I think this is accurate. But I’d like to restate it.

The Left (as the apparent big tent party full of literal minorities) has been learning to deal with disenfranchisement and the feeling “that their anguish is belittled as a personal failure, and often downright mocked” for its entire existence. Because of a huge variety of factors, the Right is losing some of its influence. They are not handling this well. The Left (being well acquainted with feeling unheard) should have been able to help the Right through this transition. Due to deep seated insecurities on both sides, we are no longer able to help one another as a people. Buckle up.

Yeah, they (used to) send ya a csv with all your posts/comments. Got mine before I overwrote and deleted, 17 years worth. I trained an llm on it. It may or may not be writing this.

Thank you. For as much as this post comes up, I hope people are at least getting an education.

For a deep dive

When ya upload a file to a Claude project, it just keeps it handy, so it can reference it whenever. I like to walk through a kind of study session chat once I upload something, with Claude making note rundowns in its code window. If it’s a book or paper I’m going to need to go back to a lot, I have Claude write custom instructions for itself using those notes. That way it only has to refer to the source text for specific stuff. It works surprisingly well most of the time.

Plato didn’t believe we’re fundamentally limited by our senses in an absolute sense, though. He leaned toward the possibility of transcending the limitations of sensory perception to grasp higher truths.

Better yet, have your LLM of choice read the book first.

Switched to Perplexity a year ago, but I occasionally still go to Google just from muscle memory. Google’s aggressively unhelpful now - it’s kinda insane.

Just looking at the mental space of the three fanboy types… Mac seems the chilliest to hang with.

e: lol, case in point

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Pres·i·dent /ˈprezəˌdent/

Plants with more flexible and responsive genetic systems were better able to adapt to changing environments and thus more likely to survive and reproduce, so yeah. However, the basic building blocks of these systems - DNA replication, gene expression, and the fundamental biological processes arose from simpler chemical and physical interactions that were likely governed by principles of self-assembly and thermodynamics. The primary drivers are different at different levels of abstraction and complexity, and there’s dynamic interaction across levels.

Thermodynamics -> Natural Selection -> Responsive (Epi)Genetics -> Memetics -> Metamemetics (probably?)

We “boil things down” to Natural Selection or Thermodynamics as is convenient for communication, but the higher levels affect the lower as well. So we can’t really reduce them like that without losing important information.

In our effort to disillusion people of the idea that evolution has a purpose or conscious hand, we over-simplify things, though. Plants actively (but not consciously) shape their own evolution through complex molecular and genetic mechanisms. They can respond to environmental stresses by altering their DNA methylation patterns, potentially priming future generations for similar conditions. Plants also engage in niche construction, modifying their surroundings in ways that influence their evolutionary trajectory. For instance, they can change soil chemistry through root exudates, creating new selective pressures for themselves and their offspring. Plants participate in intricate co-evolutionary relationships with pollinators, herbivores, and other organisms. These interactions create dynamic fitness landscapes that drive reciprocal evolutionary changes. While not “inventing” traits in a deliberate sense, plants possess sophisticated genetic tools - such as whole genome duplications, transposable elements, and adaptable gene networks - that allow for rapid evolutionary innovations. These mechanisms enable plants to continually adapt and evolve, even without conscious intent or direct feedback.

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I like to think about the spacefaring AI (or cyborgs, if we’re lucky) that will inevitably do this stuff in our stead, assuming we don’t strangle them in the cradle.

I am legion.

I do love that generative AI is getting better at imagining text.

If our present reality was described accurately in a novel written in 1985, it would be firmly cyberpunk.

This is another good use case for gAI. Copy/paste the comment into a GPT and tell it to re-write the content at the desired reading or technical level. Then it’s available for follow-up clarification questions.

That’s how I communicate my intention to pay a parking ticket. “Bowing to regulatory pressure”