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Comment by xanderlewis | Hacker News Reader

> To say they stole his work would be silly.

He says they stole it; see for example his recent interview with Numberphile. So is he silly? Or do you know better?

> There's not enough pre-einstein text digitzed to make a fair shot at such an experiment

Then why was it possible for humans to do physics, or indeed function at all, pre Einstein? I guess humans are special after all.

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>He says they stole it; see for example his recent interview with Numberphile. So is he silly? Or do you know better?

He can say whatever he wants. I'm not obligated to take it at face value, especially when it seems to fall apart with some scrutiny.

>Then why was it possible for humans to do physics, or indeed function at all, pre Einstein? I guess humans are special after all.

Billions of years of evolution probably has something to do with it.

He has the right to present his side. Without analyzing both sides claims, no comment can be made.

There is an important asymmetry, though: Buckmaster is a mathematician in it for fun (as almost all mathematicians are, because there certainly isn’t much money in it), and OpenAI is a company desperately scrambling for anything they can present as evidence that the singularity is here and you must invest your money now. Buckmaster abides by the unwritten code of mathematicians (alluded to in said interview); OpenAI abides by absolutely no such code other than ‘move fast and break things’.

I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that each side’s claim isn’t equally trustworthy.

But there is strong ego involved on part of Mr Buckmaster, egos tend to cloud judgement and bias a person. I would not speculate on either side and I would be careful to avoid people who simply take one side for granted.

Listening to him, I didn’t get that impression. I get that academia at large is full of egomaniacs (or so I’ve heard and read online), but the mathematics community is a weirdly non-toxic oasis of reasonable enthusiasts — genuinely, surprising though that may be to those with no experience!

So I have my reasons to weigh his statements more heavily. I certainly don’t take anything for granted.

I don't mean he must specifically be an egotistic person. But if you feel slighted and feel a problem you have been working hard for months taken from under you (quite regardless of the truth of that statement), any person would have a egotistic bias.

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