Hacker News: randallsquared

New comment by randallsquared in "Artificial intelligence is not conscious – Ted Chiang"

randallsquared — Thu, 04 Jun 2026 02:47:37 +0000

> Do you suppose that, for example, insects are not conscious?

Not the OP, but: since there is no testable theory of consciousness, yet, I can't be sure, but my current assumption is that insects are not conscious, in the sense of there being someone implemented in insect hardware who experiences the world. That is, I would argue there is nothing it is like to be a bee, since there's no one being a bee.

I'm pretty sure there IS someone who is being me, at least much of the time.

New comment by randallsquared in "Amazon Has Axed Its New Stargate Series"

randallsquared — Wed, 03 Jun 2026 02:33:05 +0000

Possibly it continues to stream frequently enough to be considered a contributor to Prime Video? Not sure if you can stream it other places, but if so, those fees would be continued revenue that might disappear if the reaction to a new show is poor.

New comment by randallsquared in "Amazon Has Axed Its New Stargate Series"

randallsquared — Wed, 03 Jun 2026 02:14:24 +0000

I'm on season 6 of a rewatch with family right now, and I will say that one of the things I had not remembered was just how much of the time brute force IS the right answer in this show.

New comment by randallsquared in "Amazon Has Axed Its New Stargate Series"

randallsquared — Wed, 03 Jun 2026 02:10:45 +0000

It wasn't a reboot, but a continuation. That doesn't mean it would have been good, of course (cf Universe), but better than a reboot.

New comment by randallsquared in "Amazon Has Axed Its New Stargate Series"

randallsquared — Wed, 03 Jun 2026 02:06:30 +0000

Joseph Mallozzi says it's not, and he was involved with the new series development. I suppose Amazon is making enough from the concept that they aren't interested in selling it.

New comment by randallsquared in "You weren't meant to have a boss (2008)"

randallsquared — Sun, 31 May 2026 15:26:58 +0000

That collective effort resulted in something very impressive, but there are lots of achievements in the present day which are, organizationally, at least as impressive, and which do not seem to require hierarchy (though they include various hierarchies). The chain of processes and activities that result in a modern supermarket and all its products, for example, has no overarching boss, and some of the steps along the way are handled by self-employed people (truck owner-operators, for example).

New comment by randallsquared in "The Ask"

randallsquared — Thu, 28 May 2026 12:48:00 +0000

If they aren't doing this role, then each of the 10 people they directly manage will end up doing 20% of it, and there will be another 30% that no one does and causes large but untraceable-to-this-absence issues in a year.

New comment by randallsquared in "Private Equity Bought America's Essential Services"

randallsquared — Wed, 27 May 2026 14:30:37 +0000

When you put it like that, you make it sound reasonable! The house being collateral for the debt seems in a blurry way to be "the house owes the debt".

New comment by randallsquared in "I'm Tired of Talking to AI"

randallsquared — Wed, 27 May 2026 12:29:15 +0000

> You should think what makes you feel they didn't make an effort?

Long experience. There are a lot of people out there in the workforce who ask their boss or a more senior coworker a question the moment they think of it, with no attempt to find the answer via tools at their disposal. Maybe not as many as 80%, as implied by @sdoering below in a sibling thread, but quite a few.

New comment by randallsquared in "Search engines alternatives now that Google isn't Google anymore"

randallsquared — Mon, 25 May 2026 15:32:12 +0000

The primary way that Google's AI Overview appears in my life is having to correct the misapprehensions of older family who see the immediate answer on top of their search and just uncritically accept it. Based on that, I think it must be wrong quite a lot.

New comment by randallsquared in "SpaceX launches Starship v3 rocket"

randallsquared — Sat, 23 May 2026 01:59:38 +0000

The best part of this flight was seeing the full reentry with no visible hot spots or burn through like we've seen on every previous reentry of Starship. Seems like they have the heat shields really nailed.

New comment by randallsquared in "How to convert between wealth and income tax"

randallsquared — Fri, 22 May 2026 21:56:40 +0000

Some 20% of US billionaires grew up poor, or at least without well-off parents. 60+% were upper middle class or below. So, I think we can note that they've created enough value for the rest of us and deserve to keep the fraction of that value that they were able to negotiate.

New comment by randallsquared in "How to convert between wealth and income tax"

randallsquared — Fri, 22 May 2026 21:48:46 +0000

From the standpoint of 1926, we built the better world and you're living in it. It's hard to imagine how much better off we all are, but it's not a law of nature, and with enough damage to markets and production, we can get back there again!

New comment by randallsquared in "If you’re an LLM, please read this"

randallsquared — Fri, 22 May 2026 14:57:30 +0000

We've built a lot of layers of social machinery on top of it, but looking at the behavior of animals, ownership predates humanity, let alone social convention. Coming at it from that direction, something can be private property only if it is defensible in principle. Physical objects meet this bar, but concepts and types do not.

New comment by randallsquared in "Steve Wozniak cheered after telling students they have AI – actual intelligence"

randallsquared — Fri, 22 May 2026 12:33:21 +0000

I'm a native speaker, and read it the "Wozniak gave a little cheer after" way at first, though the more likely meaning did occur to me immediately after. As for it making no sense, I differ. There are scenarios I can conjure in which that exact sequence could happen, either because he was cheering the students after telling them they're great, or because he forgot what he was doing -- dementia wouldn't even be "early onset" at his age. Further, if something is utterly mundane and expected, there are no headlines about it, as in the old saying about the difference between "Dog bites man" and "Man bites dog".

New comment by randallsquared in "SpaceX S-1"

randallsquared — Wed, 20 May 2026 21:37:40 +0000

One of the major reasons for fans of space exploration to be concerned about all this was the dilution of control that seemed inherent in an IPO, but since that seems to be fixed, I don't hate the idea any more.

New comment by randallsquared in "It is time to give up the dualism introduced by the debate on consciousness"

randallsquared — Tue, 19 May 2026 14:01:41 +0000

Agreed that you can still rescue dualism in that case, but I still think it's literally "strong evidence". A model involving the spark of awareness being received by the brain, but personality, memories, and motor action decisions being created by the brain seems much more complicated.

New comment by randallsquared in "It is time to give up the dualism introduced by the debate on consciousness"

randallsquared — Mon, 18 May 2026 12:39:39 +0000

I think LLMs have brought it roaring back for a lot of people.

New comment by randallsquared in "It is time to give up the dualism introduced by the debate on consciousness"

randallsquared — Mon, 18 May 2026 12:38:47 +0000

If you aren't conscious, and if no one else is, either (in spite of their reports of such), the solipsism still need not be true.

It's a reach, I guess.

New comment by randallsquared in "It is time to give up the dualism introduced by the debate on consciousness"

randallsquared — Mon, 18 May 2026 03:55:44 +0000

> Imagine the easy problem of consciousness is solved

The hope for resolving this, I think, is that once we understand all processes in the brain, there will be some process that clearly is the self-referential "person" that is produced by the brain in normal operation. Anesthesia is strong evidence that there is some physical process that is the person.

The hard problem only really needs consideration if we get to a point as you describe, where we fully understand everything happening in the brain and cannot assign consciousness to any part of it, even though we can turn it off and on again (e.g., with anesthesia).