Hacker News: dsubburam

Enter the Lebenswelt: AI and Our Life-World

dsubburam — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 20:02:23 +0000

Article URL: https://deepsub.substack.com/p/enter-the-lebenswelt-ai-and-our-life

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47547514

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

Federal judge rules: AI queries not protected from subpoenas/warrants

dsubburam — Mon, 02 Mar 2026 19:03:47 +0000

Article URL: https://www.paulweiss.com/insights/client-memos/sdny-court-considers-whether-ai-generated-documents-are-subject-to-privilege-protections

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47222493

Points: 17

# Comments: 1

New comment by dsubburam in "All AI Videos Are Harmful (2025)"

dsubburam — Mon, 05 Jan 2026 19:05:10 +0000

Maybe we can distinguish craftmanship from creativity. This case can then be cast as one of deploying creativity without embodying the traditional craftmanship (ability to play guitar, sing low notes). I don't see that as illegitimate, so long as no false credit is taken about the said guitar playing, low note singing.

Can an artist be good if they can't draw a good circle by hand? Yes. Except they can't take credit for the goodness of circles that appear in their work, if not drawn by them.

[Edit: "responsibility" -> "credit"]

The great shift of English prose

dsubburam — Thu, 01 Jan 2026 02:19:14 +0000

Article URL: https://www.worksinprogress.news/p/english-prose-has-become-much-easier

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46450625

Points: 63

# Comments: 47

New comment by dsubburam in "Tatiana Schlossberg Has Died"

dsubburam — Tue, 30 Dec 2025 20:44:13 +0000

Her recent article about her illness and how she lived through it was quite touching and very sad. On the New Yorker, and posted on HN[1], though it did not get much discussion here then.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46024709

New comment by dsubburam in "Maybe the default settings are too high"

dsubburam — Fri, 26 Dec 2025 00:28:24 +0000

Music is an interesting case. You can't slow down the consumption of music (you have to let it play at the speed the performer intended), but you can dial up the attention you give it. Listening with headphones, eyes closed, and phone+doorbell etc. switched off would be close to max. Sitting at a live concert (I am thinking classical) is up there too, because you've given yourself permission to not think of/work on anything else in that time. For music, we can say that the default settings are too LOW.

And similar to the point OP made, you get more out of it when you attend more closely. And similarly, most music does not withstand this level of scrutiny.

New comment by dsubburam in "Why Current AI Won't Displace Lawyers"

dsubburam — Sat, 20 Dec 2025 06:14:41 +0000

Another way lawyers can get displaced is if the rule of law breaks down. Then, whether you can get, say, regulatory approval for a deal, will depend more on if you can bribe someone than on carefully drafting and negotiating the terms.

This makes it in the lawyers' interest to stand their ground when established legal principles are under attack.

Why Current AI Won't Displace Lawyers

dsubburam — Sat, 20 Dec 2025 00:18:14 +0000

Article URL: https://deepsub.substack.com/p/six-reasons-why-current-ai-wont-displace

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46332538

Points: 2

# Comments: 3

Musk vs. Kierkegaard: Why Wake Up

dsubburam — Sun, 28 Sep 2025 23:13:33 +0000

Article URL: https://deepsub.substack.com/p/musk-v-kierkegaard-why-wake-up

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45408908

Points: 4

# Comments: 0

New comment by dsubburam in "How can I influence others without manipulating them?"

dsubburam — Mon, 22 Sep 2025 01:24:09 +0000

Persuasion that happens in good faith is a two-way street. You explain your position, but also truly listen to theirs. If you are prepared to change your own position based on what they say, then you can hope that they might change theirs based on what you say.

If it is truly two way in this sense, including your best efforts to extract from the other party their strongest, potentially unexpected, arguments for their position and give them your due consideration, it shouldn't feel like manipulation.

Trump unlawfully canceled Harvard's research grants, US judge rules

dsubburam — Wed, 03 Sep 2025 21:31:26 +0000

Article URL: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-unlawfully-canceled-harvards-research-grants-us-judge-rules-2025-09-03/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45120623

Points: 22

# Comments: 7

New comment by dsubburam in "AGI is an engineering problem, not a model training problem"

dsubburam — Sun, 24 Aug 2025 03:30:22 +0000

I do not know how "general intelligence" is defined, but there are a set of features we humans have that other animals mostly don't, as per the philosopher Roger Scruton[1], that I am reproducing from memory (errors mine):

1. Animals have desires, but do not make choices

We can choose to do what we do not desire, and choose not to do what we desire. For animals, one does not need to make this distinction to explain their behavior (Occam's razor)--they simply do what they desire.

2. Animals "live in a world of perception" (Schopenhauer)

They only engage with things as they are. They do not reminisce about the past, plan for the future, or fantasize about the impossible. They do not ask "what if?" or "why?". They lack imagination.

3. Animals do not have the higher emotions that require a conceptual repertoire

such as regret, gratitude, shame, pride, guilt, etc.

4. Animals do not form complex relationships with others

Because it requires the higher emotions like gratitude and resentment, and concepts such as rights and responsibilities.

5. Animals do not get art or music

We can pay disinterested attention to a work of art (or nature) for its own sake, taking pleasure from the exercise of our rational faculties thereof.

6. Animals do not laugh

I do not know if the science/philosophy of laughter is settled, but it appears to me to be some kind of phenomenon that depends on civil society.

7. Animals lack language

in the full sense of being able to engage in reason-giving dialogue with others, justifying your actions and explaining your intentions.

Scruton believed that all of the above arise together.

I know this is perhaps a little OT, but I seldom if ever see these issues mentioned in discussions about AGI. Maybe less applicable to super-intelligence, but certainly applicable to the "artificial human" part of the equation.

[1] Philosophy: Principles and Problems. Roger Scruton

New comment by dsubburam in "The End of Handwriting"

dsubburam — Wed, 20 Aug 2025 21:32:32 +0000

Also, a fountain pen can be held at a smaller angle to the paper. Unlike the other kinds of pens, it even tends to write better that way. I find the smaller angle more comfortable to hold.

New comment by dsubburam in "Open models by OpenAI"

dsubburam — Wed, 06 Aug 2025 03:05:51 +0000

> I’m still trying to understand what is the biggest group of people that uses local AI (or will)?

Creatives? I am surprised no one's mentioned this yet:

I tried to help a couple of friends with better copy for their websites, and quickly realized that they were using inventive phrases to explain their work, phrases that they would not want competitors to get wind of and benefit from; phrases that associate closely with their personal brand.

Ultimately, I felt uncomfortable presenting the cloud AIs with their text. Sometimes I feel this way even with my own Substack posts, where I occasionally coin a phrase I am proud of. But with local AI? Cool...

CollabLLM: From Passive Responders to Active Collaborators

dsubburam — Wed, 23 Jul 2025 03:41:29 +0000

Article URL: https://ICML.cc/virtual/2025/poster/45988

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44655532

Points: 3

# Comments: 0

ICML 2025 Outstanding Paper Awards

dsubburam — Wed, 23 Jul 2025 03:32:20 +0000

Article URL: https://icml.cc/virtual/2025/awards_detail

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44655492

Points: 7

# Comments: 1

New comment by dsubburam in "Nobody has a personality anymore: we are products with labels"

dsubburam — Mon, 07 Jul 2025 03:18:17 +0000

This parallels the debate about free will and determinism. If you were in the determinist camp, believing that all that one does was predetermined by prior environmental causes, could you still hold people responsible for their actions?

Hobart makes a convincing argument that you can: "Fatalism says that my morrow is determined no matter how I struggle. This is of course a superstition. Determinism says that my morrow is determined through my struggle. There is this significance in my mental effort, that it is deciding the event." [1]

i.e., he is a "compatibilist", thinking that you can believe in free will and determinism too.

If you find Hobart persuasive, time-blindness or no, it does make sense to reproach someone for being habitually unpunctual.

[1] https://philarchive.org/archive/HOBFWA