Why functional programming languages are the future (again)
Top comment:
“The Quantum-Lazy-Linker in GHC 18.4 is actually a terrifying piece of technology if you think about it. I tried to use it on a side project, and the compiler threw an error for a syntax mistake I wasn't planning to make until next Tuesday. It breaks the causality workflow.”
What's different is intention. A human would have the intention to blackmail, and then proceed toward that goal. If the output was a love letter instead of blackmail, the human would either be confused or psychotic. LLMs have no intentions. They just stitch together a response.
intention is what exactly? It's the set of options you imagine you have based on your belief system, and ultimately you make a choice from there. That can also be replicated in LLMs with a well described system prompt. Sure, I will admit that humans are more complex than the context of a system prompt, but the idea is not too far.
The personification makes me roll my eyes too, but it's kind of a philosophical question. What is agency really? Can you prove that our universe is not a simulation, and if it is then then do we no longer have intention? In many ways we are code running a program.
I still use Quicksilver[1], the open source app that long predates Alfred and was the inspiration for it. I tried Alfred a few years ago but didn't see anything compelling enough to switch. Am I missing anything?
I still used Lynx as my default browser while working on ships until 2020. Satellite internet connections at sea were slow and very expensive which made Lynx a good choice. But it turned out that the text-based, distraction-free browsing could be a better experience than the same site in a modern browser. And a few sites still serve text versions, like text.npr.org. I liked Lynx enough that I would still use it back on land until the habit faded.
Upvote for the mockingbird. One fellow has for years perched himself in tree near the sidewalk tables at my favorite restaurant. His songs are as good as the food.
> only three species of birds survived the Chicxulub asteroid impact
I think it was three clades that survived, not individual species.
Yes, it's possible that some of the diversification within those clades happened before the impact, but the start of the radiation is so close to the impact that I think it's unlikely that it happened earlier. It would be too much of a coincidence, and the error bars for the molecular clocks almost always include the impact.
If human-like cognition isn't possible on digital computers, it's certainly is on quantum ones. The Deutsch-Church-Turing principle shows that a quantum Turing machine can efficiently simulate any physically realizable computational process.
Tangential, but... when my daughter was 8 or 9, we read _I, Robot_ together, and both both cried when Gloria's parents decided to separate her from Robbie, her robot companion. Such a fond memory to this day.
Top comment:
“The Quantum-Lazy-Linker in GHC 18.4 is actually a terrifying piece of technology if you think about it. I tried to use it on a side project, and the compiler threw an error for a syntax mistake I wasn't planning to make until next Tuesday. It breaks the causality workflow.”