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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: July 2nd, 2023

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  • Sure, it’s hard to say whether a computer program can “know” anything or what that even means. But the paper isn’t arguing that. It assumes very little about how how LLMs actually work, and it defines “hallucination” as “not giving the right answer” with no option for the machine to answer “I don’t know”. Then the proof follows basically from the fact that the LLM-or-whatever can’t know everything.

    The result is not very surprising, and saying that it means hallucination is inevitable is an oversell. It’s possible that hallucinations, or at least wrong answers, are inevitable for different reasons though.



  • Yes, but it doesn’t matter, these people don’t read the Bible.

    They do read the Bible though, at least in my experience. I’ve gone to a number of different churches, Evangelical and otherwise, and the Evangelical or otherwise Calvinist folks were the ones that read the Bible the most and in the most detail — but perhaps also the ones who came to horrible conclusions the most often. Like that you should shine the light of Christ into the world by blocking women for promotion at your job, because 1 Tim 2:12 says that Paul does not permit them to have authority over men. (Real example, if possibly the worst one I’ve seen.) Maybe my experience is not representative, but I don’t think the problem is primarily that Evangelicals don’t read the Bible.

    I have a long theory about some of the ways that Evangelicalism distorts Scripture, but one root of the issue is that (IMHO) Scripture was written by humans, reflects the biases of the authors and their societies, and has a lot of horrible things in it. If you take a sola scriptura view and then read it through a lens that’s been cultivated over years to reinforce patriarchy and supremacy (see e.g. Manifest Destiny, the curse of Ham, etc) then you will end up absorbing the genocidal and supremacist bits and not the hospitable and altruistic bits.

    For them, it’s just an excuse to do whatever it is they’re doing.

    For sure. People don’t want to repent. They want to find justifications for what they were already doing, or planning to do.


  • I was having a weird one today so I read through the book of Amos. It’s shockingly similar to the current situation.

    Amos prophesied that Gaza would be destroyed, even genocided, as a reaction to crimes that included kidnapping entire communities. But that’s just an intro to a prophecy that Israel would be violently and mercilessly destroyed in response to a long list of their own crimes.

    I’m not saying that Amos predicted the current situation, just that it’s sad how little we’ve improved in 2500 years.


  • So I wrote a long-ass rundown of this but it won’t post for some reason (too long)? So TLDR: this is a 17,600-word nothingburger.

    DJB is a brilliant, thorough and accomplished cryptographer. He has also spent the past 5 years burning his reputation to the ground, largely by exhaustively arguing for positions that correlate more with his ego than with the truth. Not just this position. It’s been a whole thing.

    DJB’s accusation, that NSA is manipulating this process to promote a weaker outcome, is plausible. They might have! It’s a worrisome possibility! The community must be on guard against it! But his argument that it actually happened is rambling, nitpicky and dishonest, and as far as I can tell the other experts in the community do not agree with it.

    So yes, take NIST’s recommendation for Kyber with a grain of salt. Use Kyber768 + X448 or whatever instead of just Kyber512. But also take DJB’s accusations with a grain of salt.






  • Beep boop.

    Sure, peanut butter and jelly is the classic, unless you grew up listening to Raffi, in which case it’s absolutely made with jam. But to me, jelly just isn’t as tasty as jam, or honey or bananas. And if you take it on a hike it can make the bread soggy. And at home I’d usually rather have meat or cheese in my sandwich. But I still go through a ton of peanut butter for rice cakes. And occasionally for a PB&J, and once in a while for hot pot sauce.

    And Jif tastes weird to me, but you do you.


  • @sleepybisexual, I’m so sorry that you have to go through this terrible situation.

    I agree with the others that counseling could be useful, if you can access it safely. Please take care of your mental and physical health as best you can. I don’t know much about your situation, but it sounds like the kind of thing you can go through and be stronger on the other side. And one of the best ways to help your younger siblings not become bigots is if they can look up to you as they grow up. Once you can safely come out of the closet, they can understand that LGBTQ+ people are people just like them.

    Is there somebody on staff at your school, or a doctor in your area that you can reach out to? There may also be a number you can call in your area. These people are obligated to help you, even if your parents and church disagree.

    It’s a good idea to look into this, but double-check the policies in your area: in particular whether these services are legally required (and socially expected) to maintain confidentiality.


  • Yeah, crêpes seem like the wrong dish.

    As an American, I think that natural peanut butter is delicious in the right context. It goes well on puffed rice cakes, with a little salt if it’s unsalted. It’s good with celery as a snack, and it’s an ingredient in some sauces. It can dry out your mouth, so make sure to drink water too.

    The classic American use is peanut butter sandwiches, optionally with jam. IMHO these are pretty mid, but their main advantage is that they’re energy dense and don’t require refrigeration. So they’re good for hiking, at least if you have enough water.

    Edited to add: also good in cookies, with chocolate, with bananas, and probably some other things I’m forgetting.