In one light it is super impressive and amazing progress, in another light it is not impressive at all and totally over hyped.

Using the Hubert Dreyfus analogy. It is impressive if the goal is to climb as high as we can up giant tree. The height we have reached isn't impressive at all though if we are trying to climb the tree to get to the moon.

What is meant by "AI Music" is not works by Iannis Xenakis or certain Autechre albums.

We should be defining all this better but we won't. It is also that there is no "AI music" equivalent of the amen break to invent new forms of art. The cultural structures and norms that made that possible no longer exist.

It really is the difference though between art and porn. A blurry distinction on paper but quite obvious in practice. Quite obvious in motivation.

The progress lived up to the hype the past year. To say otherwise is to be either intellectually dishonest or you just didn't bother using the tools in order to feel how much progress was made.

I just went back to a project that I remember the models struggled with. It felt like years ago but it was from July. Even July to now is night and day different.

The dotcom bubble was the "new economy", the old economy had changed forever and was dead. No one thought it was a bubble. Even when the bubble popped it took until 9/11 to wake us up from the mass hysteria.

I can't think of another "bubble" that practically everyone thinks we are in a bubble. To the point that I think many would find it irrational to believe we are not in a bubble. That is not what bubble is. A bubble is the madness of crowds, not the wisdom of crowds and the crowd certainly believes we are in a bubble.

I think Campbell is the pop version of The Golden Bough. I have only read a little of the The Golden Bough but is so immense, alien and unrelatable. I have also read how James George Frazer was also "wrong". As if the conclusions of a 19th century Victorian somehow negates the 12 volumes of collected mythology. Independent thought and reasoning though is not a strength of those prone to scientism.

I would say this is the exact same thing we did with Manuel Noriega in 1988.

Personally, I hate that we do these things but it is certainly not impossible in the long run the lives of the Venezuelans will be improved.

It is hard to get an exact figure but inflation last year was 150-200% and that is an improvement from what they had. 50,000% hyperinflation at the end of the last decade.

Given I was just annoyed at my grocery bill an hour ago because of 3% inflation I really can't imagine what life is like with that level of inflation.

I can't remember the last time I tried a distro that didn't just work on a random computer with a random wifi but it has been several years now.

Nvidia cards on the other hand...last year I had to try about 10 distros before I found something that wasn't a huge pain in the ass.

https://www.turntablelab.com/products/flying-lotus-youre-dea...

More and more though I would rather just buy merch to support the artist.

Friends and a partner act like a small life coach. I am sure many unhealthy habits are correlated with being left entirely to your own devices. I know I would go to the doctor more if I had a partner coaching/bugging me that I go more.

We are the outliers. If everyone was wired like me, the concept of a dinner party would simply not exist and Facebook would look like this.