Hacker News: contrarian1234

New comment by contrarian1234 in "GPT-5 outperforms federal judges in legal reasoning experiment"

contrarian1234 — Fri, 13 Feb 2026 03:15:18 +0000

your complete lack of self awareness is annoying but also amusing :)

New comment by contrarian1234 in "The Falkirk Wheel"

contrarian1234 — Thu, 12 Feb 2026 13:39:56 +0000

wow thats absolutely tiny. thanks for the detailed info. very interesting :))

New comment by contrarian1234 in "GPT-5 outperforms federal judges in legal reasoning experiment"

contrarian1234 — Thu, 12 Feb 2026 07:46:16 +0000

given your inability to engage with an opposing point of view, youre definitely not a bot. So ill take your ad hominem as praise

New comment by contrarian1234 in "GPT-5 outperforms federal judges in legal reasoning experiment"

contrarian1234 — Thu, 12 Feb 2026 07:28:58 +0000

> It isn't "my scenario". These are real cases

maybe English isnt your native language, but "scenario" doesnt require the situation to be not real

> Nothing in there about "likeability" or "we let her off because she had nice tits"

We have no way to know if likeability played in to it. When rules are bendable then they are bent to the likeable and attractive. My example of a traffic stop is analogous and more directly relatable

> This is how the law has always worked, and if you've thought otherwise then consider you've been living under this "insane system" for your entire life

You seem to have some reading comprehension issues.. I never suggested its not currently working that way and i never suggested the current situation is not insane. If you think the current system is sane and great then thats your opinion

Everyone i know whos had to deal with the US legal system has only related horror stories

New comment by contrarian1234 in "GPT-5 outperforms federal judges in legal reasoning experiment"

contrarian1234 — Thu, 12 Feb 2026 02:51:16 +0000

The parent comment present a scenario where the law is ignored b/c the judge decides for himself it shouldn't apply. I'm pointing out that this kind of approach is fundamentally unjust and wrong.

"And sure you can say the laws should be written better, but so long as the laws are written by humans that will simply not be the case"

The obvious solution is dismissed

New comment by contrarian1234 in "GPT-5 outperforms federal judges in legal reasoning experiment"

contrarian1234 — Thu, 12 Feb 2026 01:58:32 +0000

Sorry but that seems like an insane system where whole classes of actions effectively are illegal but probably okay if you're likeable. In your scenario the obvious solution is to amend the law and pardon people convinced under it. B/c what really happens is that if you have a pretty face and big tits you get out of speeding tickets b/c "gosh well the law wasn't intended for nice people like you"

New comment by contrarian1234 in "The Falkirk Wheel"

contrarian1234 — Wed, 11 Feb 2026 04:20:25 +0000

Is it just for leisure or commercial traffic?

it's a lot smaller than I imagined. I can't picture a river barge fitting in it, but it's hard to tell the scale

New comment by contrarian1234 in "TSMC to make advanced AI semiconductors in Japan"

contrarian1234 — Mon, 09 Feb 2026 07:29:40 +0000

Right now is an AI goldrush. They can get crazy lucrative investments and lock in amazing deals. In a decade the Chinese tech will catch up and the AI boom will slow down and the Taiwanese will have to coast on what they have. They have to capitalize on this moment as much as they can b/c it's not going to last long. Things are going to get much tougher very soon

New comment by contrarian1234 in "NASA's WB-57 crash lands at Houston"

contrarian1234 — Sun, 01 Feb 2026 04:25:19 +0000

Making a new plane is obviously a major effort. Updating avionics/engine also seems extremely complex. However, the alternative I was suggesting is just using a commercial passenger plane (like a private jet someone else suggested)

New comment by contrarian1234 in "NASA's WB-57 crash lands at Houston"

contrarian1234 — Sun, 01 Feb 2026 04:21:46 +0000

I mean I think people have been complaining about the KC-135 being too old for a very long time, and from what I heard the replacement was urgently needed. At least there I can see how there is really no good alternative - it's a very specialized plane. Here they just need a plane that can fly high and is easy to modify with new equipment. It feels like there should be plenty of other candidates. However, the other reply seems to imply it's not all that expensive to maintain

New comment by contrarian1234 in "NASA's WB-57 crash lands at Houston"

contrarian1234 — Sat, 31 Jan 2026 16:39:31 +0000

Why is such an ancient plane still being used? Lack of funding to use something newer? Or it has some capability that can't be replicated?

I would imagine it's incredibly expensive to maintain. Are they machining their own engine parts?

New comment by contrarian1234 in "ICE using Palantir tool that feeds on Medicaid data"

contrarian1234 — Wed, 28 Jan 2026 22:11:10 +0000

I think the real problem is that the government is not structured in an accountable way and things like DOGE can happen. These things basically don't happen in other democracies. The Japanese don't all have assault rifles in their basement b/c they're waiting for the day the Diet is going to harvest their data to oppress them

New comment by contrarian1234 in "ICE using Palantir tool that feeds on Medicaid data"

contrarian1234 — Mon, 26 Jan 2026 21:23:26 +0000

Are we supposed to structure out society so we're safer in the case that the Chinese invade and use all our institutions against us? There is a risk-benefit tradeoff to make. Crippling society and institutions in preparation for an a worst-case scenario future hypothetical is not sensible. To get things done you operate from the standpoint that the democratic government is responsive to the desires of the people. The adversarial perspective is self sabotaging

New comment by contrarian1234 in "ICE using Palantir tool that feeds on Medicaid data"

contrarian1234 — Mon, 26 Jan 2026 18:57:51 +0000

The Rights are not intended as preemptive. You don't have a right to free speech b/c otherwise maybe the government regulation of speech will get out of hand. You have it because it's espoused as a fundamental right. Same with separation of church and state. It's like "Well maybe a future evil government will regulate the church poorly, so lets ban it completely". It's just seen as an area the government shouldn't delve in entirely.

Collecting information about people doesn't really fit the same mold. It's not sensible to remove that function entirely. It's not a right. And it's not sensible to structure things with the expectation the future government will be evil

New comment by contrarian1234 in "A flawed paper in management science has been cited more than 6k times"

contrarian1234 — Sun, 25 Jan 2026 23:22:21 +0000

maybe naiive but isnt this what "comments" in journals are for?

theyre usually published with a response by the authors

New comment by contrarian1234 in "ICE using Palantir tool that feeds on Medicaid data"

contrarian1234 — Sun, 25 Jan 2026 23:16:15 +0000

yeah, this is exactly it. all the arguments kind of boil down to

"well how about if the government does illegal or evil stuff?"

its very similar to arguments about the second ammendment. But laws and rules shouldnt be structured around expecting a future moment where the government isnt serving the people. At that moment the rules already dont matter

New comment by contrarian1234 in "Microsoft will give the FBI a Windows PC data encryption key if ordered"

contrarian1234 — Sun, 25 Jan 2026 02:57:58 +0000

Have the recipient server be owned by a priest and API metadata that says it's a confession

New comment by contrarian1234 in "Purdue blocks admission of many Chinese grad students in unwritten policy"

contrarian1234 — Mon, 19 Jan 2026 03:11:30 +0000

Are you trying to say there is a parallel in that the right voices read the tea leaves correctly and knew that Russia was going to be a crazy rogue state? And that similarly, there are signs China is going to get super belligerent in the future?

I would first say that what happened with Russia, at least to me, did not seem inevitable even with hindsight. I don't think Romney had some keen foresight - more like a lucky guess.

I also don't really see the same happening with China, though it's of course possible. A sudden economic downturn could trigger a need for an external enemy and a conflict.

But a military conflict between the US and China just seems like an absurd fantasy. It'd how you end up with a nuclear war and the death of millions. I don't think the Chinese secretly want this in the long run. They want peace and more business and more wealth

New comment by contrarian1234 in "Purdue blocks admission of many Chinese grad students in unwritten policy"

contrarian1234 — Sun, 18 Jan 2026 19:04:50 +0000

Russia is not an active economic rival. If they weren't actively attacking neighbors and interfere with governments around the world they would be basically irrelevant. I think the situation is radically different from China. Russia seems to have intentionally positioned themselves as enemies b.c it's part of their identity and the government's attempt to retain some relevance on the international stage

New comment by contrarian1234 in "Purdue blocks admission of many Chinese grad students in unwritten policy"

contrarian1234 — Sun, 18 Jan 2026 18:40:32 +0000

Okay they have a small limited amount of border disputes that are wrapped up in their nationalism. But they're not instigating coupe-detats is other countries to get favorable regimes, or significantly militarily meddling in other regions of the world to get favorable outcomes.

I'd say on the whole, given their size, military strength and economic connections, they've been remarkably restrained - borderline isolationist - when it comes to international interference. I don't see how they're a danger to democracy outside of their own borders - with the exception of maybe troll farms that are trying to shape cultural narratives