Hacker News: donkey_brains

New comment by donkey_brains in "Scientists ejected from diabetes conference for distributing journal reprints"

donkey_brains — Sun, 07 Jun 2026 12:13:10 +0000

I completely agree with what you are saying, but I have grown too cynical to believe it will ever happen. American capitalism has been very effective at ensuring 2 outcomes:

- The population is kept just comfortable enough to become complacent, with easy access to intoxicants, brainrot media and fast food. Now there are even robots that can do our thinking for us. A large percentage of people are brainwashed into thinking that all change is bad because it will cause them to lose the paltry, ersatz freedom they have rather than gaining real liberty.

- The labor pool is kept large enough that any of us could be replaced immediately with no significant loss to our employers. As the ISP mantra goes, “we have nothing to lose but our jobs”.

Yes, we know that they couldn’t replace _all_ of us at once, but combine points 1 and 2 and you will start to understand why there is no appreciable labor movement in the United States.

New comment by donkey_brains in "Scientists ejected from diabetes conference for distributing journal reprints"

donkey_brains — Sun, 07 Jun 2026 11:59:04 +0000

“I’m not crazy, everyone else is crazy! That’s why they’re all out to get me.”

New comment by donkey_brains in "Scientists ejected from diabetes conference for distributing journal reprints"

donkey_brains — Sun, 07 Jun 2026 11:57:46 +0000

None of that happened here.

New comment by donkey_brains in "Ask HN: What was your "oh shit" moment with GenAI?"

donkey_brains — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 22:38:24 +0000

Just as bad as the technical debt is the cognitive debt in your codebase. When something breaks, your only recourse is to ask the AI how to fix it, since it wrote it and you did not have time to review all of its code. Except now the code base is so large it won’t fit into the context window, and the AI can’t help you, and…you’re screwed.

New comment by donkey_brains in "Failing grades soar with AI usage, dwindling math skills in Berkeley CS classes"

donkey_brains — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 00:29:38 +0000

Well, sometimes we have to subtract 1 from something, too.

New comment by donkey_brains in "Failing grades soar with AI usage, dwindling math skills in Berkeley CS classes"

donkey_brains — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 00:10:31 +0000

Oh, so only extremely corrosive, cool

New comment by donkey_brains in "Superintelligence: The Idea That Eats Smart People (2016)"

donkey_brains — Tue, 02 Jun 2026 02:20:58 +0000

Well that’s just not fair. Even the fastest human on earth can’t be expected to keep up with a horse riding a bike.

New comment by donkey_brains in "Rumors of my death are slightly exaggerated"

donkey_brains — Fri, 08 May 2026 20:33:27 +0000

Wrong thread bud

New comment by donkey_brains in "The map that keeps Burning Man honest"

donkey_brains — Thu, 07 May 2026 16:34:53 +0000

That’s a narrow definition of a leader. Seems to me that a leader can be someone who others _choose_ to follow.

New comment by donkey_brains in "A network smuggling Starlink tech into Iran to beat internet blackout"

donkey_brains — Sun, 03 May 2026 03:45:35 +0000

The point being that we need to not incriminate these people.

New comment by donkey_brains in "Trump fires NSF's oversight board"

donkey_brains — Sun, 26 Apr 2026 03:56:25 +0000

Eh, they’re probably too busy molesting their younger siblings to take notice or offense.

New comment by donkey_brains in "Tell HN: An app is silently installing itself on my iPhone every day"

donkey_brains — Sun, 26 Apr 2026 03:44:53 +0000

But why this one specific app and no others?

New comment by donkey_brains in "Caffeine, cocaine, and painkillers detected in sharks from The Bahamas"

donkey_brains — Mon, 13 Apr 2026 10:52:31 +0000

Unlike plastic gloves, researchers don’t typically bring these substances into the lab.

New comment by donkey_brains in "Sam Altman's home targeted in second attack"

donkey_brains — Mon, 13 Apr 2026 00:54:55 +0000

I think you have to be at least remotely a sympathetic figure to be a martyr

New comment by donkey_brains in "Cyberattack on vehicle breathalyzer company leaves drivers stranded in the US"

donkey_brains — Mon, 23 Mar 2026 21:04:13 +0000

Dunno where the parent comment was referring to, but different countries have different standards. In Colombia the bus transit stations all have breathalyzer stations and the drivers have to pass the breathalyzer before starting their shifts. It was pretty wild to see as an outsider but completely unremarkable to everyone else.

New comment by donkey_brains in "Kona EV Hacking"

donkey_brains — Mon, 16 Mar 2026 17:26:11 +0000

Elsewhere in the site he publishes her name and address.

New comment by donkey_brains in "Peter Thiel's Antichrist Lectures"

donkey_brains — Fri, 13 Mar 2026 11:09:36 +0000

“Who was the Antichrist? When would he arrive? What would he preach? What kind of SaaS offerings will he want to invest in?”

New comment by donkey_brains in "See the oldest fossilized 'butthole' imprint"

donkey_brains — Fri, 06 Mar 2026 20:21:25 +0000

Clickbait title…it’s just a cloaca

New comment by donkey_brains in "Fentanyl makeover: Core structural redesign could lead to safer pain medications"

donkey_brains — Thu, 26 Feb 2026 15:15:22 +0000

Hey, let’s not discount the opinion of some internet guy just because of the lived experience of the rest of humanity throughout history. /s

New comment by donkey_brains in "Sub-$200 Lidar could reshuffle auto sensor economics"

donkey_brains — Mon, 23 Feb 2026 11:16:02 +0000

Mass surveillance is a relatively recent development. Dense urban civilizations are not. And yet their denizens have not historically devolved into a “nasty, brutish, and short” existence. In fact, cities have been centers of culture and learning throughout history. How does this square with your theory?