Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Ben Cates @bencates.bsky.social · 45m

I mean, if authoritarianism wasn't pretty reliably worse at the ground level peace and prosperity stuff then there wouldn't be nearly as much reason for principled weirdos like us to be so opposed to it.

Ben Cates @bencates.bsky.social · 58m

Honestly, selectively withholding validation of cryptographically sound but politically inconvenient media is probably the pointier stick.

1 3

Ben Cates @bencates.bsky.social · 1h

The concrete threat model I'm envisioning is one where Grok "verifies" images and videos on The Everything App based at least in part on how well they align with the owner's prejudices and more mainstream news outlets signal boost the "verified" content without additional due diligence.

1 4

Ben Cates @bencates.bsky.social · 1h

I agree with what you're saying, but my point is that as a web developer I don't actually have to touch AES at all in order to render a cute little badge with a lock icon and the word "verified" on it. Sure, anyone nerdy enough will be able to prove it's bullshit but who you gonna believe?

1 5

Ben Cates @bencates.bsky.social · 1h

Consensus realities, plural. Partially but not fully overlapping. That's kind of where we already are and the divergence is going to get wider.

I tend to think one of those is a lot more strongly correlated to what the material universe is actually doing; but I would think that, wouldn't I?

1 5

Ben Cates @bencates.bsky.social · 1h

Unfortunately this is an automated corollary to the general breakdown in consensus reality: it's real iff some institution you trust says it's real. Some institutions will use the readily available tools responsibly, which will largely be uncorrelated with whether they are trusted.

1 1 9

Ben Cates @bencates.bsky.social · 11h

I mean, the whole thing is that when you add in enough epicycles around iterated interactions and second order effects and reasoning from incomplete information and whatnot then deontology, virtue ethics, and utilitarianism are just separate derivation methods for the same abstract function.

2

Ben Cates @bencates.bsky.social · 11h

That means that in order to durably expand your empathy in any real way you have to put up some internal roadblocks against indulging in cruelty *even when that cruelty is objectively harmless*. You kind of have to be a bit of a joyless scold here because that's one of only two stable equilibria.

1 7 92

Ben Cates @bencates.bsky.social · 11h

Something that got almost universally elided from Woke v1 is that being cruel is viscerally rewarding. It feels really good in a pre-rational sort of way. And, paired with the hedonic treadmill, the natural tendency is for any "safe" outlet for cruelty to erode whatever borders we place around it.

3 14 120

Ben Cates @bencates.bsky.social · 15h

"Cocaine is good for you" was, admittedly, a relatively uncontroversial medical opinion at the time.

2 10

Ben Cates @bencates.bsky.social · 15h

Yes, that too, but the 24 hour shift thing in particular is a holdover from one specific early modern cocaine is good for you dude.

3 14

Ben Cates @bencates.bsky.social · 15h

To be more specific, senior doctors with severe cocaine addictions. I feel like that detail shouldn't be omitted from the healthy work/life balance analysis here.

1 1 21

Ben Cates @bencates.bsky.social · 16h

He's one of a handful of early critics who recognized that rationalism was both important and dangerous and have subsequently been driven floridly insane by this cursed knowledge.

6

Ben Cates @bencates.bsky.social · 21h

Unless and until I start seeing ads for GPU-native databases and web servers I'm not gonna worry about hardware misallocation.

1 4

Ben Cates @bencates.bsky.social · 1d

My brain volunteered the phrase "spot weld" and I am dutifully passing it along.

11

Ben Cates @bencates.bsky.social · 1d

I can top this; one of my college guilty pleasures was hot cocoa mix, coffee, and vodka. It is a shockingly good irresponsible comfort beverage.

7 35

Ben Cates @bencates.bsky.social · 1d

Kat Abu for what? Secretary of the Interior?

Ben Cates @bencates.bsky.social · 1d

It's not even just the thoroughly unsurprising transference of this specific slur (although it is that too). It's that teaching your brain to enjoy being hateful is categorically bad. It's the opposite of virtuous. I really don't understand how this could be controversial.

4