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figure8

83 karma · joined July 26, 2010

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figure8··on The Deathbed Fallacy (2018)
You do realize that that's also likely true for all the thousands of Gods that've ever been imagined by humans? So I am gently nudging you to consider praying to them as well, just to be on the safe side. ;)
figure8··on Differential Geometry: A First Course in Curves and Surfaces [pdf]
Those are some awesome videos. You'll notice that by the end of the series, he's using advanced notation everywhere as well. And you'll notice the original PDF has lots of pictures too. The use of calculus notation is required to be precise about differential geometry. It is not some kind of elitism, it's just the most effective way to communicate abstract ideas without misunderstanding. I hit a wall in my math understanding until I was willing to embrace the symbols, rules and manipulations of good notation.

I'd go further and say that mathematical and physics notation is beautiful unto itself. The evolution of symbols used to transmit abstraction is incredible. They are way of exploring patterns which can then be refined and layered using proven notational magic. So cool.

figure8··on Ask HN: How many AI startups are just OpenAI/Anthropic/etc. API calls with a UI?
> But can anybody name a wrapper company as/more valuable than foundation model companies

Ask the same question about databases. Then consider these wrapper companies: Salesforce, LinkedIn, AirBnB, Workday, ...

The only database company worth more then Salesforce is Oracle. Other database companies are worth much less.

figure8··on OpenAI O3 breakthrough high score on ARC-AGI-PUB
I have a very naive question.

Why is the ARC challenge difficult but coding problems are easy? The two examples they give for ARC (border width and square filling) are much simpler than pattern awareness I see simple models find in code everyday.

What am I misunderstanding? Is it that one is a visual grid context which is unfamiliar?

figure8··on Are character count line limits stupid?
I've always thought that using vertical space and indentation alone to organize code was a failure of imagination for IDE development. Why can't the IDE allow for and auto-format code in a horizontal line? For instance, I can easily imagine background color shading as an indicator of logical depth. That would be fun to play with.

And along those lines, why do coding best practices always encourage vertically stretched out logic? Its analogous to writing all literature as poetry. That's clearly suboptimal or at least limiting if you can read multiple ideas in a horizontal line.

So, I think, ideally, semantically-aware IDEs should allow for any formating and supply dynamic adjusters which can reformat code to the users preference, then save it in a presentation-agnostic encoding.

figure8··on Spikey Spheres (2010)
Yes. I appreciate the article because it gets people to think about high dimensional geometry. But I think the right takeaway is that in high dimensions, cubes have huge volume compared to the enclosed sphere. So the sphere is not spikey at all. Instead realize that the diagonals and volume of the cube get very large compared to the sphere.
figure8··on Ask HN: How are you bypassing YouTube anti-adblocker?
I subscribe to YouTube Premium and strongly recommend it. With my heavy usage, I'm happy to pay each month to avoid ads.
figure8··on OpenAI API Is Down
Latest from their status page: Update - The underlying issue affecting a subset of our API customers (and ChatGPT by extension) is with an upstream part of our API authentication stack. We're simultaneously scaling up the underlying cache resource we found to be near capacity, and working on an alternate system that does not use the cache. We will keep you posted as soon as we have an update, and are sorry for the trouble this is causing you. Oct 19, 2023 - 19:27 PDT
figure8··on Ask HN: Why does HN require tiny baby fingers to operate on a phone?
Try using a mobile browser, like Opera, that supports text rewrap on zoom. It is a revelation.
figure8··on Ask HN: How close are LLMs to AGI?
This depends crucially on your definition of AGI. LLMs are more like a mathematical function than they are a conscious being. If, in your opinion, AGI could be realized as a input/output function with no changing internal state, like a lens or a lookup table, then we could say LLMs could be an element of AGI. But if, like many of us, you believe an AGI needs a changing internal representation of the world, and an ability to mull over prior knowledge and incorporate new inputs, then LLMs are at best only a useful component of AGI. Maybe like the retina of the human eye plays some role in human visual intelligence.

The fact that LLMs appear so intelligent to humans is really a reflection of our inability to imagine effects of scale. We can understand simple linear predictions as trivial calculations, but when language-based pattern discovery is many layers deep and those patterns are combined in nontrivial (but non-intelligent) ways, we project intelligence onto the result.

figure8··on Ask HN: Why so hard to read HN on mobile
I agree. This is why I use Opera's mobile browser which defaults to zoom with dynamic text wrapping to fit the screen width.
figure8··on Mitochondria–Fundamental to Life and Health
Amazing: "A healthy person at rest produces their body weight in adenosine triphosphate every day! At maximal exercise, this number can increase to 0.5 to 1.0 kg per minute."
figure8··on OpenAI ChatGPT: Optimizing language models for dialogue
It seems to know that song lyrics have rhyme.

> Please compose some song lyrics about loving someone else's dog.

Verse 1: I never thought I'd fall in love again But then I met your furry friend With a wag of his tail and a bark of his voice He captured my heart and made me rejoice

Chorus: I love your dog, I love your dog He's the best thing that's happened to me in a while I love your dog, I love your dog He's the one thing that makes me smile

Verse 2: I never knew a dog could be so sweet But every time we meet, he's a treat With his soft fur and his big brown eyes He's my best buddy and I'm glad he's mine

Chorus: I love your dog, I love your dog He's the best thing that's happened to me in a while I love your dog, I love your dog He's the one thing that makes me smile

Bridge: I know he's not mine, he's yours to keep But whenever I'm with him, I feel so complete I'll love him like my own, and take care of him too Because to me, he's as precious as gold

Chorus: I love your dog, I love your dog He's the best thing that's happened to me in a while I love your dog, I love your dog He's the one thing that makes me smile

Outro: I love your dog, oh yes I do He's the one thing that makes my heart true I love your dog, and I'll always be Fore

figure8··on U.S. annual inflation rate drops to 8.5%
Isn't the change in this yearly inflation number saying only that this July's inflation was less than last July's? So going up or down depends only on the monthly rate a year ago.
figure8··on Anil Seth Finds Consciousness in Life’s Push Against Entropy
Ergodicity: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ergodicity
figure8··on Chalk of Champions [video]
Here's an interview with the company's founder: https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Companies/Hagoromo-presiden...
figure8··on Analysis in Higher Gauge Theory
Gauge theory is the collection of techniques used to describe forces in quantum field theory (electro-magnetism, weak force, and strong force). In field theory you have many vector spaces (1-d, 2-d, ... n-d) defined for every point in space time. So a specific field requires a distinct vector value for each space-time point. These fields encode certain particle types like electrons, quarks, etc.

One can ask, how can I compare field values at 2 distinct points a and b? They are in distinct vector spaces V_a vs V_b. Well, gauge theory says you must imagine the vector v_a being moved along a path between a and b, and see how the translated vector value compares to the vector v_b over b. This is called "parallel transport." A rule about how all vectors move along all paths during this translation is called a "connection." These connections encode distinct force-carrying particle types like photons and gluons. Sort of like how an object naturally rotates along a curvy surface. It's naively possible to describe this transport, this curvyness, but the natural notation is such that distinct descriptions are actually the same connection. Dealing with this ambiguity is key to properly computing probabilities using path integrals.

By the way, each gauge theory is required to have an underlying "gauge group," meaning a set of possible symmetries. In the standard model these groups are called U(1), SU(2) and SU(3). U(1) is 1-dimensional, so only 1 kind of electromagnetic force particle, the photon. SU(2) is 3-dimensional so 3 types of weak force particles (W-,W+, and Z) and SU(3) is 8 dimensional so 8 types of gluons.

figure8··on Alibaba’s UC Browser is dominating in Asian markets with lower-end smartphones
This text reflow feature is key to my choosing a mobile browser. I use Opera mainly for this reason.

Text reflow used to be standard. Does anyone know why Chrome and Firefox removed it?

figure8··on How YouTube’s Shifting Algorithms Hurt Independent Media
I use YouTube Red and love it. My YouTube usage has doubled because I don't see ads. And I feel good knowing I'm helping the video makers whether I skip ads or not.
figure8··on Animal Minds: The new anthropomorphism
> Or, of course, what aspects of the world are we missing that would be obvious to a slightly more complex intelligence?

Also, there are surely aspects of the world we miss which are probably clear to chimps or even insects.

figure8··on The most beautiful theory
I have a question. Given an u derstanding of special relativity plus Einstein's equivalence principle, can one derive the Ricci curvature formulation of GR? By that I mean, is the math of GR an inevitable consequence of those assumptions?
figure8··on Differential Topology – Lecture 1 by John W. Milnor (1965) [video]
I really appreciate how he writes and draws the slides as he speaks. With math lectures, this always encourages me to think deeply about the details and implications of each line. I find it better than pre-written slides, now so easily created and presented using Power Point.
figure8··on Ask HN: What are the greatest discoveries in the last few years?
In nutrition and medicine, why red meat causes cancer in humans:

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/2015/01/02/red-mea...

figure8··on World without end
They do have video commentaries which are generally great: http://video.newyorker.com/watch/commentary-the-universe-of-...
figure8··on If two objects approach at 75 percent the speed of light
If I'm not mistaken, the derivation of the black-body radiation energy distribution does not use special relativity at all, only statistical mechanics and quantum mechanics. How can it be used to explain special relativity?
figure8··on How the sugar industry shaped key government research about your teeth
Interesting research in this direction is making progress, helping to explain WHY red meat may be dangerous:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/12/141229152226.ht...

figure8··on Was Nate Silver the Most Accurate 2012 Election Pundit?
Here he says: "I would describe myself as being somewhere between a liberal and a Libertarian."

http://m.npr.org/news/Books/162594751

figure8··on 3.7X speedup from removing a call to sleep
Sure, good stories have details, but a person's choice of detail reveals how they see the world. The comment's mention of "offshore" clearly serves no purpose beyond encouraging stereotype-based thinking. Knowing this programmer was offshore is as irrelevant as knowing their sex or their eye color. We've generally (and I think rightfully) exorcised this language in reference to other characteristics, why not this one?

In my experience, programmers who emphasize that "offshore" programmers are bad seem insecure about their own skills and job stability. The same is true of sexist men who go out of their way to mention when a mistake was made by a woman but never explicitly highlight when it was a man.

figure8··on 3.7X speedup from removing a call to sleep
" that an offshore programmer forgot..."

Unnecessarily mentioning a characteristic of an individual is a sign of selfish, biased, and/or malicious thinking. Do you mention "American programmer" whenever recounting their bugs? It appears you have an agenda of promoting negative stereotypes, presumably in your favor. This is lame. In the future, you'll appear more credible if you omit this bigotry from your comments.

I am certain there are thousands of programmers, male, female, gay, straight, onshore and offshore who are much better than you (or me.)

figure8··on Introducing Collusion: Discover who’s tracking you online
Hmm. Thanks for your help; I'm sorry if I'm not understanding.

Can't Google make certain (admittedly imperfect) inferences based on seeing the same IP address visit gmail.com, then AllThingsD.com, then CA.gov, etc? (All of which use Google Analytics) It doesn't take rocket science to place a high probability that the the IP address that visited gmail is also me across all those domains.

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