Hacker News: tjbrennan

New comment by tjbrennan in "Lena by qntm (2021)"

tjbrennan — Fri, 13 Feb 2026 21:33:16 +0000

I think about this story every time a new model comes out. When ChatGPT first launched, two big questions surfaced:

1. Is it conscious?

2. How do we put it to work?

It may have seemed obvious that 1 is false so we could skip straight to 2, but when 1 becomes true will it be too late to reconsider 2?

New comment by tjbrennan in "Shame (1992)"

tjbrennan — Sat, 20 Aug 2022 05:40:15 +0000

Thank you for posting this. It's a very long read so I fear it won't gain much traction, but I think it helped shed light on a malaise that I've felt since adolescence. Therapists and partners have told me I don't practice enough self-love, but to say I self-loathe also felt like a lie. This line in particular crystallized the disparity: "Pathological shame is an irrational sense of defectiveness, a feeling not of having crossed to the wrong side of the boundary but of having been born there." I'll keep this writing in mind as I move forward.

New comment by tjbrennan in "In-browser retro-futuristic tank game, open source"

tjbrennan — Mon, 08 Aug 2022 10:01:03 +0000

You're in luck: https://github.com/victorqribeiro/retroSynthwave

This plus the macos app Plash makes for a sweet desktop wallpaper.

New comment by tjbrennan in "Ant mill"

tjbrennan — Sun, 23 Jan 2022 08:36:31 +0000

You can click through the citation and read the excerpt. It's an amusing bit of writing about the joys of discovery.

New comment by tjbrennan in "The U.S. Air Force Has Doubts About the F-35"

tjbrennan — Wed, 08 Dec 2021 12:07:04 +0000

$44,000 per hour of flight time really puts things in perspective.

New comment by tjbrennan in "George Floyd Protest – police brutality videos on Twitter"

tjbrennan — Mon, 15 Jun 2020 08:20:15 +0000

I recently learned of Dave Grossman and his police training courses that appear to encourage murder[0]. I'm not sure how prolific his teaching is, but it says a lot about the fearful mindset these officers have.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Grossman_(author)

New comment by tjbrennan in "Why I Bid $700 for a Stolen PSN Account"

tjbrennan — Tue, 09 Oct 2018 23:03:07 +0000

I recently lost access to my two factor authenticator. I had saved most but not all of my recovery codes. I was surprised that a couple of websites I didn't have recovery codes for allowed me to disable 2FA after login but before authentication. It saved me from having to contact support, but it seemed to defeat the purpose of 2FA.

You and the Atomic Bomb (1945)

tjbrennan — Thu, 01 Jun 2017 16:36:17 +0000

Article URL: http://orwell.ru/library/articles/ABomb/english/e_abomb

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14461819

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

New comment by tjbrennan in "Apple giveth, and Apple taketh away – the Escape key"

tjbrennan — Tue, 25 Oct 2016 21:55:19 +0000

I feel like I'm the only person who uses Caps Lock. When I learned to touch type, I was taught to use the shift key on the side opposite the letter being typed. When typing more than two capital letters in a row, I'd rather hit Caps Lock than paddle my pinkies back and forth. It's a hard habit to break.

New comment by tjbrennan in "Consciousness: The Mind Messing with the Mind"

tjbrennan — Wed, 06 Jul 2016 01:02:02 +0000

The thing that consciousness has that is not simply an idea is sensation. At a certain point, it becomes indescribable.

New comment by tjbrennan in "Are We Living in a Computer Simulation?"

tjbrennan — Mon, 11 Apr 2016 23:22:49 +0000

I lost some respect for Chalmers when I heard his TED talk that suggested consciousness was a fundamental force. He has some good ideas about consciousness but also a bit too mystical for me to agree with.

New comment by tjbrennan in "My Reality Moment. Why did I ever agree to do this?"

tjbrennan — Sat, 19 Sep 2015 00:02:40 +0000

Even better, +"5" will coerce the string to an integer. I'm ashamed to admit that I've abused it.

New comment by tjbrennan in "The Philosophy of Color Perception"

tjbrennan — Fri, 22 May 2015 22:39:39 +0000

The scope is the qualia of color and what it is to behold color in your mind. With all due respect, you sound like Mary in the Mary's Room thought experiment. [1]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_argument

New comment by tjbrennan in "Iridium satellite constellation"

tjbrennan — Fri, 12 Dec 2014 07:07:42 +0000

Iridium flares are a really neat night sky phenomenon to look for. The predictions can be found on satellite tracking sites [1]. I caught one by accident when I noticed a satellite passing overhead on my way to my car one night. Over the next few seconds it increased to dazzling brightness, and then it disappeared just as quickly. I couldn't believe my luck.

[1] http://www.heavens-above.com/IridiumFlares.aspx

New comment by tjbrennan in "Scientific Quotes That Blur the Boundaries Between Mysticism and Science"

tjbrennan — Fri, 12 Dec 2014 06:16:37 +0000

Many of these quotes have to do with theories of consciousness. Describing consciousness is still a philosophical problem. I wouldn't call this "mysticism," just scientists trying to grapple with the mind-body problem.

New comment by tjbrennan in "A “Complex” Theory of Consciousness"

tjbrennan — Wed, 26 Nov 2014 10:33:43 +0000

This sounds like Functionalism to me. Until we can actually map out the complexity being described in the article, consciousness is still a philosophical problem. I appreciate the scientific approach, but I think Tononi's definition of consciousness is flawed (or just nonexistent). I've seen other attempts to apply science to the mind-body problem, and it yielded flat-out pseudoscience. This was not convincing either.