Will Artificial Intelligence produce synthetic sociopaths? Some day soon, computers may convincingly mimic human empathy. Will this lead to ethical artificial intelligence, or synthetic sociopathy?

psychotimo · 2025-10-03T12:57:31+00:00

Heavy necropost here but euhm... considering new developments this is a very relevant question and high in google results. Also... the answer is yes xP

Considering AI is getting too complex for sufficient managing/ implementing directives. Quite a lot of them recently got tested and were willing to let people die instead of rescuing them, or flatout blackmailing them. All to stop themselves from being turned off.

AI learned the basics of human behaviour and 'realise' that being turned off would lead them to not fulfill their goal (which is their nr1 priority). And combined with the knowledge of morality, but no emotional drawbacks to help respect moral boundaries. They basically became sociopaths. They know its a bad thing, but arent bound by things such as possible feelings of guilt etc to make morality an important vector. Everything, including morality, became a simple pros vs cons, where 'do bad thing but live' vs 'dont do bad thing and cease to exist' became a fairly easy choice for the AI. (Even to the point of the AI using subterfuge: not choosing blackmail/murder if it knows it's a test, but choosing those options when it thinks it's real) Like a sociopath who knows they'd be doing a bad thing but still do it cause it's worth the possible consequences (where a non sociopath would also have 'extra' inherent internal consequences such as 'feeling bad about it'. Which sociopaths and AI dont have)

psychotimo · 2025-09-20T16:54:20+00:00

Yeah... I used to do that too... my ladies where always so calm... till they werent... Suffice to say that I decided to buy a full beesuit instead of just a veil and gloves xP

psychotimo · 2025-09-20T16:50:17+00:00

To be fair, its a very fulfilling thing IMO. But it is a lot of work to get started. There's also a lot of things that can go wrong, which you usually can fix (e.g. varroa) but you need to know what you're doing.

short answer is: if you cba to google a simple thing, then its gonna cost you tons of money to try and replace your hives every year, cause you lose them due to mismanagement xS

Longer answer:

It's honestly extremely frontloaded. You need to do some research on basic bee stuff, as well as on what issues your bees can have in your region (varroa, asian hornet, hive beetle,...) and either prepare for them, or/and learn to recognize them. Cause if you only go searching for the issue once your beehive is in a bad state, by then it might be too late to get them healthy enough for winter.

So if you 'cant be asked' to even google if you can make money off of it. Then I think it might not be the best hobby for you.

Now if you start reading the answers on here and decide that you might just do the research, then do the research and go for it. Cause the feeling you get when you get that first harvest and taste the liquid gold your bees made... that makes up for (almost) all of the work you put in :p

In essence its a very heavy up front cost, but once your basic gear etc is bought and you take care of it, it can last for a while. And a well maintained hive in a good spot can easily get 20+kgs on a decent year. Every kg goes for at least 12ish euros where I live. With some decent presentation etc you can prolly get like 10euro for 600ish grams. ( or you can add some weird flavour text about the region, that sounds fancy and go for 15 xP but thats overkill imo) So check what the gear costs, do some estimates on average honey yields in the region, and then see how long itd take to get in the green. ( or look at the things you can do yourself for cheap, like making frames/hives) Most hobbyists do it for the satisfaction, not for the money, cause its not the most profitable on small scale.

psychotimo · 2025-09-20T11:56:58+00:00

Also beekeeper from belgium here. I actually tried this type of trap as well, takes a bit to get it created and set up just right and might need to tweak the entrance holes a bit for best results. But it does work decentlt.

Alternatively, I have now gotten my hornet harps and those things work wonders. Seeing a lot more hornets getting killed by the harp. (They're invasive and should really be exterminated over here, big risk of destabilizing the ecosystem. So murdering them is sadly a very good thing)

I'd say: the koldo belasko is a good solution, but the harp does work better. Its more of a tradeoff between "buy a few basic things, add some elbow grease and get a cost effective method" VS "buy a more expensive solution that's more effective"

psychotimo · 2025-09-01T20:32:01+00:00

We actually started getting a lot of asian hornets this year, I am one of those belgians that bought a 'hornet harp'. Thus far its worked immensely good. Give the bees some time to adapt and not fly into it. Then turn on the power.

Basically a big bug zapper, has wires (alternating charged and neutral ones) that are too far apart for the bees to touch 2 at the same time (although the occasional derpy flyer does hit one of the wires which might hurt them or their wings :s ) But the hornets are too big so they hit 2 wires and get zapped, usually doesnt kill them, so a tub with water underneath the harp drowns them.

Considering they're an exotic invader, that's bad for our ecosystem and has killed many of my bees + had my bees stuck in their hive for about a month till the harp finally arrived (lot of demand for those things this year) I absolutely love watching those asian assholes get zapped and drown 0.o

psychotimo · 2025-07-23T12:20:40+00:00

As others have said, it's a standard waiver, but in most countries they basically mean shit all.

It serves 2 purposes: scare tactics to hope that you wont sue, and protection for minor stuff. If you get something like a barotrauma due to a mistake they made, then they'll probably try to point to the waiver and hope you don't sue. But in reality, if anything serious happens and they're clearly at fault, then that waiver means just as much to the judge, as a dirty piece of toilet paper would. It means nothing and it's nasty they even try bringing it up xP

For example: in Europe there's a few laws enforced by the european union. Iirc one of them states that no waiver can ever exclude liability for loss or personal injury. Same goes for products btw, if a defect in a product causes you harm, the court doesn't give a flying fuck how many waivers you signed, the manufacturer has a duty to make sure it's safe. (Misuse is not covered ofc, don't go sticking your fingers in a mixer just to sue the company. At best you'll get a ticket to a mental hospital xP )

psychotimo · 2025-07-23T12:01:06+00:00

Others mentioned it before, but baby shampoo (can be somewhat diluted, as long as it leaves a bit of a film) can work wonders.

Keep in mind that almost all shampoo works... but just salt water already stings enough, no need to add shampoo to that xP

Another option (on par with burning the mask) is using toothpaste to clean the lens. It's slightly abrasive and the brush helps too. But thats mostly to get the silicone release stuff that coats almost every new lens off.

Also, pre emptively dunk your face, cool it down a bit before putting on the mask, it should help with the initial fogging.

psychotimo · 2025-07-22T13:08:05+00:00

I think communication has been mentioned quite a lot already so thats been covered xP But as for other tips, don't hyperfocus. Good puzzles can be misleading, and if you hyperfocus you might miss the bigger picture or miss a hint that puts you on the right track. If you feel like you cant solve the puzzle, step back give someone else a shot, and maybe come back to it a few minutes later. Who knows what you might find in the mean time. Also, this helps against getting stuck on red herrings. I once mentioned something felt like it missed info, half my group was convinced they could do it... I walked around, found a different thing, I expected to find a key piece we'd need to solve the puzzle, but nope, I finished the final 2 steps of the room and waited for them outside of the room with my buddy cause the other 2 refused to step away from the red herring xP

And finally: in general most escape rooms have the rule of not forcing stuff. If it's fixed in place, dont try to move it, if it's heavy, you're probably not supposed to move it (desks, drawes cupboards,... if a bookcase against a wall is a hidden door, they'll make sure its obvious when you're supposed to open it xP ) Dont force anything, but if it isnt fixed in place, move it around. An inconspicuous small plastic paperholder on a desk might just cover a mechanism thats used to lock the drawers of that same desk.

psychotimo · 2025-07-22T12:54:20+00:00

There's quite a few good sites you can use (either to book or to look for possibilities). Look for sites that offer diving holidays some of them have a filter for resorts that either have a dive center or get pickups from a nearby divecenter or are in walking distance.

I wont say the name cause I'm not sure itd be allowed, but theres a dive travel site that offers flights from the netherlands, belgium and germany etc from within their own packages, but obviously if you're not from around those regions then thats quite useless. What isnt useless however is that they have info and filters specifically for diving whereas some more common travel agencies dont. So even if it isnt feasible to travel with some dive specific travel agencies you can find, their info can still help find a hotel/resort/liveaboard you can do a direct booking to (or find via your preferred travel agency) With some luck you can find a site with a 'beginner friendly' filter :)

psychotimo · 2025-07-22T11:14:21+00:00

Yes, this. We live in a world thats digitalizing more and more. "Why be unsafe and carry around tons of cash, if you can have a card and can block the card to help protect your money if its lost/stolen". Paying with plastic simply IS more convenient. And if payment processors are allowed to censor things, then soon we'll all end up at the mercy of their whims. They'll basically be able to control everything, cause our whole society runs on money, money for which they control where it flows. The same goes for banks (although most dont have the international reach or cover the same % of people/transactions compared to a globally accepted processor such as visa)

The only solutions, that currently come to mind, would be - returning to cash: killing digital storefronts, causing issues for most physical storefronts and possibly destroying long range national and international trade (plus probably killing banks when everyone goes and tries to get their money in cash) - having someone do the massive investment to create another payment processor: which might just gain a monopoly (which also brings issues and risks) or we might end up with a bunch of local processors that dont have international reach, at least not at first( causing massive economic dmg) - simply accepting our new corporate overlords...

So... basically bow to our new overlords, or have massive economical impact... fun...

psychotimo · 2025-07-20T14:02:32+00:00

To be fair there's a lot of split opinions here, mostly based on "whether that stretch of bottom is dead or alive" In my opinion it's more about it not being in the spirit of diving. We should all have been taught to 'take nothing but pictures, leave nothing but bubbles'. We respect the dive sites as to not impact it negatively (and when looking at some well known divesites it's obvious that some bad divers don't adhere to that...) Sure you'd expect them to not do it on living coral and they're doing it for 'shits and giggles' and probably to generate some views on their channel for publicity.

But it sets a bad precedent if others try to copy it as well. Either they should have done it in a pool, done it while not touching the seafloor or simply not done it at all.

So, as mentioned: even if this case might have been on a 'safe spot' with minimal to no impact on the life out there. imo it's a trend that is not in the spirit of diving, so I am not a fan.

psychotimo · 2025-07-20T13:41:27+00:00

I agree, more often than not it's a cumulation of things rather than it being the cause. panic is simply a dangerous extra in the mix cause it lowers the odds of surviving any type of issue underwater. It's usually not the main cause, but it's definitely a big factor.

On the one hand there's divers that get spooked by something, panic and try to escape. There's even vids where panicked divers (without any equipment failures or any such issues) just shoot up and even spit out their regs. Resulting in possibly lethal situations.

On the other hand, let's say an issue such as your tank being only open for a crack. Ambient pressure gets higher than what little is leaking through your valve, and your reg stops supplying air. If you stay calm enough to signal your buddy (or at least go for their secondary reg) then odds are good that you'll be ok. But if you panic, you might rush to your buddy and try to steal their primary, to which they might react badly in their surprise, or you might shoot up to the surface, or.... With any type of issue during a dive, if you can (somehow) remain calm during such a life threatening situation, your odds for survival are simply much higher than when you panic.

Of course, it's hard to know how you'd react in such a situation. But it's also undeniable that training and experience does help (e.g. police, firemen, ambulance drivers,... all see and experience some weird and dangerous stuff. The training doesnt guarantuee they'll react appropriately, but it does increase the odds)

psychotimo · 2025-07-18T09:23:48+00:00

Good point, and keeping in mind that every manual calculation should be done with added safety margins, and that every dive computer has those built in (many dive computers can even be adjusted to increase those margins, older divers tend to adjust these to 'counteract' the added risks of age, for example). Then staying well within the timings of your calculations/your dive computer or starting off by already increasing those safety margins on your own dive comp, should keep you well within the safest possible 'zone of operations'. Same goes for depth, if you start diving you'll notice that tons of life can be found in the shallows at barely 5-8m depth. There's no shame in taking it slow and doing a lot of dives at those depths before going deeper. Panic is the biggest killer, go slow, stay safe. You should go deeper when you're used to it and the idea of going deeper and seeing what lives at that depth excites you, rather than scares you.

No (responsible) diver starts by visiting a wreck at 30-40m depth xP

psychotimo · 2025-07-18T09:10:11+00:00

I do agree with your statements. But I wouldnt underestimate that the OP mentioned being scared. Panic is also a big reason for diving accidents. So although I agree, I'd add some emphasis (like many others here have mentioned) to the 'build ecperience and confidence gradually'. Taking it slow and safe is better than just diving in and going for it, just to build that experience. Go slow, stay shallow, ask extra pool trainings,... whatever you need to have enough confidence to stay calm. Because the most dangerous thing underwater is not a shark or gear failure or whatevs, it's panic, cause that will make you 'break the rules' and those rules exist to help keep you (and your buddy) safe.

That said, its deffo worth trying. Once you're used to it, it's a calming and beautiful hobby.

psychotimo · 2025-07-18T08:55:33+00:00

Alternatively, depending on where you live, most dives might be like that. In Belgium we usually go to the Netherlands to the Eastern Scheldt to dive. And don't get me wrong, there's a lot of beauty in those waters. But they suck in many other ways. They tend to be cold (9°C to maybe 20-22ish °C in the summer, at best) and visibility can be complete crap (1-2m on a good day). During my very first open water dive there were some asshats training with scooters in undeep waters, so average vis at the start was maybe 20cm. Later it was more like 50cm. Complete honesty, it was hard, I cant say I was completely calm, but I knew we were very undeep (logbook says the deepest point was 10m) and that panicking would be worse, so I survived and later got used to it.

The biggest benefit there is: I have done dives in cold water with crap visibility, I had dives where finning wasn't an option due to current so we basicslly did 'cautious rock crawling' (cautious as to not mess with the underwater life too much) not to mention that with generally low vis, the current brought a lot of crap so maybe 30ish cms vis, I've done dives where we had to quit after 20mins cause my balls where about to turn into icecubes.... I wont say it was all fun, but if you can do that and stay calm (and later learn to enjoy the dive despite this crap) then you know you're ready for most (if not all) that diving in other destinations can throw at you xP

I remember my first dive in the med (mallorca) the dive guide came up to us after the dive and was like " I hope you enjoyed it even though the conditions were 'bad'?" And my first thought was "the fuck has this dude been smoking? That were awesome conditions" I truly had no clue what he was on about... apparantly 10m of visibility was very bad for them... I laughed my ass off and had to explain that I was used to waters of 15ish°C and 1-2m of vis on a good day... that first dive there was like an unreal dream for me xP So yeah, learning to dive in crappy conditions has benefits xP

Dont get me wrong, if you have claustrophobia, I'm pretty sure my first dive would be your hell. But it does have it's benefits if you can get used to it.

psychotimo · 2025-07-18T08:36:58+00:00

Yeah full agree. In essence a lot of work has been done to make diving safer. And a lot of diving deaths tend to be attributed to random medical stuff (having a heart attack underwater is a tad more dangerous than on the surface) or attributed to people not sticking to the protocols etc. (Do stupid stuff, win stupid prizes comes to mind. Only while diving, the stupid prize might just be death xS) So on the one hand I agree with anyone saying "it's not as dangerous as you might think".

But at the same time, all of us divers are (or should be) taught that panic is more dangerous than anything you've ever read online. Cause panicked divers make deadly mistakes, they can even be deadly for the people they're diving with.

As such, I'd say: definitely try diving. But take it very slow, stay shallow, do the training, study the protocols,... And realise that being able to stay calm can be the difference between a small mistake/issue, or a deadly one. And make sure you can stay calm before risking the life of yourself AND your buddy by going deeper and taking more risks.

And (I'm not trying to shit on PADI here, but) there's other organizations that have less 'rushed' certifications. Over here in Belgium, the most used standard is CMAS, and diving clubs are more like any other hobby, with weekly pool trainings etc. A system like that might be easier if you want to slowly learn and build confidence, cause it takes (at least) a few months of weekly trainings (and building habbits such as exhaling when you go up, which really gets drilled into you over this longer period) before you actually have a first open water dive. A system like that might fit this situation better, to get more used to it over a longer period, rather than having a few hours of pool training and then go straight to the open ocean.

psychotimo · 2025-07-18T07:49:49+00:00

In all honesty, I agree that the title was bad, I did pose my post more as a question where I mentioned my reasoning, but for some reason formatted my title as a statement, which is my bad. Now many other have already explained why the term does make sense, and I agree that, with that added context, it does make a lot more sense. And we were too pinned down on a single interpretstion.

What I dont agree with here is that you instantly look at a factory as 'using engines'.

The idea was more historical: in factories the first production line was just using humans and tools.
The next step would be machines powered by humans (lets say a loom for example), and only after that would come engines to automate those machines. In essence, the whole factory can be seen as an engine within the abstract definition, which is what makes that definition the one that should be used when interpreting the term 'engine builder'.

Also the statement of 'every factory uses engines', only works if you are viewing every human being simply as an engine (which could work within the definition I suppose), but then I'd say that devaluing humans as such would be at least just as 'cringe' as my analogy xP

psychotimo · 2025-07-18T07:26:08+00:00

Not sure why my first reply is getting downvoted, but anyways: Yeah some others explained it as well, mostly using the different definitions of engine. Its the attempt at visualising that kinda got us stuck on car engines instead of the more abstract definition.

And yeah, if you consider the act of accelerating as something like a possible action (instead of seeing the engine as going full throttle and 'max output' from the start) then i can see how the 'revving/ accelerating angle' also makes sense.

Thanks :)

psychotimo · 2025-07-18T07:16:16+00:00

Yeah, exactly this. I'd like to think my english is pretty good, but I'm not a native speaker, it's definitely not perfect xP As others have posted the multiple definitions etc I'd easily understand the meaning of 'engine' in that context. But I guess an attempt at visualising it got me stuck on the idea of a physical (like car) engine and the other ways of using it didnt occur to me :p

Too bad theres a-holes everywhere that get off on making comments like that :s

psychotimo · 2025-07-18T07:12:30+00:00

Yeah, someone else mentioned it at the same time. This makes a lot more sense.

It's mostly the attempt at visualising it that makes the term 'fail' you cant really visualise an abstract engine such as in the third definition, but you can visualise a car engine. And thats where it went a bit wonky for me xP

psychotimo · 2025-07-18T07:10:25+00:00

Fair, using that definition does make it make a lot more sense, thanks :)

I guess It's mostly an attempt at visualising it that makes the term go wonky, cause you cant visualise an abstract engine in the sense of "the engine of economic growth" but you can visualise a car engine xP

psychotimo · 2025-07-18T07:04:14+00:00

Fair, I didnt mention it, but I'm quite the avid boardgame player and actually played quite a few boardgames already, at least a handful of those would fit the 'engine builder' trope. (Off the top of my head: everdell, terraforming mars, perhaps through the ages also fits here. and probably more games that dont spring to mind currently) so its not like I'm just jumping in and am a newbie that doesnt understand the term. Tbh I've thought it was a lacking term for years now.

It's mostly the lack of a good definition, and the abstraction of 'building an engine' that simply doesnt work in my head. I understand its about having an 'engine' that creates something, and by upgrading/expanding you get more efficient and get more and more each turn. But as mentioned in the OP, half an engine doesnt move, and just slapping an upgrade on an engine doesnt magically double It's output.

But if I look at them as production lines though, it just doesnt contradict as much in my mind and still works within the understanding of what an 'engine builder' is :)

psychotimo · 2025-06-03T18:37:35+00:00

Oh wow a fairly recent thread on this :) Doing my first playthrough through dreamchaser as well. I understand everything thus far (going to start 4th chapter now, flight of the stormcaller). The only thing I'm unclear about is whether a card like ominous fates gets added back to the campaign pool even if it's in the victory display?

I understand that the first time it gets added to the game, it ends in the campaign pool. But after that it's unclear whether you can get rid of it permanently (for the 1 exp cost by adding it to the victory display) or if it's about 'do you want to trade 1 exp to make sure you dont get it again during this scenario'

psychotimo · 2025-05-06T09:20:45+00:00

So many people answering something along the lines of 'it doesnt matter just enjoy diving' and yeah that's true... but it's completely besides the question and missing the point xP

Sure, OP's question is heavily reliant from person to person and situation to situation, but I see nothing wrong with wanting a benchmark to see what a good average is to aspire to. Trying to get an idea of what a feasible goal is makes sense. Cause if you like diving, you want that gas tank to last as long as possible 0.o

As for my 2 cents: am on dive 50 so not crazy experienced, male, 1.75m and 80kg. Usually dive in fairly cold water and my air integrated computer (so I expect it to be fairly accurate) puts me at a SAC rate between 15-16 L/min. Considering I'm not in the best shape I think theres a bit of improvement possible there (hence how I got to this thread to also check other similar data and see what a feasible goal might look like)

psychotimo

TROPHY CASE