Hacker News: nstents

New comment by nstents in "Every Mac comes with an (undocumented) family member classifier"

nstents — Sat, 07 Nov 2026 13:14:35 +0000

If you came away thinking I was enthusing about AI slop, it's probably because I was too subtle in comparing it to a food I abhor while saying there are tidbits, non-slop tidbits, that I could appreciate. Apologies for that human generated mischance!

New comment by nstents in "Motorola Signature 27 with GrapheneOS support"

nstents — Fri, 06 Nov 2026 12:37:33 +0000

With a nod to Kurt Vonnegut: Which government?

New comment by nstents in "Search for everyone"

nstents — Fri, 06 Nov 2026 00:59:19 +0000

There is always the possibility where we have people that ads have not affected them in at least two cases, thereby obviating the call to "realize that you are not a platonic unity always in absolute control of your perceptions, beliefs, and tendencies".

New comment by nstents in "A wave of plastic-free coffee pods and machines"

nstents — Wed, 04 Nov 2026 16:39:12 +0000

In the hinterlands we use a variable speed drill, a Hilti at this level, to power our manual grinder for the roasted exotic beans before using a stainless steel Alessi moka pot for our coffee.

No sense using our hands to belabor the point when grinding.

New comment by nstents in "Patrick Stewart taught us what good men do with power"

nstents — Sun, 01 Nov 2026 20:29:05 +0000

It's a great question. Adherents to the Old Testament point to Original Sin.

But even without religion we can use today's standards of morality to be sure that at some point in human development there was a first time for a person to commit an abjectly "sinful" crime of inhumanity against another. Not having been there to witness the event, I can't tell you the what or why of it. Fratricide, parricide, abuse, and more, I think we can be sure there is a first time for all of these.

Speculation leads to many answers. One, absent religion, is that because we seem to be derived from pond scum "inhumanity" developed somewhat before morals and ethics did, and has found its niche in us.

New comment by nstents in "Patrick Stewart taught us what good men do with power"

nstents — Sun, 01 Nov 2026 20:14:33 +0000

It's hard to know enough details about the three people most closely involved. To make matters more difficult, a person being "good" or "bad" is a very subjective viewpoint. No, he was probably not good to his wife, and no he admits he wasn't a good father.

At the same time, he was a pro, and his abilities to inspire belief in the goal of being a better person helped countless people believe in something bigger than themselves.

Not to create a strawman out of thin air, but I'd argue that he did more good for far more people than he did to hurt and estrange his family. If there is an equation for such a comparison.

There is no way to condone the damages he caused. I just think it's better overall that we had him as he was, than not at all.

New comment by nstents in "Perspectiva Kogui: A message on artificial intelligence from the Kogui people"

nstents — Thu, 29 Oct 2026 14:42:00 +0000

I meant to be saying that the Kogui were not the ones pushing the music production retreat, but it was a third party, the creators of the site, doing so.

My apologies for having allowed a different interpretation in my previous comment.

New comment by nstents in "An Urgent Message on Artificial Intelligence from the Kogui People"

nstents — Thu, 29 Oct 2026 13:29:37 +0000

I think that's an easy conclusion to come to, but the top level page of the site seems to push a different conclusion: "...On this path, we recognize and honor the indigenous peoples of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta — the Kogui, Arhuaco, Wiwa and Kankuamo — as ancestral guardians of the territory and living source of the wisdom that inspires and underpins our work."

New comment by nstents in "Perspectiva Kogui: A message on artificial intelligence from the Kogui people"

nstents — Thu, 29 Oct 2026 13:13:36 +0000

It can help in getting a perspective on this message to investigate the Kogui tribe, its philosophies, and its structure, including how they raise their future leaders. There's a strong similarity, with important differences, between Plato's Allegory of the Cave (from the Republic) and how some children are brought up. These children later become important figures in the community.

Edit: an early BBC documentary on the Kogui https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJNpMxhO4Ic

New comment by nstents in "An Urgent Message on Artificial Intelligence from the Kogui People"

nstents — Thu, 29 Oct 2026 13:02:53 +0000

Even twins may use the term "you" between each other.

New comment by nstents in "Perspectiva Kogui: A message on artificial intelligence from the Kogui people"

nstents — Thu, 29 Oct 2026 12:59:44 +0000

That's quite the box they're put into; they're either completely ignorant of the outside world, or they're completely infected by it. Perhaps there's a middle ground.

New comment by nstents in "Alan's Random Insult Generator (1999)"

nstents — Sun, 13 Sep 2026 16:29:28 +0000

Reading Damn Interesting every day, I had no idea. Someone used your insults on AOL, or something like that, repeatedly. Thank you for the laughs.

Giving Minecraft Infinite Time to Beat Itself [video]

nstents — Tue, 08 Sep 2026 01:56:46 +0000

Article URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9t2fV52jMA8

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49604863

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

New comment by nstents in "America's two largest school districts impose AI moratoriums"

nstents — Sun, 06 Sep 2026 01:00:07 +0000

I can't continue the thread to answer your last, more definite, question.

I used an indefinite article on purpose in order to not go to a particular person. The topic I posed was on the relationship, not on persons. So any democratic socialist mayor for that matter.

New comment by nstents in "America's two largest school districts impose AI moratoriums"

nstents — Sun, 06 Sep 2026 00:54:58 +0000

If that's an important issue for you, could you use your collective resources more thoroughly in addressing it?

New comment by nstents in "America's two largest school districts impose AI moratoriums"

nstents — Sun, 06 Sep 2026 00:49:03 +0000

Is not a Democratic Scoialist also a Socialist these days?

New comment by nstents in "America's two largest school districts impose AI moratoriums"

nstents — Sun, 06 Sep 2026 00:46:03 +0000

What's that got to do with anything?

New comment by nstents in "America's two largest school districts impose AI moratoriums"

nstents — Sun, 06 Sep 2026 00:39:01 +0000

I love that question. It's a great question because it's designed to elicit avenues of attack.

I'd say that Democratic Socialism, today among the general population of the United States the term Socialism has no set definition, no real understanding of its roots, and no real concept of how it would be enacted politically in a Democratic society.

So I'm really not sure what you mean by Democratic Socialist. I think you mean as defined by Wikipedia.

If so, in short I see Marx as being a root among many to Socialism, and so on to Democratic Socialism. The dogma from Marx follows through to an application for people to obtain their "needs": "More of whatever, less expensive, and better evrything! And AI is actually Socialist, so let's do it and vote for me!!!" That kind of cynical approach.

New comment by nstents in "America's two largest school districts impose AI moratoriums"

nstents — Sun, 06 Sep 2026 00:12:26 +0000

It's definitely being redistributed through the market. Also, I believe there are efforts underway to create open source AI.

I'm not advocating a Marxist dogma, so I can't affirm "we should take and redistribute AI capacity in some way".

New comment by nstents in "America's two largest school districts impose AI moratoriums"

nstents — Sun, 06 Sep 2026 00:06:53 +0000

I'd "need" to know what you see my interpretation of needs as being before I could answer better. But I'll give it a try without a dictionary.

In its most fundamental sense, a need is a requirement for life to continue and reproduce. These requirements typically involve the abilities to compete, to obtain food, to have shelter, to mate and protect the young, etc.

Isn't AI to serve needs? For example, the need to find bugs in software so somebody can compete economically and employees can meet their needs as described above? To buy food, shelter, raise children?

Quite seriously, I think this is an important underpinning of why AI is advancing, and where it's taking us. The fact that it overlaps with Marx, at least to me, is a fascinating and incredible irony, because its success is an application of the very seductive message behind Marxism.

I appreciate everyone's time in challenging this.