milicent_bystandr

@milicent_bystandr@lemm.ee

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Evil⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago⁩:

  From my point of view, JavaScript is evil.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Evil⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago⁩:

  “Vladimir Putin, you are under arrest for war crimes.”

  “It was a special military operation! It was all the fault of the Nazis!”

  “No, not for all that. You’re under arrest for violating the GNU GPL! Prepare to meet your source, licencef*****!!!”

  *blam* *blam* *blam*

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Hey is Sharing Luigi’s Manifesto on Social Media Actually "Glorifying Violence"? Because Reddit Said So 😭⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Mangione’s manifesto is being shared with a wink and a smile on social media.

  Agreed. Lemmy especially is all for glorifying both manifesto and actions. Yes, it’s being shared for that glorification.

  But so is his mugshot. For likewise reason we sometimes avoid sharing the name or photo of certain criminals.

  Maybe… maybe you’re right. Maybe I’m also supporting a point of view because it gives me an outcome I want: the outcome of the manifesto being public, without a priori judging the actions. But I feel there’s something I’m missing. I think it’s to do with censorship. The other rhetoric, apart from this glorification, seems to be that there’s nothing to be said here except to lament and condemn the murder, and move on. Even the BBC report on why social media are supporting Mangione, felt like it was subtly shifting the perspective to make sensible people shrug the support off as irrational hype largely from Mangione’s good looks. That perspective then leverages the “glorification of violence is bad” argument to avoid or censor other discussion, including sharing the manifesto: this bothers me. So that even if the manifesto is being shared mostly only by those who seek to glorify Mangione, and I don’t wish to glorify his action, I would like it shared.

  I despise murder. Outside of fiction, I do not wish to glorify vigilante executions. And yet, I have a deep anger at injustices such as from certain members of the US healthcare system. Something must be done: and when the response to this something is to erase discussion, that feels wrong. Your answer, if I understood right, is that it’s right to glorify certain violence, including this: and therefore sharing the manifesto is good. Mine, I think, is that it’s right to fully and frankly consider all that’s going on, including this manifesto: and if that gets mired in people glorifying the shooting, I’m willing to put up with that. The manifesto is being shared to glorify the shooting; but sharing it is still important if not glorifying the shooting.

  Well, something like that.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Hey is Sharing Luigi’s Manifesto on Social Media Actually "Glorifying Violence"? Because Reddit Said So 😭⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Then discussing Osama Bin Laden’s manifesto, the Unabomber’s, McVeigh’s, or a school shooter’s isn’t glorifying either

  I agree, I don’t think it is. Nor is publishing Mein Kampf glorifying Nazism. Sharing the manifestos can be part of glorifying the actions, but also doesn’t need to be. But sharing them does suggest some relevancy of the actions, which to some people suggests you should consider agreeing with them. So there’s a balance of when it’s appropriate, especially if some people are using that to glorify the actions - as, indeed, is very much the case here.

  We accept that some glorification of violence is good, such as a politician talking about going after criminals

  We do, but I’m not sure it’s quite right. Maybe when we simultaneously say, “glorifying violence is bad,” we recognise the tension and perhaps our own cognitive dissonance. And maybe what we really want, is to glorify the stopping of evil, and accept (perhaps) the use of violence to achieve that. The glory of the politician going after criminals is of stopping the criminals, not of the superiority in violence used to achieve that. But the school shooter? Is there any glory there to be had, adjacent to the violence?

  Which brings us back to this CEO shooting. Even if we say violence per se is a bad thing, or if we say only judicially sanctioned violence is acceptable, still the abuses this CEO represents are evil, and we might glorify the opposition to those abuses. That leaves us with a tension. Glorify the principle of opposition, but not the method applied. In that context, the manifesto is relevant.

  And it leaves us with a discussion. Do we really say all violence is wrong? Is this healthcare system really as abusive or illegitimate as people think? Does the CEO have responsibility in that? What is a right attitude, and means, toward this in the future? All these we can discuss - and consider the manifesto part of that - without a priori ascribing glory (or condemnation) to the killing.

  It is true many people are glorifying Luigi, and whether that’s right is a separate question. For similar reasons we censor sharing all sorts of things, like Mein Kampf, or like dumping Bin Laden’s body in the sea. But those things don’t, of themselves, need to be glorifying what they represent; it is the opinionated balance of social factors that makes us censor those things. In the case of the school shooting, I probably agree: censor the manifesto. (Actually, I’d say let it be public for those who wish to know, but not widely shared.) But in this case here, I think the balance is in favour of publishing Luigi’s (apparent) manifesto.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Anon is a white hat hacker⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Providing one half of a double blind study.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Hey is Sharing Luigi’s Manifesto on Social Media Actually "Glorifying Violence"? Because Reddit Said So 😭⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Discussing is certainly not the same as glorifying. And yes, I did label one and not the other as an atrocity, but I hope you understand that’s a simplification.

  I do think in this case it’s an important question to be asked: why did the killer commit this murder; and why are so many people supporting it. And in this case, I don’t think it does justice, nor does society good, to wave it away with, “they’re a bad person who did a bad thing”. Perhaps in all murder cases some discussion, by some people, is necessary. But here, on balance, it seems particularly important and public.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Hey is Sharing Luigi’s Manifesto on Social Media Actually "Glorifying Violence"? Because Reddit Said So 😭⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  I think there’s a difference. School shootings are an atrocity, and, for the most part, we all agree on that. Sharing the manifesto lends a kind of legitimacy to the shooter and their reasons, and, on balance, we’d rather turn our back on them and condemn the violence.

  With this CEO murder, many of us agree there’s such life-destroying abuse in the American healthcare commerce - of which this CEO was directly part, whether or not he’s to blame - that the problem is a serious topic of public conversation. The manifesto, and the events associated with it, are a relevant part of that conversation, whether we support them or not.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The torque better not be too strong with this one⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Disappointed that the first comment isn’t, “May the Torx be with you”

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Admin team update⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Thank you so much for setting this up for us and making it a great instance to be on!

  Wishing you the best in taking a rest, and I think we all appreciate your honesty and decent human-ness - that you’ve neither given up and sent the thing down in flames, nor turned power-crazed and angry to deal with it all.

  Cheers!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨I feel so much better now that I also have a skill to show off on the internet⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Oh dear. Usually the chair is so big it stands way above the floor.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[Thread] Mental Math⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  But probably not calculating trigonometry and calculus when juggling, right?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨I feel so much better now that I also have a skill to show off on the internet⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  If the table has three legs it will be stable on any floor no matter how uneven (up to some limit!). Won’t be perfectly flat, but won’t wobble.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨I feel so much better now that I also have a skill to show off on the internet⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  So we assume a perfect table on an imperfect floor?

  Sounds like a theological allegory.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨I feel so much better now that I also have a skill to show off on the internet⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Right. Somehow I was thinking only of the floor being uneven, not the table legs. Surely it’s trivial to have table legs sufficiently different to not fit on any arbitrary shape of floor?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨I feel so much better now that I also have a skill to show off on the internet⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Does it require any arbitrary constraints on the topography of the floor?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨I have to be knowledgeable about a particular superstition in order to sign in to access a government form⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I see people’s comments that it’s technically a fact derived from your date of birth, and doesn’t require superstition. But I have no idea of which sign lines up with my birthday, so I propose some different questions:

  Which Chinese emperor was born in the same lunar year as you?

  According to the office of national statistics, how many people born on your birthday in Northern Europe were called John?

  How many days is it from your fourth birthday to the nearest February 29th?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨ugh i wish⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  That’s very interesting. Thank you for sharing.

  I hope things work out well for your son.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨ugh i wish⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  FWIW, there’s a lot we don’t know - but are learning - about bacteria and the gut. For example, if I’m not mistaken, a baby gets a lot of important gut bacteria from it’s mum through breastfeeding.

  So when I hear all this argument about raw vs pasteurised milk, I expect there really is something of health benefit to raw milk, just there’s a big downside of harmful pathogens that can be cured with pasteurization. That doesn’t mean all raw milk is unsafe. Like with raw eggs in the UK, or not iodizing your vegetables, it can be safer with care over production.

  Anyway, that is to say, I figure there could be some interaction with the bacteria in the raw milk helping your son to digest it.

  But having seen the other comment suggesting homogenisation, that sounds more likely to me. (Just a guess though.)

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨If a word can have as many meanings as we assign to it. Can was assign every meaning to one word?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Or, to put it another way, (unprofessional academic linguist here), a word has meanings by what you mean by it, and what the listener understands it to mean.

  In a sense, it can mean anything you want it to. In another sense, it can mean anything the listener/reader interprets it as. Most useful though is when you mean the same meaning that the listener understands.

  And for “accepted/official meaning”, that’s just a community all agreeing on a meaning. Optionally with a recognised group (e.g. dictionary writer) affirming certain meanings as accepted in the community.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨is rust memory safe for grandma???⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I think it’s that rust has higher entropy than programming in pure steel.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨brains!⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I endeavour to be as stupid as possible so more people can be above average.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Pluto's Orbit⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Second thing I noticed: Ooh, is that so? That’s interesting.

  First thing: its not it’s

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨This world is cruel…⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  If someone gives you a heavy bookcase wrong, also instant crush.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[Thread] Mental Math⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I think that’s still different from what I’m thinking of of interim steps, though.

  …but as I think how to explain I realize I’m about to blather about things I don’t understand, or at least haven’t had time to think about! So I’d better leave it there!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[Thread] Mental Math⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I reckon we can get a lot closer than an LLM in time. For one thing, the mind has particular understanding of interim steps whereas, as I understand it, the LLM has no real concept of meaning between the inputs and the output. Some of this interim is, I think, an important part of how we assess truthfulness of generated ideas before we put them into words.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[Thread] Mental Math⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  That is a good point, though the architecture of computer neutral networks is inspired by how we think the brain works, and if I understand correctly there is some definite similarity in the architecture.

  Lots of difference though, still!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Million dollar idea⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I prefer to poop on a logarithmic scale.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[Thread] Mental Math⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Not advanced maths per se; neural networks are amazing! Fuzzy matching based on experience - taken to an incredible level. And, tuneable by internal simulation (imagination).

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Withdrawal is going to make people go mad⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Ah, well, if the vegetable oil has been brominated by the council of bros, it should be all good, bro.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Withdrawal is going to make people go mad⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Yeah but all his hot air isn’t got for global warming.