bdbenton5255

Like a church? A synagogue? A mosque? That fits the definition exactly. It seems like a substitute for a house of worship for people who do not believe in God.

Suchir Balaji did not die in vain.

Wonderful, a nice meeting place between modern and classical art. Arguably one of the most alluring features of classical art is the complexity and intricacy of detail.

Certainly an important discovery for utilizing these models on scaled hardware. This approach could certainly be applied beyond LLMs to other types of neural networks. That would be an interesting space to explore.

Strangely enough, I work with AI models as a programmer and do not use any AI tools to code. The creation of "cognitive debt" as AI researchers describe it means that crucial components of my code are offloaded into a black box understanding.

https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.08872

"Across groups, NERs, n-gram patterns, and topic ontology showed within-group homogeneity. EEG revealed significant differences in brain connectivity: Brain-only participants exhibited the strongest, most distributed networks; Search Engine users showed moderate engagement; and LLM users displayed the weakest connectivity."

In other words, working with LLMs reduces the level of engagement in our brains and offloads much of our cognitive activity.

When working with models that require a high level of abstraction and optimization, offloading these tasks to LLMs that essentially scrape and combine code from various sources can lead to disaster. For something like a basic CRUD app such factors are not nearly as important.

I can see the future convergence of two clear trends in software: No-code tools and AI tools. The development of AI agents which handle not only the generation of code but the full development cycle of creating, testing, and deploying projects with a limited level of programming knowledge required.

As an additional note:

Both of these software trends aim to automate and replace many responsibilities of the programmer in a commercial sense. I believe that future programmers will need to become familiar with these emerging technologies in order to remain competitive in the job market.

Namely, math skills. Linear regression, multivariable calculus, the sort of math applied by scientists and researchers. If you do not understand the mathematics at the core of neural networks, now is the time to learn.

Absolutely fascinating. Detecting ripples in the fabric of space and time? The NSF is still producing Nobel worthy discoveries.

I've been working on a Deep Convolutional Generative Adverserial Network (DCGAN) which utilizes astronomical data and have been on an astronomy kick.

Cutting funding to pure science research is a profound mistake, pure science research puts our nation at the forefront of technological discovery and is of national strategic importance.

Something interesting about the American Revolutionary War is that the popular force raised from the population were not only able to overcome the most powerful international military force at the time, they were able to demonstrate significant martial superiority in battle.

For example, at Lexington and Concord, the outset of the war, the Loyalists suffered 73 combat deaths while the Revolutionaries suffered 49.

At Saratoga, the turning point of the war, the British suffered 440 combat deaths while the Revolutionaries suffered only 90.

At Yorktown, again, ~200 combat deaths for the Loyalists against 88 combat deaths for the Revolutionaries.

This demonstrates something unique to this conflict. Typically, in unconventional wars of this nature, insurgent forces suffer proportionally higher losses than occupying forces. This was not the case in the American Revolutionary War.

I believe that a number of factors contributed to this. For one, mass mobilization due to overwhelming popular support. Lexington and Concord began with only 77 Revolutionaries and escalated to nearly 4,000. It was the escalation of conflict that attracted insurgents from far and wide who were eager for action and an opportunity to join the revolutionary effort. Literally anyone with a rifle, even fowling pieces for bird hunting, could join in and fight the clearly, visually marked occupying forces.

Secondly, a familiarity with the surrounding terrain which provided ample foliage and an advantageous landscape. Namely, forested hills and mountains. As for the swampy terrain mentioned in the article, Brigadier General Francis Marion AKA "the swamp fox" as written here was able to use it to his advantage to conduct guerrilla style operations in the Southern theater.

Thirdly, the pre-war efforts of Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben were instrumental in his service to Washington of transforming what was once a ragged band and physically unprepared mass of men into an organized and confident fighting force. These men were strenously trained to a high standard, they were not like Mao's men who were simply handed a rifle (sometimes even a sword) and thrown into battle. They were trained to fight like professionals and carry themselves with confidence in combat.

The American Revolutiory War provides insight into a unique sort of war where it is demonstrated that a popular force raised from everyday people has the potential to not only defeat the most powerful professional military force in the world but to do so with demonstrable martial superiority.

This requires a respect for the sacredness of human life and a recognition of the horribleness of war and conflict. To minimize losses and to minimize the time in which the conflict is resolved.

Nuclear weapons can be repurposed for nuclear energy. Maybe, just maybe, one beautiful day we will live in a world where there are no nuclear weapons nor need for them. These weapons cannot be used ethically, they poison the soil, air, and water.

https://world-nuclear.org/information-library/nuclear-fuel-c...

A quote from Sun Tzu is etched in stone at the Minuteman Missile National Historic Site just outside the Pine Ridge Native American Reservation:

"Someday, an ultimate class of warriors will evolve, too strong to be contested. They will win battles without having to fight, so that at last, the day may be won without shedding a single drop of blood."

Especially when you consider that similar studies conclude that caffeine has an overall positive effect on brain function when consumed at 200mg per sitting and 400mg per day.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26677204/

100mg being equivalent to one cup of coffee or two cups of tea. I personally prefer tea as it is milder and the lower caffeine content means I can drink it all day.

Love it, made me smile. The "warmth" of all this old tech is nostalgic, all the little human touches lost to history. The little bits of heart and soul that shaped the details of our lives, some nameless engineer on some forgotten afternoon implementing the little blue waves in the rain clouds. Something strangely bittersweet about it.

I loved tinkering with Flash as a kid in the early 2000s. I taught myself programming through ActionScript and wrote a little physics engine that modeled 2D physics using loops, conditionals, basic trig, and increments.

It's definitely outdated at this point by HTML5 and WebGL, but I will always fondly remember all those little flash games and experimenting with ActionScript, learning programming fundamentals.

I would highly recommend tinkering with the HTML5 Canvas element and WebGL if you were a fan of Flash. The web browser has evolved into an OS of sorts as personal computers have evolved along with the introduction of mobile devices.

Web browsers now handle email clients, word processors, photo editors, even video and code editors. Check out this neat fluid simulator experiment in WebGL, you can build even more advanced applications of this nature with this technology.

https://paveldogreat.github.io/WebGL-Fluid-Simulation/

The human ability to design computer programs through abstractions and solve creative problems like these is arguably more important than being able to crank out lines of code that perform specific tasks.

The programmer is an architect of logic and computers translate human modes of thought into instructions. These tools can imitate humans and produce code given certain tasks, typically by scraping existing code, but they can't replace that abstract level of human thought to design and build in the same way.

When these models are given greater functionality to not only output code but to build out entire projects given specifications, then the role of the human programmer must evolve.

As a pure dictionary of knowledge gathering symptoms and performing diagnoses it should be obvious that LLMs can do this more efficiently.

As for everything else, as pointed out, these programs are insufficient. As with programmers and other white collar professions it seems ideal to integrate these tools into the workplace rather than try and replace the human completely.

Businesspeople probably dream of huge profits by replacing their workforce with AI models, and the marketers and proprieters of AI are likely to overpromise what their products can do as is the SV tradition. To promise the moon in order to extract maximum funding.

Yes, thank you.

It does, actually, as the syntax is a result of the language's design and a simpler and more human-like syntax requires a higher level of abstraction that reduces efficiency.

The design of a language, including its syntax, has a great bearing on its speed and efficiency.

Compare C with Assembly, for example, and you will see that higher level languages take complex actions and simplify them into a more terse syntax.

You will also observe that languages such as Python are not nearly as suitable for lower level tasks like writing operating systems where C is much more suitable due to speed.

Languages like Python and Ruby include a higher level of built-in logic to make writing in them more natural and easy at the cost of efficiency.

That's really it. These tools are useful as assistants to programmers but do not replace an actual programmer. The right course is to embrace the technology moderately rather than reject it completely or bet on it replacing workers.

C is many magnitudes faster than Python and you can measure this using nested conditionals. Python is built for a higher level of abstraction and this comes at the cost of speed. It is what makes it very natural and human-like to write in.

I read what he wrote, I just disagree with it. Nutrition is not really so simple and this information is both useful and objectively true. It is also relevant to the subject being discussed. I think the author has an overly simplistic and misinformed view of nutrition, so I am providing useful and relevant information.

Right, I just disagree with the author as nutrition is more complex than what he posited. Following his advice, you will not acquire sufficient nutrients to do things like build muscle.

I personally prefer an animal-based diet revolving around meat and milk. It is conducive to strength training and fits my taste buds, but I always incorporate fruits and vegetables to secure vitamins and minerals.

The essential nutrients that your body needs are carbohydrates, protein, lipids, vitamins, minerals, fiber, and water. The first three are macronutrients, providing most of your body's energy in the form of calories.

Traditional diets incorporate all of these nutrients naturally, as human beings formed traditional diets by sourcing needed nutrients from the surrounding environment. Before industrialization, humanity subsisted on these diets, and if you look far back enough you will find these foodways in your ancestral culture.

Industrialization provides us the luxury of choice in our diets, but it also leaves many displaced and confused as to choosing a diet. You will find that traditional dishes naturally incorporate all of our necessary nutrients. A good rule of thumb when building healthy meals is this:

Carb + protein + vitamins/minerals

Such as:

Rice + beans + tomato + onions

Potatoes + steak + green beans + milk

And so on.

The carbohydrates and proteins will provide the bulk of your calories and the feeling of "fullness" while the sources of vitamins and minerals will complete your diet.

A good metaphor is to think of the human body like a car that needs gasoline and oil primarily as well as some additional fluids to run optimally. A balanced diet will help you feel better physically and psychologically.

Whether you choose to source protein from plants or animals is entirely up to your discretion in this industrialized age, while it was previously a result of an agricultural or pastoral means of subsistence.

There is a popular misconception that neural networks accurately model the human brain. It is more a metaphor for neurons than a complete physical simulation of the human brain.

There is also a popular misconception that LLMs are intelligently thinking programs. They are more like models that predict words and appear as a human intelligence.

That being said, it is certainly theoretically possible to simulate human intelligence and scale it up.

Mahmoud Al Mughanni is a Flutter developer from Gaza City whose home and laptop were destroyed in the war. Please consider donating to this campaign to help Mahmoud find shelter and rebuild his home and life as a programmer.

Theologically speaking, there is an important distinction between magic, or sorcery, and mysticism. Sorcery is an attempt to twist or subvert the divine while mysticism is an attempt to uncover it.

For example, Hildegard von Bingen is a mystic while Heinrich Faust would be considered a sorcerer. The distinction is important as mysticism is considered a holy activity while sorcery is considered to be a profound sin.

Meditation and esoteric study would fall under the realm of mysticism, while things like divination or the dishonest manipulation of belief would be considered sorcery.

I use Arch and love KDE Plasma. It even has a blue light filter. Am never going back to Windows. KDE runs faster, looks nicer, does not have forced adware and telemetry. Great daily driver.

Another great natural mystery that machine learning could tackle is earthquake prediction. Sure you could find some patterns modeling historical data.

Woke up this morning to start on a new project.

Started with a math visualizer for machine learning, saw an HN post for this soon after and scrapped it. It was better done by someone else.

Started on an LLM app that looped outputs, saw this post soon after and scrapped it. It was better done by someone else.

It is like every single original notion I have is immediately done by someone else at the exact same time.

I think I will just move on to rudimentary systems programming stuff and avoid creative and original thinking, just need basic and low profile employment.

Reminds of the pomodoro technique. I didn't know there was a basis for it in neuroscience, very fascinating.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomodoro_Technique

Thanks for the knowledge and the neat tool, this will prove to be useful studying mathematics for programming.

Very clean, educational and informative. Well done, from one Brandon to another!

Not surprising if you've ever had a good look at the Milky Way from the wilderness or countryside. Growing up in well-lit suburbs, I didn't see the Milky Way until I went backpacking in the granite domes of the Sierra Nevadas.

This is an experience that I'd recommend everyone to experience at least once if you haven't. The memory is still burned in my lind, a canvas full of stars and the hazy stream of the galaxy stretching from horizon to horizon.

Here is a nifty tool for finding areas with low light pollution near you, which coincidentally are typically home to observatories.

https://www.lightpollutionmap.info/

Phone operators have gone the way of the dodo as well. We should embrace these changes with a forward-looking attitude and look at how such systems create brand new roles in society.