Hacker News: RandomLensman

New comment by RandomLensman in "Gemini Robotics 2 brings whole body intelligence to robots"

RandomLensman — Thu, 30 Jul 2026 17:17:01 +0000

The difference might be that I don't believe in these "machine gods of cleaning" being the thing to arrive (looking at current consumer goods) and then the boundary for what to choose shifts a lot if one is willing to deal with humans. The latter also doesn't need to be so foreign, e.g., could be someone already working for a friend.

New comment by RandomLensman in "Gemini Robotics 2 brings whole body intelligence to robots"

RandomLensman — Thu, 30 Jul 2026 17:05:11 +0000

The last point I can get behind as it is a clear advantage, the other ones might need some more superhuman abilities that I'd not accept as given until demonstrated in extenso.

New comment by RandomLensman in "Gemini Robotics 2 brings whole body intelligence to robots"

RandomLensman — Thu, 30 Jul 2026 17:00:01 +0000

I might even get one as I like trying new tech if and when, but I have no issue with hiring humans either and humans so far "fail" very differently from machines (as in a lot of software). I find the latter far less predictable and controllable.

New comment by RandomLensman in "Gemini Robotics 2 brings whole body intelligence to robots"

RandomLensman — Thu, 30 Jul 2026 16:23:12 +0000

I think machines are just unpredictable in different ways (for example, changes from software updates).

New comment by RandomLensman in "Gemini Robotics 2 brings whole body intelligence to robots"

RandomLensman — Thu, 30 Jul 2026 16:16:15 +0000

Not irony: why manage machines with all the issues that go with that instead of people?

New comment by RandomLensman in "Gemini Robotics 2 brings whole body intelligence to robots"

RandomLensman — Thu, 30 Jul 2026 16:13:38 +0000

If there is a subscription in there somewhere, prices could change.

New comment by RandomLensman in "Gemini Robotics 2 brings whole body intelligence to robots"

RandomLensman — Thu, 30 Jul 2026 16:10:39 +0000

You'd need to manage the robot, too, I would think. In my experience, I rather manage people than machines.

New comment by RandomLensman in "Gemini Robotics 2 brings whole body intelligence to robots"

RandomLensman — Thu, 30 Jul 2026 15:55:09 +0000

Not sure it is just about inference costs, errors in handling things and beings in the real world have a very different "surface" from immaterial applications - robots might need to have failsafes, independent limiters, etc. there.

New comment by RandomLensman in "Gemini Robotics 2 brings whole body intelligence to robots"

RandomLensman — Thu, 30 Jul 2026 15:49:54 +0000

Honestly: why?

New comment by RandomLensman in "Gemini Robotics 2 brings whole body intelligence to robots"

RandomLensman — Thu, 30 Jul 2026 15:31:09 +0000

> It can better detect when humans are nearby, trigger safety tool calls and bring the robot to a safe stop if someone approaches too closely.

If the robots stop when humans are too close, wouldn't that mean that robots for close interaction or handling of humans need a whole other level of control?

New comment by RandomLensman in "Hacker wipes Romania's land registry database"

RandomLensman — Tue, 21 Jul 2026 05:34:05 +0000

The taking care of the book for 70y does not involve recreating the book over and over again to keep it readable or keeping a reading machine in working condition (or be able to recreate it). It's an entirely different level of care.

If the medium isn't destroyed, it is directly readable if it's a book, but not necessarily so in digital because hardware and software is needed - just taking care of the original medium isn't enough in digital over centuries.

New comment by RandomLensman in "Czechia moves to ban mobile phones in schools from September 2027"

RandomLensman — Mon, 20 Jul 2026 18:33:43 +0000

No immediate benefits but could be beneficial long-term (increased well-being but not the same as learning). Whether things in Czechia are comparable to that US situation I wouldn't know.

New comment by RandomLensman in "Hacker wipes Romania's land registry database"

RandomLensman — Mon, 20 Jul 2026 18:02:43 +0000

I would not call needing weeks or months not a problem (assuming you also get the potentially proprietary software to understand the data recovered). Also, early hard drives weigh 100s of kilograms, so just physically handling them is difficult.

Totally agree on accessing NVME example.

New comment by RandomLensman in "Hacker wipes Romania's land registry database"

RandomLensman — Mon, 20 Jul 2026 17:50:00 +0000

Not at all the same thing - what equipment do you need to read hieroglyphs on top of understanding the language (which goes for digital, too)? If you have the paper and understand the language, that's it. We already can see that accessing old digital data isn't necessarily easy if it wasn't always kept on/converted to current media and formats (will we keep that up for millenia)?

And both storage can be broken, needing reconstruction.

If I were to give you a 70y old book in English vs some 70y tape with data on - which one is easier to read?

New comment by RandomLensman in "Perfection Is Not Over-Engineering"

RandomLensman — Mon, 20 Jul 2026 14:59:54 +0000

> Every constraint on the table. Tighten those enough and something interesting happens, you end up with only one possible solution.

Is there always a unique solution? If constraints A is tightened and then determines the outcome, could that not also happen with a tightened constraint B that determines a different outcome?

New comment by RandomLensman in "Hacker wipes Romania's land registry database"

RandomLensman — Mon, 20 Jul 2026 14:52:37 +0000

That is sufficient to make it real for most intents and purposes.

New comment by RandomLensman in "Hacker wipes Romania's land registry database"

RandomLensman — Mon, 20 Jul 2026 14:39:20 +0000

Yes, so quite limited in scope. We have no experience with storing and keeping accessible electronic records for hundreds of years, though, but we know already that accessing old storage media and formats isn't necessarily easy.

New comment by RandomLensman in "Hacker wipes Romania's land registry database"

RandomLensman — Mon, 20 Jul 2026 14:35:50 +0000

You need a machine (hardware and software) to read digital copies, not just the digital copies.

New comment by RandomLensman in "Hacker wipes Romania's land registry database"

RandomLensman — Mon, 20 Jul 2026 14:29:44 +0000

Seems to be rather sturdy in my experience. Would we even be able to read an electronic record after 100 or 200 years of storage? Old piece of paper is quite accessible.

New comment by RandomLensman in "Hacker wipes Romania's land registry database"

RandomLensman — Mon, 20 Jul 2026 14:28:09 +0000

So which one is the ground truth if there is a difference between them?