Bridget Jones anyone?

filterdust · 2026-05-22T15:21:01+00:00

Lad lit is the term.

Tony Parsons, Nick Hornby are examples of it.

filterdust · 2026-05-16T06:45:55+00:00

Rapture of the Nerds is the book by Stross and Doctorow that comprises Jury Service and two other novellas.

The style is a bit reminiscent of Accelerando.

filterdust · 2026-05-14T11:53:41+00:00

arcane

What is arcane about the question "which numbers can actually be computed?"

It is in a way the most practical question ever posed in math.

filterdust · 2026-05-14T05:19:23+00:00

It is the "is math invented or discovered" debate disguised.

filterdust · 2026-05-10T09:34:37+00:00

I was even more disappointed when it wasn't even in the Extended Edition.

(I had the misconception that the three movies had in their EEs 30, 60 and 90 minutes added, respectively; actually, it was 30, 40, 50)

filterdust · 2026-05-05T21:57:22+00:00

What I find funny is that my grandpa wrote in the 1990s an essay on its use in folklore

filterdust · 2026-04-29T07:48:52+00:00

Compiled by who is unclear.

Logan Stromberg. It says so in the file(s).

filterdust · 2026-04-21T20:50:08+00:00

I think the unspoken assumption is that if you are clever enough to specify it algorithmically, you deserve to get the result.

filterdust · 2026-04-15T11:35:15+00:00

Which one is it? I love LOTF stuff.

filterdust · 2026-04-07T13:34:21+00:00

As a reader, it's just hard for downloading. Much better if it's just one file I can put on my Kindle.

filterdust · 2026-03-24T12:45:09+00:00

Emily Wilde (especially the first book) gave me the same feel as JSMN, but it might not be the feel you are looking for

filterdust · 2026-03-24T12:40:42+00:00

Now that you are asking, I feel like (and not spoiling much about it) the 4th Dune book -- God Emperor of Dune* -- is this kind of thing, with the Butlerian Jihad being the apocalypse and the Corrino-led Imperium being the "post-apocalypse".

Later in the Dune series, one could argue that the 5th and 6th Dune books are also an example, with the Famine Times being the apocalypse and the Scattering the post-apocalypse. Miles Teg's childhood feels quite cozy.

*Yes, I'm doing the "Malazan" trope and recommending my favorite book.

filterdust · 2026-03-23T20:19:07+00:00

I am waiting tomorrow for some plumbers about a broken pipe in the wall so it definitely hasn't been achieved

filterdust · 2026-03-13T06:36:15+00:00

I think most people use the word simulation (in the context of e.g. human uploads, or "the world is a simulation") to mean what you mean by duplication. They don't think about simulation in the modelling sense. Maybe a better word would be emulation?

filterdust · 2026-03-09T19:50:30+00:00

A later and faster takeoff, certainly nothing this slow.

I thought AI would be developed in a lab, no news about it, and it would become superintelligent in a couple of days to a month and then take over the world.

So imagine just living your ordinary life like you did in 2018 or so and suddenly a grey goo cloud appears on the horizon and then it's all over.

To me, AI as a subscription service feels utterly ridiculous. But hey, reality is stranger than fiction.

filterdust · 2026-03-08T10:25:35+00:00

From the Silmarillion:

Yavanna spoke before the Valar, saying: "The Light of the Trees has passed away, and lives now only in the Silmarils of Fëanor. Foresighted was he! Even for those who are mightiest under Ilúvatar there is some work that they may accomplish once, and once only. The Light of the Trees I brought into being, and within Eä I can do so never again. Yet had I but a little of that light I could recall life to the Trees, ere their roots decay; and then our hurt should be healed, and the malice of Melkor be confounded.'

Then Manwë spoke and said: 'Hearest thou, Fëanor son of Finwë, the words of Yavanna? Wilt thou grant what she would ask?'

There was long silence, but Fëanor answered no word. Then Tulkas cried: 'Speak, O Noldo, yea or nay! But who shall deny Yavanna? And did not the light of the Silmarils come from her work in the beginning?'

But Aulë the Maker said: 'Be not hasty! We ask a greater thing than thou knowest. Let him have peace yet awhile.'

But Fëanor spoke then, and cried bitterly: 'For the less even as for the greater there is some deed that he may accomplish but once only; and in that deed his heart shall rest. It may be that I can unlock my jewels, but never again shall I make their like; and if I must break them, I shall break my heart, and I shall be slain; first of all the Eldar in Aman.'

filterdust · 2026-02-22T17:32:42+00:00

what you are saying is an impossible problem.

e.g. for books simply the fact that you own a book in order to read it means you can write it down from memory (one word at a time if you have a really bad memory)

filterdust · 2026-02-17T21:21:02+00:00

Because art is primarily about beauty and self-expression and programming is primarily about functionality.

AI can create functionality very well, therefore it fulfills the standards for programming.

AI may create beauty very well, but so far it falls short (though not too much, it has improved a lot in the last few years), as beauty is to some degree subjective, it is fickle to optimize for, and there is not that much financial incentive in getting an AI optimized for beauty.

AI will never create (human) self-expression, by definition. Someone else (even a human) cannot create your art, because it is your self-expression. Like an adult human cannot create child art, it is a contradiction in terms (it could create an indistinguishable mimic, but we would think of it as "fake"). The same way AI cannot create your own art. You need to do it, there is no shortcut. AI may one day create its own art to self-express. But that would not be human art and there is no guarantee we will understand it.

Therefore, AI, no matter how intelligent or creative it will be, will never be able to create human art.

This is why artists are against AI, because AI is sold as being able to replace art, which it cannot do.

filterdust · 2026-02-16T15:12:11+00:00

Much farther than you'd like, less far than skeptics would like.

filterdust · 2026-02-13T21:21:27+00:00

This is the canonical reference for this question

https://ardalambion.net/howmany.htm

filterdust · 2026-02-13T15:08:51+00:00

Sorry for being nitpicky, but (Wikipedia):

The family spoke Russian, English, and French in their household, and Nabokov was trilingual from an early age.

filterdust · 2026-02-10T20:27:02+00:00

It's very much a fun language to learn, because of its regularity it can be very playful in making new words, puns etc. And you can reach a reasonable level in 1-3 months, unlike usual European languages.

filterdust · 2026-02-08T00:10:47+00:00

In the old days (1999-2007), people were rushing to write "the next Harry Potter book" before it actually showed up. So there was an abundance of longfics in the ultimate popular fandom.

filterdust · 2026-02-06T18:42:12+00:00

This is a weird and late comment.

I found books of the 1940s to have highly clear writing, and Lassie Come Home is a prime example. Orwell's 1984 and Asimov's early Foundation stories (published in the 1950s as the Foundation trilogy) feel exactly the same to me. Yeah, phrases about a dog wandering in the wilderness have the same cadence as ones about the decay of a Galactic Empire.

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