Notices by myrmepropagandist (futurebird@sauropods.win), page 5

The most exciting and pivotal moments in research are those times when the results do not meet your expectations.

We live for those moments.

If an LLM is not reliable enough for you to trust unexpected results then it is not reliable enough to tell you anything new: it’s incapable of telling you anything that you don’t at (some level) already know.

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“If the LLM produces a wild result, something that doesn’t meet with my expectations *then* I’ll turn to more reliable sources. I’m not blindly following just anything that says”

People feel that this being a “responsible user of new technology”

I think it actually proves the opposite.
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Polymarket and Kalshi are NOT gambling companies. How could you say that?

I'm literally crying right now. When will the misinformation stop?

Please understand that it can't be gambling if there is a chart like it's the stock market and if there is an app where you can look at the chart before you bet- I mean invest in the prediction market.

Charts and graphs mean that this is science and science can't be gambling.

Hey anyone want to start a "prediction market" for scientific discoveries? Paper publication and peer review results? We could get as rich as sin.

By sinning.

At some point I start feeling foolish for not just giving up and joining the circus. We would need a good lawyer though. Who knows the law around here?

The TI-34 is a fairly basic scientific #calculator. I’m a big fan because it’s easy to use and not overwhelming.

I was reading the manual and discovered it has two functions:

ipart(x)
fpart(x)

These return the integer and fraction parts of x.

ipart(2.34)=2
fpart(2.34)=.34

Great! So, uh.. What are these typically used for? Why include them on such a *basic* calculator? #calculators #ticalc #ti34 #matheducation #mathchat

On a slight tangent I have just noticed that on the TI 84 int(x) is NOT the same as in python. Who is to blame for this? #ti84 #python #horror

It bothers me that before they show the footage of the murder of these people, the news man never says "We are about to show footage where people were killed some viewers might find this disturbing." As they would for other disasters, so when the bile rises in my throat, because I really did just see some people snuffed out of existence I also have to feel like I'm being too sensitive for caring.

The careless way some death is displayed is also a kind of propaganda that explains who matters.

For Immediate Release:

Living room and bedroom correspondents report a sudden increase in "nose booping" a terrifying new phenomenon wherein the small triangle nose of a kitty (that "looks like a rubber button" according to *untrusted*` sources) is booped by the horrible tentacle-like finger beans of a human.

Any cat may fall victim for *literally* "no reason" and the humans do not give treats as compensation and seem to think it is funny.

More at 11. We will fight back.

Everyone laughs and laughs at cats getting into boxes, but if you put a chair-height cube in a room with a human they will sit on it.

So, who is manipulated by the box now?

(The following has been a mandatory dispatch from the offices of #PicaTheCat as a part of her new propaganda initiative.)

Maybe you think "I can't cut out X just yet" and there are practical reasons that make it hard. That's fine, but keep thinking about it.

You can find a way to wiggle free. It's OK if it takes some time and planning.

The next big one I want gone from my life is YouTube. This one is hard, though. I think the first step would be to at least use the alternatives for those creators I like who bother to offer one.

I don't know how I'll wriggle free from YouTube just yet, but I'm not giving up on it because it's "hard" --

Right not "no YouTube" would mean just not seeing a lot of videos that I want to see.

But, not as many as I think.

🤔

Amazon might not notice that you stopped shopping with them* but if you take that same modest bit of disposable income and spend it on art bought directly from artists, the small electronics projects of your friends, helping people in dire financial situations and the the local theater all of those people WILL notice. It will have a massive impact.

*But, also Amazon does notice. Especially as more and more people do this.

Good world-building reveals character; it challenges and shapes to people in your story. perhaps what I find lacking in certain fight or battle scenes is a similar connection to character.

Sometimes the main characters a book on their way to an objective and a problem arises, and it can feel very much like the author has inserted the problem because otherwise it would be boring.

“but oh no it’s the bad guys”

Sometimes, if you are a world-building focused writer, people will suggest adding “more action” and I think one should always *listen* to advice (what you *do* about it? that’s another matter)

When I hear the words “more action,” I think “so add a sword fight??” This is being overly literal. How are your characters in conflict with the world that you are building? How does revealing more about the world complicate expose more of who they are?

When reading science fiction or fantasy are you more likely to skip through the action scenes to find out how the world works or are you more often interested in action and bored by exposition?

The heart of storytelling is always character. (I say this, as someone is generally more interested in the world building than characters.)

To make this post in our rather tech-leaning community I know I need to included clarification that I do not want technical solutions. Otherwise I will have a dozen people telling me about kagi, or some other work-around that makes search a little better *for them* ... we won't get to the bottom of why millions of people are "asking chat GPT" if they should wear a coat or not.

And I have had moments where I've been the one saying "RTFM!" I'm not innocent here.

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Sometimes people ask questions because they just want to talk to someone. I want to suggest that this is important and something we should make space for.

I think that's also why there is a lot of nostalgia and love for "shitposting" ... it's just pure human interaction without a lot of judgement. And it would be horrible if we let the LLMs take it from us, right?

Right?

When "google" became a verb the company celebrated it as a symbol of their market dominance. I think even those of us who are skeptical about LLMs need to recognize that the general public is increasingly turning to LLMs in the same way they turned to search.

"I'll ask chat GPT" is something I hear often. I wince every single time I hear it.

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(This is a discussion of how people relate to technology *not* a request for software recommendations or technical solutions.)

"Let me google that for you."
"RTFM"

I've always disliked the hostility of some online communities to repetitive or "basic" questions. It's one of the reasons I don't participate much on "Stack Overflow" where the ethos of hating questions goes deep and interest in enthusiastically sharing and helping people to learn is nearly nonexistent.

It's so extreme that the place simply isn't very active.

Is it so shocking people are turning to LLMs for their "stupid questions?"

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