archagon

A REPL is deterministic.

A REPL's syntax is well-defined.

A REPL does not pretend to have thoughts and feelings.

> we're going to be able to create systems that are far more complicated than anything we could make before

I find that unlikely. You can't outsource your understanding of a system to a machine that fundamentally does not understand.

Complexity is built on top of layers of abstraction, and AI is not an abstraction.

Moreover, I don't see obvious areas where more complexity would drastically improve our software. We're drowning in unnecessary complexity right now. FAANG has had (effectively) unlimited manpower for decades, and what have they done with it? Mostly enshittified once-decent software.

Western far-right governments would likely try to use these services to pair white natives with other natives (or otherwise shape the population to their liking). Gross.

Still, there's value in this product in a non-radicalized society.

If you read her bio, this lady was dealt some of the worst cards you could possibly get. She stood almost no chance.

More recently, she seems to have saved more than one life in prison.

> Jones later testified that Pike had intervened to protect other inmates before the 2001 incident. A 2025 episode of the podcast Unrestorable, which examined Pike's years in solitary confinement, reported that Jones had attempted to kill at least three other women and that Pike had intervened in each incident, including pulling one woman away from cell bars, pulling another away from a toilet, and intervening when Jones was strangling another woman with a telephone cord. In reporting on Pike's scheduled execution, WTVF-TV, republishing reporting from the Nashville Banner, reported that Jones later testified that Pike had intervened in a fight between Jones and another inmate and likely saved the other woman's life.

Narcissists can't admit they're wrong.

And if Musk cared at all about deaths, he would not have taken a chainsaw to USAID.

Outside of the productivity weasels I'm not sure most of SWE actually enjoys using AI to code.

Would love to, but… https://bsky.app/profile/smoothdunk2.bsky.social/post/3mvx47...

Attempting to understand perspectives that feel alien to you will be good for your personal growth. (Try asking your LLM.)

High-level programming languages use well-defined, limited syntax to encode program behavior in a deterministic way. Compilers translate these directions into programs that should have identical behavior between compiler runs and between different compilers. (If they don't, that's a compiler bug, or else an artifact of UB.) This means you can structurally and provably rely on the high-level programming layer without worrying about what's underneath: the assembly is abstracted away. You also get the massive benefit of being able to tweak and improve the assembly layer independently of the programming language layer, so long as the contract between language and compiler is not violated.

If AI is a "layer of abstraction," so is working with a bunch of contractors to make your app. The definition is broadened to the point of absurdity. (Solely: "I don't have to think about code anymore," which only touches on the most superficial aspect of an abstraction.)

AI does not create a new layer of abstraction; a compiler does. This is computer science 101 and I'm kind of shocked that so many engineers make this basic mistake.

What a very useful definition.

Until some catastrophic data loss event or data leak that nobody understands or has any mitigations for. Oops! Guess bankruptcy and prison time are the ultimate uncaught exceptions.

AI is not an abstraction.

But also, many people consider Koons to be a hack. (He says his art has no intrinsic meaning and he mostly makes vapid balloon sculptures for very rich people.)

A person using tools to make art is an artist (or craftsman). A person yelling directions at people or machines that make the actual art is a director, at best.

AI is not an abstraction layer. If you work entirely on the level of prompting without any knowledge or understanding of the underlying code, you are not actually an engineer, but more of a half-assed technical manager. (And your job will be first on the chopping block.)

I'd love to see Huang's definition of abstraction in which AI is somehow "a new abstraction level" but having some contractors build your product is not.

> Anyway, is it left wing to be anti-racist these days? Yikes.

Unfortunately, on this site, being against white supremacy is treated as some sort of personality disorder. Yes, it's fucked up. No, it's not representative of the general population (or so I dearly hope).

I would argue these are influencers and “content creators” cosplaying as artists, taking shortcuts and never bothering to hone their craft or cultivate their taste. End result is tons more low-effort content and outright spam in the world, not some creative golden era.

And maybe film is different in some respects, but AI does not allow musicians, artists, or writers to do anything they could not do already. The only benefit is churning out mediocre content faster.

How does AI “empower” artists…?

Well, a quick perusal of some Reddit threads about this leads me to believe that the decline in playerbase is more about lack of content than cheating. (And may not be out of the ordinary for this sort of game.)

But I don't know since I don't play Arc. I'm just aware of a number of other games rife with cheating that remain wildly popular.

Yes, New York is certainly falling apart. And the mayor is notoriously unpopular!

Some community reactions are considered more authentic than others, it would seem.

I’ve seen so many shit articles and corporate announcements manually unflagged by the mods over the years. (Here’s a recent one, flagged to death very quickly before miraculously being resurrected: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49602728) An explanation is rarely given.

Hear fucking hear.

Maybe this article will finally grant me the strength to leave this decrepit place. It’s 90% AI articles and press releases anyway.

Democratic socialist countries have some of the best QoL in the world.

I have a hard time imagining a tech forum in my heyday doing anything with a Bill Gates press release other than giving it a giant middle finger.

Musk is several orders of magnitude worse than Gates, yet the HN community cheerfully feeds on his marketing content while flagging dissent.

This is not a forum for “hackers” anymore, if it ever was. OP is completely right.

Busting unions, discriminating against black employees, and funding Musk’s virulent white supremacy.

Good luck scaling that “solution!”

I live in the heart of the Mission and I endorse that quote from the parent comment 100%.

Once every few days I even share public transit with a homeless person! Oh, the horror!!

The people I see out on the street are suffering terribly, sick, unable to escape the gravity of their situations, and the vast majority are not malicious. Anyone who does not see this has chipped away key bits of their own soul.

I don’t know what’s wrong with me, but I kind of enjoy that new development vibe. Plus, the historic structure is now well-preserved. Better than many alternatives.