Nostr notes by Ramin Honary

yes, maybe I was a little too facetious, sorry. And yes, I was ...

2026-07-28T06:15:53Z

In reply to nevent1q…synv
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yes, maybe I was a little too facetious, sorry. And yes, I was always a little shocked that someone would call their Scheme "Stalin" at a time after the Berlin Wall had been dismantled, it is a pretty tasteless joke.

Anyway, I am at a loss as to why it is called "Gauche." I'm sure it is probably explained somewhere, but I can't find any such explanation in the manual.

Omar Antolín (npub1ums…7ra6)

they are isolating themselves from the Internet of "The ...

2026-07-07T12:58:38Z

In reply to nevent1q…c77t
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they are isolating themselves from the Internet of "The West," which is mostly controlled by two American companies: Google and Amazon.

"Sovereignity" is always an excuse for more surveillance. This isn't a good thing for any large country to do, but then again, Google and Amazon have a terrible record for respecting privacy as well.

You should ping Andy @npub1fmz…adp3 although he seems to ignore ...

2026-07-07T00:49:50Z

In reply to nevent1q…uwxd
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You should ping Andy Andy Wingo (npub1fmz…adp3)

although he seems to ignore everyone unless he follows them himself.

https://srfi.schemers.org/srfi-273/srfi-273.html

I'll have to give that a try sometime!

Just get in, no time to explain!

2026-07-06T23:59:36Z

In reply to nevent1q…5ffl
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Just get in, no time to explain!

I made playlists using a tape deck with two cartridge mounts and ...

2026-07-06T05:39:46Z

In reply to nevent1q…6k9s
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I made playlists using a tape deck with two cartridge mounts and a "high-speed dubbing" button, a blank tape in one of the mounts, and the record in the other mount. The high-speed dubbing button could copy a 3-minute-long song in about 1 minute.

I have used Linux as my full-time OS since 2008. This roughly ...

2026-07-06T05:26:04Z

In reply to nevent1q…au0n
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I have used Linux as my full-time OS since 2008. This roughly coincides to when I moved to the big city, to within a an error of about 15%.

### Two new blog posts about AI, one critical, one supportive ...

2026-07-05T06:52:56Z

### Two new blog posts about AI, one critical, one supportive
----
I have been writing these for over 4 months now. Not only are they long reads, but it took me a while to really get a good idea of how I wanted to express myself. I think I have had enough time to think about these ideas and these opinions that I can now express myself fairly clearly, but I'll let you (my readers) be the judge. Of course, feel free to tag me in a Fediverse post if you want to send me feedback on what you liked or disliked about my articles. Yes, I know they are too long, I'd suggest reading them in a few sittings if you find it enjoyable.
- [From AI Enthusiast to Skeptic](https://tilde.town/~ramin_hal9001/articles/ai_from-enthusiast-to-skeptic.html)
- [What I like about AI](https://tilde.town/~ramin_hal9001/articles/what-i-like-about-ai.html)

#tech #blog #AI #LLM #LLMs

I tried opening an issue about this with the Emacs maintainers. ...

2026-07-04T16:39:28Z

In reply to nevent1q…lyv0
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I tried opening an issue about this with the Emacs maintainers. They should *at least* tell you on the front page of the manual how to do a full-text search, index keyword search, and how to use tab completion to jump through menus. But they told me to bring the issue up with the maintainers of the Info software instead. I haven't done it yet.

During the summer, it's pretty common to get rain clouds with ...

2026-07-04T03:55:47Z

In reply to nevent1q…454m
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During the summer, it's pretty common to get rain clouds with "sharp edges."

> *"how often do you think about surface integrals and ...

2026-07-01T10:33:14Z

In reply to nevent1q…ana4
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> *"how often do you think about surface integrals and flux"*

Andy Wingo (npub1fmz…adp3) every time I see a plastic bag floating in the breeze.

oh, there is a "Scheme Request for Implementation" ...

2026-07-01T01:16:06Z

In reply to nevent1q…ze0j
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oh, there is a "Scheme Request for Implementation" document, [SRFI-35 on error conditions](https://srfi.schemers.org/srfi-35/srfi-35.html), and this document links to the section of the Common Lisp specification that was written by @kentpitman@climatejustice.social .

Here is the MIT Scheme documentation on error conditions: ...

2026-07-01T01:09:28Z

In reply to nevent1q…s8x4
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Here is the MIT Scheme documentation on error conditions: https://www.gnu.org/software/mit-scheme/documentation/stable/mit-scheme-ref/Error-System.html

I thought they had mentioned that it was based on "Pitman Errors," but that term doesn't exist in this section of the manual, so either I imagined or misremembered it, or the manual was updated to no longer mention that.

I'm not going to lie, I'd laugh if Kushner ended up like ...

2026-06-29T13:14:46Z

In reply to nevent1q…m7mj
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I'm not going to lie, I'd laugh if Kushner ended up like Charlie Kirk.

### "Prism:" Stephen Diehl's new programming language ...

2026-06-29T13:01:40Z

### "Prism:" Stephen Diehl's new programming language
----
It is a functional programming language that tries (and at first glance, appears to largely succeed at) combining the best parts of Haskell, Rust, Python, and TypeScript.

So here is how I understand it so far, and I could be wrong about any of this, but here it goes:

The type system makes use of an "effect system," which is an idea similar to Monad Transformers, offers mutable state, but uses the effects types to prove when it is OK to optimize away the state mutation, which as we now know, can lead to lots of problems when optimizing code. Object field accessors (for example the dot in the expression `vec.x ^ 2 + vec.y ^ 2`) translate to Haskell-like "lenses," which are also difficult to declare types for, but can provide information useful to the optimizer. So you can write procedural and object oriented-style programs that translates to purely functional code at a lower level.

The language allows you to have more "comfortable" procedural constructs like that which you would find in TypeScript, and provides a Python-like syntax. The TypeScript `??` and `.?` operators also translate to effectful code much like the "Maybe" monad, but you can still use the more "comfortable" TypeScript-like syntax to do it.

At the lower level, in the purely functional code, the type system allows the compiler to automatically try to impose the Rust type system onto certain expressions. When the compiler can prove a function expression would satisfy the Rust type checker, it will optimize the code in the same way Rust would --- so you don't have to declare any Rust types at all, the compiler tries really hard to do it for you. If your expression won't satisfy the Rust type checker, well, then it falls back to ordinary garbage collected memory management like in Haskell or Scheme.

This might be the first language in 30 years that I have ever seen for which it actually might be worthwhile to develop a larger software ecosystem.
nostr:note1rr8staxqwrpsfqkptluzugfuqaxc7awzngzs8072t967lvt6mxnqusm0q8

if only I were paid to do these things. I have about 4 hours a ...

2026-06-28T14:12:12Z

In reply to nevent1q…4xqz
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if only I were paid to do these things. I have about 4 hours a week of free time at this point (not exaggerating), and all of that time I either waste here on social media, or I spend on Schemacs.

But if I had 40 hours a week to work on these things, I'd try to port Medley InterLisp to the [Xen hypervisor](https://wiki.xenproject.org/wiki/Xen_Project_Software_Overview) in order to make it easier to develop drivers for things like IHDA sound, USB, WiFi, BlueTooth, HDMI, I2C, and all the other modern hardware standards that probably wouldn't work if you tried to use Medley on hardware.

'(vidak) _(:3」∠)_ (npub1vq4…wkq3)

good article. I also love the old Mac OS, especially System 7.5. ...

2026-06-28T13:18:07Z

In reply to nevent1q…5vh8
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good article. I also love the old Mac OS, especially System 7.5. I felt system 8.0 introduced too many unwanted changes. The only real improvement was that menus stayed open after a single click, they didn't require you to hold the button down to keep them open. The "Sherlock" feature wasn't all that useful to me.

Mac OS did have a command line, but it was only for connecting to Unix systems. I remember the THINK C++ library created a similar command line window if you ever built a program that linked against `<iostream>`, it would provide a Unix-like runtime where `std::cout` and `std::cin` would emulate writing to the CLI paper tape, or reading a line of input from the window. So there were command lines created for Mac OS, but that is a very different thing than the operating system providing one for you.

I remember playing with the "Resource Fork" of the files using ResEdit. It is such a good idea to keep all of that meta-data as part of the file itself with well-defined APIs in the OS for using that metadata, it really does make the system more user friendly. Like you say, it was really, very different from the CP/M, MS-DOS, and Unix. I don't know how it compares to OS/2 though, OS/2 was OOP all the way down, so that one might have been just as fun to use as Mac OS 7.5. I never had a chance to use OS/2 though.

> *"So you went into Mac development very differently and it was very hard to port stuff. Most MacOS apps were original and native. A few, a very few, were later ported to Windows. You may have heard of one or two: Excel is one, PowerPoint another IIRC."*

I think Adobe Photoshop was another software originally for Mac OS then ported to IBM-PC-compatibles later on.

well, if you are running McCLIM as your desktop environment on a ...

2026-06-28T12:50:53Z

In reply to nevent1q…4u7z
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well, if you are running McCLIM as your desktop environment on a POSIX system like Linux, you still have Linux to run processes. You could install the UIOP system and launch processes and shell in other languages. https://lispcookbook.github.io/cl-cookbook/os.html

But who would be crazy enough to do such a thing? Lisp should be the only thing anyone ever needs. (Just kidding, sort-of).

'(vidak) _(:3」∠)_ (npub1vq4…wkq3)

I know relatively little about Common Lisp, but I am pretty sure ...

2026-06-28T12:36:56Z

In reply to nevent1q…u5sg
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I know relatively little about Common Lisp, but I am pretty sure McCLIM provides you with a window manager and a REPL where you would be able to use QuickLisp and ASDF to install software packages.

Obviously, the software ecosystem is probably not as large as NPM for Electron.js. It's up to us (the Lisp fans) to change that.

'(vidak) _(:3」∠)_ (npub1vq4…wkq3)

I feel like this is almost as good as a modern "large ...

2026-06-28T12:09:42Z

In reply to nevent1q…9q4k
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I feel like this is almost as good as a modern "large language model."

Hello, how are you? Unfortunately, I am not well. I have this ...

2026-06-28T12:07:25Z

In reply to nevent1q…xr35
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Hello, how are you?

Unfortunately, I am not well. I have this overwhelming personal conviction that every single item in my home has been stolen and replaced with an identical copy of it by space aliens.

same with me. Something like this is coming pretty close though: ...

2026-06-28T11:48:18Z

In reply to nevent1q…g54k
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same with me.

Something like this is coming pretty close though: https://mastodon.uno/@admich/116803593817056061

I mean, as soon as you login, you are in a Common Lisp McCLIM environment. You still have to contend with the POSIX filesystem, process manager, memory manager, containers system and what not, but at least the user interface is Lisp.

I am really curious why these Gazans are supporting Egypt over ...

2026-06-27T09:31:10Z

In reply to nevent1q…723a
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I am really curious why these Gazans are supporting Egypt over Iran. Does the Israel-Iran war not factor in to who they support, or are have they become disappointed with Iranian's relationship with Palestine recently?

LOL, I hadn't thought of that! Yeah, it seems anything Trump ...

2026-06-27T08:25:38Z

In reply to nevent1q…y5et
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LOL, I hadn't thought of that! Yeah, it seems anything Trump sets out to do ends in total and complete failure.

I guess the next suspect at the top of my list was Netanyahu.

that sounds like a nice cheap alternative to buying a completely ...

2026-06-27T01:49:32Z

In reply to nevent1q…aytr
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that sounds like a nice cheap alternative to buying a completely new computer. What models are these?

Also, I am curious if you have tried #AsahiLinux and do feel as though Garuda is more performant in comparison?

> artificial intelligence → probabilistic automation hybrid ...

2026-06-26T17:13:41Z

In reply to nevent1q…v5ve
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> artificial intelligence → probabilistic automation
hybrid intelligence → augmented human intelligence
image recognition → image labeling
speech recognition → automatic transcription
the model shows bias → the model reflects bias
model mistakes → model errors
chatbots are good at … → chatbots are good for …
hallucination → undesirable output

Prof. Emily M. Bender(she/her) (npub15xv…0jms) this is really great, thank you!

In conversations about AI, I rarely if ever hear people refer to a chatbot as anything other than "it," maybe I keep good company, but the output of these machines is still so unnatural to me I just can't see these things as conscious, or even just cognisant.

I do, however, frequently take shortcuts in talking about LLMs when saying things like, "trying to get it to understand," or "arguing with it," or "it thinks that..." I know I should say things like "trying to bias the output" instead of "trying to get it to understand," but the linguistic shortcut of using the word "understand" is just so much easier sometimes.

dude, quit being so cruel. Let them call it what they want. ...

2026-06-26T13:26:13Z

In reply to nevent1q…4xre
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dude, quit being so cruel. Let them call it what they want.

Amir Gaza 🍉🇵🇸 (npub1flz…4c6c)

what's that? You're "going to a tea party," you ...

2026-06-24T23:57:01Z

In reply to nevent1q…nnxz
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what's that? You're "going to a tea party," you say?

She told me she was going to a tea party, that's what she told me.

> they would be painting a target on the backs of their ...

2026-06-24T23:41:57Z

In reply to nevent1q…du74
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> they would be painting a target on the backs of their families.

MiaK 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 🇵🇸 (npub1rug…ryrv) they know that this is a genocide, they know that the genocide is ongoing, they know if they name names that the war criminals who have still not been brought to justice (and are sitting in the same room with Sidoti as he makes this announcement) will put the families of the victims of those children right up to the top of the list of people marked for extermination.

It is just so insane, that the UN can commission these reports and gather all this evidence of war crimes committed, evidence rigorous enough to be used in a court of law and bring the war criminals to justice, and at the same time, have people in the same governing body, in the same building, using that government as a tool to carry-out the war crimes.

This is what a failing empire looks like.

> Do Americans really want this crap? I can’t believe that ...

2026-06-24T23:29:15Z

In reply to nevent1q…dzu8
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> Do Americans really want this crap? I can’t believe that we don’t hold our governments accountable.

trilobite (npub1xth…seh8) if we want to hold our government accountable, we need to first ditch the whole "vote blue no matter who" strategy and start voting only for the people who have the courage to promise us and deliver real justice: justice for those who spy on us, those who kidnap and rape us, those who commit genocide.

But as long as people are afraid to vote for justice because they don't want "the other guy" to win, we are literally voting to further enslave ourselves.

I think so. At least, I hope that's a new belly button. ...

2026-06-24T11:30:53Z

In reply to nevent1q…wmmg
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I think so. At least, I hope that's a new belly button.

Nanoraptor (npub1hp6…raya)

Ain't it fun getting old?

2026-06-24T11:17:48Z

In reply to nevent1q…hzz3
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Ain't it fun getting old?

this would be an even better software stack than Android, ...

2026-06-24T06:49:14Z

In reply to nevent1q…jnt9
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this would be an even better software stack than Android, especially if you could get Emacs Lisp applications to run in Common Lisp.

I'll be about 10 minutes late today, sorry.

2026-06-23T23:43:46Z

In reply to nevent1q…hmue
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I'll be about 10 minutes late today, sorry.

(pronounced "ramichard stalmichard")

2026-06-23T23:42:19Z

In reply to nevent1q…ef94
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(pronounced "ramichard stalmichard")

Right! The zero page is basically 256 eight-bit registers. I ...

2026-06-23T16:39:07Z

In reply to nevent1q…g708
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Right! The zero page is basically 256 eight-bit registers.

I don't know of any others not in the MOS-65xx series that do this.

it feels like two lifetimes since the September 11 World Trade ...

2026-06-23T15:35:42Z

In reply to nevent1q…wuwg
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it feels like two lifetimes since the September 11 World Trade Center bombing. In retrospect, that the final nail in the coffin of the post-World-War-2 era of prosperity and optimism, and the start of the long and painful decline of The Empire. The decline continues and gets more painful with each passing day.

I try to enjoy my life, but knowing there are so many innocent ...

2026-06-23T15:27:39Z

In reply to nevent1q…a2e4
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I try to enjoy my life, but knowing there are so many innocent people suffering is always in my thoughts no matter how happy I feel. I bet many people who watch the World Cup right now probably have similar feelings.

I once read a poem by Mahmoud Darwish called "Think of Others." I am reminded of that poem a lot these days.

funny, this is usually how I tie my shoes. The other way, with ...

2026-06-23T15:16:53Z

In reply to nevent1q…ym2r
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funny, this is usually how I tie my shoes. The other way, with one string wrapping around a loop made from the other string, I always felt came untied too easily.

it is true that I mentioned Mamdani. In particular I brought up ...

2026-06-23T14:59:44Z

In reply to nevent1q…eaa4
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it is true that I mentioned Mamdani. In particular I brought up the fact that he won the mayoral election as evidence of the shift in New Yorker's opinions, not whether or not he was doing a good job or what his policies were.

So like I said, this thread is about the latent racism of the New York Times (hence the Fox News analogy). There is also an image in this post which shows two example NYT headlines that hit my feed at the same time which I think are a good example of the kind of racial bias of the NYT.

Feel free to talk about police officers, education, or hosing in some other thread. These are important issues to me too, I just don't have the time or energy to discuss that right at this moment.

I can't really agree or disagree with what you say, because ...

2026-06-23T13:34:16Z

In reply to nevent1q…ggur
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I can't really agree or disagree with what you say, because you neither commented on anything I actually said, nor have you brought up anything relvant to what my post was about.

I wonder what their fitness function is? "Maximize ...

2026-06-23T10:12:23Z

In reply to nevent1q…22fj
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I wonder what their fitness function is? "Maximize racism," perhaps?

The New York Times is basically "Fox News for the Democrat ...

2026-06-23T10:06:24Z

The New York Times is basically "Fox News for the Democrat Party," and every bit as reliable as Fox News (as in they are reliably, constantly lying to you.)

I wonder if you count how many articles they have published that try to make Iranians look like barbaric womanizers, who are perhaps somehow worse than your average "kill any woman who gets an abortion" Republican voter, and subtract that number by how many articles they have which have of any of the barbaric things that Itmar Ben Gvir has said in the past 3 years as a direct quote in one of their headlines, what would the difference be? That should tell you the nature of the bais we see from the New York Times.

The fact that Mamdani got elected shows just how badly detached from the realities of the average New Yorker that the New York Times reporting really is.

And by the way, that first article title should read: "Israel violates Trump ceasefire, Iran moves to close Hormuz." That would be a far less biased way of reporting the facts of the situation.

#USPol #politics #NewYorkTimes #MediaBias #Islamophobia #Racism

that is some good shower-thought material. I never liked the big ...

2026-06-22T23:37:20Z

In reply to nevent1q…reat
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that is some good shower-thought material. I never liked the big robot anime. I always thought of it more as a latent militarism created by the most technologically advanced country that is not allowed to have a military beyond their "self-defense force."

And as it turns out, walking battle tanks or smarter armor (however you want to look at it) provide no practical advantage to any fighting force, so drones are the future of warfare, not mobile armor suits. But shows about drones battling each other are not as fun to watch when the operators are basically glorified video game nerds with uniforms.

The flip-phone, on the other hand, I hope makes a come-back in the future. I like the large screens of a smart phone but I hate the lack of a keyboard. I have not yet found a keyboard dock for a smart phone that I really like.

What I want more than anything is a mechanical keyboard with Cherry-MX brown key switches attached to a hinged USB screen and a battery pack all in one unit, like a big thick laptop, to which I can dock my smartphone. I'd carry the dock in my travel bag and take it out and use my smart phone whenever I wanted to really do some serious computer hacking.

that is an interesting question. Bigger crests, yes, also maybe ...

2026-06-22T11:17:06Z

In reply to nevent1q…5cnn
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that is an interesting question. Bigger crests, yes, also maybe neon colored feathers.

I like "slop" because it is not only "sloppy" but ...

2026-06-20T13:15:25Z

In reply to nevent1q…fws6
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I like "slop" because it is not only "sloppy" but it works like a slot machine, so you can call it a "slop machine."

ℒӱḏɩę 💾☮∞🎶♲☀🔋 (npub1qev…vhj5)

yes, season 3 of The Next Generation is one of my favorites of ...

2026-06-20T02:42:32Z

In reply to nevent1q…6d50
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yes, season 3 of *The Next Generation* is one of my favorites of all time. That's the one where they accidentally expose themselves to a pre-industrial society and Captain Picard has to come clean and convince the people that they aren't gods.

And the one where the government of the federation officially decides that Commander Data is a person. Then Data builds his own child and there is a dispute over who has the "right" to the child's technology and my favorite Jean Luc Picard quote: "Order a man to turn his child over to the state? Not while I'm captain."

Some Sci-Fi shower thoughts: I think the ideological division ...

2026-06-19T09:25:13Z

**Some Sci-Fi shower thoughts:** I think the ideological division between #StarWars and #StarTrek can be summed up by the fact that there is no analogue for The #Jedi " in Star Trek. In the original Star Wars films, the Jedi and #TheForce is left as some unexplained magical property which some of the characters just have, and it is strongly implied that this property is inherited. Star Trek, on the other hand consistently shows time and again the old atheist adage that "*any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.*"

Never once in Star Trek is some unexplained telekinetic power or mind-reading ability ascribed to some magical "force," there is always, *always* some Sci-Fi mumbo-jumbo explanation given, usually involving some make-believe wave/particle energy field. And if the "magic" power ever takes the characters by surprise, they study it to figure out how it works, especially if the "magic" is being used by an alien adversary against them. The lesson Star Trek teach us is that there is no real magic anywhere in the universe, only the yet-to-be explained, and that doesn't make the universe any less awe-inspiring.

I lost all enthusiasm for Star Wars the day I saw George Lucas posing in a publicity photo with the Disney mascots (when the Disney Corporation bought the entire Star Wars franchise), so I haven't been paying attention. (I've been told I would very likely enjoy the "Andor" series, though I haven't watched it.) Maybe the franchise writers have tried to canonicalize some scientific explanation for "The Force" beyond the "midichlorians" mentioned in the prequel series? I don't know, or even really care at this point.

also, in a later season of Deep Space 9 the gender-changed friend ...

2026-06-19T09:05:49Z

In reply to nevent1q…x27s
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also, in a later season of Deep Space 9 the gender-changed friend (Dax) fell in love with a female lover from before her transition and started a lesbian relationship, and it wasn't confusing at all.

Also in Deep Space 9: the "Bell Riots" episode warning about the US becoming a fascist state, and how the police crackdown that killed a large number of people led to a lasting change in public opinion --- that one may have been a bit too optimistic.

Also in Deep Space 9: clandestine government organization "Section 31" attempts to commit genocide against the Federation's war-time enemy and captain Sisko attempts to stop it from happening.

Also in the original series, the character Khan was the product of the Eugenics Wars, and eventually we see clearly why Eugenics is bad.

Also in The Next Generation: a whole episode devoted to passing a law that declares androids to be a sentient race with the Star Trek equivalent of what we would call "human rights."

Also all the times we see that "gods" all turn out to be just very scientifically advanced alien species who's technology is indistinguishable from magic to us.

The list goes on and on.

one is pure evil, the other is a cherished childhood memory.

2026-06-19T05:14:11Z

In reply to nevent1q…r60t
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one is pure evil, the other is a cherished childhood memory.

too many people think tech isn't political, that it has ...

2026-06-19T02:28:41Z

In reply to nevent1q…7ey8
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too many people think tech isn't political, that it has nothing to do with power imbalanced between the Haves (tech companies) and the Have-Nots. That's how the Haves keep getting away with this crap, they are taking advanatge of the fact that no one is aware of their own participation in the system that is systematically transferring all control of all computing resources away from the Have-Nots and into the hands of the Haves.

I am having trouble understanding this. Do you mean that the Zine ...

2026-06-18T02:56:02Z

In reply to nevent1q…2pv7
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I am having trouble understanding this. Do you mean that the Zine should basically be a gopherhole (or a single gopher page) that is just served over STDIN/STDOUT as though you were making TCP requests over a socket?

If that is what you mean, yeah, and we could ask Someodd to host it maybe, her own gopher server could treat each zine as a servlets on her site, or you could just download the source code and run it on your own local Common Lisp implementation.

that is true, sometimes the distinction between scripting and ...

2026-06-17T16:34:59Z

In reply to nevent1q…f7ze
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that is true, sometimes the distinction between scripting and programming is clear, as with your example of Python (scripting) or Java (programming).

But with some languages it is not very clear. For example, Scheme can be used for both scripting and system programming.

tusharhero (npub1kqq…0y6c) restorante (npub1mxg…06sc)

that is a good definition of a scripting language. I agree it has ...

2026-06-17T16:31:13Z

In reply to nevent1q…t8dy
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that is a good definition of a scripting language. I agree it has more to do with the runtime being small and the syntax and keywords being suited for a specific purpose.

But then again, a Scheme program can be either run as a script or compiled to an efficient server-side binary, so like tusharhero (npub1kqq…0y6c) said, the distinction is never very clear.

hell \ Rebekah Hellberg (npub1kvh…yv0e) restorante (npub1mxg…06sc)

Emacs can sometimes be slow, yes, but it is usually not a ...

2026-06-17T01:28:53Z

In reply to nevent1q…g8k9
_________________________

Emacs can sometimes be slow, yes, but it is usually not a problem.

Compared to the days when Emacs was first invented in the late 1970s to early 1980s, computers are so fast nowadays that the difference between launching a whole process like Git as compared trying to run a small function in the memory of your Emacs process is trivial, hardly worth ever worrying about. Technically, launching a whole process is slower and takes more memory, but a human can't notice the difference on modern computers, both happen instantly from our point of view.

Sometimes Emacs is slow, and the reason this happens is not because of using too much memory or running too many processes, it is because everything in it's memory is shared, and this makes it difficult to run multiple threads. When you perform an action, that action may touch everything in memory. All buffers and variables need to be locked until that action is complete, because if you allow two actions to run on unlocked memory, those two actions can interfere with each other and corrupt memory (we call this "race conditions").

So Emacs usually does one action at a time. If the action you perform takes a long time, your Emacs will freeze everything until it completes that action. This makes Emacs **feel** very slow, when in fact it is running just as fast as any other program on your computer.

It is a trade-off. Though locking everything, and the "feeling slow" problems are disadvantages, there are advantages to having all memory in your computing environment shared as well, such as being able to easily change anything you want at any time. And Emacs does provide multiple threads, so you can run a background process like Git or Grep and it will buffer the results without freezing Emacs. And if a command takes to long the Control-G key almost always works to unfreeze it, so it is very stable.

So I think Emacs is very good for your goal of hosting small software. You should just be aware that when you use it, sometimes, some actions will freeze emacs for a few seconds.

tusharhero (npub1kqq…0y6c)

yes. I think Emacs is probably most similar to JavaScript and ...

2026-06-15T10:38:37Z

In reply to nevent1q…p4nr
_________________________

yes. I think Emacs is probably most similar to JavaScript and Node.js.

When you combine Node.js, Electron.js, and the [Monaco Editor Engine](https://microsoft.github.io/monaco-editor/) all together, you get VSCodium. But Electron.js is a huge WC3-standards compliant browser engine that can render beautiful graphics. You don't really need all that just to do text editing.

Emacs doesn't have a fully WC3-compliant browser engine built-in, it does it's own rendering, and it focuses mostly on rendering text with some images. It comes with many useful libraries for working with source code, Email, revision control systems, system processes, and the filesystem. It even ships with a few games.

Vi, on the other hand, is more of a UI/UX implemented by many software. There is the old Unix Vi, there is Vim, and Neovim. Emacs also has a Vi implementation called "Evil" which is written in Lisp. Of corse, none of these editors have anything in common except the user interface and user experience.

hell \ Rebekah Hellberg (npub1kvh…yv0e) tusharhero (npub1kqq…0y6c)

thanks for the shout-out! > "people who have gone from ...

2026-06-15T09:36:33Z

In reply to nevent1q…z70s
_________________________

thanks for the shout-out!

> "people who have gone from neo/VI/m to Emacs or wise verse - what made you swap? what made you then either stay or revert?"

hell \ Rebekah Hellberg (npub1kvh…yv0e) [the article](https://tilde.town/~ramin_hal9001/articles/emacs-fulfills-the-unix-philosophy.html) mentioned by Tusharhero is a little long, so to summarize it in a way that more directly answers your question: I basically realized that Emacs was not a text editor, it was a programming language designed for text editing that came with a built-in text editor and IDE. And the built-in editor and IDE are setup so that you don't really need to learn the Emacs Lisp programming language to use it.

I had become frustrated with my editor (Vim) my terminal multiplexer (Screen or TMux), my shell (Bash), and many of my other CLI tools all being programmed, scripted, and/or configured in different languages. For example, when trying to get my shell to notify my editor that a build process completed, I was able to program Vim and my shell scripts to both use `inotify` or similar tools to do so, but I just thought it was a little ridiculous that I had to hack together solutions to these problems.

So I started thinking about ways of using the CLI with just one programming language and one runtime. Then it hit me: Emacs is exactly that: a combination of Tmux, Vim, Bash, and dozens of other tools all programmed in Lisp. Once I realized that, I decided I didn't care how hard it was to use, it was exactly the tool I needed so I had better just learn how to use it. And it turned out not to be too hard anyways.

The best part was, I hardly ever need to write my own tools anymore because I was always able to find some Emacs Lisp code somewhere that solved practically any problem I had ever come across.

If you'd like to know more, then yeah, read my article, or ask me anything you'd like here on the fediverse!

Tiny BASIC sounds like a good choice for your use case. Lua is a ...

2026-06-14T10:29:43Z

In reply to nevent1q…ndgu
_________________________

Tiny BASIC sounds like a good choice for your use case.

Lua is a fairly small language and I have seen it embedded into microcontrollers, though I haven't tried it myself. Most microcontrollers nowadays come with a C cross-compiler toolchain, so I would simply try building it with the cross compiler for your microcontroller.

[This GitHub repo](https://github.com/elua/elua) forks the Lua interpreter for easier building with microcontrollers. If your microcontroller isn't supported, it is probably not too difficult to configure the build to support it.

Just an idea, but like I said, Tiny BASIC sounds good too.

@permacomputer@retro.social Kartik Agaram (npub1ex6…6j2g)

It might be a good idea to check if the manual is on archive.org, ...

2026-06-14T04:36:08Z

In reply to nevent1q…qq5q
_________________________

It might be a good idea to check if the manual is on archive.org, and if not, upload it there so others can find it and benefit.

If you just want a BASIC-like language, and are not interested in ...

2026-06-14T04:30:41Z

In reply to nevent1q…put3
_________________________

If you just want a BASIC-like language, and are not interested in learning how to implement a language, then I'd just go with Lua. It is very lightweight and easy to port to any platform. It also has some pretty good libraries, like the LOVE game programming framework.

Forth and Scheme are also good choices for very small computers.

@permacomputer@retro.social

sorry, I meant under the new leadership of the current ...

2026-06-14T01:23:27Z

In reply to nevent1q…vck0
_________________________

sorry, I meant under the new leadership of the current government. It seems like people are pretty optimistic about the new leadership, but that good faith can dissipate so easily. But with 300 billion in losses, will be tough for them to budget the funds, if they even receive the funds at all.

oh man, I had this exact same box set when I was a kid, ...

2026-06-14T01:18:19Z

In reply to nevent1q…9706
_________________________

oh man, I had this **exact same** box set when I was a kid, except it was the the Commodore Amiga version, which was so much fun!

.

2026-06-13T17:24:46Z

In reply to nevent1q…m2jv
_________________________

.

The new government had better use some of that money to do ...

2026-06-13T14:51:35Z

In reply to nevent1q…3gpz
_________________________

The new government had better use some of that money to do something about the water system in Tehran, and other much needed improvements to the quality of life of ordinary people, or else this brief, recent boost in popularity afforded to them by the US war of aggression will come to an end really quickly.

> "that means we have to find a place them" ...

2026-06-11T15:36:38Z

In reply to nevent1q…j0qk
_________________________

> "that means we have to find a place them"

John (npub1lh2…wq3v) I recommend putting them all in the [Fletcher Memorial Home](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiojDdR3YCM).

"this is a post about Liberals," is bound to confuse and ...

2026-06-11T15:30:30Z

In reply to nevent1q…7z4k
_________________________

"this is a post about Liberals," is bound to confuse and enrage more than a few people (especially US-ians) who think "Liberal" == "left-wing".

What is art? It is the innate human desire toward a goal, the ...

2026-06-10T15:04:45Z

**What is art?** It is the innate human desire toward a goal, the goal being to reify a vision of that which only exists in your own mind, and it is the process of training your own mind and body to reify that vision through deliberate practice of technique, and it is the process of self-criticism as you look back on each attempt at realizing your vision and making a conscious effort to refine your technique and your practice so that your next attempt comes closer to realizing your vision. What you actually produce during this process is a side-effect, an artifact, of the artistic process, though we often speak of these artifacts as though it were the "art" itself.

So the requisites are (1) human desire, (2) a goal, (3) a vision in your imagination, (4) practice of technique, (5) refinement of technique.

Notice that so-called AI "art" meets precisely none of those requirements.

#AI #AIArt #LLMs #Art

the board meets the other boards at the center of the gazebo ...

2026-06-10T14:44:55Z

In reply to nevent1q…7m9p
_________________________

the board meets the other boards at the center of the gazebo where they are propped neatly on a tree stump cut to look like it is part of the floor.

#LinuxMint is a very good choice. It is like Ubunutu with lots ...

2026-06-10T13:56:52Z

In reply to nevent1q…vgx9
_________________________

#LinuxMint is a very good choice. It is like Ubunutu with lots and lots of software available in it's repository, but a community-owned and operated distro that basically cuts-out the corporate add-ons that most people don't need. The #CinnamonDE is incredibly stable and easy to use, and not really noticeably heavier than other, more lightweight desktop environments like #Xfce and #LXQt , so it still works nicely on smaller computers.

woah, this thing could very well win the #NanoraptorChallenge ...

2026-06-08T17:41:38Z

In reply to nevent1q…dxmz
_________________________

woah, this thing could very well win the #NanoraptorChallenge couldn't it!

This thing looks to me sort-of like an [IBM PC Convertible](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_PC_Convertible) with a CD-ROM drive.

How cool would it have been to have a IBM PC Convertible with a built-in LaserDisc player? (Nudge, nudge, Nanoraptor (npub1hp6…raya) )

I mean, I love solid state, especially for how robust they are. ...

2026-06-08T17:32:09Z

In reply to nevent1q…d627
_________________________

I mean, I love solid state, especially for how robust they are. But I also love clackity keyboards and the feeling of things like modules and cartridges sliding into place.

the number of well-intentioned left-leaning people who have ...

2026-06-08T17:25:49Z

In reply to nevent1q…wy0a
_________________________

the number of well-intentioned left-leaning people who have fallen for the AI hype is too damn high.

Every so often I see a post on Mastodon from a left-leaning but not as technically well-inclined (or not as well informed) person saying, "if these horrible people like Elon Musk are using AI to advance their politics, why can't their political opponents do the same? Shouldn't we be building our own left-leaning AI to balance-out the right-leaning ones? Why aren't we working to make sure this new AI overlord grow up with good morals?"

My comrades, I have to tell you: teaching an AI good morals **not** the problem we need to solve here.

> *"In one isolated paper he introduced the important ...

2026-06-08T17:02:43Z

In reply to nevent1q…7jm4
_________________________

> *"In one isolated paper he introduced the important concept of error diffusion for rendering images, also called Floyd–Steinberg dithering (though he distinguished dithering from diffusion)."*

DougMerritt (log😅 = 💧log😄) (npub1vlc…mzqq) Oh! He was **that** Floyd!

Heretic!

2026-06-08T01:59:52Z

In reply to nevent1q…cdd8
_________________________

Heretic!

yeah, Andreas Kling has been a fascist tech bro doing fashy ...

2026-06-05T13:34:42Z

In reply to nevent1q…grja
_________________________

yeah, Andreas Kling has been a fascist tech bro doing fashy things since before LLMs were common house-hold appliances. So it is absolutely no surprise to me that this happened.

And you're right, the only reason this got any attention at all was some fascist angel investors hit it off with Kling and decided to support his work. Doesn't matter if it's vaporware or a grift, the important thing is another fascist tech bro gets inducted into the club and becomes wealthy and powerful.

I wish everyone would just stop pretending technology was not political.

not a surprise in the least. Andreas Kling is a fascist tech bro ...

2026-06-05T13:27:45Z

In reply to nevent1q…lud7
_________________________

not a surprise in the least. Andreas Kling is a fascist tech bro doing fashy things even before LLMs became common household appliances, so of course this was going to happen.

isn't Edge just Chrome with Microsoft's shit smeared all ...

2026-06-05T13:25:02Z

In reply to nevent1q…2qh5
_________________________

isn't Edge just Chrome with Microsoft's shit smeared all over it?

and the parents complain if the teachers/government/church ...

2026-06-05T13:19:19Z

In reply to nevent1q…0nte
_________________________

and the parents complain if the teachers/government/church doesn't parent their kids in exactly the way they want, as if they are dissatisfied customers of the schools service.

I am all for parents getting more involved in their communities and government, but this belief that public servants need to satisfy their individual demands or they'll take their business elsewhere is an anti-democratic mind set that has been carefully cultivated in people through propaganda over the years.

Oh, OK. That is a perfectly valid use of boolean arguments, and ...

2026-06-05T11:33:24Z

In reply to nevent1q…f2h4
_________________________

Oh, OK. That is a perfectly valid use of boolean arguments, and GHC will optimize away the dead code. Later you may want to make those boolean arguments decided from command line flags, keeping the Bool arguments now is a good way to achieve this.

But you must still use Maybe to wrap your types, even if you are defining those arguments at compile time. Think of it as the type forcing you to structure your code so that you can easily switch to using command line flags later on.

not enough context to answer. Although it is a little strange, ...

2026-06-05T09:23:44Z

In reply to nevent1q…qvps
_________________________

not enough context to answer.

Although it is a little strange, when you write a function `load` this typically indicates you are reading from a file, which means the return type should be `IO Struct` instead. If this is just parsing a string, then the string needs to be an input to the function as this is a pure function.

If you know the `Bool` values ahead of time, why even include them as arguments to `load`?

So to answer your question as best I can:

- if both `Bool` values are `False` then just replace `Struct` with `()` ("unit").
- If both are `True`, then your structure can be defined as `Struct X Y`.
- If only the first `Bool` is true replace `Struct` with `X` all by itself,
- If only the second `Bool` is true, replace `Struct` with `Y` all by itself.

If your `load` function does need to read a file, you could define it something like this:

```
data Struct = Struct (Maybe X) (Maybe Y)

load :: Bool -> Bool -> IO Struct
load getX getY = Struct
<$> if getX then readIO "path-to-X" else return Nothing
<*> if getY then readIO "path-to-Y" else return Nothing
```

### "Slop Machine" ---- ...is what my colleagues have ...

2026-06-05T07:53:40Z

### "Slop Machine"
----
...is what my colleagues have been referring to as a software development job where you are required to use #AI. We didn't invent the term, it just caught on.

#tech #LLMs #AI

Yeah, the tech changed. I realized that at some point I no longer ...

2026-06-05T00:07:35Z

In reply to nevent1q…vkc3
_________________________

Yeah, the tech changed. I realized that at some point I no longer needed the most powerful computers available to get my work done. I build software quite often, but that is the most computationally costly thing that I do. Besides the fact that LLMs have started creating shortages, a laptop with 32GB of memory, 8 or more cores, and a 2K HD screen, which still weighs less than a kilogram is pretty reaonably priced, and that is more than enough for compiling large programs.

Besides that, it takes up almost no space in my house, and I can take it out with me if I'd like.

It also helps that I got a mini PC with a huge SSD that I use to backup files always on in my house on our own local network, that replaced the only other function that my desktop PC had been doing before.

### The US government has figured out why privacy is important ...

2026-06-04T02:16:53Z

### The US government has figured out why privacy is important
----
But don't relax. What this means is the pretty soon **only** soldiers, police forces, and lawmakers will have the right to privacy. Everyone else will be spied on relentlessly. These are the change that are about to be made to how our amazing modern society works.

quoting
note1fgw…p822

"Adtech's Opaque Empire Declared National Security Threat as Privacy Crisis Deepens"

The U.S. government states that its troops have been targeted with precision through commercially available location data TechCrunch, prompting a leading privacy lawmaker to declare the entire adtech industry a "national security threat."

https://www.automaticapress.com/articles/adtechs-opaque-empire-declared-national-security-threat-as-privacy-crisis-deepen-mppqb523

#AI #tech #military

I love the homage to Grant Wood's "American Gothic."

2026-06-03T15:58:05Z

In reply to nevent1q…awus
_________________________

I love the homage to Grant Wood's "American Gothic."

- Simple syntax - Powerful libraries - ~~Massive ...

2026-06-03T07:16:37Z

In reply to nevent1q…47gp
_________________________

- ~~Simple syntax~~
- ~~Powerful libraries~~
- ~~Massive ecosystem~~
- ~~Fast development~~

Abraham Karikari (npub13r9…s6ez) all false.

The same four points are true of languages like JavaScript, Java, C#, Clojure, Julia, Ruby, and R. So why is Python really dominant when any of those languages could replace it for simple syntax, powerful libraries, massive ecosystems, and fast development cycles?

The real reason:

- Python is the language of choice in most programming 101 courses for most high schools and colleges around the world
- Most people hate learning new programming languages and don't want to change after they have learned Python.

Maybe you already know about Haskell Core and STG? I don't ...

2026-06-02T09:41:22Z

In reply to nevent1q…e36a
_________________________

Maybe you already know about Haskell Core and STG? I don't know 100% if these are immutable, but I am pretty sure at least Core is immutable.

https://www.stephendiehl.com/posts/ghc_03/

what, you want the other genocide guy to win instead?!?!

2026-06-02T01:50:19Z

In reply to nevent1q…5s60
_________________________

what, you want the other genocide guy to win instead?!?!

that's rights (at least, in terms of computing power). Also, ...

2026-06-02T00:54:07Z

In reply to nevent1q…y69m
_________________________

that's rights (at least, in terms of computing power). Also, computer technology had only recently evolved beyond entering information by punch card. "Time Sharing Systems" allowed many users to connect to a computer over the telephone and enter commands directly by teletype terminal. So a system of controlling the computer with text, especially allowing a person to save a file of commands and replay them as a "script," or even send the output of one program to another, was a very useful innovation.

Perl and then AWK? Surely you could do this all with just Perl, ...

2026-06-02T00:06:42Z

In reply to nevent1q…cqgg
_________________________

Perl and then AWK?

Surely you could do this all with just Perl, or just AWK, no need for sort or uniq either. A challenge!

Back in the 1970s, "everything is a file" was a pretty ...

2026-06-01T23:51:50Z

In reply to nevent1q…r23x
_________________________

Back in the 1970s, "everything is a file" was a pretty revolutionary idea. It allowed you to configure hardware and services using ordinary text editing tools, and treat text as objects on a map (the filesystem tree), whereas before you would have had to write numbers directly to certain locations in memory.

It is still a somewhat useful idea nowadays, it is just that there are actually better ways to do things. For example, relational algebra like what SQL databases provide, or object oriented systems like what Smalltalk systems provide (I think IBM's OS/2 was an attempt at making an "everything is an object" operating system), or everything is an environment, like what Lisp systems provide.

And it is a lie, actually, not everything is a file. For example, you can't change the list of processes that are running by just editing a file, you can't rearrange a network of interacting processes by editing a file --- you can write software that does this (Guix Shepherd), but the operating system itself will not without a lot of extra software installed.

For better or worse (mostly worse) the Unix philosophy won, and the whole computer industry adopted the "everything is a file (mostly)" approach. There has been much [dispute](https://www.dreamsongs.com/WorseIsBetter.html) as to why, but few question it nowadays.

The Unix way is not the end-all-be-all of computing paradigms, anyone who thinks so is probably not all that well informed. https://tilde.town/~ramin_hal9001/articles/emacs-unix-04_lisp-does-fp-better-than-bash.html

> Bash and Zsh are LANGUAGES? > > What else aren’t you ...

2026-05-28T11:48:50Z

In reply to nevent1q…h2h5
_________________________

> Bash and Zsh are LANGUAGES?
>
> What else aren’t you people telling me? How big is this iceberg, actually?

Yes, and I assert that Emacs is also a programming language. GNU Emacs comes with its own built-in text editor, along with dozens of other useful code libraries and mini-apps.

lemgandi (npub1jd6…y6yj) Jay :iwate: (npub1h03…pygu)

@npub1h03…pygu Awk and Bash are technically different ...

2026-05-25T13:07:59Z

In reply to nevent1q…8j6f
_________________________

Jay :iwate: (npub1h03…pygu) Awk and Bash are technically different programming languages.

I encourage everyone who is intersted in Linux to learn some kind of POSIX shell language, Bash is as good as any. I also encourage people to learn how to use Vi and/or Emacs, since the communities around these softwares are integral to the Linux community at large.

That said, it does "smell" funny that you need a few different programming languages to learn how to do shell scripting. There are, in fact, languages that can be used equally well for both shell scripting, full-text-search, and large-scale application development all rolled into one. That's why I usually try to steer people toward Emacs once they have got the hang of Vi, so you can get a taste of one of the most powerful and enduring programming languages ever invented; the one language to rule them all.

Oh, I had not heard of Embark-DWIM. I can recall Bob Weiner ...

2026-05-14T15:45:04Z

In reply to nevent1q…svea
_________________________

Oh, I had not heard of Embark-DWIM.

I can recall Bob Weiner telling me that you and he have had conversations and swapped ideas before, and he has incorporated some of Embark's features into Hyperbole, as you have incorporated some of Hyperbole's features into Embark, such as this DWIM command.

I'll be sure to give Embark-DWIM a try!

Charlie Holland (npub1hll…0fjp) @kentpitman@climatejustice.social screwlisp (npub1fp0…54p5)

LOL, I wouldn't advocate for programming in natural language ...

2026-05-08T16:58:37Z

In reply to nevent1q…hpz2
_________________________

LOL, I wouldn't advocate for programming in natural language either.

But it is true that I have been seeing colleagues of mine who know nothing about computer programming now turning their very large spreadsheets into "apps" that they can use for themselves using LLMs with very little effort. And isn't that the utopian ideal that was promised to us by software application developers who embedded "easy to learn and use" scripting languages for customizing their applications?

I like the approach taken by this paper to present the facts of ...

2026-05-08T16:50:12Z

In reply to nevent1q…gf2r
_________________________

I like the approach taken by this paper to present the facts of "scripting languages" and invites the reader to ask the question and answer for themselves, "what is a scripting language," rather than answer it for the reader.

Of course I have strong opinions on this topic which you probably won't agree with entirely. Mostly, I think the term "scripting language," is just a marketing term, much like "artificial intelligence." People have a vague idea of what it means, and it looks good when you include "scriptable" or "extensible" in the list of features for your software in your marketing material.

Before LLMs were invented, it may have been a marketable feature of your scripting language that it was "powerful" and "easy to learn," meaning had a syntax that maybe somewhat resembled a spoken language such as English. This perhaps made it appear to prospective customers like they could easily customize the application to get more work done without too much effort.

But like most marketing, it is a all a big lie: computer languages are not easy to use no matter how much you try to make them resemble a spoken language. Programming languages are never easy or natural to use unless you already understand computer programming.

And now that LLMs are a thing, you can really, actually script your application in natural language, the LLM will translate your natural language explanation into a scripting language, usually JavaScript as that is the language most readily available for training LLMs.

I think one thing that Lisp languages get right, which all other languages get wrong (even some of my favorite languages, like Haskell) is that the code itself is just a serialization protocol (S-expressions) of the Abstratc Syntax Tree (AST) of the language. You write code using the same protocol that the compiler/interpreter itself uses to read and write it's own AST. This simplifies the language, and also provides your users with the ability to do meta-programming (programs that manipulate the AST). Most programming languages keep the AST and interpreter details hidden from their users; this is a huge mistake, because it can be incredibly useful to have the AST and the functions to "read" and "write" it available to you for your own programming.

This S-expression form may look "ugly" to many people, but maybe we should all just stop pretending that Turing complete languages are ever natural or "easy to use." There is no merit to it from a marketing point of view anymore, now that LLMs can do your scripting for you.

And then, with a language like Scheme, which is small enough to be embedded as a scripting language, but powerful enough to build entire applications, you start to realize that it actually is possible to simplify all of computer programming down to a few basic principles which can be used to do everything. All other language semantics can be expressed in this tiny, core language. This is because the beta-reduction algorithm in Lambda Calculus is also Turing complete. It is just so elegant, I can't help but wonder why can people not appreciate this more?

nice! I'll give it a try. I was wondering if your Gopher ...

2026-05-08T02:11:41Z

In reply to nevent1q…gwz7
_________________________

nice! I'll give it a try.

I was wondering if your Gopher client could be hacked to work as a kind-of RSS reader, where it regularly downloads a list of Gopher maps and diffs for updates, then publishes the updates as a gophermap?

I mention this because on the show this past week screwlisp (npub1fp0…54p5) was asking if we had any Gopher relates news to talk about, and it occurred to me that we had no easy way to easily check the Gopher-sphere for recent updates, it has to be done manually.

in Apple's case, it was switching to Swift as their ...

2026-04-28T00:16:07Z

In reply to nevent1q…39pu
_________________________

in Apple's case, it was switching to Swift as their application level programmung labguage that probably caused those performance issues.

Microsoft's .NET, on the other hand, is solid as a rock. So Windows performace issues are mostly to do with spending 50% or more of every computer's resources on spying on people.

gullevek ☢️ 🇯🇵 (npub1qus…mytu) Niki (npub1xe9…d8ze)

> "Right now people are trading results for insight and ...

2026-04-19T17:50:12Z

In reply to nevent1q…3925
_________________________

> "Right now people are trading results for insight and visibility into their own code but as these results become cheaper they will inevitably become less valued and less valuable."

I've been working on writing a series of 7 blog articles in which this is a recurring theme.

The actual thesis of my article series is how my younger self who was more optimistic and enthusiastic about computers that could think as well as a human, and I contrast this optimistic view to what we actually see happening today. We haven't even invented a human-equivalent thinking computer yet (LLMs are talking computers, a neccessary but not sufficient condition for intelligence), but the fact that capital believes they have invented thinking computers tells us what to expect should a thinking computer ever actually be invented.

But I keep coming back to humans becoming too dependent on AI, using the old sci-fi novel "The Machine Stops" as an analogy of what could happen. We must not sacrifice insight and understanding of the systems we build for short-term gains in product development time, because ultimately we are only making ourselves more dependent on these machines to %hink for us.

the absolute most I am willing to concede to your point here is ...

2026-04-07T16:16:54Z

In reply to nevent1q…dn86
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the absolute most I am willing to concede to your point here is that MAGA had *some* legitimate grievances as well.

Though MAGA unwisely directed their anger toward powerless scapegoats (non-whites) rather than the people who actually are causing them problems (the wealthy and politically powerful), some MAGA voters were just poorly informed working class people suffering under economic stagnation and really hoping for a change for the better. They had it pretty bad. I can sympathize with that even if I think it is stupid, even suicidal, to vote MAGA.

The Anti-AI people also have legitimate grievances. But that is where the comparison between Anti-AI and MAGA end. Because which underprivileged group of scapegoats are Anti-AI people attacking when they attack AI? I can't find anything comparable at all. Again, don't conflate victim with attacker just because both sides appear to be shouting.

> And in particular, the rhetorical styles of 2016-era MAGA do ...

2026-04-07T15:45:50Z

In reply to nevent1q…xplq
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> And in particular, the rhetorical styles of 2016-era MAGA do have some familiar tones being repeated. Understanding that and asking why is worth doing!

Mx. Aria Stewart (npub1lsa…mpp0) "similar rhetorical styles." Sure, because, like I said, both sides sound "extreme."

But the nature of their extremism cannot be equated or compared. One side (the Anti-AI people) are the victims of AI who have every right to be angry, the other side (MAGA), are white supremacists who want to oppress people in the most extreme and violent ways imaginable who incidentally are using AI to help them do it.

Equating anti-AI people to MAGA reeks of victim blaming. It makes it seems like you are dismissing the grievances of people who have been harmed by AI.

I think the word you are looking for is just ...

2026-04-07T15:30:48Z

In reply to nevent1q…w50k
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I think the word you are looking for is just **"extremism."** You mean to say Anti-AI people are "extreme."

But the anti-AI extremism doesn't even begin to compare to the degree of raw hatred and deadly violence that MAGA exhibits, and to unironically compare the two groups for both being "extreme" is seriously among the most tone deaf takes I have ever heard uttered on the Internet in a very long time.

How is this most extreme form of hatred and violence comparable to anti-AI people in any way, shape, or form?

1. MAGA are [genocidal fascists](https://zeteo.com/p/trump-threatens-a-genocide-against)
2. MAGA leader Trump commits [war crimes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karaj_B1_bridge_attack) and [terrorism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_Minab_school_attack)
3. MAGA are white supremacists
4, MAGA are [in bed with tech bros](https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-elon-musk-tech-bro-maga-2012194) like [Elon Musk](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Department_of_Government_Efficiency)

Again, how is this most extreme form of hatred and violence comparable to anti-AI people in any way, shape, or form?

And by the way:

1. AI is being [used to commit genocide](https://www.972mag.com/lavender-ai-israeli-army-gaza/) (disagree?)
2. AI is being used to [spy on people](https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2024/09/omnipresent-ai-cameras-will-ensure-good-behavior-says-larry-ellison/) (disagree?)
3. AI is being [used to steal artists work](https://rudevulture.com/ai-company-clones-musicians-voice-then-copyright-strikes-her-own-songs/) (disagree?)
4. AI is [increasing costs of fresh water and electricity](https://www.lincolninst.edu/publications/land-lines-magazine/articles/land-water-impacts-data-centers/).

The people who are the victims of this makes them somehow equal to genocidal white supremacists?