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PaperclipPerfector  5d ago (text post)   17920 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of September 14, 2026

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Guillaume keeps hyping up Extropic, however his issue is that LLMs are in fact very good even on existing hardware (which is itself quickly improving), and his hardware is not general-purpose. Uncharitably, his startup has vaporware tech that could never work in a meaningful sense.

his startup has vaporware tech that could never work in a meaningful sense

I tend to over index on skepticism around 90% of AI-related startups so even just the hint that this might be the case is enough for me to consign it into the startup-grifter bin. I've seen too much in how the sausage is made around converting fame and name recognition to financial profit in the tech space that I have even become cynical of actual technological innovations that reek of the same odor.

I've seen too much in how the sausage is made around converting fame and name recognition to financial profit in the tech space

How is it actually done? What are the mechanisms?

From knowing him a bit, I believe that he's genuinely scientifically competent, a sincere believer in using quantum/thermodynamic effects for computation (to the point of developing a minor psychosis about the entire thermodynamic God thing), and prone to wishful thinking about its commercial viability. The pure grift component is modest (the current version of his hardware has no use case, and his real Big Boy Thermodynamic Chip can't be produced with manufacturing base available to him), but with the standards of evidence asked of small startups, the line is blurred by default.

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