Recent Comments

1. 13 days ago on Doonesbury

   Of the formerly coequal branches of the US gov, we have the court as a last recourse.. The one that Turtle set Dump up to pack last go-round..

   The first month of Dump 2.0 is, I think, unprecedented on any measure of American history and looks to hold (much) more danger to the peaceful transfer of power than we saw at the end of Dump 1.0 (which is exactly what all the executive orders are actually aimed at)..

   Financial is a funny ole business, in that ‘the numbers’ matter to everyone who isn’t in control of a fiat currency.. Or able to hide misdeeds in tranches of trillions, etc etc

   Rearranging may sound less than consuming, but we are on a trend line that exceeds 3C whatever we call it – and no amount of petrodollar COP XX summit greenwashing parties are going to change it.

   Chinese 7nm litho and fabs are already powering the internal SoC market for Huawei, etc..

   The place that concerns me is in the distillation of foundation LLMs (DeepSeek, Qwen,..) and in the emerging fight over inference designs..

   It is worth noting that our previous surveillance capitalist excesses are already fully integrated into the totalitarian hellscape that Xi created under Covid..

   Maybe Dump will have to drop his tariff tantrum once he starts needing that tech for his third term.

   Yeah. This is fine.

   (apologies to KC Green)

2. 15 days ago on Doonesbury

   Thanks.

   The great American experiment is (let’s be honest, was) the light that led the world out of oppression.. The damage we’re doing now goes to the very heart of our nature as a species.

   Today, our identity – our very survival as modern humans – is dependent on global financial diktat that reduces all human endeavors to the stark choice of infinitely increasing profits or rapid unscheduled devaluing, and, now that science tells us that our rich world must stop consuming in this manner to save our planet, failure of our democracy begs the question of what motive we humans can muster to counter this runaway system without destroying ourselves in the process..

   The underlying threats originate in deeply sublimated triads of faiths, nationalisms and corporations that prop the whole extractive neverending prosperity fantasy which is the nexus of all the extremes that generate all the desires and hatreds that, in turn generate their vital votes, all on surreptitiously surveilling screens, while the very epistemology of our species’ values is polarized and auctioned to hucksters..

   I wonder when (well, if) a plurality will realize that freedom to recapitulate pointless parochial patriotic border struggles as distractions while plutocrats gut democracy is not freedom at all.

   Consider the prescient legacy of the centenarian president who first warned Americans of their consumerist crisis of character that (ever since and much moreso now) threatens humanity’s future, thereby dooming his own reelection – Then recall the spectacle of the first convicted felon (RE!!)occupying that same high office after cheering on the first insurrection in American history to breach the Capitol, and as Musk and the surveillance capitalist oligarchs gather like venture capitalist vultures to cheer on – and capitalize on – the tear-it-all-down chaos..

   Now consider what REALLY matters IF we even have a chance to reverse the avalanche of damage being done every day now, four years hence.

3. 15 days ago on Doonesbury

   My pleasure. My memories of Oracle and FUD go back to the struggle with IBM over the acquisition of Sun Microsystems.. Solaris on Sparc architecture, those were the days..

4. 15 days ago on Doonesbury

   Yep. I suppose SJW was what mkvinc was asking about, although as you said, it seems fairly clear in context.

   FUD is used in IT to malign the competition with speculation and innuendo that steers just clear of actionable slander, something the likes of Musk, and the rest of the tech oligarchs are very familiar with (and the fake hillbilly VC vulture Vance for that matter)..

   Although the squad actually stood with Biden at the end, it was the cumulative effects of DEI efforts that, however locally effective they may have been, provided a large glug of the jet fuel necessary for launching the campaign of a convicted felon and Capitol coup enabler.. In the IT world DEI FUD means that people who are legitimately better than people who had a much easier time getting to the same place are subject to an unarticulated cloud of suspicion.

   We all want the end results that DEI aspires to, but they absolutely will not come from ramming those efforts into the electorate as was attempted. IF there is a legitimate election for Democratic party to contest in four years, I really hope (though I personally doubt) that the wiser among the party will realize that DEI is unlikely in a fascist climate wasteland at war with the rest of the world..

   The great cannot be the enemy of the good, otherwise very bad things happen.. Like right now.

5. 16 days ago on Doonesbury

   Ah, sorry.

   AGI is artificial general intelligence, as contrasted with specific ‘intelligence’ such as playing Chess or Igo (囲碁) better than any of us meat bags..

   AGI is not any one intelligence nor even the sum total of our wetware skillset (as if we could even categorize that) which, it turns out, is perniciously bound to bone cracking, meat flapping, lip smacking aspects of being human (just ask any domestic canine ;)..

   As scary as humans’ intelligence can be, the scary things about AGI are likely to be those that are, well, inhuman..

   The current academia consensus goes something like : human intelligence is much more than the aspects of our mind that we can conceptualize (which it is, ..duh) therefore AGI is impossible for silicon embodiments of mathematics (stochastic or not).

   This turns out to be a (very) false sense of security..

   The key component of human intelligence that is unlikely to emerge from GAI or generative artificial intelligence is, of course, agency, or the ability to independently take action, which many see as effectively neutering the potential of GAI to achieve AGI (whatever that may actually be)

   The problem with this sanguine outlook is that large language models like ChatGPT (GPT being generative pretrained transformer) can be organized into groups that effectively catch each other’s mistakes and run in very rapidly strengthening chain of thought logic systems..

   I can personally testify to rapidly increasing ‘oh sheet!’ moments developing applications with these that very reliably replace legal, budget, HR and any number of other human professionals who do jobs mostly involved with accessing and modifying corporate computer data..

   That is a ‘sheet’ load of white collar jobs folks…

   So, GAI is not going to touch off any AGI Terminator singularity, but, given the looming job annihilation, does that even matter..?

   Not sure what SNW is, but FUD is an IT slang for Fear Uncertainty and Doubt, which companies like Oracle use often…

6. 16 days ago on Doonesbury

   I don’t think anyone who bothered to read the last couple centuries of US history could seriously argue that it was not riven by racist atrocities, nor do I think that anyone with a shred of human decency would argue against the desirability of diversity, equity and inclusiveness in our society.

   The problems arise when ham fisted attempts at prioritizing the great over the good and solipsistic self flagellation over hidden privilege drive almost perfectly untimely wedges in the electorate that cost us historic elections, resulting in the destruction of democracy at home the resurrection of fascist dictator conquest in Europe, resurgent rapacious globocorps throwing gasoline on the climactic crisis and surveillance capitalist oligarchs openly competing to build cybernetic gods…

   But, by all means let’s have more meetings about diversity, equity and inclusiveness in PBS programming and DoE curricula .. we can host the fired workers from the defunded, dismantled departments at the next democratic convention before the Trumpers round us all up for subcutaceous cyber monitors and cranial AI reeducation implants.

   (apologies to Johnathan Swift, as the Protestant Ascendancy at least had the ability to actually do something..)

7. 16 days ago on Doonesbury

   Exactly this.

   Outside of the (questionably relevant) SV, (here in the Charlanta I-85 corridor for example), there are still some white IT senior tech types, but they – and the South/East Asian STEM PhD men replacing them – are all unapologetically tRumpian / Musk brogrammer types unironically driving Cybertrucks (eElcaminos) to their gated multi car Mcmansions..

   The wild eyed SJWs ramming square squad DEI into round rethug holes have managed (aside from becoming easy jokes by Indians about white guy diversity hires) to do precious little other than providing a fake fentanyl sized FUD cudgel to the protofascist tech oligarchy assembling around Dotard 2.0..

   As pointed out, tech is mercilessly competitive; nothing is easier than slacking sackings for even productivity deviations that most typical nontech workers wouldn’t even know how to measure.. These quarterly bloodlettings are also great cover for flushing nonconformity BTW..

   In this environment, and with AGI actually on the horizon (yes, no singularity BS, I am literally working on training systems that boost ensemble local LLMs with reinforcement augmented deep learning to the point they are indistinguishable (and, yes, not just to management) from the human workers they are replacing..

   So, other than FUD cover for these job cuts and an internal own-goal coup against the one candidate whose fast fading faculties were STILL the only chance to prevent the destruction of democracy we are now treated to front row seats for, what have the squad SJWs done..

   ..I mean other than ushering in Armageddon.
8. 6 months ago on Pearls Before Swine

   Actually I think you can explain this all with only the observation effect.. just as with Schrodinger’s feline fatale, if you will simply refrain from opening the dryer door the socks remain in superposition, neither missing nor paired and we can be barefoot as Dog intended.

9. 7 months ago on Pearls Before Swine

   For the life of me, I just cannot understand Americans’ unwavering predilection for ultra processed and franchise fast foods in this day and age..

   I mean, there was a time when eating at home meant significant extra work and privation (or so the big agra and franchise propagandists would have us believe)..

   But honestly, here in the USA any decent grocery store has reasonably processed (as opposed to ultra processed) foods such as seasoned small species fish – healthier than large species in terms of accumulated toxins, prewashed greens, and other makings of easy healthy summer meals..

   Further, with ubiquitous Internet access even in the southern mountains that I haunt, your choice of mealtime music, content, companionship or whatever has never been better – even taking all the above ingredients for a quick picnic at one of the many underutilized municipal parks we have..

   When I compare the trivial efforts needed for inexpensive heathy and enjoyable mealtimes with paying ten times as much for an absolute assault on my senses and hair tearing frustration that trying to get food I actually want from a franchise staffer with at most weeks of work experience while shouting over piped in ‘entertaiment’ and loutish loudmouths ,

   or, far worse, the deeply depressed ultra processed food zombie trance that people apparently adopt in the pale blue light of the cable and streaming services indoctretainment to dull the shame and anxiety while voluntarily destroying one’s health,…

   I mean, I was raised in the USA, and I did participate in the same things pre pandemic, but today, when food fresher than any franchise – and multiples cheaper – is so easy to acquire and prepare, and when modern cooking appliances, refrigerators, deep freezers and dishwashers are so cheap and reliable…

   I understand the Anglo-American penchant for physiological destruction even less than their penchant for destruction of their democratic and cultural legacy..

   So glad for the national parks!!

10. 9 months ago on Nick Anderson

    Thank you!

    The language is actually very amenable to things like the Digital Democracy Project and other strategies where we can work on elimination of the elements of representation necessitated by lack of communication technology and on understanding and enhancing those elements that are actually effective for the preservation of representative democracy..