[-] turdas@suppo.fi 2 points 3 hours ago

By consciousness being an illusion I mean that we place great value on the uninterrupted continuation of our consciousness, but I think it's likely that it (exactly as you suggest) only really exists in the moment. The illusion would then be the illusion that consciousness is uninterrupted, when in reality you're almost constantly recreating yourself from memory.

This would, incidentally, make us concerningly similar to current AI models.

Of course I have no way of actually knowing any of this. It's just what I'm betting on, because otherwise I think it's really hard to explain any unconsciousness (be it sleep, general anesthesia, suspended animation or the Star Trek transporter) as anything short of death. My belief "solves" this problem by rejecting the whole premise of uninterrupted consciousness.

[-] turdas@suppo.fi 3 points 4 hours ago

Seems like an "evil" and dangerous talking point. To me, the value of consciousness isn't in ita evolutionary efficiency.

It's not a question of the value of consciousness, it's a question of its necessity. If an unconscious "zombie" can be, to an external observer, indistinguishable from a conscious being, then that means we've been overestimating the importance of consciousness for intelligence. Like Dawkins says in the article, there could be unconscious aliens out there who are nonetheless as intelligent as (or more intelligent than) humans. This isn't a new concept -- it's been explored many times in scifi -- but AI is now bringing the question from the realm of philosophy to the real world.

I know people working in AI insist otherwise but I see talking with LLM not as them thinking, but as them selecting the right combination of data that correctly continues a conversation.

This is less true than it ever was with reasoning models. Some of the latest reasoning models don't necessarily even reason in English anymore but rather an eclectic mix of languages. The next step after that is probably going to be running the reasoning in latent space (see e.g. Coconut), which basically means the model skips the language generation layer altogether and feeds lower-level state back into itself. Basically it is getting closer and closer to what most humans consider "thinking".

But even besides reasoning models, I believe LLMs aren't as different from human language production as many people think. The human speech centre, in a way, also just selects the right combination of data to continue a conversation. It frequently even hallucinates (we call this "speaking before thinking") and makes stupid mistakes (we provoke these with trick questions like those on the Cognitive Reflection Test). There's also some fascinating experiments in people who have had the connection between their brain hemispheres severed that really suggest our speech centre is just making things up as it goes along.

[-] turdas@suppo.fi 1 points 6 hours ago

I don't see why there would be any fundamental difference between analog and digital computing. Digital computers can emulate analog computing, and I doubt consciousness arises from having theoretically infinite decimal precision, because in practice analog systems cannot use infinite precision either. Analogs (heh!) of the halting problem and the theorems you mention also exist for analog computing.

Quantum effects in the brain are a slightly more plausible explanation for consciousness, but currently they teeter on magical thinking because we don't really know anything about what they would actually do in the brain. It becomes an "a wizard did it" explanation.

So in the end, we just don't know.

[-] turdas@suppo.fi 4 points 8 hours ago

Personally I'm in the "consciousness is an illusion and every time you go to bed a different person wakes up in the morning" camp.

[-] turdas@suppo.fi 50 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago)

The actual article isn't nearly as stupid as the tweet makes it seem. I recommend giving it a read. It's behind a shitty paywall, but if you use Firefox's reader mode (Ctrl-Alt-R, or the little papper icon to the right side of the address bar) as soon as the page loads, you can read it.

His argument is basically that LLMs are able to do things we previously thought only conscious beings would be capable of doing, and so, if they aren't conscious, then perhaps consciousness isn't as important as we thought it was:

Brains under natural selection have evolved this astonishing and elaborate faculty we call consciousness. It should confer some survival advantage. There should exist some competence which could only be possessed by a conscious being. My conversations with several Claudes and ChatGPTs have convinced me that these intelligent beings are at least as competent as any evolved organism. If Claudia really is unconscious, then her manifest and versatile competence seems to show that a competent zombie could survive very well without consciousness.

Why did consciousness appear in the evolution of brains? Why wasn’t natural selection content to evolve competent zombies? I can think of three possible answers.

Some people will surely contest his claim that LLMs are as competent as evolved organisms. There's definitely a bit of AI boomerism at play here (we have benchmarks that show just how incompetent LLMs can be), but I don't think that invalidates his point, because LLMs can be very competent in the domains they're trained to be competent in -- they just aren't AGI.

[-] turdas@suppo.fi 2 points 21 hours ago

Do you mean Vaultwarden? AFAICS they do not "settle" on it, but they do argue that it is much lighter in almost every respect. And since it is Bitwarden compatible the comparison is valid.

I don't know which one I mean, because OP never says which SaaS password manager they switch to, they simply say they switch to a proprietary SaaS password manager:

For group A I’m going with a SaaS password manager that offers proper vault sharing, integrates with the tools clients actually use (SSO, browser extensions on corporate machines, audit logs), and takes the hosting burden off my plate. The platform is proprietary, which I would normally not be thrilled about, but given that the scope of this group is client work only, I’m accepting the trade-off.

[-] turdas@suppo.fi 82 points 1 day ago

My review of your post: you need to stop using so much emphasis on everything. Not every instance of the word Bitwarden needs to be italicized. Also five different ways of storing passwords sounds insane, and harping on for a dozen paragraphs about Bitwarden's security incidents only to settle on another SaaS password manager sure is a choice.

[-] turdas@suppo.fi 2 points 1 day ago
[-] turdas@suppo.fi 36 points 3 days ago

With one simple trick she could make 10x more on PornHub, but this would reduce the YouTube income to $0.

[-] turdas@suppo.fi 9 points 3 days ago

Yeah particularly with ADHD I feel like many diagnoses are really "incompatible with wageslaving for 40 hours a week" rather than a condition that would, in a vacuum, affect the patient's quality of life.

Of course many ADHD patients do have real issues with their quality of life even outside of societal obligations (read: work, studies) in the form of e.g. not getting chores done, but as a former "problem child" who nearly had this forced on him back in the day, I firmly believe that there's a lot of pressure from the school system to get kids on meds just so they'll sit pretty in class even though the real problem lies in the system.

[-] turdas@suppo.fi 10 points 3 days ago

I don't know about autism, but there is definitely some of that going on with ADHD for which medical treatment is much more common than for autism.

Autism patients do get prescription meds too, not for autism per se but for the various associated comorbidities (depression, anxiety, sleep meds, etc.). That's all fine and good when there's a genuine need for them; the problem is that big pharma has a business interest in making the barrier of prescription as low as possible.

[-] turdas@suppo.fi 31 points 3 days ago

Unpopular opinion in these circles I'm sure, but:

The US (and the west in general, but especially the US) has a genuine problem with overmedicalization, driven in no small part by for-profit pharmaceutical companies having a financial incentive to sell medication and treatments to people. Part of fixing this problem involves admitting that it also affects autism, ADHD, OCD, etc. diagnoses, and that saying this is not erasure of people affected by those conditions.

Another unpopular opinion: making a medical condition part of your identity is generally not healthy, and if you're upset about an "anti-autism diagnosis campaign", there is a chance you have made a medical condition part of your identity.

I say this as someone with a childhood Asperger's diagnosis who would no longer qualify for any kind of diagnosis.

8
submitted 1 week ago by turdas@suppo.fi to c/suomi@sopuli.xyz

Rosatomin perutun voimalan tilalle kaavaillaan tällaista. Otsikko sai jotenkin katsomaan kahdesti (joka luultavasti oli Ilta-Pulun pyrkimys), mutta tietenkinhän tuossa vain tarkoitetaan amerikkalaisen yhtiön (Westinghousen) rakentamaa voimalaa.

Ydinvoima on Suomessa toiminut tosi hyvin. Pääasiassa ydin- ja tuulivoiman ansiosta olemme nykyään 89-prosenttisesti hiilivapaita:

21
submitted 2 weeks ago by turdas@suppo.fi to c/finland@sopuli.xyz

The nearly 1,200-metre bridge is said to be the longest bridge in the world that will exclusively serve pedestrians, cyclists and trams.

552
submitted 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) by turdas@suppo.fi to c/fuckcars@lemmy.world

The nearly 1,200-metre bridge is said to be the longest bridge in the world that will exclusively serve pedestrians, cyclists and trams.

22

Not sure how credible this is, but it seems more credible than that Finnish company's claims. This one comes from an established battery manufacturer and according to the article the cells have survived puncture tests etc. already.


After achieving a breakthrough earlier this week, Greater Bay Technology said it aims to launch the world’s first mass-producible all-solid-state battery this year.

China ramps up solid-state EV battery production

Greater Bay Technology (GBT) is a battery manufacturer backed by China’s GAC Group. The battery startup focuses on developing ultra-fast charging and solid-state batteries.

It even set the world record for the “fastest charging technology for electric vehicles” in 2024 with its Extreme Fast Charging (XFC) batteries, which recharged from 0% to 80% in just 7.5 minutes.

On Monday, the company announced it had hit another major milestone, with its first A-sample all-solid-state battery cells rolling off the production line.

The A-sample battery cells contain no liquid electrolyte and successfully passed needle penetration, extrusion, and thermal shock tests without a fire or explosion.

GBT said the breakthrough enables all-solid-state EV batteries to move from the lab to industrialization as it aims to begin mass production in 2026. According to Chinese news outlet, NE-Time, GBT aims to launch the “world’s first mass-producible all-solid-state battery” with GWh-level mass production and in-vehicle use by 2026.

The new tech overcomes the hurdles that have prevented all-solid-state batteries from hitting the mass market with a new organic-inorganic composite ESC all-solid-state electrolyte system.

GBT’s battery tech has already been reviewed and is receiving support from China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC).

With a single cell energy density of 260-500 Wh/kg, considerably higher than traditional liquid lithium-ion batteries, the cells enable a longer driving range, faster charging, and more interior space.

The new tech enables stable 2-3C fast charging, which has been another major barrier for solid-state EV batteries. It also showed minimal cycle-life degradation during long-term, repeated charge-and-discharge cycles.

17

Not sure how credible this is, but it seems more credible than that Finnish company's claims. This one comes from an established battery manufacturer and according to the article the cells have survived puncture tests etc. already.


After achieving a breakthrough earlier this week, Greater Bay Technology said it aims to launch the world’s first mass-producible all-solid-state battery this year.

China ramps up solid-state EV battery production

Greater Bay Technology (GBT) is a battery manufacturer backed by China’s GAC Group. The battery startup focuses on developing ultra-fast charging and solid-state batteries.

It even set the world record for the “fastest charging technology for electric vehicles” in 2024 with its Extreme Fast Charging (XFC) batteries, which recharged from 0% to 80% in just 7.5 minutes.

On Monday, the company announced it had hit another major milestone, with its first A-sample all-solid-state battery cells rolling off the production line.

The A-sample battery cells contain no liquid electrolyte and successfully passed needle penetration, extrusion, and thermal shock tests without a fire or explosion.

GBT said the breakthrough enables all-solid-state EV batteries to move from the lab to industrialization as it aims to begin mass production in 2026. According to Chinese news outlet, NE-Time, GBT aims to launch the “world’s first mass-producible all-solid-state battery” with GWh-level mass production and in-vehicle use by 2026.

The new tech overcomes the hurdles that have prevented all-solid-state batteries from hitting the mass market with a new organic-inorganic composite ESC all-solid-state electrolyte system.

GBT’s battery tech has already been reviewed and is receiving support from China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC).

With a single cell energy density of 260-500 Wh/kg, considerably higher than traditional liquid lithium-ion batteries, the cells enable a longer driving range, faster charging, and more interior space.

The new tech enables stable 2-3C fast charging, which has been another major barrier for solid-state EV batteries. It also showed minimal cycle-life degradation during long-term, repeated charge-and-discharge cycles.

25
submitted 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) by turdas@suppo.fi to c/suomi@sopuli.xyz

Minua on aina ärsyttänyt lähes kesäajan vertaisesti se, että Suomessa seurataan EET-aikavyöhykettä Keski-Euroopan CET-vyöhykkeen sijaan. Läntisessä Suomessa, jossa valtaosa suomalaisista asuu, CET kun vastaa maantieteellistä sijaintiamme käytännössä yhtä hyvin, mutta olisi EU-yhteistyön kannalta paljon parempi. Toisaalta myöskään EET:stä ei meille ole mitään hyötyä nyt, kun Venäjän kanssa ei tulla pitkään aikaan tekemään yhteistyötä.

Tutkimustiedon valossa vaikuttaa myös siltä, että on terveyden kannalta parempi elää aikavyöhykkeen keskikohdan itä- kuin länsipuolella. Tällöin kellot ovat hieman Aurinkoa jäljessä, joka helpottaa illalla nukahtamista ja aamulla heräämistä (eli vaikutus on päinvastainen kuin kesäajalla).

Nyt kun kelloja taas käännettiin, innostuin tekemään aiheesta tällaisen ruohonjuuriaktivistisen tiedoteverkkosivun. Sivulla on karttoja, ytimekästä tietoa ja laskuri, joka näyttää eri kaupungeille paljonko kellon oikeasti niissä pitäisi olla.

98
submitted 3 months ago by turdas@suppo.fi to c/energy@slrpnk.net

Interesting video by Hank Green about all the ways coal is bad, addressing many of the false claims of the coal lobby.

33
submitted 5 months ago by turdas@suppo.fi to c/games@lemmy.world
13

(0) Read the official Microsoft support guide, because otherwise you will never succeed.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-GB/office/change-sharepoint-online-language-settings-0f6a477a-dcab-4462-9d0c-e3b53d138183

Note that the UIs in the following steps may be in a language that you do not speak, but the support guide will naturally refer to the English localization. If you need the localized names of the UI elements, the guide is available in multiple languages. Unfortunately this will change the language of the entire guide, which may make it difficult to understand the steps themselves.

(1) Click on your profile circle in the top right and then click on this link.

(2) On the new page that opens, click this button.

(3) In the modal pop-up, click this unassuming one-word link in the bottom left.

(The link translates to "You can add more profile information here.")

(4) On the new page that opens, click on the ellipsis button to show the hidden items of the horizontal navigation.

(5) Select "Language and region".

(6) Add your preferred language using the drop-down box and move it to the top of the list using the little arrows.

(7) IMPORTANT! Don't forget to scroll to the bottom and click on "Save all and close"!

(8) Click "OK" on this pop-up.

(9) You're done and will be navigated back to the page from step 2!

Hope you didn't want to change any other settings here.

Oh, and the page from step 2 will still be in the original language. Don't worry, the pop-up dialog assured us it will change soon. Word may also still be in the original language, but should change sooner than the page from step 2 (I am still waiting on that one).

12
submitted 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) by turdas@suppo.fi to c/energy@slrpnk.net

A long and detailed YouTube video by Kyle Hill about how an outdated principle of "there is no safe level of ionizing radiation" still pervades nuclear and radiation policy in spite of continuously mounting scientific evidence to the contrary, contributing to unnecessarily great caution with things like medical imaging, and to negative public perception and panic regarding nuclear power.

The TL;DW is that there is a mountain of evidence that small doses of radiation are harmless due to the body's natural defenses and self-repair mechanisms, and in fact according to many studies small doses may in fact reduce the risk of cancer compared to baseline rather than increase it (a phenomenon known as hormesis).

2
submitted 10 months ago by turdas@suppo.fi to c/main@suppo.fi

Onko vika vaan minun päässä, kun aika monessa uutispostauksessa esim. suomi@sopuli.xyz:ssa ei näy uutisen otsikkoa? Jos avaa Sopulin kautta osoitteesta https://sopuli.xyz/c/suomi niin niissä näkyy. Kuva alla.

1
submitted 2 years ago by turdas@suppo.fi to c/main@suppo.fi

Tämä uuden UI:n viestieditori jokseenkin ärsyttävästi syö koneellani useita ctrl-pikanäppäimiä tekstiasettelua varten. Olen huomannut että esim. seuraavat tulevat syödyksi:

  • Ctrl-C tekee kursiivia
  • Ctrl-X tekee boldia
  • Ctrl-Shift-T luo linkin

Käytän Dvorak-näppäimistöasettelua ja huomasin, että Ctrl-C sijainniltaan vastaisi QWERTY-näppäimistöllä Ctrl-i:tä (italics) ja Ctrl-X Ctrl-B:tä (bold). Eli ilmeisesti nämä on vaan määritelty näppäimistösijaintien mukaan eikä sen mukaan, mikä merkki näppäimessä on.

En löytänyt mistään tapaa kytkeä näitä pois päältä. Olenko vain huono etsimään vai täytyykö asiasta mennä nillittämään editorin kehittäjälle? Mistä kehittäjä voisi löytyä?

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turdas

joined 2 years ago