[-] istewart@awful.systems 6 points 4 days ago

ChatGPT's got what intelligence craves... it's got neurons

[-] istewart@awful.systems 18 points 2 weeks ago

I actually think it's part-and-parcel of Yarvin's personality. As much as he rails against "the Cathedral," PMCs, whatever, he himself is a perfect example of a pathological middle manager. Somebody who wants power without having to shoulder ultimate responsibility. He craves the childishly simplified social environment of a medieval-fantasy king's court, but he doesn't want to be the king himself. He wants to be (and has been, up until now) the scheming vizier who can run his manipulation games in the background, deciding who gets in front of the king but not having to take the heat if the king makes a bad decision. (And the "kings" he works for have made plenty of bad decisions, but consequences have only just begun to catch up.)

I suspect this newfound mainstream attention is far more uncomfortable than it is validating for him. Perhaps the NYT profile was a burst of exhilaration, but the shine has worn off quickly. This correlates with the story last year about him coming back to Urbit as a "wartime CEO." If Urbit is so damn important for building his ridiculous vision, why wasn't he running it the whole time? He doesn't actually want to be CEO of anything. Power without responsibility.

[-] istewart@awful.systems 12 points 2 weeks ago

He will never stop to reflect that his "philosophy," such as it is, is explicitly tailored for avaricious power-hungry narcissists, soooooo

[-] istewart@awful.systems 13 points 2 weeks ago

Obvious joke is obvious, but

The essay brims with false dichotomies, logical inconsistencies, half-baked metaphors, and allusions to genocide. It careens from Romanian tractor factories to Harvard being turned “into dust. Into quarks” with the coherence of a meth-addled squirrel.

Harvard isn't already full of Quarks?

[-] istewart@awful.systems 20 points 2 months ago

If you’re a journalist and want to get in contact with people around the community/rationalist scene who knows the people involved, you can fill out this form and your contact info will be shared around our networks

why does this seem vaguely like a threat

[-] istewart@awful.systems 11 points 2 months ago

Clicked on Aella content, sho' nuff, exposed to strange new forms of brainworms. What's the deal with the "ultra-wokeness" guy picking on "taurine deficiency?"

[-] istewart@awful.systems 25 points 4 months ago

On the other hand, bombing foreign data centers, likely located in densely populated urban areas, would be justified and morally upstanding if it seems like they might be incarnating the imaginary computer god! I'm glad we have such a nuanced thinker guiding our modern morality.

[-] istewart@awful.systems 19 points 5 months ago

I especially want to be sure that everyone here is aware that the video thumbnail clearly shows that JD Vance was not seated upon, or otherwise interacting with, a couch. JD Vance was calmly seated in a standard office chair for the duration of this interview. Any posts containing out-of-context references to couches will be dealt with vigorously.

[-] istewart@awful.systems 28 points 5 months ago

"Leaking rationalist-evidence-bits" is an unexpectedly top-tier euphemism for the aftermath of digesting Wendy's chili

[-] istewart@awful.systems 15 points 7 months ago

please be gentle with my child, they will soon have a presence on the discount paperback rack at the local grocery store

[-] istewart@awful.systems 12 points 7 months ago

It could also be swapped out for nothing. The people in charge could figure out that this stuff is costing more than it's making, turn the servers off, and deactivate the user-facing features or leave them as vestigial stubs.

There's more evidence right now for that scenario, and it would generate an awful lot of e-waste. Tell me, are you up to date on process improvements for recycling or repurposing that much e-waste?

[-] istewart@awful.systems 13 points 7 months ago

We are, of course, assuming that the author continues to "micro"dose.

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istewart

joined 8 months ago