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VoxelVexillologist

Multidimensional Radical Centrist

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joined 2022 September 04 18:24:54 UTC 

				
User ID: 64


				
				
				

			

		

	














	


		


			



	

		

			

			

				

					

						

							
						

						

							
							

								
VoxelVexillologist


								

								

								
								
								

								
							
					
 
				


				
Multidimensional Radical Centrist

				
				
				

				

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					joined 2022 September 04 18:24:54 UTC
				


				
					

					
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User ID: 64


					
					
					
				

			


					

						
					



		

	

 











			
			

			
			

			




	


		

			
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				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 10, 2024
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


paperclip maximizer




IMO if a few billion mostly-sapient humans can't even agree on goals and values, expecting an artificial intelligence to converge on one very specific metric (and I realize paperclips are meant abstractly here) seems doubtful.  Possible, maybe, but I would be surprised.


But that particular example doesn't even have any humans unironically advocating for it, although the mental image of tossing a curveball "How many paperclips would your administration produce?" in the upcoming presidential debate is, IMO, hilarious.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of May 20, 2024
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
IMO neither "Stand Your Ground" nor "Duty to Retreat" neatly solve all cases.  I don't think there's a general solution to what I'd call the Thunderdome Problem ("two men enter, one man leaves") regarding how the justice system should, absent other evidence, a dead body and the survivor's claim of having been attacked.  I, at least, don't think the criminal justice system either categorically believing, or disbelieving the survivor's claim counts is sufficiently fair.


It may be the case that Thunderdome cases are sufficiently infrequent to not matter generally, but some of our more scissor-y examples of claimed self-defense violence (Zimmerman, perhaps most notably) do seem to fit with that pattern.  It seems plausible to me that people are applying their personal biases toward the general case to sufficiently fuzzy specific cases.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for March 24, 2024
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Amazon is really hard to buy decent clothing from. I've tried buying stretch knit dresses, which is the easiest thing possible to fit, and they were still off and basically unwearable, high waisted for a very short, wide person in that case.




Completely anecdotally, my experience has been the opposite.  But I'm looking at menswear, not dresses.  In particular, I found a business casual shirt that fit me well in my closet, and I was able to find the exact same brand/size on Amazon.  The first one fit, and I've since bought a few extra colors when the price is reduced (I might grump a small amount that even these change slightly over time, and that back pleats on men's shirts seem to be out-of-fashion these days).   I've also bought quite a few pairs of jeans in rather the same way, which saves rummaging through the racks at the store to find the right size: there are surprisingly few longer-than-wide pairs of pants at modern American stores, but Amazon always has them in stock.  Socks don't have much variation in sizing, either.


In terms of athletic wear, a few years back I bought a pair of running shorts for a good price on a whim from a Chinese brand I hadn't heard of, and they have honestly been some of the best I've used (not a connoisseur).  I've since bought a few more (and a couple of other items), and not been disappointed.  Sportswear in stores, especially anything sport-specific, is generally comparatively expensive in stores near me.


Admittedly, I can imagine works for me primarily because I'm trying to buy identically-cut garments, which I'd bet only works for male fashion.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for December 31, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
In this case it's primarily that the one I have is the wrong color.  Also, styles change.  I tried it on, and fortunately it fits well enough that I might consider tailoring it in the future (I haven't gotten bigger, most notably), but given how often I wear them I'll probably keep it stored safely until I need it.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of September 25, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
For the record, I agree with your take.  The comment is more referencing cases in which people rhetorically imply that the country is worse off than otherwise, which I think is less clear.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for July 14, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I can't say I have too much experience with using machine translation, so I'm probably not the right person to give you such a comparison. It's reasonably fast and produces English prose that reads pretty naturally when I've used it.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for July 14, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I've been surprisingly impressed with the Firefox Translations extension, which does the ML translation locally.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 19, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I wasn't aware of the other gun crimes.  The original article says "it would not prosecute him in connection with his purchase of a handgun in 2018 during a period when he was using drugs," which seems to dance around the details of post-purchase behavior, although I hardly expect to see charges filed for that either.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 13, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
The one I'm most familiar with is the Texas Open Meetings Act, which seems to place some stricter requirements on "meetings" with  although that would depend on the details of city governance (were these "meetings" with the mayor and city council or is the mayor authorized to directly command the police department without deliberation?) and the text messages at play.  Anecdotally, I've heard that politicians are advised to not discuss business outside of announced, scheduled meetings, but charges are infrequent (although not non-existent).


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of January 9, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Interesting: I thought there were more Filipino Spanish speakers (perhaps the ones I've met have been a biased sample).  The official Census definition seems to specify Spanish for the definition of "Hispanic", but there's some disagreement from other parties on whether or not Portuguese should be included.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of October 3, 2022
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Whoops, I knew it was supposed to be "commuted" but must have been in too much of a hurry when typing the original comment to notice.  Thanks for correcting that!


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				In Defense of The Boring Company
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I long assumed that Twitter's character limit was maintained due to a database schema somewhere: a fixed-size Tweet structure probably makes a lot of sense, although if you're reserving 10kB for each post here I bet that would add up quick.  Although with compression perhaps that's less of an issue.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 30, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


I think smartphones/TikTok/AI are making us lose our attention, our ability to analyze and to think, and they don't offer anything in return




I would posit that the smartphone has observably reduced the need to store specific data because it's much easier than it used to be to load it (I'm old enough to "search the Internet", the kids these days "ask AI") on the fly when necessary.  Lots of encyclopedia facts are useful to know on rare day-to-day occasions ("Which rivers empty into the Aral Sea?"), but I think in practice things are "better" (for some definition of "better") where I can pull up that fact at hand, which maybe a generation ago sometimes required referencing my shelf of encyclopedias or a trip to the library.  And maybe I can use that mental space that was previously holding the population of Iran or the specifics of red-black trees for something that is more useful to me today [1].


I recall hearing from a historian a while back that the most numerous book on US Navy ships in the 1980s was a dictionary: has ubiquitous spell checking (and sometimes-wrong autocorrect) lost us something of value other than the "character" built by having to thumb through the dictionary to spell right?  That one feels similar as a technology question, but I'd bet you have fewer takers for "the good ol' days" before spell check.


    

  1. I think whether that space has been efficiently re-purposed is a valid question, and I'm not convinced capacity hasn't declined somewhat.  But I think that's best addressed as a separate question.
    2. 



				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 30, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
The term antisemitism came into existence from Germans trying to justify that This Time it wasn't just dumb, bigoted Judenhass (literally "Jew-hatred"), and they had good (pseudo)scientific reasons to dislike them.  Bringing other semitic peoples into it implicitly validates Nazi race science like talking about related Aryans in India.


Although some seem to be trying the This Time approach again, using "anti-Zionist" as the new label.  Maybe in a century someone will claim it applies to Zionist Mormons in Utah.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 30, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


the theory hides behind ... the science in order to try to gain legitimacy as a "grand-theory of why the world is the way it is"




Many such cases: this is a generic problem, IMO, with several branches of science, maybe even every branch with immediate political impact (also economics, epidemiology, climate science, [group] studies).  I don't think you're wrong that this even happens to HBD folks who are probably diametrically opposed to plenty of those other examples.


I don't know of a generic strategy to counteract this human failing: my first recommendation would be to reject claims that "the science is settled": the scientific process is never truly settled.  But if you go too far in the un-trusting direction, you'll start questioning the concept of childhood vaccinations or jet fuel melting steel beams.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for June 20, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
It's weird that "National" refers to the US and Canada together here (the NBA has one, previously two Canadian teams).  The last guy to call them one country got a lot of grief for it.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for June 15, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
VSCode is just the spiritual successor to emacs: it's an operating system in search of a good text editor.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 9, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Yeah, it is a bit unfair of a comparison broadly.  But sidewalks and bike lanes keep getting wider.  Very old neighborhoods often have 24" sidewalks (if at all), while now they seem to be 36 or 48 inches.  Bigger new roads (like your 11 lane freeway) have 6 or 8 foot sidewalks, getting closer to the width of a car lane.


I actually do like sidewalks, and I like the idea of bike lanes even if I'm unsatisfied with how they're engineered here these days: painted gutters, really?  Unidirectional lanes across a road that doesn't have safe crossings? I think the ADA et al makes us avoid non-level pedestrian/bike crossings, so they just don't provide them on medium streets.  Bidirectional lanes without safe crossings or ways to turn across?  Do they ever sweep bike lanes?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 9, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I would be interested to see a ruling on whether or not trained AI models are copyrightable.  IMO neither "we threw all the text we could find at this" nor "and then we did a huge best-fit gradient descent" implies much creative input.


I think finding them to not be (like phone books, or typefaces) has some interesting implications.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 9, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


You know most places it's illegal to ride on the sidewalk right?




In my city it's legal almost everywhere except the central business district (conveniently the densest pedestrian area).  There are specific places devoted in the law and I've seen signs marking them.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for June 6, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


relatively strong visuospatial skills (in the mental shape rotating sense)




I've put some effort into getting better at art within the last few years, and sometimes I think my inner shape rotator is actively hindering attempts to draw from life well.  Proper shading is IMHO hard when you have strong sense of what the object colors should be: as a simple example the checker shadow illusion requires conscious effort to color properly.


I haven't ruled out that mental shape rotating might be useful at some future point, though.  It seems like maybe it'd be helpful drawing without reference.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 2, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Desegregation enforced by Paratroopers dispersing peaceful protestors, including children, with fixed bayonets is what a Supreme Court victory looks like.




This level of victory really requires winning two (or really three, in this case) of the branches of government.  Roberts has no divisions directly: those paratroopers appear at the behest of the President (nationalizing them from the Governor, representing the counterparty in this case) to enforce the court order.


I suspect Trump could call in the NY National Guard to protect the Columbia library and it's Jewish students, but he hasn't as actually done so.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of May 19, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Over time, sure.  But Harvard may well win by hanging on until the next administration reverses course.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of May 26, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I have wondered if he could massively expand the APA notice-and-comment regime by executive fiat.  He lost a number of cases to APA procedure questions in his first term (and seems somewhat likely to again), but "now all executive policy changes require 4 years of notice and comment, effective 60 days from now, conveniently the day before I leave office" seems like, if IMO a poor governance choice, the sort of live policy grenade Trump likes tossing.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of May 12, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Good question.  But it's at least part of the formal curriculum for AP US History, so the answer is hopefully nonzero even if some have forgotten since.


There is some advantage to knowing what (shared) curriculum can be pointed to.  Even here, we have a somewhat understood corpus of "things I can refer to and expect readers to understand", but there is always some context dependence.