Link. Noah pivots from Twitter stupidity to his pet theory. I share it because I agree with the idea that we have a worldwide glut of cognitive talent — and it’s getting worse.

Likely related to too much money chasing too few opportunities.

Link. We get a breather — even if the LLM tech hasn’t plateaued.

Link. Airbnb bans them. Amazon sells them.

TidBITS suggests detection methods. None seem practical to me.

Link. “… sun sits near the middle of what’s called the Local Bubble … inflated by supernovas in the Scorpius-Centaurus … timeline fits well with the iron 60 peaks observed in ocean sediments”

Link. So a year ago Apple was panicking about LLMs.

Link. Intelligent and balanced discussion.

Link. Many parts of India exist in a unique blend of modern and medieval — with lots of dysfunction on the side.

Link. Post offices are dying everywhere.

Link. Can’t back up, can’t import/export, have to use only one service, can’t move between services. Plausible stories of Apple bugs deleting them.

We all asked about these things 2y ago. Now they are yet another lock-in tool.

Link. Modi will rule India until he dies.

Link. The best guide to a nation is the state of its prisons. Every member of Congress should be obliged to spend one week a year in a federal prison.

Note they shunted witnesses to other similarly miserable prisons.

Link. One dead. Everyone hit the ceiling. Try not to pee.

Link. I remember reading that and thinking Stoll was way off base, but 2024 AI is harder to evaluate. Over the next 5y it could be merely immensely disruptive and enable new advances in harm and control.

Link. When your Help window disappears. The public reveal may shame Apple into a fix.

Link. Same as every other war.

Link. We are not magical.

“importance of systematic testing to ensure a non-superficial comparison between human and artificial intelligences”

Link. Maybe Apple is not the most devoted protector of our credentials.

Link. The term “concepts” is used. The Golden Gate Bridge was an entry point.

Link. He mostly met Ilya people and they lost out. But of those he saw I’m sure there was truth to this.

(Aaronson is always sincere but not always 100% perceptive however.)

Link. Sonoma only?

Link. “They reached Europe, where they would get their name, only 270 years ago…”

Kind of like dogs evolved from wolves but much more recently. Now displacing all lesser cockroaches. Might make good pets.

Link. Animal studies concerning.

Link. Lots of capable people stuck in low wage countries.

Link. Used high mileage Teslas are even worse new Teslas.

Link. I wondered where they were. OpenAI is probably struggling/worried.

Link. Validates my current habit of doing macOS updates in June.

Link. Calories too easy to get in much of the world but in non-humans is a survival issue. Surprise is how little baby assembly requires.

Link. Though weight loss still 10% without this gene. Needs validation.

Link. He’s been quiet for a while. He wrote this a year or two ago.

Link. From past comments I believe Noah is framing the case for what we once called “propaganda”.

Link. Just another deluded idiot yearning for a strongman.

Link. It’s a pithy line — though not easily falsifiable. I think it’s true though, and it’s the same war in America. I usually guesstimate that 30-40% of citizens are effectively disabled from middle class life.

Link. There will be DRM for bicycle tires. Somehow.

Seriously, there are already tire/rim combinations that are so marginal I pay my wrench to mount the tires. If they flat I lie down and wait for rescue.

Bonus: “They call it the Future Shock because if you ever need to replace it in the future you’ll be shocked by how much it costs:”

Link. Google is kind of screwed.

Link. Noah Smith had a more thorough analysis — with the same conclusion.

Link. “The purported the focus on conversation and generative AI gives the impression that they still don’t get this.”

Apple execs live in a virtual universe quite different from ours.

Link. “… gluing together infinitely many seven-dimensional pieces in subtle and intricate ways … ended up with what they called a smooth fractal snowflake … They had disproved Milnor’s conjecture”

Link. “Human physiology has not changed since 2004. I suspect the change was culturally driven.”

Link. Detroit now builds vehicles many Americans cannot afford. One day people will abruptly realize trucks are stupid.

Link. “you can’t lose work by restoring an older version because you can always return to the state of the document before you restored.”

I have used it occasionally.

Link. Interview questions are solid as are her responses. The AAP may be running for the hills on this topic.

Link. “This general problem of mixing data with commands is at the root of many of our computer security vulnerabilities”

Link. “Some utilities saw high temperature alarms triggered overnight on parts of the electric grid”

They are still assessing how much was due to storm, but in 1989 a SMD shutdown Quebec hydro. Over 30y government and industry made changes. Sometimes things do get fixed.

Link. I didn’t know you could do a trade-in for an Apple gift card!

My only Apple Watch use case is directions and notifications when I ride my bike and a Garmin seems a much better choice for that. For now I have a $14 Casio that keeps perfect time and battery lasts 1-2y.

Link. A nice explanation of elasticity and monopolistic markets.

Link. “Steven Hyman, who directed the National Institute of Mental Health from 1996 to 2001, told the Times that he considered the manual an “absolute scientific nightmare.”

Key insight: DSM IV labels were bad to begin with, utterly crap now, are used way outside of their original context. (Researchers and many clinicians know they are crap, but they’ve been embedded in payment rules and accounting so are almost impossible to fix.)

Link. Noah has a good* summary of how Google’s Internet died along with Google. I don’t think Google recovers.

The vulnerability of many voters to deep fakes is a huge problem for democracy; William Hearst did similar things a century ago but Russia and China are far more subtle and capable.

* Noah is a Twitter person still, so less credible than he used to be. Also, why the heck is he still using Google?

Link. Zimmer’s Parasite Rex book gets an unexpected marketing opportunity. (I have it)

Link. Access restored only because he has access to execs. The rest of us would be out of luck.

I don’t use Insta much but now I won’t use it at all. We may need litigation.

Link. Some studies had suggested a benefit but not this one. OA is a “garbage” diagnosis so maybe some variant benefits.