Hacker News: quantummagic

New comment by quantummagic in "The $6.3B Binance hack was pulled off in just 20 minutes"

quantummagic — Sat, 31 Oct 2026 12:50:33 +0000

What if the bag of paper "money" is in a foreign currency? You'd still happily call it money, but then the distinctions you're trying to draw with crypto don't really apply. Think of crypto as a foreign currency, it still functions as money.

New comment by quantummagic in "The $6.3B Binance hack was pulled off in just 20 minutes"

quantummagic — Sat, 31 Oct 2026 11:50:04 +0000

And if thieves stole a bag of paper from you, that happen to have the number $100 and some other artwork written on them by the government, what then? It's not money, it's just some "paper asset"? You're just showing your own personal bias about what the definition of money is.

New comment by quantummagic in "Triple-A Minesweeper"

quantummagic — Sat, 10 Oct 2026 10:20:37 +0000

This seemed so pointless and uninteresting to me. It's obviously a blindspot for me, since it's so heavily upvoted and liked by many. But for me, mindlessly clicking the prompted location, after sitting through some pointless into logos, leading to absolutely no payoff at all, just ending credits, was distasteful. Can someone who enjoyed this experience articulate why, so that I can reflect on my own personal failing in this regard?

New comment by quantummagic in "Iceland votes on whether to restart talks on joining EU"

quantummagic — Sun, 06 Sep 2026 09:01:26 +0000

They are exactly comparable. The concept is exactly the same. We have borders and protected areas, and it is reasonable to make restrictions on other people based on those borders. It is not racist.

New comment by quantummagic in "The moral panic over data centres is foolish"

quantummagic — Sat, 05 Sep 2026 19:41:49 +0000

That's a completely separate issue (if it is one at all), but I was addressing the specific concerns in the OPs question.

New comment by quantummagic in "The moral panic over data centres is foolish"

quantummagic — Sat, 05 Sep 2026 19:39:23 +0000

Of course those are real issues that should be addressed. Just like if a factory producing bicycles is running all night and keeping you awake. But it's not something that should be concerning for anyone outside the area. It's not an existential crisis, just a local nuisance.

New comment by quantummagic in "Iceland votes on whether to restart talks on joining EU"

quantummagic — Sat, 29 Aug 2026 14:52:24 +0000

I don't know if you're being intentionally obtuse, or you genuinely believe what you're saying. I was the one saying that a border is a border, and you had better have a good explanation as to why the national border is fundamentally different from your home. If it's okay to protect your home, why is it WRONG to protect your country? See? I was putting the OP to the test: why is one just fine, but the other reprehensible? Instead, the OP responded with accusations of racism.

New comment by quantummagic in "Iceland votes on whether to restart talks on joining EU"

quantummagic — Sat, 29 Aug 2026 14:43:48 +0000

Misrepresenting the argument is not a good look. The argument is that everyone believes in borders. And that borders aren't racist. The only question is where we personally accept them being drawn. But NOBODY believes they're inherently all bad. Not even the people who pretend to do so, and are all too happy to throw around accusations of fascism and racism, to appeal to base emotion rather than logical and practical arguments.

New comment by quantummagic in "Iceland votes on whether to restart talks on joining EU"

quantummagic — Sat, 29 Aug 2026 14:28:05 +0000

Typical response. Defending my home isn't racist. And your willingness to use that accusation is pathetic and not really worthy of a response... but understand that a border is the same concept be it for a home, for a community, for a city, or for a nation. Your dismissal is not cogent, it just hides utter misunderstanding of reality, and a desire to make other people pay a price you're not willing to pay yourself.

New comment by quantummagic in "Iceland votes on whether to restart talks on joining EU"

quantummagic — Sat, 29 Aug 2026 14:11:40 +0000

> border fascism

I hope you keep to your principles and make sure not to lock your doors at night, and don't deny anyone the right to live in your house with you for free if they desire.

New comment by quantummagic in "Anthropic's War on open source AI"

quantummagic — Tue, 18 Aug 2026 12:09:13 +0000

Why? An argument stands on its own, regardless of origin. If it's poorly written, by someone who is say a non-native speaker, it can still be a VALUABLE and VALID argument. It would be racist to dismiss an argument because it was poorly written by a non-native speaker. "Racism" against a computer is just as ignorant and petty.

New comment by quantummagic in "Anthropic's War on open source AI"

quantummagic — Mon, 17 Aug 2026 17:44:36 +0000

If the argument is good enough, it worth ignoring who/what the author is.

New comment by quantummagic in "As AI eats the web, the internet’s collective memory is disappearing"

quantummagic — Tue, 11 Aug 2026 09:01:49 +0000

You're right, this is the best it will ever be. But there likely will be ad blockers for them -- local LLMs that filter for any brand placement, etc.

New comment by quantummagic in "Depression has tripled in the last 15 years. Arthur Brooks about the cause"

quantummagic — Sun, 09 Aug 2026 01:27:17 +0000

The point is that to the extent it causes certain individuals to lose faith in humanity, or become reclusive, and as a result not reproduce -- it has the effect of altering the overall genetic makeup of subsequent generations. The net result being a population "adapted" to this new environment.

New comment by quantummagic in "How to Spot AI Writing"

quantummagic — Sat, 01 Aug 2026 15:23:08 +0000

Does it take a human to have agency? Doesn't a cat have agency and desire? What about a worm? Where do you make the cut off, and why? If an AI is programmed with a bias towards creating and following "desires", how is it fundamentally different than what evolution installed in us?

We're way too human focused and dismissive of everything that isn't exactly like us.

New comment by quantummagic in "How to Spot AI Writing"

quantummagic — Sat, 01 Aug 2026 15:16:21 +0000

> For example, I recently spent 2 weeks researching Bruce Lee ... [AI] output will just be a reiteration of already common knowledge instead of the actual efforts I made researching all of it.

Presumably you researched Bruce Lee by reading and consuming other media related to him, most of which is likely known by the AI models. They just don't have access to any novel idea that you generated, inspired by your research.

Regardless of their current inabilities, which you're correct about, there's no logical reason that in the long term they can't be similarly inspired by considering the same information and making new connections / conjectures just as you did.

We're making the same mistake that the people who dismissed the early airplane made. "That's a neat trick, but it's too limited and not robust enough to be very useful". Not considering how the technology would evolve from the Wright Brother's prototypes.

New comment by quantummagic in "Em dashes are amazing"

quantummagic — Fri, 24 Jul 2026 13:31:51 +0000

It sounds like people ruined them for you — it isn't AI calling you out for using them.

New comment by quantummagic in "Eight Newly Produced MQ-9 Reaper Drones Destroyed in Iranian Strike"

quantummagic — Fri, 24 Jul 2026 13:23:02 +0000

I'm no fan of the current administration, but this particular loss seems to be a failing of military strategy and leadership, not civilian ineptitude. It's not like the Whitehouse would have picked this staging area or directly controlled other logistics involved.

New comment by quantummagic in "Buz – A fork of Bun using modern Zig, with sub-1s incremental builds"

quantummagic — Fri, 24 Jul 2026 13:08:41 +0000

Seriously. The only way to use it is to be a very religious person. You have to pray every single time you use it that your system doesn't become compromised.

New comment by quantummagic in "Better and Cheaper Than IPTV"

quantummagic — Sun, 19 Jul 2026 03:33:41 +0000

It could just be streaming the trailer.