Hacker News: neaden

New comment by neaden in "The Silurian Hypothesis (2020)"

neaden — Sat, 25 Jul 2026 15:28:36 +0000

There would still be many signs. Dug up mines, metal alloys that don't exist in nature along with refined metals in quantities they don't exist, animal and plant species we bred along with all the ones we made extinct.

New comment by neaden in "The Silurian Hypothesis (2020)"

neaden — Sat, 25 Jul 2026 15:14:51 +0000

I mean sure, if they somehow didn't have any trade goods that went in land, didn't work with metals enough to do any appreciable mining, and didn't breed any plants or animals enough to change their genetics. Any hypothetical hidden past civilization would have to have been weird in a number of ways to not leave any evidence.

New comment by neaden in "Fields Medals 2026"

neaden — Thu, 23 Jul 2026 19:20:09 +0000

What do you base that certainty on? I'm not saying you're wrong, but I am also skeptical you are correct and since it is four people you can probably look into if any of them have talked about it instead of just deciding that what you think is true.

New comment by neaden in "Kaiser nurses say AI, surveillance are making their jobs and patient care worse"

neaden — Fri, 17 Jul 2026 22:46:58 +0000

If you think using a machine to evaluate how well a human is showing empathy is a good idea, you probably shouldn't have any position of power.

New comment by neaden in "A metallurgist's doubts about self-replicating probes"

neaden — Wed, 15 Jul 2026 18:34:34 +0000

Sure North Korea tries, but they don't succeed so it's not really helpful as an example of a self sufficient society to base a space colony off of. As for Israel yeah, they mostly don't import food from their neighbors (most of whom also import the majority of their food calories) but I don't see what that has to do with anything, as I said they import 80% of their calories which is certainly not tenable for a space colony to do.

New comment by neaden in "A metallurgist's doubts about self-replicating probes"

neaden — Tue, 14 Jul 2026 20:01:43 +0000

OK, so elderly distinguished scientists say it is impossible for me to travel FTL by spinning in a circle with my eyes closed while on acid, guess we should start investing research dollars into that.

New comment by neaden in "A metallurgist's doubts about self-replicating probes"

neaden — Tue, 14 Jul 2026 19:58:17 +0000

"Israel or North Korea, both of which try to be self-sufficient" - Neither of them do any such thing though. From a quick search Israel imports about 80% of their calories though they also export some food they are heavily reliant on imported grains and meat. North Korea is obviously harder to get information on but it imports large amounts of food from China.

New comment by neaden in "An entire Herculaneum scroll has been read for the first time"

neaden — Thu, 25 Jun 2026 23:27:04 +0000

It's hard to imagine something more heterodox than Ovid (he managed to get himself exiled by Augustus), and that survived. Medieval readers didn't seem to mind that sort of thing in Greco Roman writing, it was part of their heritage, no one was seriously worshipping those gods so it wasn't seen as a threat. The people in the past behaving in a way that was seen as immoral wasn't a problem.

New comment by neaden in "An entire Herculaneum scroll has been read for the first time"

neaden — Thu, 25 Jun 2026 20:13:49 +0000

I think it's less that the stuff would be considered heterodox, as just not as good/relevant. Like certain texts were used in the Roman world for school, just kind of universally taught to the literate class. The Aeneid was one of these but before it was written the Annales by Ennius was the classic poem everyone had to learn. Then the Annales became less popular, stopped being taught, and now we only have some fragments of it.

New comment by neaden in "How the Fifth Lateran Council unlocked financial theory"

neaden — Thu, 25 Jun 2026 19:43:30 +0000

Well yes, there are times where it legal to take someones possessions/money such as if they owe a debt or have a legal judgement against them. In that case it could mean for instance sheriff deputies showing up at your house with guns and taking things in a manner that would be legal and not be considered robbery. When it becomes one thing or another is going to depend on your position on other things, there is a legal answer for when it becomes robbery/murder but also moral answers. I am for example a moral realist, so my answer to that would be different than someone who was a moral relativist.

New comment by neaden in "Political bias in AI: Where the AI models stand"

neaden — Thu, 25 Jun 2026 19:37:12 +0000

"Any city, however small, is in fact divided into two, one the city of the poor, the other of the rich; these are at war with one another." - Plato The Republic.

New comment by neaden in "How the Fifth Lateran Council unlocked financial theory"

neaden — Thu, 25 Jun 2026 01:07:27 +0000

Well murder is similar in that it means an illegal or immoral killing. There are times (say in self defence) where it has taunt it is moral and should be legal to kill, because that isn't murder. So similar to this, it changed usury to illegal lending rather than lending.

New comment by neaden in "Stanford grads walk out on Google CEO Sundar Pichai speech"

neaden — Tue, 16 Jun 2026 12:02:38 +0000

I did not insult you, it seems like you are just having trouble understanding other people.

New comment by neaden in "Stanford grads walk out on Google CEO Sundar Pichai speech"

neaden — Mon, 15 Jun 2026 12:01:46 +0000

I didn't misunderstand or get angry. You brought up people not protesting Palestine. I didn't insult you, belittle you, or anything else so I don't know why you would think I'm angry except you've just decided everyone who agrees with you is angry, which is a bad habit to have

New comment by neaden in "Stanford grads walk out on Google CEO Sundar Pichai speech"

neaden — Mon, 15 Jun 2026 01:01:05 +0000

I was answering why you don't see people protesting Hamas, which is what you brought up. If you didn't want to discuss that, then you shouldn't have brought it up.

New comment by neaden in "Stanford grads walk out on Google CEO Sundar Pichai speech"

neaden — Mon, 15 Jun 2026 00:45:40 +0000

It's because the US government doesn't fund hamas and US companies don't work with Hamas.

New comment by neaden in "What it feels like to work with Mythos"

neaden — Tue, 09 Jun 2026 19:57:13 +0000

Man, that poem it made is terrible. Like just incredibly bad. Sure it's neat that software can make an incredibly bad poem but there is enough bad poetry in the world that we don't need it.

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

neaden — Mon, 01 Jun 2026 21:34:59 +0000

Yeah I think on say, a proper road the horse would win at any distance.

New comment by neaden in "College students drown out AI-praising commencement speeches with boos"

neaden — Wed, 20 May 2026 15:40:29 +0000

To your edit, it's because the commencement speakers are praising AI and probably not praising the Iran war, the wealth gap, or high housing prices. I would imagine if a commencement speaker did praise those things they would get boo-ed too.

New comment by neaden in "Colonization of Venus"

neaden — Tue, 19 May 2026 15:20:29 +0000

"Fairly Easy" Is doing a lot of work there. Theoretically possible yes.