Hacker News Reader

amanaplanacanalon Scam American companies are using to manipulate ingredient lists

People say they prefer the taste. I don't know that I could tell the difference though.

amanaplanacanalon Scam American companies are using to manipulate ingredient lists

Ok, you might not know this, but sucrose (white sugar) is a di-saccharide consisting of a molecule of glucose and one of fructose, which your body splits during digestion. So the amount of fructose you get from HFCS is almost identical to the amount you get from white sugar. Your body can't tell the difference.

amanaplanacanalon Why were Victorian elites so effective?

If by individuals you mean the individuals stocking the supermarkets with ultraprocessed foods, maybe.

amanaplanacanalon Why were Victorian elites so effective?

The timing doesn't work. In the US, obesity didn't start taking off until the 1970s and 1980s, and the motorcar was ubiquitous long before that.

amanaplanacanalon California closed the Montana license plate loophole

Juicy! I'd like to see some of them.

amanaplanacanalon Paramount Skydance has completed its $111B merger with Warner Bros. Discovery

I thought Trek had turned from hope to dystopia with the release of Picard.

Or did we decide that isn't canon?

amanaplanacanalon Blindsight (Watts Novel)

Now I'm curious, are you for or against public libraries? From your arguments, it appears that you would be against?

amanaplanacanalon Blindsight (Watts Novel)

When I was younger, I thought the Chinese room argument was ridiculously wrong. Any system that could do what it could do would have to be conscious.

Now with the rise of LLMs, I have to say that I was completely wrong. LLMs give us a simulation of consciousness, but they aren't conscious. My mistake was thinking that language was the hallmark of consciousness, which I no longer believe. It seems obvious to me that other mammals are conscious, even without language. Language is orthogonal to consciousness.

I still believe that there is nothing magical about biology that means that a computer program could never be conscious, though.

amanaplanacanalon I quit OpenAI because its culture is broken

That doesn't mean all regulation is good though. You have to look at each one on its merits.

amanaplanacanalon Treachery in the Rodin Museum 3D scan verdict

Do they actually have any sculptures that don't already have copies spread around the world in other museums? They are fighting a losing battle here.

amanaplanacanalon Returning from vacation? The government can search your phone without a warrant

Subpoenas are an investigating tool. It's part of gathering the data. I think you may be confused. It's not in any way a punishment.

Do you think at that point he had it out for Republicans in general? Republican congressmen were appalled by what happened on Jan 6th, and it was only because they thought Trump would just go away that he wasn't convicted in the Senate.

Trying to frame that investigation as some sort of political witch hunt is ridiculous.

amanaplanacanalon Effective altruism is this century's biggest idea

The idea of spending your money where it will do the most good is a good one. The execution can certainly be bad, though. Good deeds don't make up for bad deeds, and we should have learned a long time ago that "the ends justify the means" usually leads to terrible things.

amanaplanacanalon Google breaks promise to provide 10 years of updates to Chromebooks

Don't worry, they can afford it. They're rich right?

I mean they may not use their local library or parks either, but they ain't getting a refund for that.

amanaplanacanalon NRC issues first U.S. construction permit for a BWRX-300 small modular reactor

Probably the best way would be for you to pick your numbers, and payout to whoever gets closest.

amanaplanacanalon It's Time to Investigate the AI Labs

It's interesting that even the most pro-second amendment judges still won't allow guns in their courtrooms.

amanaplanacanalon It's Time to Investigate the AI Labs

I would say minimally regulated. For instance, felons are for the most part not allowed them, and there are certain locations where they are not allowed to be carried.

amanaplanacanalon Has Violence Against Teachers Become Accepted by Society?

I am many decades out of public schools, but I wonder, is this in specific school districts, or is it nationwide?

amanaplanacanalon Google's first Suncatcher orbital data center test launches October 1

Nah, it's because the economics don't make sense. It's a PT Barnum level scam.

amanaplanacanalon 9 Ads per Minute: FIFA Cup 26 – "the price of the beautiful game"

Half the products on Amazon have names like that.

amanaplanacanalon Suspension of the de minimis administrative exemption for imports $800 or less

I suspect the only thing that would make people demand a better solution is if we got rid of employer paid health care. If everyone had to buy from the exchange, people would freak out.

amanaplanacanalon Suspension of the de minimis administrative exemption for imports $800 or less

Hard to see how making things more expensive for consumers is not a mistake, but I could totally be missing something.

amanaplanacanalon Uber ordered to pay $40M over death of woman left on Southern California freeway

As the article noted, this was not a jury trial, this was decided by an arbitration judge.

amanaplanacanalon Republican bill would order ISPs, DNS providers, and VPNs to block piracy sites

We should probably go the other way and make ISPs, and DNS and VPN providers common carriers.

amanaplanacanalon AI safety is mostly a sex cult

I am a native English speaker. Here is a popular dictionary link: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cult

See especially definitions 3 and 4.

amanaplanacanalon AI safety is mostly a sex cult

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19085605/

First hit in a Kagi search.

amanaplanacanalon AI safety is mostly a sex cult

So how they enjoy their sex lives is dependant on continuing to preach AI catastrophism? I don't buy it. Lots of poly folks out here that probably don't care much about AI one way or another.

amanaplanacanalon AI safety is mostly a sex cult

The word "cult" is doing a lot of heavy lifting here. It can mean anything from religion, to weird religion I don't like, to the organizations that try to cut you off from contact with your family and other people outside the organization. Only the last type are the bad ones, from what I can see.

amanaplanacanalon Mind-altering drugs played key role in rise of Andean civilization

This theory relies on not defining consciousness. My dog certainly appears to be conscious, and I doubt there is any evidence of some canine use of psychedelics.

amanaplanacanalon Great Lakes sturgeon may be 400 years old:Scientists rethinking how to save them

Where I live on the West Coast any towns older than a couple hundred years are long gone, the people were killed or evicted from their land long ago. The existing towns are all new.

amanaplanacanalon I think I hate the internet

I still use Reddit, but only see niche hobbyist subreddits for things I'm interested in. It's not bad if you use it that way.