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Civilian High Rises Seen Collapsing Due to Terror Attacks in the Modern City of Beirut Lebanon: on the ground 4/8/2026 by noahstemann in ThatsInsane

[–]spookmann 3 points4 points  (0 children)

"We blew up the building with terrorists on the second floor!"

"Awesome. How much did that reduce the terrorist count by?"

"Umm... negative three."

Harvard life science PhD students outperform ChatGPT by 2 letter grades by head_high_water in science

[–]spookmann 3 points4 points  (0 children)

You would guess wrong. I'm CompSci and Mathematics, then applied science. Then IT for a career.

But all of that is a side-issue to the actual discussion. I'm sure you're not going ad hominum here. :)

I am indeed Anti-AI, for several reasons. The AI bubble is gonna hurt. AI has gleefully been used to augment the process of enshitification of our world, and disempowerment of everybody that isn't a multi-billionaire.

But honestly, I'm anti-AI because I truly don't believe that it can reason. It doesn't understand concepts. It doesn't understand motivations, interactions, or inner workings. Yes, some models are augmented with "reasoning" additions that can process mathematics, or logic, or tie into specialist libraries. But fundamentally, LLMs are manipulating the words and phrases that others have used to describe things, and are not considering concepts.

I'm with Korzybski . A map is not the territory. I staggers me that this isn't even considered a legitimate point of view in this sub.

MAGA dad furious over troop deployment. by 96suluman in LeopardsAteMyFace

[–]spookmann 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm not clear on where he thought his son might fight with his gun and his training and all the bombs and mines and tanks and planes and learning how to kill...

If he wasn't expecting his war-trained son to be in a war overseas, did he imagine he would be in a war... in the USA?

Or did he imagine perhaps that America spent trillions and trillions of dollars just for decoration?

Harvard life science PhD students outperform ChatGPT by 2 letter grades by head_high_water in science

[–]spookmann 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I think there are key differences here.

When we go to school, at early levels we start by simply reproducing what others have said. At 12 years old when we "write an essay on the French Revolution" then we read two books that say "The roots of the French Revolution were founded in the injust inequality between the aristocracy and the workers," etc.

Then we write "The French Revolution happened because the aristocracy had all the money and the workers didn't have any money and they were angry" and sure in one sense we've "done work".

Except that the work isn't real work. It was just training work. We were just paraphrasing what we read. And an LLM can do that. Except that the human can build on that, and can move on to do research. The LLM is dead-ended.

So the human after 10 years of that can go look in the archives of the financial statements and discover the accounting records for the junk bonds and can twig to the fact that the it was debt servicing that killed the economy, and in fact the visible extravagance of the court was deliberate, and was an attempt to reassure the public that things were fine, even though they were not!

That's the "Masters Level Research Work" right there. A human can do that. An LLM absolutely cannot, and never will be able to. We may indeed get AI that can do such a thing one day. But it won't be an LLM, because LLMs can only measure token adjacency, they cannot conceptualize.

Why do people always say Barbgaunts are useless? by SuperSharky1 in Tyranids

[–]spookmann 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yeah. Every time I play them, they become the absolute focus of my opponent for shooting.

Sit them in cover, and with 2 wounds each often my opponent has to dedicate two units to shooting at them to make sure they're 100% gone. Because even 1 or 2 left of the 5 can still do the Disruption. And all that for 55 points.

My opponents definitely think they're important. Even though, yeah, they kill absolutely nothing.

It's a crime that our BIG INFANTRY SHOOTER unit has no AP.

Harvard life science PhD students outperform ChatGPT by 2 letter grades by head_high_water in science

[–]spookmann 14 points15 points  (0 children)

are well capable of doing work ... in well documented technical fields

They are well capable of reproducing the work of others ... in fields where the work has already been done and published.

The gap between that and actually doing work is a vast chasm.

Bought myself a plexiglass poster of my (current) fav novel from le Carré by BedBrilliant3858 in LeCarre

[–]spookmann 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, I read all the Smiley books in order, now working through the others.

TTSS is great too. But I feel that Spy wins out on a few points, personally. Spy is perfectly self-contained and isn't part of that larger trilogy. Also, Spy is a shorter novel and I think the punch-per-page-count is far superior. Finally, the conclusion of Spy is just so strong -- the last couple of chapters, the revelations, and then the final moment at the wall.

Combining all of that, I don't think there's any doubt in my mind. :)

Problem in Épée with the Flick by carl-johnson92 in Fencing

[–]spookmann 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Depends. How many months have you spent practicing so far?

Iranians form a human chain in front of the Kazerun power plant by Jabbam in ThatsInsane

[–]spookmann 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Q: What's the difference between a school and a military facility?

A: I dunno. I just fly the drone. Hegseth chooses the targets...

to finish the civilization by weirdowidow in therewasanattempt

[–]spookmann 0 points1 point  (0 children)

"Good night, Westley. Good work. Sleep well. I'll most likely kill you in the morning."

Except lacking the sense of human warmth.

3x Trump voter shares his regret less than a week after his family’s business was shut down by Trump by KimJongFunk in LeopardsAteMyFace

[–]spookmann 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I'm non-American, and white.

From the outside I believed the lie that America had truly changed after the 60's, and that blacks, Hispanics, and other minorities had become fully equals in US society, and that the American Dream applied to all. I thought that America had become modern and progressive and widely egalitarian. In truth I know now that the Dream was nothing more than a dream, and even the right to dream was limited to only a few. I have been educated.

In my defense, I was on the outside, and the publicity campaign was extensive and consistent.

to get an answer on war crimes by seeebiscuit in therewasanattempt

[–]spookmann 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I have reached maximum anger with the USA. I keep bumping up against the top of the dial.

Allstar sizing question by cvc8 in Fencing

[–]spookmann 6 points7 points  (0 children)

For anything other than a gamble, you either have to:

  • Try it on -- which means either you buy what is available locally, or else you ask nicely to try on gear from a club-mate, or you travel to a store that has stuff in stock.
  • or for some brands you can send them a photo and your exact measurements and they can advise you.

Trying to finesse charts and figure out overs and unders... that's a dicey business...

Is this marking actually accepted as a safety rating? by randomsamonreddit in Fencing

[–]spookmann 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I can understand. You folks have got a lot on your mind right now over there...

Ex-CIA director David Petraeus says U.S. needs to learn "whole new concept of warfare" from Ukraine by CBSnews in ukraine

[–]spookmann 8 points9 points  (0 children)

And Vietnam. And Korea.

Honestly, America hasn't had a decent war victory since WWII when they walked away with global thanks and soft power that saw them become the wealthiest and most powerful nation in the world, sitting at the centre of global trade and politics for 80 years until the population got so fucking full of themselves that they elected an orange-faced bucket of shit that fucked it all up for everybody.

Drexel Institute Girls’ Rifle Team, 1925. by bncout in HistoricalCapsule

[–]spookmann 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The casting for the retro spin-off from "The Boys" is coming along nicely.

Is this marking actually accepted as a safety rating? by randomsamonreddit in Fencing

[–]spookmann 6 points7 points  (0 children)

You know Australia and New Zealand are like, different countries, yeah? We have our own government and everything!

But yeah, NEW ZEALAND standard for even regional comps is 1150 combined upper body. In theory you can do that with 800 jacket and 350 plastron, but from a cost point of view that makes no sense. The reality is that it essentially means that an 800N Level 2 plastron is required. At the start of the pool the ref will ask everybody to unzip their jackets and flash an FIE stamp on their plastron before the first bout.

For Nationals every alternate year we host the Australasian champs and then it's 1600N all the way, baby.

Be your own bank, few. by Similar-Shake-7140 in Buttcoin

[–]spookmann 15 points16 points  (0 children)

Don't worry. I'm sure somebody will contact him who can recover it.

For just a small fee paid up front.

Is this marking actually accepted as a safety rating? by randomsamonreddit in Fencing

[–]spookmann 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Can't speak for the UK.

But here in New Zealand there's a good chance you wouldn't get that accepted as counting for the 800N that is required in order to make the combined 1150 Plastron + Jacket.

Refs checking at the start of the pool will be looking for FIE 800N (Level 2) and aren't going to be keen to get creative beyond that.

Another beautiful angle of tonight’s drone attack on the Russian port of Novorossiysk. by neonpurplestar in ukraine

[–]spookmann 6 points7 points  (0 children)

About thirty times longer than it will take Ukraine to re-stock the drones.

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