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Comment by iamleppert | Hacker News Reader

The problem with this is you can't trust the actual data, if you care about data quality. I'm really not getting it's usefulness beyond a contextual lorem ipsum generator? It could probably work for a test environment but you still need to have a human review the lists that are generated.

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It's a joke :) using this for anything real would be a criminal offence

It is written in a humorous style, but I don't take it as a joke. How is this fundamentally different than GPT code completion, other than it's data instead of code?

I suspect our intuition tells us code will be verified first by a programmer, then by the language parser, whereas data is likely to be manipulated without human scrutiny.

Does anyone seriously believe that this will forever be the case?

You CAN'T close pandora's box, but you CAN make jokes about pandora's box.

"but I don't take it as a joke"

That's a problem, because it that is what it is.

> Hopefully you can see this is not meant to be serious. Contributions to make it serious aren't really the idea. Contributions to make it sillier or more audacious are the idea. Silly examples are also welcome.

Read the readme...

The joke is that this is fundamentally the same as GPT code completion, yet people uses that to create production code.

I don't know, it seems like criminal offenses are in vogue these days...

Python monkeys will use this unironically.

Seems like a great way to generate _initial_ testing sets, actually.

> Python monkeys

First it was against Perl developers (well I actually also knew a few C programmers who looked down on "C++ lamers" but not sure if it was widespread), then PHP, then JS and apparently now Python. I think we should stop feeding the stereotypes.

tech is not about asking about the consequences of what you are doing, it's about asking if it can be done at all /s (but sometimes not /s)

While I think the paraphrased Jurassic Park quote can be very funny at times, I don't really agree with the statement. But I assume you were being sarcastic.

im calling you out because you have no idea of what youre speaking of ;; youve been an HN member since 2018 ; Ive had mined since 2009, but even before that....

i agree with 100.

growing up in the 80s and reading cyberpunk fiction??

I think we should blame those dudes on CONSEQUENCES of

WHAT IF

Author: I have written "Don't Build The Cyberpunk Dystopian Hellscape", a warning against those foolish enough to believe that their actions have no consequences.

CEO, 20 years later: Inspired by "Don't Build The Cyberpunk Dystopian Hellscape", we have built a Cyberpunk Dystopian Hellscape! It will be very profitable.

np this is based on a Twitter joke: https://twitter.com/alexblechman/status/1457842724128833538

But I don’t think this joke works because afaik it’s a reference to: https://hitchhikers.fandom.com/wiki/Total_Perspective_Vortex

And in the book it didn’t work because Zaphod was (rightfully) so egotistical he was immune to it! So it seems the sci-fi author’s moral here is that it’s fine actually.

"When you entered the door of my office, you entered my electronically synthesized Universe," he explained, "if you had left by the door you would have been back in the real one. The artificial one works from here." He patted the briefcase smugly.

Zaphod glared at him with resentment and loathing.

"What's the difference?" he muttered.

"Nothing," said Zarniwoop, "they are identical. Oh-except that I think the Frogstar Fighters are grey in the real Universe."

...

"Meanwhile, you and I arranged that you would steal the Improbability Drive ship-the only one which could reach the ruler's world-and bring it to me here. This you have now done I trust, and I congratulate you." He smiled a tight little smile which Zaphod wanted to hit with a brick.

"Oh, and in case you were wondering," added Zarniwoop, "this Universe was created specifically for you to come to. You are therefore the most important person in this Universe. You would never," he said with an even more brickable smile, "have survived the Total Perspective Vortex in the real one. Shall we go?"

Do you blame the simpsons for drone warfare?

Paraphrasing a quote I read on HN: "What a technology can do quickly becomes what it must do"

Contextualizing: The Birth & Death of JavaScript

https://www.destroyallsoftware.com/talks/the-birth-and-death...

Less sarcastic quote: Anything that can be Written in JavaScript, will Eventually be Written in JavaScript.

As AI progresses and improves over time, it seems like the expected trust one would put in this data will trend upward, maybe eventually to "I trust this data".

What is a (great) joke now might be less of a joke 5-10 years from now. :)

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