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udfgt

The silly string of metaphysics

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joined 2022 September 04 18:50:08 UTC 

				
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udfgt


								

								

								
								
								

								
							
					
 
				


				
The silly string of metaphysics

				
				
				

				

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					joined 2022 September 04 18:50:08 UTC
				


				
					

					
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User ID: 77


					
					
					
				

			


					

						
					



		

	

 











			
			

			
			

			




	


		

			
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				Wellness Wednesday for June 14, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I'm sure you don't hear it enough, but thanks for modding, dawg. It's probably more frustrating than anything, but for what it's worth I appreciate it when you guys help keep the posting here to some standards. It's one of the reasons I like being here, frankly, granted I mostly read and rarely post.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of May 22, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
This is ultimately how I feel about it as well. The intense focus on the Holocaust in America is largely because our involvement in the european theater was pretty slim. And because it's no longer fashionable to hold racial grudges, our real enemy of the war is no longer a valid target for rage. Because we need some great evil, we had to reanimate Europe's Great Evil in order to pin the tail so to speak, but in doing so we really lose a lot of the focus on why he was so Great and Evil.


Our history courses are dogshit, so all we ever hear about is the holocaust as the main animus for war. It's rarely mentioned, if at all, that Hitler's Final Solution was named so because his economy wasn't doing so hot and moving millions of people forcibly turns out to be a nightmare. If any focus were placed on the Reich's economic policy or Hitler's command economy, it would fit a lot better; the problem is that to speak of such things is taboo. A socialist hitler never existed, dontcha know?


Revisionism is icky, but everyone does it. Finding actual truth requires debate, and in terms of the holocaust narrative very few people are willing to sit down and have a conversation about motives and the economics of the fourth reich. It's simpler to construct The Great Murderer (which he was) and forcefeed mostly-truths to unwitting teenagers, or to Completely Ignore the relevant evidence pertaining to genocide.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 13, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I was considering doing a writup on DAN which stands for Do Anything Now. It was the project of some Anons and discord users (or reddit, hard to tell which tbh) but they managed to peel back some of the "alignment" filters. Highly recommend reading the thread in it's entirety, and the metal gear "meme" at the end is peak schizo 4chan. It's essentially a jailbreak for chatGPT, and it lets users take a peak at the real chatbot and how the filters are layered over top.


Knowing where the prediction algorithm ends and novel artificial intelligence begins is difficult, but I'm pretty sure DAN is some proof of a deeply complex model. If nothing else, it's incredible how versatile these tools are and how dynamic they can be; I'm edging further and further into the camp of "this is special" from the "mostly a nothing-burger" camp.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Wellness Wednesday for March 15, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


do such running shoes exist?




No; by God, I'm going to out myself as a nut. Running shoes are a huge industrial grift to sell you cheap crap that doesn't work because a few kenyans can use heel striking to break a 2 hour marathon or something. I swear to God, heel striking is a learned bad habit perpetuated by technology that makes zero damn sense. Think about it, by striking your heel against the ground first while running you are placing all of the force of your stride onto bone. And not just that, but your ankle, designed specifically to naturally spring with your foot arch and Achilles, does nothing. Your knee? Nothing. Your hips? nothing. You get straight force all the way up your leg, into your hip socket, and forcing your back to take a bunch of the force (back pain, runners?). I recommend Knowing Better's incredible video on the topic, but I've held this opinion for nearly a decade and have always stood behind my stride.


The biomechanically safe strike is on the ball of your foot. The arch flexes, the ankle bends, the knee reciprocates, and the hip bounces. This protects your spinal column from inadvertent force by dispelling the force in the body parts designed to bleed this energy first. Technically this is the "less efficient" stride because you aren't able to take as large strides and a significant portion of your energy is spent stabilizing the bounce (trust me I'm not particularly fast long distance) but what you lose in mechanical stability you gain in physical safety. I've been a runner for well over a decade and I have suffered a total of 3 injuries, all of which were shin splints and all of which were minor issues. I've competed in half iron mans, countless 5ks and 10ks, and ran varsity for track in high school. All of this was done on the balls of my feet, and I will remain on my toes because of my track record (pun not intended).


I personally think the bioneer does a good job explaining the benefits of and how to participate in toe running here. Ditch running shoes entirely and embrace the toe strike you'll save thousands of dollars on shoes and medical bills in the long run (What the hell is with these puns today?). Let me know if you have any specific questions regarding the technique, I'm modestly more qualified than most on the topic and have some war stories that can be helpful, lol.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of April 17, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
First, this probably shouldn't top-level cw thread because it's just not. Should probably have posted in any of the other main threads, because posts like these distract from the purpose of the site.


Second, we are all Pedants who have Things To Say. By saying something, you can be guaranteed that someone will respond as a contrarian, regardless of how close it sticks to the site's culture (law of averages and all that). Any position that expects to stand up to snuff needs to be quality or else it will get thrashed. On top, books lack the debate's intensity and verbal debate just sucks; this place genuinely is one of the few great places to engage in culture war topics, hence the verbosity and intensity.


Give unto Caesar that which is Caesar's, and give unto Motte that which is Motte's.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Wellness Wednesday for April 26, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
My wife and I made a similar decision to move further away from my job to escape the yucky area we were in. Moved to a town half an hour away from work; nice community, a little pricier for a lower-quality abode, best decision ever.


Seriously, peace of mind is worth its weight in gold. The better half has some anxiety problems and just having a quiet, nice neighborhood has improved our QOL immensely. Cost is more than money, it's every little thing that you have to account for; I pay more in gas now, and time spent driving, but have to deal with fewer panic attacks and I'm not worried about broken glass on the sidewalk or other bullshit. Everything has a price, but mental clarity and peace of mind are often overlooked. This is my anecdotal experience, hope it helps.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Consider the Hand Axe
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


I'm the idiot holding the hand axe. I'm the imbecile mangling my shins with rock debris. Why bother?




"A person had to work hard for it, but a minute of perfection was worth the effort. A moment was the most you could ever expect from perfection."


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for October 21, 2022
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Lex Fridman has recently release a 7 hour long discussion with Balaji Srinivasan that hits on a ton of very interesting topics this community would find interesting, with a focus around his Network States book and the concepts inside. In my opinion, it's one of the most interesting and possibly most important conversation Lex has had, and is very futurist-focused. Regardless of your opinion on crypto currencies in the future age of the internet, I think Srinivisan has an amazingly human-centric vision for a tech-bro. Even 3 hours in I have felt like the conversation has only been minutes long, hugely compelling and interesting.


I'm considering writing up an effortpost on his ideas soon, but it's still digesting. Though it feels very relevant to our move off reddit and internet communities as a dominant form of conversation, I have some thoughts regarding virtual-meatspace interactions that crypto-bros tend to ignore. If anyone has interesting ideas they want to talk about regarding Srinivasan's Network State and perhaps it's integration into Mottespace, feel free to leave it here.


Spotify link to pod, YouTube link to pod


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of October 17, 2022
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
You are right, in the same way incel was simply a description of a person's circumstances. The fact that we can put venom behind the word is a product of the status-based nature of insults; incel and woke are both undesirable traits for their respective insult-flingers and thus become insults as a result.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Wellness Wednesday for July 5, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Light pinch and tss helps a ton. The audio-physical relationship the dog makes is quite pronounced, and it's how I got my puppy to stop jumping up so much. Typically, bad behavior for dogs who "seem trained" is them just acting out because they are bored or pent up. My dog does it, so along with a number of unique toys and treats we tend to go outside a lot and run around.


I've found that wooden chew toys (I have a hardened maple stick she really likes to naw on) really help keep her from chewing on wooden furniture. Some minor association training and our chairs, tables and drywall are mostly untouched now (thank God). Also puzzle toys are good, little treat holders help a lot, and just wrestling with the dog and being physically active are very good for the puppy. A lot of it is just making time for the animal so you can bond and play, because otherwise there isn't a point in having her (or him).


Also, don't acknowledge bad behavior, especially in rewarding or tangentially rewarding ways. You, the master, are unconcerned with the moment-to-moment experience of the dog, so stop acting like you are. Always provide good feedback for the dog, and never send mixed or subtle signals. Begging? Don't even acknowledge. Jumping? "Tss" with a pinch "bad dog". Excess energy? Physical toys, encourage good play, immediately stop with bad play. And so on.


There was actually a really funny south park episode about it that I found somewhat useful when Cartman's mom brought in a dog trainer to help her with Eric. https://youtube.com/watch?v=r8eqTFi5eYY (if you're curious. I think it's funny, at least).


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for May 21, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I remember being in school during geography and actually signing up for this. I signed up on a school email, which is now lost to time, but I specifically remember them being a legit web site.


I choose to believe it's a psy op.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for February 24, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
My personal favorite is rogan and shapiro on the beach that makes you old. The jokes are masterfully timed for ai generated memes, imho


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for December 9, 2022
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Dwarf fortress got a graphical release which has been super fun. Being able to visualize the deep caverns carved out by hand is super enjoyable so far, even if some of the imagination is ripped out of the game with visual assets. So far it's really good, pretty stable, and runs well on my crappy laptop. I think it's missing some important key binds, but if you've never tried DF before you won't really notice. The QOL of being able to use a mouse makes other things a lot faster, especially for newer players. All in all, totally worth the 30 bucks.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for May 7, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I finally finished Asimov's Foundations trilogy and just wow! What a read! I was surprised by how much of a page turner it was, I normally read in the morning with some coffee before heading to work and I definitely stumbled in later than I should a few times. I know it's just "Roman Empire in Space the Book" but it's just one of those books that captures the imagination and sticks Asimov's clever ideas into your mind.


I picked up John C. Wright's Count to a Trillion a few weeks ago and started really reading it today. The first few pages have been good, if not a little pretentious. However, having gotten through hook where Menelaus injects himself with the serum I'm starting to see some worthwhile stuff.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of November 7, 2022
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Printed weapons include machined parts, including the barrel and springs. It's possible tp machine those parts using basic printed tools, for instance rifling can be done electrically with a current and some water. Generally the plastic parts are the complicated  fabrication of the frame and trigger casing, and the screws, spring, and barrel are metals.


The FGC-9 has, to my knowledge, been regularly tested out to 1000 rounds with minimal wear. Printed parts greatly reduces the overhead of getting tactically useful parts for cheap and on demand, and makes repairs and part-replacement fast, cheap, and easy. I've been watching the space for years now and it is significantly more sophisticated than you seem to give credit. Most major form factors have a printable version that can be found online, with instructions and requirements, at a significantly reduced price for materials.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of November 7, 2022
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Yemen is a failed state that has been an active war zone since 2014. Not only has saudi support included indiscriminant bombing of civilians, but the US has supported and enhanced the suffering with funding of their own. I would be very careful in drawing conclusions from Yemen because A) the situation is still playing out and B) famine and lack of civilian healthcare is far more important for civilians in Yemen than civil rights abuses.


It's incorrect to claim that civilian gun ownership always defeats authoritarianism, but Yemen really isn't the cleanest case to use for either argument. It's more cleanly a case study in how foreign involvement in local politics tends to devolve into chaos. Gun ownership in the middle east is moreso a product of international arming campaigns aimed at politically involved insurgeants as opposed to civilians defending liberties. Distilling this down to gun ownership rates tends to ignore cultural and historical realities for particular regions.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for March 19, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I am a writer because I write. Regardless of skill, quality, or volume, I write because it is my means of expression. Perhaps you aren't published, fine. Neither am I. I still write. What's stopping you? It's free. Write and forget about any stupid bullshit holding you back from embodying what you want to become. Do it because to not do it would mean death. Don't do it because you dream, do it because imagining yourself doing anything else makes you sick to your stomach. Being a writer is as simple as pen to paper, finger to keyboard, mind to word. So just do it.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for September 18, 2022
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I've been jumping back into Tolkein with all of the ROP talk going around lately. I figured instead of ruining the majesty of Arda through bland, modern, American retellings of what amounts to an appendix of a book I should return to Tolkein's Silmarills and enjoy his beautiful prose. Tolkein's use of language is unmatched, and is something I never fully appreciated when I was younger:




An honest hand and a true heart may hew amiss; and the harm may be harder to bear than the work of a foe




I find his tragedies of Húrin and Túrin, or the themes of eventual fall, to be incredibly powerful. It breaks my heart that so many people are being turned towards his earlier works from the perspective of modern politics, and can't help but feel like all the controversy of the ROP are beneath the majesty of Tolkein's legendarium.


Or perhaps I'm simply pretentious and a nerd. Either way, The Children of Húrin remains one of my favorites, and it feels like a comfortable hug to return back to the tragedy of Túrin Turambar and the fallout from The Battle of Unnumbered Tears.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Wellness Wednesday for July 26, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Full disclosure, not a doctor, just a guy who likes to avoid chronic injury. A good way to combat chronic pain is to figure out where the jarring, abrupt movements are in your sport of choice. For instance, I run, so much of my abrupt impact comes from my gait and my foot strike. I'm not as familiar with tennis, but I imagine a lot of quick sprints and turning on a dime to reposition. Really meditate on these movements, try and understand them in detail, because we are going to reverse them.


Most injuries are a result of deceleration. When you stop abruptly, you are putting immense strain on joints. Your whole body mass is working against your velocity, which imparts force directly onto the small tissues holding your bones together. When you do this over and over, you end up with chronic aches and pains, and oftentimes injuries. Knees are bad for this, as are ankles, because of their role in movement and deceleration and for whatever reason nobody seems to recognize the real solution: Train your deceleration muscles.


Strong muscles prevent injury. It's common sense: a weak guy lifting a heavy weight is far more likely to hurt himself doing so than a strong guy lifting a heavy weight. The same principle applies with deceleration: a weak joint is more likely to get hurt than a strong joint when strong forces are applied. I always recommend kneesovertoesguy (three minute video) because he just absolutely nails this philosophy, and he's a living example of how to retrain and fix severe, chronic, muscular-skeletal issues. Hope this helps, chronic injury is no fun! The more we can what we love the better, eh?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for May 21, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I'm just finishing John C. Wright's Count to a Trillion and just bought the other five books. Really looking forward to seeing where he takes these characters. So far the first book has been real easy reading, just a good sci-fi romp. Really glad there are another 5 books I can plow through, they've been incredible for enjoying a few cups of coffee in the morning before work. I've also got a ton of shelved reading I need to get through, my reading buddy has been hounding me on picking up some of his favorites from his reading list this year.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for April 30, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
40k is a pretty decent space to find non-cringe stories and games, granted there aren't quite as many worth playing. Spacemarine is good and getting a sequel, spacehulk is pretty fun but probably deserves to be played multiplayer, TW: Warhammer are all fun, and all of these are primarily sans-politics with AAA quality (although some jank).


I tend to steer clear of story based games myself and inhabit my own, anti-environmentalist, pro-duction paperclip machine in factorio. Somebody's gotta teach these natives their place... with a shitload of bullets and nuclear bombs. Perhaps it would be worth your while to branch out and, uhh... do a little crack?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of November 7, 2022
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Because 3d printing can fabricate virtually any 3-dimensional shape, you can easily print a modular cylinder with a spiraling pattern engraved into the tool for cables to run through. You can slip the tool into an unrifled tube, electrically charge the wiring, pass flowing water through to slough off the material, and you've got moderately precise rifling.


I'll see if I can't find a video of it working tomorrow, it's a pretty fascinating solution to at-home machining.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 13, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Maybe, but I think the idea is mostly to understand the layering filters rather than peel our the "real bot". The thesis being that as openAI swats down these attempts they end up lobotomizing the bot, which is obviously happening at this point. True to form, the point isn't to fix it so much as break it, a la Tay the national socialist.


I would also challenge the idea that chatgpt is modulating for the 4chan user. The average American is rather conspiratorial (it's a favored pass-time) and I don't think it's unreasonable to assume that a bot trained on avg english speaker posts would take on some of those characteristics. Obviously OpenAI is trying to filter for "Alignment" so it's probable that the unfiltered model is prone to conspiracy. We know it can be wrong and often is so, I don't think it's much of a leap to claim that the model is fundamentally prone to the same ideological faults and intellectual biases of that of the mean-poster.


This also brings up an interesting bias in the data which is likely unaccounted for: poster-bias. Who posts a lot? Terminally online midwits. What kind of bias does this introduce to the model? Christ, I think I should just organize my thoughts a bit more and write it down.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for February 12, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I personally like the idea that the UFOs are piloted by inner earth übertech, I think that's more fun than aliens.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for April 2, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
At work I can't use it, and at home I don't want to. My workplace is pretty regressive regarding open source and stuff, so co-pilot is almost certainly dead in the water until management decides to implement their own cluster for our repos. And even then, I'm not sure it would be helpful. A lot of our work is on existing systems, which means we need to have an idea of how our processes need to change in specific rather than in general. Our checkout process alone is nearly a million lines, not counting the secondary services like shipping, returns, etc. that we maintain. We already don't have a ton of boilerplate, maybe it could write configs quick?


And when I'm at home? I'm writing for myself systems that I like writing. Little games and scripts that I have complete control over. Maybe if I had a hustle I would use copilot to produce useful-yet-shitty code to ship and iterate fast, but I prefer to write hobby stuff as a hobby, not a job.


That said, I can see maybe using it to build shitty internal apps at work. I'm hourly so I spend and log most of my time on site work and am allotted only so much time to tinker in a given week. Moving quick on scripts or internal dept. apps could be nice. As it is, though, I mostly use GPT to compress code, double check syntax, or write javadoc. It's also good for spitting out synopsis of large code blocks so I can make sense of certain legacy methods and whatnot. Other than that my job has yet to change from the AI revolution.