeping communities, and the average small-time beekeeper is as upset as any vegan about giant corporate monocultures spreading parasites and diseases.

The beekeepers are also very active in trying to solve that problem by regulating large-scale apiary practices, monitoring bee colonies, medicating, funding (and participating in) research, etc… All stuff that most vegans couldn’t be bothered to do.

It’s a bit like being against backyard chickens because Tyson and Perdue are an evil industrial ag duopoly.

That’s pescatarian, not vegan. Whoever said that was wrong.

But I recognize that confidently saying something is wrong is viewed as arrogant these days. We have to respect everyone’s subjectivity, even if that means not saying anything even when they’re blatantly wrong.

Like “No, don’t keep walking forward. There’s a cliff in front of you.” “DON’T TELL ME WHAT TO DO! YOU CAN’T CONTROL ME.”

Toxic positivity has seeped way too far into the collective unconscious…

So now we see the light, hey hey! So stand up for your rights!

Yeah why is he calling it intelligence? I mean all those fancy terms like “artificial intelligence” and “superintelligence” are obviously misnomers, and I’m not here to re-litigate the use of those terms.

But to drop off the adjective and just call it “intelligence?” Has he forgotten that that’s already a thing? A thing that regular people have already, built into their brains and cultivated throughout their education? A thing that’s existed for as long as humans have been able to observe the workings of their own minds?

Is he so immersed in the corpo-speak lingo that he’s forgotten that regular words have regular meanings for everyone else? Or is he literally saying that intelligence itself will be metered; i.e. that people will have none of it of their own because the education system will be dismantled and all their free time will be spent sucked into the dystopian virtual hellholes that everyone carries in their pockets?

Look at the fear and uncertainty entering his eyes. He’s realizing he’s pushed his bullshit about as far as it can go and the investors are starting to wonder when it’s going to become profitable, so he’s bullshitting even more desperately now to try to keep them hooked.

Either you’d be kinking your neck very far (and still have to bend your knees to fit), or you’d be in a position that I don’t consider lying. Reclining, maybe? Leaning back?

In order to be lying down, I’d say your back has to be in contact with the horizontal surface

Yeah and if it prompts you for a password that’s because the computer has a self-destruct system built-in for security. The sysadmin doesn’t want strangers running sarcastic commands locally, so it’s super important to type the password correctly or else the servers could explode

My favorite thing after a good sand is a nice grass jelly

Is that from Donki Hote? I don’t think it’s ever ate there, but I had the chiizu-in hambaagu from Gasto a few times