Hacker News: jrwoodruff

Anthropic CEO says his tech could destroy human civilization

jrwoodruff — Wed, 28 Jan 2026 19:15:01 +0000

Article URL: https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/anthropic-ceo-warns-ai-ravage-human-civilization

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46800173

Points: 3

# Comments: 0

New comment by jrwoodruff in "Boston Dynamics and DeepMind form new AI partnership"

jrwoodruff — Mon, 05 Jan 2026 22:48:58 +0000

There's still plenty of assembly work being done by humans in automotive factories. Maybe it's not humanoid robots, but quadruped robots or something with more human-like agility. [Microfactories](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNqmvIuzbR4) are an interesting shift in automotive manufacturing that could take advantage of these more dexterous and mobile robot form factors.

New comment by jrwoodruff in "Cowboys and Drones: two modes of operation for small business"

jrwoodruff — Fri, 07 Mar 2025 14:10:17 +0000

Same. I think metaphors that paint something as black or white are almost as damaging in practice as they can be useful in understanding. It doesn't help that these metaphors usually have a built-in positive/negative connotation as well - who wants to be a drone?

New comment by jrwoodruff in "Who killed the rave?"

jrwoodruff — Wed, 08 Jan 2025 16:54:50 +0000

Also made possible by the internet and computers in general, I'd argue. Without the easy availability of prices, sales data, and general number crunching capabilities I don't think this would be happening. Certainly not at the scale we're seeing.

New comment by jrwoodruff in "T-Mobile pays $16M fine for three years' worth of data breaches"

jrwoodruff — Tue, 01 Oct 2024 20:53:40 +0000

The equivalent of about $200 for someone making $100,000/yr

New comment by jrwoodruff in "Apple apologizes for iPad 'Crush' ad that 'missed the mark'"

jrwoodruff — Fri, 10 May 2024 12:47:30 +0000

For me, it was more about the humanity represented by the objects than what company they came from. All of those objects are far more human-centered than the iPad. All of those objects were crafted and perfected over centuries - guitar forms, paint formulas, camera technology, etc. In a way it's representative of the much of human culture, and this add kinda says, yea, screw all that old crappy stuff. Look at our neat piece of glass that replaces all that humanity.

I get it, that's exactly their point. The iPad can do all of those things. But at a time when many creatives feel like AI is going to replace them or make their skills irrelevant, it's pretty tone deaf.

And also, it's far more likely that most of those objects were made by skilled craftsmen, even if they did work at a bigger company.

New comment by jrwoodruff in "Warn HN: The AI That Plugs Your Product on Reddit in Conversations"

jrwoodruff — Thu, 02 May 2024 15:58:25 +0000

Yea this is gross. Even the examples they provide are gross. Someone struggling with debt, and a some robot gives them the impression that there's a person that cares and, by the way, you should spend your money on this service. Ewww.

New comment by jrwoodruff in "The U.S. government may finally mandate safer table saws"

jrwoodruff — Tue, 09 Apr 2024 20:28:09 +0000

Color me jaded, but isn't this just business as usual in the U.S?

New comment by jrwoodruff in "Do loud pipes save lives? (2021)"

jrwoodruff — Sat, 06 Apr 2024 21:10:52 +0000

Michigan State Police somewhat controversially switched to BMW motorcycles in 2012, and actually disbanded the motorcycle unit for awhile because of safety issues. Apparently it's returning this year, still using the BMWs.

https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2024/02/15/m...

New comment by jrwoodruff in "A formula for responsive font-size"

jrwoodruff — Thu, 14 Mar 2024 12:52:44 +0000

If every site used the same font, maybe. But different font faces vary in readability at the same size. Also, we still have to set sizes for things like titles, subtitles and other elements to create a hierarchy on the page.

'Don't resize my fonts' is such a narrow view of whole range of design considerations.

New comment by jrwoodruff in "The failure of self-checkout technology"

jrwoodruff — Wed, 17 Jan 2024 15:00:47 +0000

Definitely a yes-and scenario here. I was a cashier, I'm good at finding and scanning bar codes and PLU lookups. I was a damn fast cashier. That's impossible in a self checkout. And then you get carded for a can of spray paint, and the one attendant for 8 machines has three people with blinking lights. On top of that, most of these self-checkouts are not designed to handle a full cart of groceries, but also why do I want to do the work of ringing up and bagging a full cart of groceries by myself?

For the most part, in practice there's little or no advantage for me, the consumer with a cart full of groceries.

One exception was 2003-era Martins in Virginia - Walk in, grab a cart that had bags attached to the front, grab a portable scan gun from it's charging dock. Scan and bag as you shop, dock the gun to the checkout register, show the attendant my id if needed, pay, and I'm done. No unloading and reloading the cart, no fiddling with plu lookups, fumbling with bags, etc. It was actually glorious, but relies on trusting your customers. Corporate stores seem to trust me even less than I trust them.

I'm somewhat ok with these things as a secondary 10-items-or-less option. But for the love of god staff enough cashiers to handle the grocery-shopping-Sunday crowds.

New comment by jrwoodruff in "US sues eBay for allowing sale of emissions defeat devices"

jrwoodruff — Tue, 10 Oct 2023 19:54:47 +0000

I'm unfamiliar with this, but I'd love some well-done black out shades - got a link or a brand?

New comment by jrwoodruff in "Car Bloat: “Huge Cars Are Terrible for Society”"

jrwoodruff — Mon, 07 Aug 2023 18:44:46 +0000

You may be underestimating the size of the average American these days...

Source: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/04news/americans.htm#:~:t....

New comment by jrwoodruff in "A third of North America’s birds have vanished"

jrwoodruff — Sun, 16 Jul 2023 01:44:55 +0000

The problem is we shouldn’t be working against the government on this. Problems like this are why governments exist, it needs to happen at that scale. Unfortunately, it seems like we’ve forgotten how to solve social problems of any significant scale.

New comment by jrwoodruff in "Amazon job cuts: Read the memos"

jrwoodruff — Fri, 20 Jan 2023 14:39:16 +0000

It'd be neat to have a list of companies that use this strategy. It seems like all the big ones do?

New comment by jrwoodruff in "The Next Button"

jrwoodruff — Tue, 17 Jan 2023 14:54:37 +0000

Now I'm just picturing AI generating and sending emails so another AI can craft and send a response back.

New comment by jrwoodruff in "Ask HN: I'm 40 and feel my mental ability declining. Programming seems harder."

jrwoodruff — Tue, 10 Jan 2023 14:23:10 +0000

42 here, I feel it. Don't know if it's age, added responsibilities, or the culmination of all the distraction and task switching I've experienced for years. But, I've just recently started 'brain training' using brainhq.com, kind of for fun and just to see if it makes a difference.

TBH I thought all those ads for brain training were a load of BS, but I recently finished reading The Brain that Changes Itself by Norman Doidge, it's an older-ish book at this point but there was a lot of info in there about how the brain works that I didn't know. Neuroscientist Michael Merzenich's https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Merzenich work pioneering brain plasticity with cochlear implants and expanding that research into autism is highlighted at the beginning of the book and it's pretty damn interesting.

BrainHQ was started by Merzenich, and it's cheap. Figured why not give it a shot?

New comment by jrwoodruff in "My coffee maker just makes coffee"

jrwoodruff — Mon, 09 Jan 2023 20:02:11 +0000

I actually laughed out loud when I clicked the link and it was Keurig. K-cups rank right up there with Dyson imho. Yea, it kind of solves a problem, but mostly it's great marketing.

They created a problem people didn't realize they had, drove demand for a solution no one asked for, and charge a premium so you can create more waste per cup.

But, it's cheaper then stopping at Starbucks...

New comment by jrwoodruff in "An undersea art gallery that ensnares illegal trawlers"

jrwoodruff — Thu, 17 Nov 2022 19:19:18 +0000

And probably as an attraction for divers and others in the area.

New comment by jrwoodruff in "Ask HN: How did you stop drinking?"

jrwoodruff — Tue, 11 Oct 2022 15:38:01 +0000

Not OP, but I can speak about what this meant to me: Primarily facing my emotions, even learning how to feel emotions again, then learning how to understand and communicate them in a way where I stay true to myself, and live life on my own terms.

Before I started doing this work I approached everything logically. "I shouldn't feel this way, because x, y and z are objectively good." "If I present things this way, I'll get people to agree with me." "I don't want to do x, but it will make so-and-so happy."

It never worked for long, and alcohol has a nice way of suppressing those feelings, as well as the little negative voice in your head that tends to accompany those suppressed emotions.

Rather than trying to logic my way to acceptance and contentment, I've had to learn how to wade into my emotions and figure out productive ways to express what they're telling me.

It's work to improve the relationship you have with yourself; it's still a work in progress for me.