Archive: April 1, 2023

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inauthenticity

Saturday,  04/01/23  07:56 PM

<rant> If you've been around here at all, you know: I hate dislike woke-ness.  So, why? I have asked myself this question too. It isn't that I disagree with much of woke-ness dogma, although I do.  My fundamental challenge with many "woke" ideas is that I don't believe government action is the best way to handle them.  But I recognize the contra points of view and will happily engage on them. My dislike stems from the inauthenticity of woke-ness.  It's virtue signaling; most wokies* don't understand the issues, haven't actually thought about them much, but have absorbed prevailing wisdom and eagerly parrot it in order to show that they, too, are a "good" person.  Does it make them feel better about themselves?  Maybe.  And maybe that's the attraction. One tell is that wokies* reject facts which don't fit their narrative.  If you think X, and you encounter a fact which is ~X, what do you do?  Do you inquire about the fact?  Do you process it and maybe come up with X'?  Or do you simply reject the fact?  * is wokie a word?  No.  Should it be?  Yes. I often refer back to an incredibly insightful ontology of ways to disagree, from Paul Graham:  DH0.  Name-calling. DH1.  Ad hominem. DH2.  Responding to tone. DH3.  Contradiction. DH4.  Counterargument. DH5.  Refutation. DH6.  Refutation of the central point. Wokies rarely engage on the facts, even if there are legitimate arguments available; instead they go for contradiction, ad hominem, and name calling.  And there is an even weaker response: silencing the source  This is happening all over, and is even institutionalized. My central gripe isn't with these people's actions, it's with their intent.  I have many friends with whom I disagree, and I have no challenge with their disagreement if it is authentic. On this day, April 1, we encounter a lot of falsehood for the sake of humor.  And that's great.  I've never laughed harder or enjoyed myself more on account of some of it.  You might say this is authentic falsehood. Unfortunately and irritatingly, our public discourse has moved strongly toward inauthentic falsehood.  We say things we know are not true and act upon them, because others will agree, and we'll feel better about ourselves. The other day I mentioned nut picking, "acting as if the craziest people in any group represent the group".  This is not authentic. I wish the pendulum will swing back, but I'm not optimistic.  I see several parallel gradients that reinforce inauthentic behavior, locking it in.  The antidote is to question everything.  Not just on April 1, but every other day. </rant>

 

April not-Fools

Saturday,  04/01/23  08:34 PM

Happy April not-Fools!  The one day of the year on which we are not fools, because we don't believe everything we read.  (Every other day, "it's on the Internet, it must be true!) This prank was my favorite, from Secret Los Angeles: no more Dodger Dogs!  The comment thread on Facebook is priceless; half the posters are horrified, the other half are earnestly correcting the first half.  Personally I had a hot dog to celebrate :) I went sailing today, gorgeous, sunny and breezy, actual heat.  Nicest day in about five months.  Spring has *finally* sprung.  Waay back in 2012, I posted Moved ... to Facebook.  In 2011 I became a daily Facebook poster.  Weird to think that was a thing.  But it's interesting to think about why it's not a thing.  You can do just about anything on Facebook you can do on a blog; post pictures, text, link to things; and there are Likes, and Comments, and all kinds of infrastructure.  But it's not a thing, is it?  In no way was that the same as posting here.  So be it.  Another oldie, from 2008: the lost art of desk checking.  That was fifteen years ago, so if it was dead then, it is surely dead now?  Um, no.  For example, for the desk programs for my series on CUDA and GPUs, I did a lot of it.  I guess dinosaurs gonna dino.  This might be the reason AI models don't entirely replace human programmers.  OTOH, maybe they become great at desk checking, and it might be the reason AI makes programming more efficient.  We'll check in on this in another fifteen years :) Ottmar Liebert: flow.  A subject on which he is expert.  "It’s difficult to know ahead of time which way the wind blows. Sometimes one recognizes what’s happening immediately, one feels the invincible flow of creativity, one feels switched ON. Sometimes one can feel the struggle."  News I can use: how to unlock the 100kph achievement badge in Zwift.  You have to find the steepest downhill and ride as fast as you can in your biggest gear.  Stay tuned!  Steven Wolfram: ChatGPT gets its "Wolfram Superpowers"!  A great pairing.  This is rather remarkable for how fast it got done as well as how powerful it is.  NotTheBee: I just asked Google's new AI chatbot "Bard" the very same question about both Biden and Trump. The difference in its answers is astounding.  This is super bad.  And maximally inauthentic.  Ottmar Liebert: Millions of Drops.  "Water drops don't sound like rain.  millions of drops do."  A video editing tour de force.  One step closer to success: Reality Space's 3D-printed rocket launches, fails to reach orbit.  SpaceX's early launches didn't make it either.  Onward.  Interesting: Oliver Stone Releases Trailer for His Pro-Nuclear Energy Movie, ‘Nuclear Now’.  Can't wait to see it.  Elon Musk links Arthur C. Clarke about the future of AI ... in 1964!  I have found this to be true: the more you want to see a video clip on any news site, the less likely it will play when you click it.  Weird that this isn't 100% by now, like clicking on an HTML link.  Did the video of Arthur C Clarke play for you? Michael Kagan, Nvidia's CTO, says other uses of processing power such as the artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT are more worthwhile than mining crypto.  I have to agree.  Inhabitat: do you think zoos and animal parks are good or bad?  A reasonable balanced analysis.  They did not however consider the opportunity offered for a great afternoon with a little kid :)  And also... no pictures!  I picked one for them...

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