Architeuthis

joined 2 years ago
[–] Architeuthis@awful.systems 8 points 3 days ago

woo takes about quantum mechanics and the power of self-affirmation

In retrospect it's pretty obvious this was central to his character: he couldn't accept he got hella lucky with dilbert happening to hit pop culture square in the zeitgeist, so he had to adjust his worldview into him being a master wizard that can bend reality to his will, and also everyone else is really stupid for not doing so too, except, it turned out, Trump.

From what I gather there's also a lot of the rationalist high intelligence is being able to manipulate others bordering on mind control ethos in his fiction writing,

[–] Architeuthis@awful.systems 3 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

There’s no good reason for male circumcision

Supposedly it reduces std transmissions and thus HPV caused cancers, which of course is neither here nor there with respect to doing it to people who can't meaningfully consent, and also there are non surgical alternatives like condoms and hpv vaccines.

Female circumcision is usually butchery and completely indefensible.

[–] Architeuthis@awful.systems 5 points 1 week ago

https://archive.is/20260109131721/https://www.theverge.com/news/859309/grok-undressing-limit-access-gaslighting

Turns out even the paywalling is fake since you can still do the edits by accessing grok from other parts of the interface like context menus, you just can't outright ask it in a tweet.

[–] Architeuthis@awful.systems 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

heads up I heavily edited the post while you were responding though I don't think the essence changed. I added their reasoning for only allowing image generation for paying subs and expanded the table a bit.

[–] Architeuthis@awful.systems 7 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (4 children)

https://archive.is/20260109080655/https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/jan/09/grok-image-generator-outcry-sexualised-ai-imagery

In response to the outcry image generation is now turned off for non-paying users. Ostensibly it's so people who are not using Grok as god intended can be identified via their subscription information, but I can't help but think it's just Elon explicitly monetizing grok's CSAM capabilities.

Grok subscription tier Free Premium
CSAM Generation - ✔️
Revenge porn generation - ✔️
Create images of women shot and killed - ✔️
[–] Architeuthis@awful.systems 14 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

It's not just the anglo governments dropping the ball, there's also the various app stores who simply won't enforce their own explicit rules and ban the Grok app, I guess because the notion of accountability for the effects of AI slop must remain unthinkable for as long as possible.

[–] Architeuthis@awful.systems 11 points 1 week ago

If the great AI swindle has taught us anything, is that what's good for normal people isn't really important when all the macro-economic incentives point the other way and towards the pockets of the ultra rich.

As of April 2025, only 17% of Americans thought AI would have a positive effect on the US over the next 20 years. Only 23% thought AI would be positive for how people do their jobs.

robert anton wilson intensifies

[–] Architeuthis@awful.systems 5 points 1 month ago

OpenAi yearly payroll runs in the billions, so they probably aren't hurting.

That Almsost AGI is short for Actually Bob and Vicky seems like quite the embarrassment, however.

[–] Architeuthis@awful.systems 6 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Apparently you can ask gpt-5.2 to make you a zip of /home/oai and it will just do it:

https://old.reddit.com/r/OpenAI/comments/1pmb5n0/i_dug_deeper_into_the_openai_file_dump_its_not/

An important takeaway I think is that instead of Actually Indian it's more like Actually a series rushed scriptjobs - they seem to be trying hard to not let the llm do technical work itself.

Also, it seems their sandboxing amounts to filtering paths that star with /.

[–] Architeuthis@awful.systems 12 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Very good read actually.

Except, from the epilogue:

People are working to resolve [intelligence heritability issue] with new techniques and meta-arguments. As far as I understand, the frontline seems to be stabilizing around the 30-50% range. Sasha Gusev argues for the lower end of that band, but not everyone agrees.

The not-everyone-agrees link is to acx and siskind's take on the matter, who unfortunately seems to continue to fly under the radar as a disingenuous eugenicist shitweasel with a long-term project of using his platform to sane-wash gutter racists who pretend at doing science.

[–] Architeuthis@awful.systems 7 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

Hyperstition is such a bad neologism, apparently doubleplus superstition equals self-fullfilling prophecy (transitive)? They don't even bother to verb it properly... Nick Land got a nonsense word stuck in his head and now there's a whole subculture of midwit thought leader wannabes parroting that shit.

[–] Architeuthis@awful.systems 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Additionally he said something to the effect of I don't blame you for not knowing this, it wasn't effectively communicated to the media like it's no big deal, which isn't really helping to beat the allegations of don't ask don't tell policies about SA in rat related orgs.

 

The guests:

[Dick Gay], who had flown in for the event from Los Angeles and said he was one of the investors of Sperm Racing (which is an actual thing wherein men compete to see whose sperm is “fastest” under a microscope), said he attended the University of Austin, or UATX, an “anti-woke” college reportedly partially funded by Thiel, and built his career around the principles outlined in Thiel’s book “Zero to One.”

Attendee Justin Park said he just wanted to pitch Thiel on putting a 7.5-foot cross on the moon.

[Unnamed], who was in his 30s, said he wasn’t a Thiel fan until last year, when he became a Trump supporter after seeing the president survive an assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania. “I misunderstood [Thiel],” he said. “I used to watch CNN and think he’s a Nazi.” Now, he said, he understands the billionaire is talking about something bigger.

The Speech:

Apparently it was both repetitive and mostly a rehash of what he's said in other media.

Yud is the Antichrist confirmed:

One attendee recalled that Thiel’s discussion of the Antichrist was more about a scenario than an individual. Thiel’s Antichrist scenario is one in which a unified government suppresses technology to impose order, or armageddon, wherein AI takes over and ushers in the end of the world.

 

Supposedly government contracts will now be awarded according to what the bot says. Government (fourth term for the current prime minister) didn't elaborate on what's going on with human oversight.

This is a promotion for Diella the bot, who was originally the chatbot helping to navigate the e-Albania digital government platform.

 

Sam Altman, the recently fired (and rehired) chief executive of Open AI, was asked earlier this year by his fellow tech billionaire Patrick Collison what he thought of the risks of synthetic biology. ‘I would like to not have another synthetic pathogen cause a global pandemic. I think we can all agree that wasn’t a great experience,’ he replied. ‘Wasn’t that bad compared to what it could have been, but I’m surprised there has not been more global coordination and I think we should have more of that.’

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