Skip to content
0
  • Home
  • Recent
  • Tags
  • Popular
  • World
  • Users
  • Groups
  • Home
  • Recent
  • Tags
  • Popular
  • World
  • Users
  • Groups
Skins
  • Light
  • Brite
  • Cerulean
  • Cosmo
  • Flatly
  • Journal
  • Litera
  • Lumen
  • Lux
  • Materia
  • Minty
  • Morph
  • Pulse
  • Sandstone
  • Simplex
  • Sketchy
  • Spacelab
  • United
  • Yeti
  • Zephyr
  • Dark
  • Cyborg
  • Darkly
  • Quartz
  • Slate
  • Solar
  • Superhero
  • Vapor

  • Default (Sketchy)
  • No Skin
Collapse

Wandering Adventure Party

  1. Home
  2. TechTakes
  3. Stubsack: weekly thread for sneers not worth an entire post, week ending 1st February 2026

Stubsack: weekly thread for sneers not worth an entire post, week ending 1st February 2026

Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved TechTakes
techtakes
209 Posts 47 Posters 0 Views
  • Oldest to Newest
  • Newest to Oldest
  • Most Votes
Reply
  • Reply as topic
Log in to reply
This topic has been deleted. Only users with topic management privileges can see it.
  • B bluemonday1984@awful.systems

    Want to wade into the snowy surf of the abyss? Have a sneer percolating in your system but not enough time/energy to make a whole post about it? Go forth and be mid.

    Welcome to the Stubsack, your first port of call for learning fresh Awful you’ll near-instantly regret.

    Any awful.systems sub may be subsneered in this subthread, techtakes or no.

    If your sneer seems higher quality than you thought, feel free to cut’n’paste it into its own post — there’s no quota for posting and the bar really isn’t that high.

    The post Xitter web has spawned so many “esoteric” right wing freaks, but there’s no appropriate sneer-space for them. I’m talking redscare-ish, reality challenged “culture critics” who write about everything but understand nothing. I’m talking about reply-guys who make the same 6 tweets about the same 3 subjects. They’re inescapable at this point, yet I don’t see them mocked (as much as they should be)

    Like, there was one dude a while back who insisted that women couldn’t be surgeons because they didn’t believe in the moon or in stars? I think each and every one of these guys is uniquely fucked up and if I can’t escape them, I would love to sneer at them.

    (Credit and/or blame to David Gerard for starting this. What a year, huh?)

    M This user is from outside of this forum
    M This user is from outside of this forum
    mirrorwitch@awful.systems
    wrote on last edited by
    #36

    I gave the new ChatGPT Health access to 29 million steps and 6 million heartbeat measurements [“a decade of my Apple Watch data”]. It drew questionable conclusions that changed each time I asked.

    WaPo. Paywalled but I like how everything I need to know is already in the blurb above.

    T 1 Reply Last reply
    0
    • B bluemonday1984@awful.systems

      Want to wade into the snowy surf of the abyss? Have a sneer percolating in your system but not enough time/energy to make a whole post about it? Go forth and be mid.

      Welcome to the Stubsack, your first port of call for learning fresh Awful you’ll near-instantly regret.

      Any awful.systems sub may be subsneered in this subthread, techtakes or no.

      If your sneer seems higher quality than you thought, feel free to cut’n’paste it into its own post — there’s no quota for posting and the bar really isn’t that high.

      The post Xitter web has spawned so many “esoteric” right wing freaks, but there’s no appropriate sneer-space for them. I’m talking redscare-ish, reality challenged “culture critics” who write about everything but understand nothing. I’m talking about reply-guys who make the same 6 tweets about the same 3 subjects. They’re inescapable at this point, yet I don’t see them mocked (as much as they should be)

      Like, there was one dude a while back who insisted that women couldn’t be surgeons because they didn’t believe in the moon or in stars? I think each and every one of these guys is uniquely fucked up and if I can’t escape them, I would love to sneer at them.

      (Credit and/or blame to David Gerard for starting this. What a year, huh?)

      gerikson@awful.systemsG This user is from outside of this forum
      gerikson@awful.systemsG This user is from outside of this forum
      gerikson@awful.systems
      wrote on last edited by
      #37

      enjoy this glorious piece of LW lingo

      Aumann’s agreement is pragmatically wrong. For bounded levels of compute you can’t necessarily converge on the meta level of evidence convergence procedures.

      src

      no I don’t know what it means, and I don’t want it to be explained to me. Just let me bask in its inscrutibility.

      flere-imsahoM I M nightsky@awful.systemsN S 6 Replies Last reply
      0
      • gerikson@awful.systemsG gerikson@awful.systems

        enjoy this glorious piece of LW lingo

        Aumann’s agreement is pragmatically wrong. For bounded levels of compute you can’t necessarily converge on the meta level of evidence convergence procedures.

        src

        no I don’t know what it means, and I don’t want it to be explained to me. Just let me bask in its inscrutibility.

        flere-imsahoM This user is from outside of this forum
        flere-imsahoM This user is from outside of this forum
        flere-imsaho
        wrote last edited by
        #38

        retains the same informational content after running through rot13

        1 Reply Last reply
        0
        • gerikson@awful.systemsG gerikson@awful.systems

          enjoy this glorious piece of LW lingo

          Aumann’s agreement is pragmatically wrong. For bounded levels of compute you can’t necessarily converge on the meta level of evidence convergence procedures.

          src

          no I don’t know what it means, and I don’t want it to be explained to me. Just let me bask in its inscrutibility.

          I This user is from outside of this forum
          I This user is from outside of this forum
          istewart@awful.systems
          wrote last edited by
          #39

          oh man, it’s Aumann’s

          1 Reply Last reply
          0
          • gerikson@awful.systemsG gerikson@awful.systems

            enjoy this glorious piece of LW lingo

            Aumann’s agreement is pragmatically wrong. For bounded levels of compute you can’t necessarily converge on the meta level of evidence convergence procedures.

            src

            no I don’t know what it means, and I don’t want it to be explained to me. Just let me bask in its inscrutibility.

            M This user is from outside of this forum
            M This user is from outside of this forum
            mirrorwitch@awful.systems
            wrote last edited by
            #40

            this sounds exactly like the sentence right before “they have played us for absolute fools!” in that meme.

            1 Reply Last reply
            0
            • gerikson@awful.systemsG gerikson@awful.systems

              enjoy this glorious piece of LW lingo

              Aumann’s agreement is pragmatically wrong. For bounded levels of compute you can’t necessarily converge on the meta level of evidence convergence procedures.

              src

              no I don’t know what it means, and I don’t want it to be explained to me. Just let me bask in its inscrutibility.

              nightsky@awful.systemsN This user is from outside of this forum
              nightsky@awful.systemsN This user is from outside of this forum
              nightsky@awful.systems
              wrote last edited by
              #41

              Are you trying to say that you are not regularly thinking about the meta level of evidence convergence procedures?

              1 Reply Last reply
              0
              • gerikson@awful.systemsG gerikson@awful.systems

                enjoy this glorious piece of LW lingo

                Aumann’s agreement is pragmatically wrong. For bounded levels of compute you can’t necessarily converge on the meta level of evidence convergence procedures.

                src

                no I don’t know what it means, and I don’t want it to be explained to me. Just let me bask in its inscrutibility.

                S This user is from outside of this forum
                S This user is from outside of this forum
                soyweiser@awful.systems
                wrote last edited by
                #42

                Tbh, this is pretty convincing, I agree a lot more with parts of the LW space now. (Just look at the title, the content isn’t that interesting).

                sc_griffith@awful.systemsS 1 Reply Last reply
                0
                • M mirrorwitch@awful.systems

                  I gave the new ChatGPT Health access to 29 million steps and 6 million heartbeat measurements [“a decade of my Apple Watch data”]. It drew questionable conclusions that changed each time I asked.

                  WaPo. Paywalled but I like how everything I need to know is already in the blurb above.

                  T This user is from outside of this forum
                  T This user is from outside of this forum
                  trashgoblin@awful.systems
                  wrote last edited by
                  #43

                  Archive link, but you can extrapolate the whole article from the blurb. Mostly. It’s actually slightly worse than the blurb suggests.

                  1 Reply Last reply
                  0
                  • gerikson@awful.systemsG gerikson@awful.systems

                    enjoy this glorious piece of LW lingo

                    Aumann’s agreement is pragmatically wrong. For bounded levels of compute you can’t necessarily converge on the meta level of evidence convergence procedures.

                    src

                    no I don’t know what it means, and I don’t want it to be explained to me. Just let me bask in its inscrutibility.

                    L This user is from outside of this forum
                    L This user is from outside of this forum
                    lagrangeinterpolator@awful.systems
                    wrote last edited by
                    #44

                    The sad thing is I have some idea of what it’s trying to say. One of the many weird habits of the Rationalists is that they fixate on a few obscure mathematical theorems and then come up with their own ideas of what these theorems really mean. Their interpretations may be only loosely inspired by the actual statements of the theorems, but it does feel real good when your ideas feel as solid as math.

                    One of these theorems is Aumann’s agreement theorem. I don’t know what the actual theorem says, but the LW interpretation is that any two “rational” people must eventually agree on every issue after enough discussion, whatever rational means. So if you disagree with any LW principles, you just haven’t read enough 20k word blog posts. Unfortunately, most people with “bounded levels of compute” ain’t got the time, so they can’t necessarily converge on the meta level of, never mind, screw this, I’m not explaining this shit. I don’t want to figure this out anymore.

                    blakestacey@awful.systemsB C 2 Replies Last reply
                    0
                    • L lagrangeinterpolator@awful.systems

                      The sad thing is I have some idea of what it’s trying to say. One of the many weird habits of the Rationalists is that they fixate on a few obscure mathematical theorems and then come up with their own ideas of what these theorems really mean. Their interpretations may be only loosely inspired by the actual statements of the theorems, but it does feel real good when your ideas feel as solid as math.

                      One of these theorems is Aumann’s agreement theorem. I don’t know what the actual theorem says, but the LW interpretation is that any two “rational” people must eventually agree on every issue after enough discussion, whatever rational means. So if you disagree with any LW principles, you just haven’t read enough 20k word blog posts. Unfortunately, most people with “bounded levels of compute” ain’t got the time, so they can’t necessarily converge on the meta level of, never mind, screw this, I’m not explaining this shit. I don’t want to figure this out anymore.

                      blakestacey@awful.systemsB This user is from outside of this forum
                      blakestacey@awful.systemsB This user is from outside of this forum
                      blakestacey@awful.systems
                      wrote last edited by
                      #45

                      The Wikipedia article is cursed

                      zogwarg@awful.systemsZ L sc_griffith@awful.systemsS 3 Replies Last reply
                      0
                      • B bluemonday1984@awful.systems

                        Want to wade into the snowy surf of the abyss? Have a sneer percolating in your system but not enough time/energy to make a whole post about it? Go forth and be mid.

                        Welcome to the Stubsack, your first port of call for learning fresh Awful you’ll near-instantly regret.

                        Any awful.systems sub may be subsneered in this subthread, techtakes or no.

                        If your sneer seems higher quality than you thought, feel free to cut’n’paste it into its own post — there’s no quota for posting and the bar really isn’t that high.

                        The post Xitter web has spawned so many “esoteric” right wing freaks, but there’s no appropriate sneer-space for them. I’m talking redscare-ish, reality challenged “culture critics” who write about everything but understand nothing. I’m talking about reply-guys who make the same 6 tweets about the same 3 subjects. They’re inescapable at this point, yet I don’t see them mocked (as much as they should be)

                        Like, there was one dude a while back who insisted that women couldn’t be surgeons because they didn’t believe in the moon or in stars? I think each and every one of these guys is uniquely fucked up and if I can’t escape them, I would love to sneer at them.

                        (Credit and/or blame to David Gerard for starting this. What a year, huh?)

                        blakestacey@awful.systemsB This user is from outside of this forum
                        blakestacey@awful.systemsB This user is from outside of this forum
                        blakestacey@awful.systems
                        wrote last edited by
                        #46

                        Is Pee Stored in the Balls? Vibe Coding Science with OpenAI’s Prism

                        Link Preview Image
                        Carl T. Bergstrom (@carlbergstrom.com)

                        So initial experiments with Open AI's vibe-coding science tool Prism are going about as well as expected.

                        favicon

                        Bluesky Social (bsky.app)

                        gerikson@awful.systemsG blakestacey@awful.systemsB T 3 Replies Last reply
                        0
                        • blakestacey@awful.systemsB blakestacey@awful.systems

                          Is Pee Stored in the Balls? Vibe Coding Science with OpenAI’s Prism

                          Link Preview Image
                          Carl T. Bergstrom (@carlbergstrom.com)

                          So initial experiments with Open AI's vibe-coding science tool Prism are going about as well as expected.

                          favicon

                          Bluesky Social (bsky.app)

                          gerikson@awful.systemsG This user is from outside of this forum
                          gerikson@awful.systemsG This user is from outside of this forum
                          gerikson@awful.systems
                          wrote last edited by
                          #47

                          Ow! My Balls

                          1 Reply Last reply
                          0
                          • C cinnasverses@awful.systems

                            A few people in LessWrong and Effectlve Altruism seem to want Yud to stick in the background while they get on with organizing his teachings into doctrine, dumping the awkward ones down the memory hole, and organizing a movement that can last when he goes to the Great Anime Convention in the Sky. In 2022 someone on the EA forum posted On Deference and Yudkowsky’s AI Risk Estimates (ie. “Yud has been bad at predictions in the past so we should be skeptical of his predictions today”)

                            L This user is from outside of this forum
                            L This user is from outside of this forum
                            lurker@awful.systems
                            wrote last edited by
                            #48

                            that post got way funnier with Eliezer’s recent twitter post about “EAs developing more complex opinions on AI other than itll kill everyone is a net negative and cancelled out all the good they ever did”

                            Y 1 Reply Last reply
                            0
                            • blakestacey@awful.systemsB blakestacey@awful.systems

                              Is Pee Stored in the Balls? Vibe Coding Science with OpenAI’s Prism

                              Link Preview Image
                              Carl T. Bergstrom (@carlbergstrom.com)

                              So initial experiments with Open AI's vibe-coding science tool Prism are going about as well as expected.

                              favicon

                              Bluesky Social (bsky.app)

                              blakestacey@awful.systemsB This user is from outside of this forum
                              blakestacey@awful.systemsB This user is from outside of this forum
                              blakestacey@awful.systems
                              wrote last edited by
                              #49

                              Chris Lintott (@chrislintott.bsky.social‬):

                              We’re getting so many journal submissions from people who think ‘it kinda works’ is the standard to aim for.

                              Research Notes of the AAS in particular, which was set up to handle short, moderated contributions especially from students, is getting swamped. Often the authors clearly haven’t read what they’ve submitting, (Descriptions of figures that don’t exist or don’t show what they purport to)

                              I’m also getting wild swings in topic. A rejection of one paper will instantly generate a submission of another, usually on something quite different.

                              Many of these submissions are dense with equations and pseudo-technological language which makes it hard to give rapid, useful feedback. And when I do give feedback, often I get back whatever their LLM says.

                              Including the very LLM responses like ‘Oh yes, I see that <thing that was fundamental to the argument> is wrong, I’ve removed it. Here’s something else’

                              Research Notes is free to publish in and I think provides a very valuable service to the community. But I think we’re a month or two from being completely swamped.

                              B E flere-imsahoM 3 Replies Last reply
                              0
                              • blakestacey@awful.systemsB blakestacey@awful.systems

                                Chris Lintott (@chrislintott.bsky.social‬):

                                We’re getting so many journal submissions from people who think ‘it kinda works’ is the standard to aim for.

                                Research Notes of the AAS in particular, which was set up to handle short, moderated contributions especially from students, is getting swamped. Often the authors clearly haven’t read what they’ve submitting, (Descriptions of figures that don’t exist or don’t show what they purport to)

                                I’m also getting wild swings in topic. A rejection of one paper will instantly generate a submission of another, usually on something quite different.

                                Many of these submissions are dense with equations and pseudo-technological language which makes it hard to give rapid, useful feedback. And when I do give feedback, often I get back whatever their LLM says.

                                Including the very LLM responses like ‘Oh yes, I see that <thing that was fundamental to the argument> is wrong, I’ve removed it. Here’s something else’

                                Research Notes is free to publish in and I think provides a very valuable service to the community. But I think we’re a month or two from being completely swamped.

                                B This user is from outside of this forum
                                B This user is from outside of this forum
                                bluemonday1984@awful.systems
                                wrote last edited by
                                #50

                                It gets worse:

                                One of the great tragedies of AI and science is that the proliferation of garbage papers and journals is creating pressure to return to more closed systems based on interpersonal connections and established prestige hierarchies that had only recently been opened up somewhat to greater diversity.

                                1 Reply Last reply
                                0
                                • blakestacey@awful.systemsB blakestacey@awful.systems

                                  The Wikipedia article is cursed

                                  zogwarg@awful.systemsZ This user is from outside of this forum
                                  zogwarg@awful.systemsZ This user is from outside of this forum
                                  zogwarg@awful.systems
                                  wrote last edited by
                                  #51

                                  Honestly even the original paper is a bit silly, are all game theory mathematics papers this needlessly farfetched?

                                  1 Reply Last reply
                                  0
                                  • B bluemonday1984@awful.systems

                                    Want to wade into the snowy surf of the abyss? Have a sneer percolating in your system but not enough time/energy to make a whole post about it? Go forth and be mid.

                                    Welcome to the Stubsack, your first port of call for learning fresh Awful you’ll near-instantly regret.

                                    Any awful.systems sub may be subsneered in this subthread, techtakes or no.

                                    If your sneer seems higher quality than you thought, feel free to cut’n’paste it into its own post — there’s no quota for posting and the bar really isn’t that high.

                                    The post Xitter web has spawned so many “esoteric” right wing freaks, but there’s no appropriate sneer-space for them. I’m talking redscare-ish, reality challenged “culture critics” who write about everything but understand nothing. I’m talking about reply-guys who make the same 6 tweets about the same 3 subjects. They’re inescapable at this point, yet I don’t see them mocked (as much as they should be)

                                    Like, there was one dude a while back who insisted that women couldn’t be surgeons because they didn’t believe in the moon or in stars? I think each and every one of these guys is uniquely fucked up and if I can’t escape them, I would love to sneer at them.

                                    (Credit and/or blame to David Gerard for starting this. What a year, huh?)

                                    B This user is from outside of this forum
                                    B This user is from outside of this forum
                                    bluemonday1984@awful.systems
                                    wrote last edited by
                                    #52

                                    New paper popped up in the arXiv about the slop machines’ impact on FOSS

                                    1 Reply Last reply
                                    0
                                    • B bluemonday1984@awful.systems

                                      Want to wade into the snowy surf of the abyss? Have a sneer percolating in your system but not enough time/energy to make a whole post about it? Go forth and be mid.

                                      Welcome to the Stubsack, your first port of call for learning fresh Awful you’ll near-instantly regret.

                                      Any awful.systems sub may be subsneered in this subthread, techtakes or no.

                                      If your sneer seems higher quality than you thought, feel free to cut’n’paste it into its own post — there’s no quota for posting and the bar really isn’t that high.

                                      The post Xitter web has spawned so many “esoteric” right wing freaks, but there’s no appropriate sneer-space for them. I’m talking redscare-ish, reality challenged “culture critics” who write about everything but understand nothing. I’m talking about reply-guys who make the same 6 tweets about the same 3 subjects. They’re inescapable at this point, yet I don’t see them mocked (as much as they should be)

                                      Like, there was one dude a while back who insisted that women couldn’t be surgeons because they didn’t believe in the moon or in stars? I think each and every one of these guys is uniquely fucked up and if I can’t escape them, I would love to sneer at them.

                                      (Credit and/or blame to David Gerard for starting this. What a year, huh?)

                                      C This user is from outside of this forum
                                      C This user is from outside of this forum
                                      corbin@awful.systems
                                      wrote last edited by
                                      #53

                                      Kyle Hill has gone full doomer after reading too much Big Yud and the Yud & Soares book. His latest video is titled “Artificial Superintelligence Must Be Illegal.” Previously, on Awful, he was cozying up to effective altruists and longtermists. He used to have a robotic companion character who would banter with him, but it seems like he’s no longer in that sort of jocular mood; he doesn’t trust his waifu anymore.

                                      E L 2 Replies Last reply
                                      0
                                      • C corbin@awful.systems

                                        Kyle Hill has gone full doomer after reading too much Big Yud and the Yud & Soares book. His latest video is titled “Artificial Superintelligence Must Be Illegal.” Previously, on Awful, he was cozying up to effective altruists and longtermists. He used to have a robotic companion character who would banter with him, but it seems like he’s no longer in that sort of jocular mood; he doesn’t trust his waifu anymore.

                                        E This user is from outside of this forum
                                        E This user is from outside of this forum
                                        evinceo@awful.systems
                                        wrote last edited by
                                        #54

                                        Wasn’t he on YouTube trying to convince people that Nuclear Energy is Fine Actually? Figures.

                                        1 Reply Last reply
                                        0
                                        • blakestacey@awful.systemsB blakestacey@awful.systems

                                          Chris Lintott (@chrislintott.bsky.social‬):

                                          We’re getting so many journal submissions from people who think ‘it kinda works’ is the standard to aim for.

                                          Research Notes of the AAS in particular, which was set up to handle short, moderated contributions especially from students, is getting swamped. Often the authors clearly haven’t read what they’ve submitting, (Descriptions of figures that don’t exist or don’t show what they purport to)

                                          I’m also getting wild swings in topic. A rejection of one paper will instantly generate a submission of another, usually on something quite different.

                                          Many of these submissions are dense with equations and pseudo-technological language which makes it hard to give rapid, useful feedback. And when I do give feedback, often I get back whatever their LLM says.

                                          Including the very LLM responses like ‘Oh yes, I see that <thing that was fundamental to the argument> is wrong, I’ve removed it. Here’s something else’

                                          Research Notes is free to publish in and I think provides a very valuable service to the community. But I think we’re a month or two from being completely swamped.

                                          E This user is from outside of this forum
                                          E This user is from outside of this forum
                                          evinceo@awful.systems
                                          wrote last edited by
                                          #55

                                          people who think ‘it kinda works’ is the standard to aim for

                                          I swear that this is a form of AI psychosis or something because the attitude is suddenly ubiquitous among the AI obsessed.

                                          fullsquare@awful.systemsF 1 Reply Last reply
                                          0

                                          Reply
                                          • Reply as topic
                                          Log in to reply
                                          • Oldest to Newest
                                          • Newest to Oldest
                                          • Most Votes


                                          • Login

                                          • Login or register to search.
                                          Powered by NodeBB Contributors
                                          • First post
                                            Last post