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self_made_human

Kai su, teknon?

16 followers   follows 0 users  
joined 2022 September 05 05:31:00 UTC

I'm a transhumanist doctor. In a better world, I wouldn't need to add that as a qualifier to plain old "doctor". It would be taken as granted for someone in the profession of saving lives.

At any rate, I intend to live forever or die trying. See you at Heat Death!

Friends:

I tried stuffing my friends into this textbox and it really didn't work out.


				
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self_made_human


								

								

								
								
									
								
								
								
								

								
							
					
 
				


				
Kai su, teknon?

				
				
				

				

					16 followers  

					follows 0 users  

					joined 2022 September 05 05:31:00 UTC
				


				
					

					
I'm a transhumanist doctor. In a better world, I wouldn't need to add that as a qualifier to plain old "doctor". It would be taken as granted for someone in the profession of saving lives.


At any rate, I intend to live forever or die trying. See you at Heat Death!



				

				
					
Friends:

					
I tried stuffing my friends into this textbox and it really didn't work out.


				

				

				

				

					

					

					
					
					

					
User ID: 454


					
					
					
				

			


					

						
					



		

	

 











			
			

			
			

			




	


		

			
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				Culture War Roundup for the week of April 7, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


There's the rub, right? Miracles tend to be one-off historical events, not laws of nature you can subject to experiment, so you end up having to rely on witnesses. And witnesses are easily dismissed as liars or suffering from delusions




What about all those sites, like the grave of Padre Pio where pilgrims regularly report miraculous cures? Or the spring waters at Lourdes? The latter has 70 recognized miracles by the Catholic church, with OOMs more claimed over 150 years. I'm pretty sure if that if it kept up the pace, we could dispense with hospitals for all expenses paid tours.


Sadly, lying and delusions are the only sensible responses when it comes to such poorly documented incidents which conveniently avoid cameras and MRIs. Funny how that works, and even funnier that people take them seriously despite this.


It's a funny deity that throws fire and brimstone about in front of crowds of hundreds or thousands, yet shies away from electronic media or even film.




Though even the kinds of miracles that can be literally put under a microscope seem not uncontrovertable. Take Eucharistic miracles for which there are consistent findings that the material being examined is human heart tissue, that had been subjected to great stress, was very recently alive, of blood type AB, and with DNA that can't be sequenced. Some of the folks that investigate these even contracted with secular labs to do sample processing to avoid the appearance of bias.




My textbooks must have skipped over findings of such magnitude. I'd love to see evidence for these claims. It would have to be a great deal of evidence to overcome the inherent tallness of the tale.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for April 6, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I'm tactically refraining from writing a review. I suspect the reason this particular pc was several hundred pounds cheaper than others with similar specs was because of the abysmal 3.2 star rating. Apparently a bunch of people received it missing the CPU. Well, mine boots and runs well, and if it's just the 5080 doing all the heavy lifting, Nvidia has my stamp of approval haha.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for April 6, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
@pbmonster just made me find the actual antennas for the wifi, but if that doesn't work well I'll bite the bullet and think about stringing up ethernet, thanks.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for April 6, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Lucky you. I could have opted for a 5090, but I decided that this was good enough without bordering on extravagant. Maybe one of my elderly patients will die and leave one for me in their will, haha.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for April 6, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
You just saved me. I was convinced that since this was a pre-built, they must have set up antennae, if the system had them. I'd looked around before and hasn't seen them. But given your strong insistence, I checked the motherboard pdf, saw them mentioned, then dug around in the box of parts and found them! I hope I've managed to screw them in now, thank you for the help!


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 31, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


delving




Well, the ironic thing is that's another perfectly cromulent word somewhat tarnished by Nigerian data annotators ChatGPT.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for April 6, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I don't think unions are always good or bad, even if I tend to agree that on the net, they're tending towards a negative in terms of productivity and competitiveness. Germany has a form of corporate governance where labor union reps sit on equal terms with management, but I'm no expert on the finer details. I just think it's a common talking point that is worth addressing, even if to say it's not relevant in the end.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for April 6, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I understand all the benefits of a wired connection, but sadly it's not an option. It's a rental, and my flatmate told me that the local ISPs won't roll out fiber this far. However, no data cap 5g isn't a bad experience at all!


A 5080 is a fucking beast. I've had an unfortunate habit of upgrading both my gpu and monitor at the same time, so a 1070ti and FHD to a 3070 and 1440p, which tends to eat up the performance gains. Well, even at native 4k, this baby flies. I've had an eye on the new IJ, will see about giving it a go!


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for April 6, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
It's a good start, but I'd like to see topics like stronger unions (and better aligned union and executive interests), governmental attitudes on industrial policy, subsidies and the like before this goes from interesting idea to something more.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for April 6, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I finally got my pc set up. While the user experience on the desktop hasn't changed much, going from a perfectly decent Ryzen 5600x and an RTX 3070 to a 9800x3d and a 5080, the performance in games is night and day. It certainly spanks my gaming laptop.


Random observations:


    

  1. Using a 48" 4K OLED TV as a monitor feels unfair in FPS titles where you need to pixel peep. At the distance I'm (forced to) sit from it, everything is larger than life. No more wondering if that blob is an enemy or a bush.
    2. 

  2. Using a TV that size from barely 3 feet away isn't the best experience, it takes up more horizontal real estate than any ultra wide monitor, and vertically, you need to actively move your head rather than just look at things in the corner.
    3. 

  3. HDR rocks. It's nice having full-fat real HDR versus the anemic 400 nits my old monitor had.
    4. 

  4. I have had pleasant experiences with running cheap Chinese mechanical keyboards. No difference this time, it looks pretty nice, until you look closely at the keycaps and see the etching is subpar. But the thing is solid metal, the keys feel good, and I doubt I'll care. I already don't notice it.
    5. 

  5. The in-built wifi on my MSI Pro B650 motherboard sucks donkey dick. My phones and laptop pick up great signal in my bedroom, this thing barely wanted to connect. Fortunately, the router is some kind of 5g contraption, and I just moved it closer and kept the living room door proper open. I went from no stable connection to several hundred mbps down, which is good enough. Problem solved for now.
    6. 



Edit:


I was also concerned that at such close distances, the effective resolution of the screen would show holes. To my surprise, it doesn't. I don't know if there's some subpixel wizardry going on, but it looks pretty damn sharp even from 2-3 feet away.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for April 4, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
The best/worst videogame trailer I've ever seen. Whatever you might have expected, it wasn't what you're about to watch.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Wellness Wednesday for April 2, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Even in India, I never particularly missed an UPS despite the worse electricity infrastructure. I think blackouts where I currently live in Scotland are on the scale of hours a year, so I'm willing to do without it. I'll keep that in mind in case my optimism is disabused, thank you.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Wellness Wednesday for April 2, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Thank you, that's very helpful. I've never handled a water cooled rig before, so fingers crossed I don't break anything.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Wellness Wednesday for April 2, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
That's fair. I've heard of DSX, but only just looked into it in more detail and found out it does a good job of getting proprietary PS5 controller features to work in games without native support.


I still find the ergonomics awkward, though that's likely an idiosyncratic thing. I like my left thumb resting on the d-pad, instead of the stick.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 31, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Of possible interest:


/images/17437656867908418.webp


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 31, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I'm no expert, but my understanding of the consensus opinion of most economists is that tariffs are net negative, and negative sum for both partners in trade. There are other relevant concerns, such as geopolitical leverage, but I've yet to be swayed from my belief that these tariffs are fundamentally stupid and not imposed in a reasonable fashion.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Wellness Wednesday for April 2, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Compatibility with a pc, while not non-existent, can be a headache at times. I prefer the Xbox layout too!


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Wellness Wednesday for April 2, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Thank you, that's excellent advice.




Does require regularly unplugging it to get the most out of it.




Why is that the case?




Your monitor and GPU will very likely support HDMI, knowing nothing other than the stats you provide, but double-check both support and compatibility -- a lot of highest-framerate options work best over DisplayPort. Adapters are cheap (though I'd recommend splurging around ~15 USD), but they suck to have to wait a weak for, and with tiny number of exceptions these adapters are unidirection.




Since I ended up opting for a TV instead of a monitor (a 4K OLED VRR TV is cheaper than a smaller QHD OLED monitor), HDMI 2.1 is the only option. I've confirmed compatibility.




There's some specialty things (eg, if you get water cooling, a cheap pump shutoff humidity sensor can save you a lot of frustration; if you do a lot of console- or simulator-like gaming there are some recs I can give for gamepads or throttles; VR headsets can change a lot of interests), but I'll assume that if you had those constraints you'd have mentioned them (and water cooling is pretty marginal today).




This PC is watercooled. I didn't want that, but since it was the cheapest model with a Ryzen 9800X3D and an RTX 5080, my frugality won out. Is that humidity sensor easy to install?


I am somewhat interested in a controller, I prefer the Xbox layout over a PS4/5 one. I'm familiar with VR, I owned a Quest 2, but didn't bring it over from India. There's not much room to properly use it, unfortunately.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Wellness Wednesday for April 2, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I'm quite confident that it does have spares, but I haven't unboxed it yet (I need to move it over), and the manufacturer is rather coy about the specific brand of B650 motherboard in use. I'd expect, given the price I paid for it, there should be a few handy.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Wellness Wednesday for April 2, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I have an unfortunate habit of downloading games that are maybe 50 gigs in size and then adding on several hundred gigs of mods. I think I was well past 300 gb for Arma 3, and even poor old Rimworld, which is sub 1 gb by itself, bloated to 17+.


I can see a good deal for 4tb M.2 NVME drives with decent reviews, so I'm inclined to future proof. I'm not the target audience for a RAID setup, anything critical is likely a small file and backed up to the cloud.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Wellness Wednesday for April 2, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Quick request for a spot check:


I've had the build for a new pc in my apartment trickling in. So far, I've ordered/received/have:


    

  1. The pc.
    2. 

  2. An OLED TV that is VRR and will serve as the monitor.
    3. 

  3. An HDMI 2.1 cable.
    4. 

  4. A cheap but cheerful mechanical keyboard.
    5. 

  5. Surge protector and power strip.
    6. 

  6. Bluetooth dongle.
    7. 

  7. Mousepad
    8. 



The audio quality of my phone is good enough that I'd be happy to use it as a mic, and as a webcam. I have Bluetooth earphones and a mouse that I like. I think the PC came with power cables, but I haven't unboxed it yet. Wired internet is not an option, so I have to settle for wifi running off a 5g uncapped service. Should be fine, if not ideal.


?buy:


    

  1. More internal or external storage, SSDs only. The 1 TB internal drive won't hold up to my needs.
    2. 



Am I missing anything? Any QOL improvements?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 31, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I intend to, but I'm unfortunately quite lazy. When I do, I'll park it and forget it till a rainy day.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 31, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
The base training data isn't the same for all the models. We know that there's likely enormous overlap, because of low hanging fruit like the Common Crawl. Yet the different companies fight tooth and nail to either semi-legally scrape more data, or strike deals with entities like Reddit or Bloomberg for access to theirs.


And even then, they have different post-training and fine tuning. There might be overlap between different companies because they at least partially outsource to data-annotators in places like Nigeria, India or Vietnam. Even so, anyone who has used all of these models can tell you that them giving the same answer is unusual, for most non-trivial questions where there isn't a canonical solution.




how to implement tarrifs effectively




Note that the prompt asked about how to implement tariffs easily. Not effectively. This was the maximally easy, non-rigorous solution.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 31, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
My sheer laziness has saved me. I was asking about financial advice a month back, which largely confirmed my urge to buy the S&P 500 or Vanguard.


Then the previous market crash happened, and I resolved to buy the dip, but ended up procrastinating.


Still am, but look at me, saved from (theoretical) losses by Never Doing Anything.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 31, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Oh dear. I very much didn't mean to imply that the US government isn't big enough, my gut feeling is that it's quite the opposite. At least that's what I feel is directionally correct, even if I don't think I'm qualified to offer an authoritative opinion on how large the ideal government is, and what it does.


If I had to answer:


    

  1. The military. Espionage. Law enforcement of the kinds of crimes that span state borders or are too large and important to be left to them.
    2. 

  2. Economic policy.
    3. 

  3. Ensuring the stability of political structure and tasks like organizing elections.
    4. 

  4. R&D
    5. 

  5. Coordinating infrastructure projects that are too large for individual states.
    6. 



Number 4 captures things like NASA, DARPA, the NIH and the like. Government expenditure has outsized returns here. Some expenses, like the size of the military, depend greatly on what other nations are up to. Even the IRS is, I'm told, extremely cost effective and makes about $10 back from additional revenue for every dollar spent on their budget.