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magicfractal

209 karma · joined April 3, 2015

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magicfractal··on The next 50 years: humanity, AI, power – Yuval Noah Harari [video]
Not interested in what this zionist who believes in unscientific fairy tales (no evidence for anything in sapies, the opposite)
magicfractal··on Joining Jane Street
Author did a huge rationalizing that they’re working on an useless BS job (according to the david graeber definition). It is ok in capitalism to just do your job and maximize income but there’s no need to lie to yourself that the work is useful please!
magicfractal··on Terence Tao: The role of small organizations in society has shrunk significantly
This is just what Lenin said about monopolistic capitalism. Free competition reduces profit rates which can’t happen in capitalism.
magicfractal··on US and China reach deal to transfer TikTok ownership, trade official says
So it’s now becoming an extremism right space in 3…2…1…
magicfractal··on Why Radiology AI Didn't Work and What Comes Next
Pretty clear this is a problem to be solved in a universal healthcare system where everyone works together to iterate in lockstep
magicfractal··on Are we the baddies?
Nothing like opening up Hinge to radicalize an individual!
magicfractal··on No One Is in Charge at the US Copyright Office
Before AI, copyright was a way to increase profits for the ruling class, now with AI it’s disadvantageous to keep copyright to the detriment of the petite bourgeoisie (like artists and self-employed software engineers). It’s the rule in capitalism that big capital eats small capital leading to income concentration in fewer and fewer hands.
magicfractal··on Google to buy Wiz for $32B
This is one example of ways that the US empire supports the economy of Israel (the 51st state). I would be very surprised if there isn’t a political element here.
magicfractal··on Notes on Argentina
Yeah, seems like everything is much worse off but somehow a higher dose of neoliberalism will definitely fix things, just give it more time
magicfractal··on Can solar costs keep shrinking?
Just to point out that the reason why solar panel costs have been decreasing is because china as part of their 5-year plans set solar energy as a national priority and the world is now benefiting from their upfront investments and economies of scale. This is a clear datapoint towards economic planning for the green transition and rational management of natural resources.
magicfractal··on The US fiscal mess: Some unpleasant fiscal simulations
As long as US imperialism exists, the US dollar will be reserve currency and the US will be able to print away problems. This is the exorbitant privilege the US has which is effectively extracting tribute from all international transactions in dollar.
magicfractal··on Ask HN: Are the recent Supreme Court rulings affecting your work?
That’s why I’m saying we shouldn’t care about voting anymore.

The solution at this point is getting to the streets, mass strikes. Civil disobedience.

magicfractal··on Ask HN: Are the recent Supreme Court rulings affecting your work?
The only way out is realizing that elections are not the only way to engage in democratic societies.

That means organizing: at work, neighborhoods, churches etc to protest against the upcoming attacks that will come. History has shown over and over again that elites don’t share power with the people out of the goodness of their hearts but because they fear the alternative (revolution). Anything else is BS.

magicfractal··on Tiny fern has the largest genome of any organism on Earth
This is super interesting! Can you share more info/resources?
magicfractal··on Why do poor people commit more crime?
I’m sure billionaires commit 1000 crimes a day (or do the unethical things that don’t qualify as crimes due to loopholes), they are just not prosecuted. What we often see is the criminalization of poverty.
magicfractal··on The Geopolitics of Godzilla
Now replace the Japanese with the Nazi and you’ll see how this is an absurd premise for a movie
magicfractal··on Firefighters in Canada: ‘Gigantic blazes will burn all summer’
That’s with 1.1C global temperature increase. Current trends point to >2C by the end of the century.
magicfractal··on Danone, Kellogg among 75 companies France has asked for price cuts
That’s an actual government doing something it is supposed to do.
magicfractal··on Wildfire smoke: Montreal has world’s worst air quality today
You know it’s only getting worse right? :/
magicfractal··on New record anomaly for North Atlantic sea surface temperatures
We all know what is going and what must be done:

Market-based solutions for the climate crisis have failed and are too slow to address the issue, all current oil reserves should be immediately valued at zero dollars. Many governments have been completely captured and are not working towards humanity’s long term survival.

State of emergency should be declared with full mobilization (ie total war economy) towards addressing the climate crisis, that’s the only way out while there’s still time.

To pay for it, the usual tools nation-states have employed at times of war: devaluing currency, high income taxes (90% bracket) and disappropriation of non-productive wealth, etc. Other similar crises have happened and solved in this way.

It is possible to do with democratic feedback so no one stays behind and we come out of it with a more just society.

magicfractal··on VP of Bitwarden fired for using ‘Assigned By God’ as pronoun sues employer
He was free to chose his own pronouns and keep his gender ideology to himself. The company is also free to chose the policy that maximizes the well-being of most employees. Instead, he decided to engage in proselytizing at work, well deserved imo.
magicfractal··on All Product Managers Are Leaders, and Engineers and Designers as Well
I unfortunately have never worked in a company where product managers are actually accomplishing their job descriptions due to the fact that most simply do not code and do not understand engineering in depth and hence can’t concrete/feasible action on where to take the product. I feel like at least in my personal experience things would’ve turned out the same with only engineers and managers and that most PMs work fit into David Graeber‘s Bullshit jobs (box tickers, taskmasters).
magicfractal··on Stanford: A grim correlation between violence and inequality
Basic income is the only way to break this cycle perhaps?
magicfractal··on Handpose is a palm detector and a hand-skeleton finger tracker
Couldn’t find source code for the model training or the dataset, is it available?
magicfractal··on My Experience at Apple
it’s very sad, this is clearly someone that has suffered a lot of trauma and abuse and feels completely powerless. Imo, we’re seeing what the US immigration system does to folks, all labor protection laws are useless if you have one month to leave the country after losing your job.

My heart goes to you anon! Don’t think that your career is over! There’s many other places in the world you can start afresh and have great quality of living and better protections such as Europe and Canada.

magicfractal··on Coronavirus: Spain to keep registry of those who refuse Covid vaccine
Thanks for bringing this up btw, it’s a very interesting topic I hadn’t thought about.

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

magicfractal··on Coronavirus: Spain to keep registry of those who refuse Covid vaccine
And they would be indeed under no such obligation (their body, their choice) but if the worst happens it would be their responsibility.
magicfractal··on Coronavirus: Spain to keep registry of those who refuse Covid vaccine
I don’t agree with that (in fact, that specific case is a crime similar to physical aggression in the country where I live).
magicfractal··on Coronavirus: Spain to keep registry of those who refuse Covid vaccine
Right, I’m assuming that covid, like most diseases, won’t be transmissible after the vaccine.

You’re also assuming that everyone will take the vaccine at the same moment in time, which won’t be true. Also, some people won’t be vaccinated on a first moment such as pregnant women.

I think the whole point is responsibility, going to a concrete example: let’s say I have the chance and refuse to take the vaccine, then I pass covid to a pregnant women which comes to pass away. How wouldn’t that event not be 100% my responsibility?

magicfractal··on Coronavirus: Spain to keep registry of those who refuse Covid vaccine
On mcdonalds, the only damage is to oneself (not others) so should be fine.

On carbon/pollution is much harder to show a direct cause and effect between one’s actions and harm done to another individual. But it seems logical to me that i when/if zero-carbon were to become a serious thing there should be some kind of enforcement framework around it (like smog inspections we have right now but hopefully more effective...)

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