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2 yr. ago

  • the fifth episode of odium symposium, "4chan: the french connection" is now up. roughly the first half of the episode is a dive into sartre's theory of antisemitism. then we apply his theory to the style guide of a nazi news site and the life of its founder, andrew anglin

    EDIT: btw if you like the episode please tell people about it! frankly we have no idea how to market or otherwise promote a podcast sooo we're kind of just hoping the listeners do it

  • the centre of this piece is her explicitly saying for several paragraphs that she takes bribes lol

  • fortunately, yud clarified everything in his recent post concerning the zizians, which indicated that... uh, hmm, that we should use a prediction market to determine whether it's moral to sell LSD to children. maybe he got off track a little

  • just found out about the incredibly dystopian US prison "ADX"

    Inside the federal supermax tucked away in Colorado’s high desert, prisoners spend 22 to 24 hours a day locked alone inside concrete cells that are smaller than a standard parking space. The prison, formally called United States Penitentiary Florence Administrative Maximum Facility but better known as ADX, has earned the nickname “The Alcatraz of the Rockies” because of its harsh conditions.

    Contact with others is extremely limited; programming, such as anger management or religious services, is broadcast over televisions in the cells, while psychological evaluations happen through the steel doors. Belongings are also strictly limited and prisoners aren’t allowed to hang photographs or drawings on their walls. Exercise time out the cell happens alone inside large cages called “dog runs”, where prisoners can only walk a few paces each direction. Prisoners are given virtual reality goggles to simulate the outdoors or community. A former warden once called ADX a “clean version of hell,” and said that living there was “far much worse than death.” Olympic Park bomber Eric Robert Rudolph and Ramzi Yousef, mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, are both incarcerated at ADX.

    https://boltsmag.org/death-row-clemency-adx-supermax/

  • ooh it's too bad we've already recorded the next episode because this comment would 100% have made it into the discussion (about half the episode is a breakdown of sartre's theory of the bigot's psychology). what you're saying about loud and proud racism as an internal integrative element makes so much sense to me. economic libertarians want to dissolve the state and that's in tension with their (economic, emotional, whatever) reliance on the state. you can resolve the dissonance of that contradiction by making it your mission to organize society along racial lines

  • Fourth episode of our podcast about historical misogynist and bigoted texts, odium symposium, is out now. We discuss classic british racist enoch powell and his “rivers of blood” speech.

    https://www.patreon.com/posts/144105193

    (it should be available on every platform)

  • another analogy might be an ancient builder who gets really good at building pyramids, and by pouring enormous amounts of money and resources into a project manages to build a stunningly large pyramid. "im now going to build something as tall as what will be called the empire state building," he says.

    problem: he has no idea how to do this. clearly some new building concepts are needed. but maybe he can figure those out. in the meantime he's going to continue with this pyramid design but make them even bigger and bigger, even as the amount of stone required and the cost scales quadratically, and just say he's working up to the reallyyyyy big building...

  • well, I can't counter it because I don't think they do know how it works. the theory is shallow yet the outputs of, say, an LLM are of remarkably high quality in an area (language) that is impossibly baroque. the lack of theory and fundamental understanding presents a huge problem for them because it means "improvements" can only come about by throwing money and conventional engineering at their systems. this is what I've heard from people in the field for at least ten years.

    to me that also means it isn't something that needs to be countered. it's something the context of which needs to be explained. it's bad for the ai industry that they don't know what they're doing

    EDIT: also, when i say the outputs are of high quality, what i mean is that they produce coherent and correct prose. im not suggesting anything about the utility of the outputs

  • it's probably better for my development as a human being to learn this properly, but it turns out github pages hosting does the letsencrypt process if you check a box in the page settings

  • further things: one, that’s the first website I’ve made where I wasn’t just plugging into a template, and I’m a little proud of it even though it’s almost nothing. I would appreciate feedback and suggestions

    two, a future episode idea I have is to examine what I’m thinking of as “the trustless society.” it’s about the replacing of social relations with legal or financial intermediaries. Those of you who are long time buttcoiners will be familiar with this process. if any of you have specific readings to recommend I would love to hear it. I’ll probably mostly focus on balaji but anyone or anything will help

  • I haven't touched image generators and idk how different their products are, if at all. but I think of this as the default AI "illustrated" style. very low on detail outside of the objects of focus, heavy line work, flat, rounded, muted colors

  • frankly that's the most detailed I've seen it get. usually it's more like this

  • TechTakes @awful.systems

    America’s Tech Right Is Obsessed With Building Giant Statues

    Buttcoin @awful.systems

    What World Does Bitcoin Want To Build For Itself?

    Buttcoin @awful.systems

    U.S. Housing Agency Considers Launching Crypto Experiment

    Buttcoin @awful.systems

    dog wif tools rugpuller tool rug pulls rugpullers

    TechTakes @awful.systems

    elon musk's obsession with the tic tac toe of video games

    Buttcoin @awful.systems

    my friend made a find at the bookstore

    TechTakes @awful.systems

    the dead end grift that is lab grown meat

    NotAwfulTech @awful.systems

    Moderators Across Social Media Struggle to Contain Celebrations of UnitedHealthcare CEO’s Assassination

    Buttcoin @awful.systems

    A week of failing to pay with bitcoin in El Salvador

    TechTakes @awful.systems

    a stunning self own

    TechTakes @awful.systems

    the enshittification of magic: the gathering

    TechTakes @awful.systems

    "I consider myself a dark elf"

    TechTakes @awful.systems

    Microsoft to reopen 3 mile island to power AI

    TechTakes @awful.systems

    Google Violated Antitrust Laws in Online Search, Judge Rules

    TechTakes @awful.systems

    taking a peek at a subreddit for lovers of ai art

    TechTakes @awful.systems

    Techno-utopianism and the path into darkness

    SneerClub @awful.systems

    rationalists discuss: does testosterone make you stupid?

    TechTakes @awful.systems

    wow. sensible

    TechTakes @awful.systems

    New Windows AI feature records everything you’ve done on your PC

    SneerClub @awful.systems

    we're not Nazis btw