If Israel had no guarantee of US military support (made possible by the money printer), I wonder if they maybe would have tried harder to just be cool and friendly to their neighbours
12, 18, or 30. Many different patterns on this one.
12 because n*(n+1)
18 because n* number above
30 because the RHS steps down by a specific rate
Kind of interesting that UK headlines today are "MI6 appoints new chief" when it's actually the (sort of) democratically elected Foreign Secretary who appoints them, subject to confirmation by the Prime Minister. A government department shouldn't be able to name its own leader.
Almost makes you wonder whether the headlines' phrasing is partially true ...
Right leaning "common sense" commentators need to up their game. Both Tom Woods, and now Konstantin Kisin have demonstrated a very uncritical approach to their interviews lately - ranging from South Africa to parenting.
They just agree with whatever the guest is saying so long as it vaguely fits the pattern of "mainstream is wrong" or "elites have an ulterior motive".
Part of the problem is preparation. They don't do any major research beforehand, but just want to churn out many low quality conversations. For ads maybe? More men's vitamins etc.
When you're typing in a long password and then someone asks you a question 😑
Remember that time WW3 started and Bitcoin dipped to $104K?
Many AI "experts" don't even know how a linear regression works
The worst thing about Bitcoin is whenever it has to interact with fiat and regulated institutions
Seeing lots of Bitcoin price overconfidence
"Stock to flow says we're about to hit $400k!"
"There will be no more winters!"
"Banana zone something something about to rip!"
Go spread some fuckery! https://blossom.primal.net/dbe0cc84864eb52f0bda37889bd993e2173e2db24f481e083e2ce3009b505efa.mp4
I enjoyed this, but also aware that it's the testosteroned version of some "you go girl!" TikTok video
It doesn't matter how many variables you have, you can't improve the modelling of a quadratic function with more than 3. You also don't improve your model with more data points past some amount.
This analogy describes some of my skepticism of the claim that we will create super intelligence by merely adding more data, more parameters, and more compute to LLMs.
Yes we will continue to see improvements in the ability to model human knowledge and reasoning, and yes it will be amplified by machine speed, but I don't think we somehow unlock a higher level of intelligence. We will plateau at some point and then the focus will shift more to applications of this still impressive but sub-human intelligence.
NEOM is a futuristic smart city under construction in Saudi Arabia, designed with no cars or streets, and set to stretch 170 km when completed.
Here’s a look at the progress so far.
https://video.nostr.build/0e8a43f797ae503533d38a03a20017871769bb3e21eedc72464844fe6578048c.mp4
Nice, digging the holes to throw their money into
Why isn't Bitcoin $0?
Need to do more fiat shaming
New global warming propaganda: Glaciers falling on tiny Swiss villages
It will get better and better at processing more data, quicker. Excellent for robotics, research and chat etc. Will be hugely good for productivity and level access to knowledge. The cumulative and networked gains will be incredible. But a single intelligence that's much better than a really smart human, or an intelligence that somehow figures out how to outmanoeuver humanity is hopefully not close.
AI is really good at giving me an answer that a reasonably smart expert would. That's pretty useful! But I'm still slightly skeptical about how it exceeds that without just relying on crunching more data - will it genuinely understand things at a higher level than best human level?
Tbh doesn't seem like the worst idea 😅
Kid number 2 arriving in 2025 ♂️
Impressed with Mullvad's marketing. Their brand and messaging is all over London making a strong case for privacy 👏
It is fake news BUT media is simply rejoicing at sticking it to "conspiracy theorists" who threaten their authority. Unfortunately, this case gives them a lot of ammunition to show off.
Reflection on why I mostly fell for this troll:
1. I wanted it to be true because lol
2. It was a suspiciously low res video (likely just because the original troll knew that would make it more believable)
3. I accepted the claim that the media surprised them and didn't think to seek evidence like whether there was footage beforehand. In fact, even the Alex Jones video showed a few seconds before where they were clearly at ease and didn't seem concerned about the table.
4. I did search the news to see if it was a story, but only really dodgey sites were pushing it. While I don't trust mainstream news I think something this blatant actually would have been a scoop too obvious to ignore (e.g. at the very least Fox news would have had something if true). They would have had easy access to high res footage and eye witnesses.
Whenever I ask an LLM about something I actually know a lot about it's quite obvious how much it bullshits and avoids directly answering a question, or giving an actual reference.
Will be fascinating to see where this goes - like an AlphaZero moment. I wonder if we see math and coding that quickly surpasses the best human, and we actually learn from the AI.
Still seems limited to auto-verifiable domains though. Kind of a relief!
Can't wait for Ethereum marketing "ultra simple protocol" and "proof or work is too complicated because of physical supply chains" FUD
As I read about the Napoleonic wars it strikes me that calling one of the belligerents the "aggressor" is a peculiar modern term.
It was never done, since it was clear that all were seeking power in different ways due to different interests.
While Napoleon was bringing proto-democracy to regions, he was also an autocrat, and was an economic rival to England. The English funded other countries to confront France, yet it was France who was imposing the Continental System and taxes on their allies which caused them to switch allegiance and declare war.
These wars would usually end with one of the belligerents needing to make major territorial, military and economic concessions.
The modern framing as one of a victim (Ukraine) and an aggressor (Russia) seems like a modern propaganda tactic designed to prolong a war and avoid the historically typical approach of ending it with a peace negotiation where the stronger side militarily has more leverage.
How do you find and plan what to read next?
Reading is one thing, but finding/choosing another. Goodreads/kindle give me pretty terrible recommendations usually.
I didn't buy one, I'm just trying to read a page on their website.
But nothing against their product - different HWWs have different trade-offs. Bitkey seems pretty great for inheritance tbh.
Lol, wtf UK
No dissent in parliament to the nationalisation of British Steel just shows there is no hope for politicians. When pressed they will always prefer the easy route of being seen to "do something" rather than have the courage to stand for a principle. Shame of the Conservatives, and especially Reform who actually led the charge. More taxpayer money to be thrown away during a budget crisis.
This is why Bitcoin is the only credible defence we have - no cowardly politicians to rely on.
I wonder if they'll ever realize that you can just mine more gold
Shit, imagine how AI and robotics are going to absolutely flood the supply - little mining droids 4km underground in some South African mine pumping the technological and economically viable reserves
Someone needs to tell them to HFSP
Right now I have to go pretty far out of my way to spend Bitcoin at physical locations, even though I'm in a major global city. I do it, but can't every day. So it's not a habit and I mainly use my fiat credit card for things.
Likewise with online payments. Some retailers accept gift cards, but it's still a lot of friction tracking them all then entering codes at checkout (Amazon is unfortunately the best UX for gift cards - convenient, but makes me feel dirty buying stuff there).
If suddenly 30% of merchants start accepting Bitcoin I will be able to pay with it almost all the time. Bitcoiners will be activated to do this. They will start using wallets more, finding merchants because they know one is likely just down the road, and creating a habit of paying with Bitcoin. They can show their friends and people in the queue. Merchants hopefully see savings on these purchases because Block will email them their fees and charge backs broken down by payment type.
It will be slow at first, but the friction is much lower than 2014 where you had to wait for confirmations and QR UX wasn't familiar. Make it so the merchant never has to add friction for fiat payers and they'll never need to turn it off.
We have to start somewhere. This will resolve the chicken and egg issue of: people don't pay with Bitcoin because they can't pay with Bitcoin.
Massive cultural difference between my previous and current company: my new colleagues frequently use Pepe emojis.
