ducktoysleftout

Non-destructive location of utilities is a lot more valuable than you might think. In places like intersection there’s just so much going on and any improvements require accommodating, underground, utilities that have been around for many years, including things that would just not occur to a normal person like pipes made of wood that are from the early part of the last century. It’s pretty amazing how far subsurface utility engineering has come.

Only those of taste and refinement can see the emperor’s benchmarks

I am a tech lead for a useful but non-essential PaaS my company subscribes to. Their product manager occasionally sends me clearly AI-authored emails. I ignore them. I am a believer in the usefulness of AI, but nothing says I don’t care more clearly than sending me slop.

I can’t overstate how bad of an idea I think using an AI for customer interaction is.

I would not say that is not completely true. Your state Department of transportation is probably the biggest spender anmong other state agencies. The healthcare Leviathan is only thing that could be bigger. I think it’s important to keep in mind that the surface transportation network in the United States is massive. We also have roads serving mere handfuls of predominantly agricultural users (still critical to food supply).

Building roads is expensive, and they don’t last forever. A good asphalt surface may be service worthy for 20 years. A ton of asphalt outside of California may cost in the ballpark of $150 to install. A 2 inch lift of asphalt will cover not quite 10 sqyd. So you can see how expensive this gets when we’re talking about thousands of miles.

I think it’s worth considering how policies may destroy much of the demand for roadways. Personally, I could imagine a future wear personal private transportation is basically unlawful or artificially expensive.

I’ve read some pretty compelling arguments that GRRM developed his work in writers rooms and much of his content is ghostwritten. I think I recall reading one of his employees emphasizing what a great deal maker he was and how much aptitude he had for securing licensing agreements. There wasn’t much talk about literary genius.

So given that the literary work was outsourced, anyway, is it really that big of a deal that it’s getting outsourced to a machine? If that still bothers you, then how much machine assistance is too much? We’re already using Word processors, spell checkers, and other tools that have taken away much of the human effort. These language models don’t really have a strong sense of personal agency or what ought to be written, but they can fill out the details from a high-level schematic, which is probably, at best, what the author was doing with other team members.

Excel is a fractal of bad design

Its style of writing is part of the fun. Seeing reasoning traces fly by that each start with “Hmm…” is pretty amusing in my opinion especially if you try to vocalize it in your mind.

I may be nitpicking, but I think that “use the full force and violence of the United States to protect anthropic’s shareholder value” would be a more precise expression.

SNAP is funded. Food pantries are abundant. Nobody is eating roadkill to survive as a matter of necessity. If you’re eating carrion that’s probably a lifestyle choice and indicative of some mental illness.

A wildlife overpass is certainly not going to be cheap, but I could see the road user safety benefit penciling out over the life of the asset. I wonder why you would send the animals over (and span the whole roadway) rather than under (cut and cover a box culvert). Either way, it would be nice to see this better funded for rural America.