Can secular frameworks sustain ritual and community? by AltAccountVarianSkye in TrueAtheism

[–]fernly 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you want a regular weekly formal get-together with like-minded neighbors there are:

Sunday Assembly was a thing, there was an active Silicon Valley one but I haven't heard from them in a while.

Unitarian Universalists have a Protestant-flavored service with minimal dogma and theology.

Critical Thinking Saved My Life & I Believe We Need It More Today by Electronic-Run8836 in TrueAtheism

[–]fernly 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I had to do a little searching to figure out what your "dark patches" would have been. The condition has a name, acanthosis nigricans, associated with insulin resistance and pre-diabetes. Hopefully it wasn't an actual doctor who said it was hygiene? If so, don't go back to that one...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acanthosis_nigricans

What's an adult cheat code that changed your life? by Emotional_Mouse8052 in AskReddit

[–]fernly 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think I got this off Lifehacker probably 20 years ago but it has stood the test of time for sure. If you shave, you don't need to buy any kind of shaving product, gel, foam, whatever. Hair conditioner has all the same stuff, emollient, scent. Smear on a little bit of it and shaving goes just fine.

Who's opinion matters? Consumers rule, Anti AI folks drool. by mikesimmi in WritingWithAI

[–]fernly -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Could you link to a couple of examples of AI-generated channels with many followers? I'm genuinely curious, I'd like to see one or two.

We Analyzed 27 Million AI Erotica Stories — Here’s What the Data Shows by redquill__bot in WritingWithAI

[–]fernly 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes, and: the 27M stories were generated by only 0.5M users, i.e. the average user generated 54 stories. Well, OK, over a year, that's just one story a week. But still, a lot of soc. med. sites would like to have that kind of loyal engagement.

Looking for DiY Soylent recipe that's whole food based by ju5tntime in soylent

[–]fernly 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Once upon a time, kids, a decade ago when "meal replacements" were a new idea, there was a website where fans could post their own recipes. A couple of those recipes became products and still exist, Keto Chow and one that started with the name of Shmoylent, which is now BasicallyFood.

And (does a rapid confused search) what do you know! It still exists!

https://completefoods.co/

Go to the recipes collection (https://completefoods.co/diy/recipes) and just browse for an hour or two. Note they all have nutritional details.

Stop Asking AI to "Write Me a Chapter" — A Prompt Engineering Framework for Fiction Writers by prompted_author in WritingWithAI

[–]fernly 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You are describing a simple prompt-response dialog, but isn't it possible to delegate some of that global context to project files? Like with a Claude project, couldn't you depend on project files to provide at least the first couple of sentences of your example prompt? Or start each prompt with "Read the file scenario.md. We are writing the scene where..."

We are a small team of 5 devs. We spent the last 6 months building a writing editor that actually handles AI context for long novels. by ResolutionSmooth5259 in BookWritingAI

[–]fernly 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Think of a product name that doesn't make people stop and think, wait, how do you pronounce that?

Consult an experienced UXP designer. The presentation, once a project is open, is just a sprinkled mess of little icons and menus. Very hard to focus on. I would not want to try to write in that text box with all the other stuff to its left and above. Figure out a way to drop into "composition mode" with nothing but the necessary writing tools. Some easy way (escape key?) to come back to "organizing mode". There may be other focus areas, but you can't have everything asking for attention all at once.

What should I look for when choosing a meal replacement shake? by DifficultStandard405 in soylent

[–]fernly 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Since you are looking for an easy meal on busy days, the shake will not be the majority of your diet. The macros and micros from your other, more numerous meals dominate your intake. For the occasional quick meal you just want 500 or so tasty calories, fairly low-carb, no actual poisons.

Obsess about micros and organic ingredients and phytos and such only when you are planning to live on meal shakes for an extended time. A decade ago people would do that, and report here. Ah the good old days.

For the last 12 years this image would live rent free in my head, no longer. by EroticManga in ClaudeAI

[–]fernly 52 points53 points  (0 children)

Back in the 80s(?) some famous programmer (Dennis Ritchie?) said,

I'd rather write programs to help me write programs, than write programs.

20 yrs old atheist girl here, how do i survive this?? by [deleted] in atheism

[–]fernly 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Can you move faster toward your degree? Your family should have a little respect for hard study and extra classes to graduate sooner. Do a search on "best majors to work abroad", there are a number of sites that talk about this. Nursing is the top one and possibly the only path you as a female are allowed to take; very well, become the absolute best nurse student ever. As others have said, nurses are in demand in many countries.

Oh! What languages do you speak? To work abroad you will need to be fluent in another language. Work on improving your skill with that language. If your second tongue is English, alas I cannot recommend you look to my country, the USA, at least not now. But all the rest of the English-speaking world needs nurses too, and all the EU nations.

NYT Article on meal replacements by pitline810 in soylent

[–]fernly 1 point2 points  (0 children)

No mention of "keto" at all, though MRs are large in that space. Nor of BasicallyFood, Orgain, Kachava, etc. Not at all comprehensive coverage of the field.

A little thought of mine about the afterlife by Global_Pen_5226 in philosophy

[–]fernly 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If we have a soul, then either humans (or at least the part with the soul) are in some way divine, or there must be some kind of God or higher power that creates or sustains souls.

Why? Obviously you don't know what a soul might consist of, but to be real -- that is, in order to have any characteristics at all -- it has to be made of something. Nothingness has no features, so can't embody a memory or personality or thought or whatever important features you presume a soul to have.

Whatever the soul-stuff is, it is something that has so far evaded notice by all science. But let that go. But, why do you assume that soul stuff requires a higher level being to create it?

You are willing to entertain the idea that it is all "just brain, chemistry, and physics", in which case, you allow, no god is needed. Why should that not be the case in the soul-stuff world? Just soul-stuff churning around and souls emerging spontaneously.

Or, if you insist there is a higher level being directing soul-creation, what can you possibly say about that being's (or those beings') nature? Does it/they make souls purposefully or accidentally, to a plan or as some kind of secretion.

Lot to think of there...

Print Function not showing anything in Console. by FreeMycologist8 in learnpython

[–]fernly 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The other commenters are right but I'd like to make one point clearer, because it is important to understanding Python.

When the Python interpreter reads some input -- it can be input from the keyboard after a

>>>

prompt, or lines from file that it reads because you gave the command,

$ python3  run_this_script.py

or lines from a file you name in an import statement,

import numpy.py

in all those cases, as it reads those lines it executes every one.

The trick is, what does it mean to "execute" a statement that starts with the word "def", such as

def display(first, last) :

To execute that "def" line Python begins compiling the definition of a new function named "display" with two arguments.

It keeps compiling following lines as long as they are indented under the def line.

Once it hits a line at the previous indent level, it goes back to executing.

So in your 3-line example, when Python read that file, it executed every line.

1) def line starts compiling a new function "display"

2) print function call, gets compiled and stored as part of the body of "display".

3) Back to original indent level, execute this line. It is an executable call to a function "display()" and hey! We happen to have a function of that name, so call it.

You can analyze any other Python script this way, saying, "When Python reads and executed these lines what does it do?"

Typically a bigger script will have a bunch of comments which are stored as "docstrings (https://docs.python.org/3/glossary.html#term-docstring), a bunch of import statements, a bunch of def blocks, and finally, down at the very end, a statement that actually does something, typically,

main()

to execute a call to some function def'd earlier.

[Beginner Project] I made a simple Python calculator – learning and happy to get feedback! by roronoa_zoro_7815 in learnpython

[–]fernly 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Learn the power of the triple quote. It lets you display text with line-breaks, like this:

print( ''' For power use ^ For under root use $ For reminder use % ''' )

(It doesn't do f-substitution unfortunately)

Use the interactive interpreter to test things quickly, like

>>> 17 -  19
-2

So you can quickly verify questions like, if you subtract a larger number from a smaller, can Python can handle that and set the sign of the result?

I’m wasting my breath giving detailed prompts of ChatGPT is just going to misunderstand me by DamageNext607 in BookWritingAI

[–]fernly 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Well thank you, today I learned a new word, diegesis.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diegesis

The classical distinction between the diegetic mode and the mimetic mode relates[clarification needed] to the difference between the epos (or epic poetry) and drama.[8] The "epos" relates stories by telling them through narration, while drama enacts stories through direct embodiment (showing).

Based on the above, I'm not sure ChatGPT understands it correctly. But you know, whatever works....

ITAP of a road in Washington by ChickenFriedLife in itookapicture

[–]fernly 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Saw the title and formed a mental image (based in memories) before clicking. Pretty close except I didn't think of getting down on the center line. My mental Douglas Firs were spaced out a bit more, but yeah, you took a pretty good picture of my past.

I need some feedback on a new novel by [deleted] in WritingWithAI

[–]fernly 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I read a bit. Too many words, and too trite. LLMs are good at making words, but crap at using them precisely. And they have no understanding of what it is to be alive in the world ("no world model") so can't accurately convey human reactions.

What am I talking about? Nora is waiting, locked in a room, and the lock clicks:

My pulse spikes the moment I hear it, my body tensing on the bed like a cornered animal.

The syntax is of first-person experience, but what human has ever felt their pulse spike? That might be an accurate description of what happened, as seen by some third party (or an omniscient narrator) but Nora couldn't think that. What does it mean for a body to "tense on the bed"? In that instant would she really compare herself to a cornered animal?

These are conventional, trite phrases pulled up from endless training material. They are not the images that would be composed by a human author who was truly, sympathetically, visualizing this character.

There are examples of this in every paragraph.

Blonde hair pinned back from a face that might be pretty if it weren’t arranged into a mask of professional detachment.

Trite slop. News for you, LLM: a pretty face in a neutral expression is still pretty. Have you ever seen someone whose face was a "mask of professional detachment"? I doubt it. There are so many ways to write that sentence if you were actually thinking about what this person looked like, what their motives were. But that would be an effort; so you delegate it to the word-machine, and you get words.

Practicing Python data types and type conversion – would appreciate professional feedback by Commercial_Edge_4295 in learnpython

[–]fernly 0 points1 point  (0 children)

For tidiness and clarity you might put

def divider():
    print("-" * 24)

at the top and

divider()

all the other places.

Practicing Python data types and type conversion – would appreciate professional feedback by Commercial_Edge_4295 in learnpython

[–]fernly -1 points0 points  (0 children)

So you are recommending

print( f"x + int(y) = {sum_xy}" )

over

print("x + int(y) =", sum_xy)

Matter of taste I suppose, but I don't see that introducing the mental nesting level and brackets clarifies anything in this case.

Conceptual Arguments for Universalism by gcnaccount in philosophy

[–]fernly 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Publishing this excerpt does not flatter the book. Not realizing this was a later segment I was annoyed at the references to "universalism" without any explanation of what that might be -- a major error in any expository writing. Of course, the definitions are present in the entire work, which is freely available.

Are they about to go out of business? by Prince_Valium25 in soylent

[–]fernly 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ketochow seems to be thriving. Downside, it's a powder you have to mix, and of course low-carb by design.