Hacker News: throw4847285

New comment by throw4847285 in "First atmosphere found on Earth-like planet in habitable zone of distant star"

throw4847285 — Fri, 17 Jul 2026 22:04:32 +0000

Yeah, but I'm only cynical in relation to what I see as the orthodoxies of the kind of people who post on HN.

When I say it like that, it sounds pathetic. And in fact, it is. Yet, here we are.

New comment by throw4847285 in "First atmosphere found on Earth-like planet in habitable zone of distant star"

throw4847285 — Fri, 17 Jul 2026 19:56:59 +0000

I love human creativity. I don't like pseudo-science, especially coming from people who believe they are above it (and fall prey to it anyway).

New comment by throw4847285 in "First atmosphere found on Earth-like planet in habitable zone of distant star"

throw4847285 — Fri, 17 Jul 2026 19:56:14 +0000

It is creative as long as you acknowledge it's unobtainable. But in threads like this, fantasy and reality tend to blur.

New comment by throw4847285 in "First atmosphere found on Earth-like planet in habitable zone of distant star"

throw4847285 — Fri, 17 Jul 2026 19:43:21 +0000

I generally see myself as an earnest person, but some kinds of earnestness read as cynical to me.

New comment by throw4847285 in "First atmosphere found on Earth-like planet in habitable zone of distant star"

throw4847285 — Fri, 17 Jul 2026 19:38:24 +0000

No, it doesn't seem very creative to me.

I don't think I've ever sounded so cynical in my life, but something about the way sci-fi fandom bleeds into real science really makes me deeply uncomfortable.

New comment by throw4847285 in "First atmosphere found on Earth-like planet in habitable zone of distant star"

throw4847285 — Fri, 17 Jul 2026 19:29:58 +0000

I'm always so alienated (sorry) by the excitement around things like this. People start fantasizing about FTL and space arks and there is just no evidence that any of that is possible, desirable, effective, anything really.

I know I'm a killjoy, but I do think there's something negative about the impact of science fiction on engineers. Like, the people who tend (no offense) to be the most literal, black and white thinkers get exposed to art and instead of processing it as the output of human creativity, they start to imagine that it's desirable or even real.

New comment by throw4847285 in "Three ways people respond to a problem (other than solving it)"

throw4847285 — Fri, 17 Jul 2026 17:32:02 +0000

There is a fourth that the author would never mention:

Hire consultants about the problem

New comment by throw4847285 in "How Has Roman Concrete Lasted for Millennia? 1,900-Year-Old Latrine Offers Clues"

throw4847285 — Fri, 17 Jul 2026 12:25:31 +0000

You don't have to wait 100 years. You can build a bridge to alleviate traffic without any understanding that the bridge will in fact generate more traffic, and then you have to widen it a few years later (which also doesn't help). I know this has happened several times in NYC and I'm sure it has happened many other places where engineering know-how far outstrips knowledge of urban planning.

New comment by throw4847285 in "The LLM Critics Are Right. I Use LLMs Anyway"

throw4847285 — Thu, 16 Jul 2026 14:10:25 +0000

How do you know that? What do you know about prehistory? Nothing. You might as well be picturing the Flintstones in your head.

You're using broadly shared but totally unsubstantiated about past humans just to argue that things are good right now.

New comment by throw4847285 in "The lost joy of music piracy"

throw4847285 — Thu, 16 Jul 2026 13:48:37 +0000

My grandmother used to give me mix CDs as gifts. One time I asked her where she found all the music and she told me "Oh there's this amazing app called Limewire." She then taught me how to pirate music.

New comment by throw4847285 in "Demis Hassabis has a plan to harness AI safely"

throw4847285 — Tue, 14 Jul 2026 15:21:15 +0000

Am I crazy or does this just real like secular eschatology? What evidence do you have of any of this?

New comment by throw4847285 in "An Englishwoman who sketched India before photography took hold"

throw4847285 — Tue, 14 Jul 2026 13:47:56 +0000

I don't remember Dr. Tobias Funke being into Hindutva, but it's a funny image.

New comment by throw4847285 in "The Chud Vision of Roman History"

throw4847285 — Mon, 13 Jul 2026 23:48:49 +0000

That's an absurd false dichotomy. I'm assuming the historians are the cucks in your analogy? As the author points out, many of the "chuds" haven't even read translations of Greek or Latin texts, while historians can read the text in the original. The main skill historians have is exactly the strawman you've set up to knock down. They understand the limits of our knowledge of ancient societies, and the "chuds" do not.

You are holding historians to an epistemological standard that I am confident you don't hold anybody else to. Whether intentionally or not, you're muddying the waters to undermine their expertise. Why?

New comment by throw4847285 in "The Chud Vision of Roman History"

throw4847285 — Mon, 13 Jul 2026 19:49:29 +0000

You should work on the ability to distinguish respect from charitability.

One can be charitable to views that one does not respect. And if one ends up being disrespectful it does not mean that they were insufficiently charitable.

New comment by throw4847285 in "Cyberpunk Comics, Manga and Graphic Novels"

throw4847285 — Mon, 13 Jul 2026 17:41:51 +0000

I did a pandemic project of reading Dredd from the start for as long as I could. I made it through about 25 case files volumes, which took me from 1977 to the late 90s (I think).

Is Judge Dredd cyberpunk? I don't care. It's an incredible run of comics, that touches on many of the same themes as cyberpunk.

There are many people involved in Dredd over the years, but I do think John Wagner has had the rare opportunity among work for hire creators to shepherd a fictional universe over decades of real and in universe time.

New comment by throw4847285 in "A graph that should be front-page news"

throw4847285 — Mon, 13 Jul 2026 17:14:09 +0000

Hey, that's Ian Malcolm's line in Jurassic Park!

“Let's be clear. The planet is not in jeopardy. We are in jeopardy. We haven't got the power to destroy the planet - or to save it. But we might have the power to save ourselves.”

But I don't think it's all that interesting of an argument. When people say save/destroy the Earth, they mean humanity. Call that arrogance, but it's true.

New comment by throw4847285 in "Cyberpunk Comics, Manga and Graphic Novels"

throw4847285 — Mon, 13 Jul 2026 13:11:59 +0000

Don't let that stop you from reading the Manga.

New comment by throw4847285 in "I Learned to Read Again"

throw4847285 — Mon, 13 Jul 2026 13:11:46 +0000

I read Anna Karenina pretty fast. And the Power Broker. I'm a fast reader in general.

New comment by throw4847285 in "How to read more books"

throw4847285 — Mon, 13 Jul 2026 00:10:40 +0000

Don't take this the wrong way, but it sounds like you've become addicted to instant gratification and you've rationalized it. Up is down, down is up, and low value social media comments are actually better than reading a book by an expert.

Of course, I'm just projecting. That's what's happened to me, and I'm miserable about it.

New comment by throw4847285 in "I Learned to Read Again"

throw4847285 — Mon, 13 Jul 2026 00:07:40 +0000

I just speed ahead, and I always retained more than I thought I did. If I keep going, eventually I can reach a kind of flow. It doesn't matter if I missed bits here or there.

Or, you could try the opposite, and slow down. It sounds like torture, but eventually, it will become habitual.