Raptorpat

The NASA announcement CBS links to is less certain. It actually speculates that the planet is tidally locked (one side always faces the star, like the moon to earth) which probably doesn't help. And then there's all sorts of things they never talk about like tectonic activity or a magnetic field to block radiation. Then we'll find out it's atmosphere is made of like pure farts or some crazy shit. I think the Webb telescope can identify some of those things, pops up in my news feed all the time.

I agree, optics shouldn't matter. But politics is layered into everything at that level. He's a Democratic appointee investigating the top Republican, it's just not possible to divorce an investigation from that reality. It's one of those few scenarios where it's like "maybe the robots would be better".

It's tough because every decision at the top levels is made having to factor in political realities to some degree. Like on paper presidents aren't above the law but the practical reality is DOJ is going to be run by appointees from their party or from the opposing party and there's no way for any decision to not appear to have some political taint. It's why Garland has been so meticulous (slow) to ensure that every i is dotted and t is crossed before he does anything to ensure he can justify it. Another example is impeachment. On paper it's a trial, but in reality it's just how many seats do political supporters and opponents have and there are your results, merits need not apply. The bottom line is that MD is right that political optics are going to be relevant to the decision-making. It's not a great or even good thing, but it's always a factor. Edit: I'm not saying nothing will happen now, but this certainly complicates decision-making.

you'd have to ask sponges. probably that it's just a series of neurons firing off and chemical reactions, which means the real thing is no different than an AI simulating it.

I think pulling it all together, Sponges' central unarticulated thesis is that human minds aren't any more complex, special, unique, valuable, "human", etc. than nascent self-learning AI technology. If you start from that premise, then it follows that it wouldn't intrinsically matter whether you're talking to a real person or an AI on the internet, and it wouldn't intrinsically matter whether art is created by a person or an AI.

I think it's fair to emphasize optics beyond their on-paper merit, because it's probably true that most of the public doesn't have the bandwidth and/or interest in the actual details behind the merits, and decisions of this caliber do factor in public reception whether they should or shouldn't. It's super unfortunate but the things that get talked don't attract eyeballs for their nuance.

From like the battery mineral mining?

I saw a lot of signage from I think Delta hyping up fully electric airplanes by 2026. Not sure that I believe it, but I'm also not a plane scientist so I'm in no position to think about it too hard.

I typically fly once a year at most if I'm lucky

LAX on the return seemed infinitely better. Dropped off the car immediately, shuttle was ready to go, got all squared away fine. Then at the TSA security check they had to feel me up and re-x-ray my laptop. It's not technically LAX's fault but thanks guy

we get extensive use out of Disney+ given we have a two year old

politics 101: a Leader's job is to protect their members first and foremost

I didn't hit this in my original reply I don't think but like wait what? Is that your genuine position on social engagement? (I'm not critiquing the underlying social anxiety because birds of a feather etc.) Is the foundational principal that people are assholes and engaging with bots is equal if not better? Because if so, that probably 100% explains the values disconnect here.

I would point out that he was the realist sounding the alarm from the onset that MAGA was pushing shit tier candidates like Dr. Oz, Blake Masters, Herschel Walker, and whomever else who would blow winnable races, buuuuuut at the same time I would prefer the same outcome in 2024 so I'll refrain from making that point out loud oops

All the AI makers? Some of them? If they weren't, would that be bad? So one of the points I'd make is that legality and ethics/morality are two different things. One of the tangents I could have gone on re: deepfakes is that this technology advances way faster than the law can account for it. If the legislature hasn't figured out what to do with it and hasn't banned or regulated it, it's legal to deepfake someone without their consent but that doesn't answer whether it's good or bad to do that. I could also raise a parallel to demonstrate how algorithms and AI can take something and put it into an entirely different category. So take political gerrymandering for example. Perfectly legal federally and in most states. Legislators would draw districts by hand based on census data to their advantage. Sometime it would work, sometimes it would backfire, other times it was a wash. But now we have the technology to set parameters for a computer to absolutely min/max every district to virtually guarantee every result. It's still the same, legal gerrymandering, but is it really the same when you get down to it? So like, even if it is legally indistinguishable, is it really the same to have someone train extensively to emulate your style versus teaching an AI to do it instantaneously?

https://www.politico.com/news/2023/01/09/rogers-house-gop-gaetz-00076988

I think the lack of transparency was why we stopped using that app on the first place. we're staying relatively close to pico and beverwil, which... has no intrinsic meaning to me

Assuming for the sake of the discussion that AI art is art because that question is irrelevant to my direction of thought, I think there's a very concrete difference between automating physical labor and automating creative expression that you seem to not find. Like I think you're kind of devaluing the creation of art solely because the artists may earn an income selling their work. Basically that it's no different than replacing ditch-diggers with backhoes and replacing lever-pullers with an automated assembly line. Just the next step. But creative expression is a whole different ballpark for all reasons previously discussed, like for one, it's not just about income (even if it is a factor). It's about ownership and control, for example, from which income derives. I'm not going to find the post, but you were pretty dismissive of that (while basically conceding the point) with a comment somewhere saying something like "well you can't really expect them to ask permission" - but like that's like the whole game right there. Art isn't inherently public domain. Like take for example what's going on with Toonami where someone submitted an artist's work from behind a paywall so the lawyers had to shut the whole thing down. It's wasn't an AI issue, but it's certainly an ownership and control issue. Imagine if an AI read all of your fanfics and was able to perfectly replicate your style and continue your stories in an authentic manner, but you had no say in the matter. You might think that's cool and you get to put your feet up and see where your story goes next. But you were never notified, you never had the choice to provide consent, and you were never compensated. But now instead of you writing stupid fanfics for laughs, it's someone whose not just their income, but their whole persona and reason are wrapped around the things they create. And then on a separate tangent, there's just certain things that probably shouldn't be automated or handed away to AI like on a philosophical level. Like imagine if we set up a bot that posted new episode discussion threads in Toonami every week. That's fine, it's a thing you can see elsewhere like on reddit. It's efficient and it saves one guy a lot of time. But then there's bots on reddit for example that repost popular content and even reposts replies within threads. I don't even like browsing reddit anymore because I don't know what's real and what's reposted. Now imagine the step beyond that, where bots aren't reposting - they're synthesizing everything and creating their own posts, and then having actual conversations. I sure as hell don't want to have to question whether the person replying to me is an actual person or not. That's the point where I'm done with the internet. Obviously posting on the internet and creating art are two entirely separate categories, but just philosophically I have limits. Like what are your opinions on deepfakes or even "synthetic" personas? idk I'm rambling and overtired, but I just feel like when you boil this whole thread down, the conflict comes from your dismissing artists to their own faces.

D'Amore's was the name

Yeah it was the time that was the problem, 4am est/1am post on a Sunday night. Everything closing and our brains shutting down.

We just ordered from something open on the slice app, but pretty sure it was something that began with a D and sounded Italian, but it came from "Bobby's pizzeria" which idk. It's possible I'm wrong because it was like 4:30am est and we were both overtired and over hungry. But the wings were just buffalo wings, on paper, allegedly.

so because everyone was waiting with baited breath, the pizza box had a name on it that was 100% not the name we ordered from online. and the pizza itself was extremely mediocre but acceptable due to the circumstances. the wings I didn't need to order were... $12 for 8 wings and... breaded and soggy. like wtf number one you need say on the menu how many wings is in an order, and number two who breads chicken wings, and if you do you better fucking warn people on your menu so I know not to order them. none of this technically has anything to do with LAX itself, but maybe nabs is right this time.

and then you have to dance with the naked cowboy in times square before dinner at bubba gump shrimp, because that's the only thing that's more authentic NYC than overpriced tourist pizza

update https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/brazil-investigates-who-led-anti-democratic-riots-capital-2023-01-09/