site banner
naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   4489 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for March 5, 2023

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

3
Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

Should I wait for a Nvidia 5090 or buy (and hide!) a 4090 now before a GPU-eating AGI is summoned, or more likely, NGO/associated state actors/alignment (((researchers))) make purchasing impossible? Currently on a 1060 6GB.

These AGIs ruining the world in the next 5 years posts are so tired.

Anyways, flagship Nvidia GPUs tend to have 40-50% more compute than their previous generation counterparts. Realistically if you are not going to be doing some mondo gaming, video editing or Deep Learning training/inference, you don't even need a 4090.

In simple words, don't buy a 1500 USD GPU exclusively for AGI worries (buy it for any other reason but that!). And NVIDIA actually did you a solid by clearly demarcating their consumer line of GPUs from the server line quite distinctly (they don't even have video output), if in the near future institutions do limit GPU ownership (which is stupid for many reasons), the consumer line might not really get caught up given the US historically banning the sale of A100s and H100s to China. Your GTX GPUs are probably safe. And Nvidia is not stupid, if such regulations are on passing they can just have a few server GPUs in their lineup and some new "gaming" GPU's that just happen to have a lot of tensor cores, I don't think the bureaucracy would be able to keep up with that.

What is this place?

This website is a place for people who want to move past shady thinking and test their ideas in a court of people who don't all share the same biases. Our goal is to optimize for light, not heat; this is a group effort, and all commentators are asked to do their part.

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!

Check out The Vault for an archive of old quality posts. You are encouraged to crosspost these elsewhere.


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.


New post guidelines

If you're posting something that isn't related to the culture war, we encourage you to post a thread for it. A submission statement is highly appreciated, but isn't necessary for text posts or links to largely-text posts such as blogs or news articles; if we're unsure of the value of your post, we might remove it until you add a submission statement. A submission statement is required for non-text sources (videos, podcasts, images).

Culture war posts go in the culture war thread; all links must either include a submission statement or significant commentary. Bare links without those will be removed.

If in doubt, please post it!


Rules


Recommended Posts And Communities

Recommended Realtime Chats