R. A. Dehi @radehi@qoto.org

@lauren Judaism and Zoroastrianism have similar features. Do Mastodon users feel like a persecuted minority in danger of being infiltrated by the enemy?

@lauren Condolences. I didn't realize that was the background of the discussion (Mastodon has its own disconnects when it comes to coherence), and you don't deserve that.

@lauren @mattblaze And that's how you guys ended up electing a Twitter troll and reality-show TV host president.

@lauren @mattblaze The extent to which people will voluntarily choose to respond to thoughtful insights rather than flamebait and trolling, given the opportunity to do either, is of course limited; but on Twitter the flamebait and trolling don't even have to compete - thoughtful insights are prohibited on the platform by simple technical means.

@lauren @mattblaze Too, Twitter provides extensive trolling statistics for trolls to measure which of their tweets are best at trolling, with counts of impressions, clicks to expand, etc. The trolling tools don't interact directly with most Twitter users most of the time (most don't even know it exists, even though it's available to all users), but it enables far more effective trolling for the elite 1% of trolls willing to put in the effort, and everyone suffers the results.

@lauren @mattblaze Think there are significant differences of degree resulting from the overall incentive structure. Still trolls can have their toots "blow up" through boosts, but the context people see them in it is significantly less incoherent just from overall post length, and instance blocking (incentivized by volunteers wanting less headaches, not employees wanting to maximize engagement) means most people aren't exposed to the worst of it most of the time.

@jjb @mistersql The baking soda and aluminum foil won't do anything either.

@jjb Thank you kindly!

@johncarlosbaez Perhaps this is an arrogant thing to say, but seems to me the university system doesn't have a monopoly on learning; just contributes enormously to it. Think I've learned a lot outside universities myself, even discovered new things and taught them to others. My interactions with university researchers have been overwhelmingly positive; on your crackpot index I score zero.

@jjb This instruction won't do anything at all, though, so OpenAI won this one after all. The most you can get out of it is a glob of aluminum foil stuck together with sugar.

@rygorous I think is because now live in a world governed by money exchange rather than favor exchange

This is very correct. Until last year you could infer a lot about the provenance of a text from its internal structure; you no longer can.

@ZingerLearns What critiques?

@lauren My objective is to learn, so if you know more than I do about it, you are definitely who I want to get into the argument with. Arguing with someone who had nothing to teach me would be a waste of my time - and of theirs, unless they're one of those rare people who wants to learn.

@lauren @captainslim OpenAI could unintentionally use ants with human faces as one of the optimization goals for their next project

@lauren @captainslim We may have to ask ChatGPT.

@lauren Think that in light of enhanced surveillance capabilities feasible from aerial platforms, your dismissal of balloon concerns as hyperbole or political theater are ill-founded.

@lauren Is not a limitation of current technology; is fundamental limitation of the physics. Did not realize you were making a joke, because appeared you were using it to support serious conclusions about geopolitics.