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PaperclipPerfector  3d ago (text post)   1814 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for April 17, 2026

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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Models don't have access to training data at inference time.

Then, if it doesn't have access to internet search, how is it looking things up?

If I gave you a snippet of Shakespeare and asked you to guess who wrote it, I expect the Bard would be one of your top choices. How are you doing that if you don't consult Google or your Shakespeare box set?

Each token that the model sees in training updates its view of what sort of things are associated and in what way. Elements of style or topics may be clustered somewhere in the high dimensional latent space with the corresponding authors.

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The weekly Culture War threads host the most controversial topics and are the most visible aspect of The Motte. However, many other topics are appropriate here. We encourage people to post anything related to science, politics, or philosophy; if in doubt, post!

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Why are you called The Motte?

A motte is a stone keep on a raised earthwork common in early medieval fortifications. More pertinently, it's an element in a rhetorical move called a "Motte-and-Bailey", originally identified by philosopher Nicholas Shackel. It describes the tendency in discourse for people to move from a controversial but high value claim to a defensible but less exciting one upon any resistance to the former. He likens this to the medieval fortification, where a desirable land (the bailey) is abandoned when in danger for the more easily defended motte. In Shackel's words, "The Motte represents the defensible but undesired propositions to which one retreats when hard pressed."

On The Motte, always attempt to remain inside your defensible territory, even if you are not being pressed.


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