Hacker News: psunavy03

New comment by psunavy03 in "If AI Writes All the Code, What Do the Programmers Do?"

psunavy03 — Tue, 28 Jul 2026 16:39:42 +0000

It's also possible to point the AI at legacy spaghetti and say "document this in detail" as a starting point for unspaghettifying it.

New comment by psunavy03 in "The Dark Night of Mathematics"

psunavy03 — Sat, 25 Jul 2026 17:04:15 +0000

As someone who has been both a software professional and a jet aviator, the same process is going to occur in both. Humans will still be in the loop, but the span of control and effectiveness of each individual human will explode. There's a reason the current plan is to augment manned aircraft with "loyal wingman" drones and smaller ones. Even in the Russo-Ukrainian War, manned aircraft are still A Thing. They've even hauled old prop trainers out of storage to put a guy in the back with an assault rifle to shoot down Shahed drones, because they're too slow for fighters.

Software is going to go through the same adaptation and exaptation process as military aviation.

New comment by psunavy03 in "DARPA, U.S. Air Force fly AI-controlled F-16"

psunavy03 — Sat, 25 Jul 2026 04:29:10 +0000

With respect to assessing whether an AI-controlled aircraft using only available onboard sensors and datalinks can defeat a manned aircraft in BFM, it's not even in the same ZIP code. You've never flown BFM, have you? I have.

New comment by psunavy03 in "DARPA, U.S. Air Force fly AI-controlled F-16"

psunavy03 — Thu, 23 Jul 2026 20:22:24 +0000

The simulator is not the aircraft.

New comment by psunavy03 in "DARPA, U.S. Air Force fly AI-controlled F-16"

psunavy03 — Thu, 23 Jul 2026 20:19:01 +0000

Because the most powerful military in the world can only do so much when ordered to execute a crap strategy by civilian leadership. Desert Storm worked because it followed the Powell Doctrine and was bounded to ejecting Iraq from Kuwait. Iraqi Freedom muddled through incoherently because the Bush and Obama administrations didn't want to understand the actual problem set they were faced with, but ultimately ended up with a reasonably stable country after way too much effort and time. Iran is what happens when you have an administration who thinks you can win a war by "just bombing things," which is ironically the stereotype most of the internet has about any kind of military action.

New comment by psunavy03 in "Modern decor may be straining people's brains"

psunavy03 — Sat, 11 Jul 2026 20:40:19 +0000

So many people in this thread not understanding what a luxury and a privilege "staying put" for decades is in this era of layoffs.

New comment by psunavy03 in "The hidden engineering of runways"

psunavy03 — Tue, 27 Jan 2026 19:36:58 +0000

I wouldn't call it a "long time." MAGIC CARPET per se, especially as a default mode of operation, did not become mainstream until the last 10 years, and that's only for the aircraft that have it.

New comment by psunavy03 in "The hidden engineering of runways"

psunavy03 — Tue, 27 Jan 2026 19:21:11 +0000

Citation is my professional network as a former Naval Flight Officer who flew off aircraft carriers, and it's not the deckplates, it's the nonskid coating that goes on top of them. It's expected to wear and be replaced every so often, but when you have to do it more often than that, it becomes a pain logistically and operationally.

And the entire point of the system is to counter the dispersion the ocean provides, much like a Naval Aviator is already required to in order to trap successfully. You are literally flying through a very narrow window that is moving in three dimensions.

New comment by psunavy03 in "The hidden engineering of runways"

psunavy03 — Tue, 27 Jan 2026 19:00:25 +0000

I'm sure Google Maps has had to put their thumb on the scale in numerous instances. I recall reading articles about it "discovering" more optimal routes between Point A and Point B only to find things like the new "optimal" route being down a neighborhood street, and then the locals started squawking.

New comment by psunavy03 in "U.S. government has lost more than 10k STEM PhDs since Trump took office"

psunavy03 — Tue, 27 Jan 2026 18:58:36 +0000

It already is.

New comment by psunavy03 in "FBI is investigating Minnesota Signal chats tracking ICE"

psunavy03 — Tue, 27 Jan 2026 18:02:23 +0000

The DOD is not using "flagrantly using Signal." The Secretary of Defense, whatever his preferred pronouns are, is breaking the law.

New comment by psunavy03 in "The hidden engineering of runways"

psunavy03 — Mon, 26 Jan 2026 22:31:04 +0000

IIRC, there was a similar problem on aircraft carrier flight decks, where they had to induce some randomized amount of dispersion to keep the tailhook from hitting the same spot over and over again.

New comment by psunavy03 in "The Adolescence of Technology"

psunavy03 — Mon, 26 Jan 2026 20:15:50 +0000

People can't even have a conversation about any kind of societal issues these days without pointing at the other political tribe and casting aspersions about "what they really meant" instead of engaging with what's actually being said.

Forgetting that if you really can hear a dogwhistle, you're also a dog.

New comment by psunavy03 in "Things I've learned in my 10 years as an engineering manager"

psunavy03 — Mon, 26 Jan 2026 16:29:36 +0000

As a former Naval Flight Officer, it's somewhat ironic how the private sector is more "sir, yes sir" command and control than the military ever was, and they're the ones who stereotype servicemembers for being drones who can only follow orders.

The other thing I've seen incredibly less of in software than in uniform is a bias for action at all levels. Combined with understanding the mission, a mentality that "in the absence of being told what to do, I will act." Better to ask forgiveness than permission, etc. etc. So many people in the private sector just wait for the boss to push them around like chess pieces, and I can't understand how they're OK living like that.

New comment by psunavy03 in "Scientists identify brain waves that define the limits of 'you'"

psunavy03 — Mon, 26 Jan 2026 15:45:17 +0000

This is how these kinds of articles always go.

New comment by psunavy03 in "House vote keeps federal "kill switch" vehicle mandate"

psunavy03 — Fri, 23 Jan 2026 19:21:38 +0000

Tell that to the Mujahedeen, the Taliban, the Viet Cong, Mao, and George Washington.

Just because the government has tanks does not mean "we have tanks and nukes, therefore we'll win" has proven true across military history.

New comment by psunavy03 in "Is liberal democracy in terminal decline?"

psunavy03 — Fri, 23 Jan 2026 17:21:53 +0000

Yes. That's what the impeachment clause is for.

New comment by psunavy03 in "Is liberal democracy in terminal decline?"

psunavy03 — Fri, 23 Jan 2026 17:21:08 +0000

The President made a nomination. The Senate refused it. It's the Senate's prerogative to deny confirmation to the nominee.

New comment by psunavy03 in "Is liberal democracy in terminal decline?"

psunavy03 — Fri, 23 Jan 2026 16:07:23 +0000

The Supreme Court has told Trump to pound sand as often as it's upheld his policies. As dangerous as many of the things the Trump administration is doing are, there are other dangerous narratives out there, and the caricaturing of the Supreme Court is one of those.

There's a huge difference between "I disagree with this legal rationale" and "this court is illegitimate." Like it or not, every Justice on the Court is there legitimately. One of them via bare-knuckle hardball politics, to be sure. But according to the rules.

New comment by psunavy03 in "Tesla fined for repeatedly failing to help UK police over driving offences"

psunavy03 — Fri, 23 Jan 2026 16:01:17 +0000

There's a great generalization that conveniently excuses you not having to engage with viewpoints you disagree with.