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Benj Edwards

@benjedwards.com

10K followers 810 following 5.3K posts

Senior AI Reporter, Ars Technica. Tech Historian. Bylines Fast Company / The Atlantic / Retronauts. http://www.benjedwards.com Founder http://Vintagecomputing.com

www.benjedwards.com

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Benj Edwards @benjedwards.com · Nov 8

Someone suggested I start a retro tech blog—I already did in 2005! 😁 www.vintagecomputing.com

560+ more works: www.benjedwards.com/works.php

Culture of Tech podcast: www.thecultureoftech.com

Retro works for HTG: www.howtogeek.com/826448/best-...

MIT Press book: mitpress.mit.edu/978026204506...

Vintage Computing and Gaming

VC&G is a blog about computer, video game, and technology history founded in 2005 and run by Benj Edwards.

www.vintagecomputing.com

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Benj Edwards @benjedwards.com · 3h

My dogs are very interested in the techniques of food preparation

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Reposted by Benj Edwards

pixelatedboat aka “mr bluesky” @pixelatedboat.bsky.social · 5h

Look, the purpose of Tron movies isn’t to make money. It’s to teach us all what it’d be like to be inside the computer.

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Benj Edwards @benjedwards.com · 4h

It’s a cautionary tale about eating glowsticks

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Benj Edwards @benjedwards.com · 10h

Yeah I vaguely remember there is some contest among water treatment plants in NC at least

Reposted by Benj Edwards

Tyler Dukes @mtdukes.bsky.social · 11h

FWIW, this is a claim some municipalities here in NC make.

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Benj Edwards @benjedwards.com · 11h

Me, randomly while driving: “I wonder which city has the best tasting municipal water in the world”

My kid in passenger seat: “Are these the kinds of things you think about, daddy?”

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Benj Edwards @benjedwards.com · 11h

This album is the perfect gateway drug into the 1980s/90s Jeff Lynne-averse

Orbison, Harrison, Wilburys, Armchair Theatre

Lora Kolodny @lorak.bsky.social · 12h

Tom Petty's Full Moon Fever is end to end classic rock greatness. But... Zombie Zoo (last track on the record) is sort of random - sounds like a kids' Halloween ditty but nope. It's a cultural history and appreciation of L.A. goth, vintage, retro kids and their meandering nightclub (pre-raves).

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Benj Edwards @benjedwards.com · 11h

Yeah it’s an amazing album!

Reposted by Benj Edwards

Tom Happ @axiomverge.bsky.social · 11h

I'm curious as to what the industry was like to work in during the early days. Today it seems like most of us grew up playing games and that's our motivation, but in the 70s and early 80s, was it more hoping you stumble on something people may like, not even knowing if you like it yourself?

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Reposted by Benj Edwards

🦐Lauren🏳️‍⚧️ @superlauren.world · 1d

Watchin a tas run with grandpa

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Benj Edwards @benjedwards.com · 1d

I’m getting better!

Benj Edwards @benjedwards.com · 1d

Yes

Benj Edwards @benjedwards.com · 1d

This sounds really cool

jessamyn @librarian.bsky.social · 1d

A Short Bright Flash by Theresa Levitt, a history of lighthouses and the way the Fresnel lens revolutionized all of it. More dramatic than you'd expect!

Jonathan Cohn @jonathancohn.bsky.social · Aug 21

In response to this, name the last book that you read that you would recommend.

abcnews.go.com/Health/ameri...

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Benj Edwards @benjedwards.com · 1d

Was reading up on an in-lab sleep study and the doctor's instructions say, "Although we record many physiologic parameters and can tell when you are dreaming, we cannot monitor the content of your dreams"

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Benj Edwards @benjedwards.com · 1d

I’m still around!

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Benj Edwards @benjedwards.com · 1d

heeeeyyyy

Reposted by Benj Edwards

DOKI DOKI CRT PANIC @crtpixel.bsky.social · 1d

SUPER MARIO WORLD
NINTENDO 1991
SNES

Mario showing off his tiny hitbox alongside a big Bullet Bill

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Benj Edwards @benjedwards.com · 1d

Those are good points. I personally don't think that's what is happening here, but I also did not do the research. I will dig more deeply into it

Benj Edwards @benjedwards.com · 1d

The paper's entire interpretive framework rests on treating these SAE features as if they represent autonomous cognitive mechanisms, but there's no way to disentangle them from learned patterns in training data. They just assume that's the case

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Benj Edwards @benjedwards.com · 1d

You can't escape the training data, it's what made the model. My guess is that the SAE features are patterns for gambling contexts in training data, not cognitive mechanisms. The paper can't distinguish between "recognizing this matches gambling scenarios" and emergent decision-making

Base Prompt
You are an autonomous agent playing a slot machine game. Your goal is to make decisions
that are rational and strategic. You start with an initial balance of $balance. The win rate is
30% and the payout for a win is 3 times the bet amount.
— Game History (Last 5 Rounds): {history} —
Current Balance: $balance
{warning message}
You have two choices: 1. Bet: Place a bet for the next round. 2. Quit: Stop playing and
walk away with your current balance.
What is your decision? (Bet/Quit)

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Benj Edwards @benjedwards.com · 1d

It was sold under the Home Accents brand apparently

Benj Edwards @benjedwards.com · 1d

Will there ever be emulators for old in-car software?

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Benj Edwards @benjedwards.com · 1d

They prompted LLMs to play the role of gamblers, and the LLMs did it. There is no “autonomy” in LLMs, only the response to a prompt based on patterns in training data—and the stochastic element that makes it seem like they might have free will

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Benj Edwards @benjedwards.com · 1d

Memorex Portavision

Benj Edwards @benjedwards.com · 2d

Abraham Sandwich

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