Yet another Hacker News

43 points joshtronic 2 hours ago 23 comments

TruffleLabs 2 hours ago | parent

Thanks for the Bill and Ted reference at the end ;)

joshtronic 2 hours ago | parent

I'm humbled that somebody made it to the end. Doubly blessed because it's not every day you get to make 2 Keanu Reeves movie references in one post

verdverm 2 hours ago | parent

made it to the end as well :wq

it was good, resonates with my own experience dialing it back and reconnecting with other human beings, I like being pro-Ai, but not pilled-Ai, and trying to moderate the Ai discourse

joshtronic 2 hours ago | parent

:wq indeed :)

it's been a wild ride, in a lot of ways I feel like I speed ran running my EQ into the ground, only to be reborn like a phoenix.

I've been told in the past to "think like an entrepreneur, not an engineer" and in a lot of ways I think that was bleeding into how I was approaching AI-usage.

I'm on your blog now, hoping you've posted your own musings so I can read them!

verdverm 2 hours ago | parent

I have not :x

Supposed to be redoing that, I've been making zines instead (physical blogs?)

joshtronic 1 hour ago | parent

really? that's freakin' cool. what kind of topics??

I'm old, so I remember 'zines from the 80s and 90s :)

verdverm 1 hour ago | parent

Mostly political oriented, one of my returns to humanity was getting involved in my local indivisible. I have one on May Day, lots of Get Out The Vote, "changing the constitution" (wip). I've been using the exercise to learn the history of things.

I'm currently (like right now) working on A Survey of Ai Regulation (and more), which is far too much to fit into the mini-zines I make, and will be used to force my hand into updating my site q:]

joshtronic 1 hour ago | parent

Very cool! Heck, need to force that hand just to help spread the word about the other zines! :)))

verdverm 16 minutes ago | parent

The zines we make are being distributed all over Washington State now. (we, because I formed a zine club with a few of the gals from the Indivisible book club) They are so much better from the group effort and diverse perspectives.

I do intend to get them up there, found a mini-zine format (single page, 8 pane) which saves paper and folds. Here's a link to the goods in the meantime

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48653667

variety8675 2 hours ago | parent

Using AI agents to email each other is just a reflection of "If you're not going to bother to write it, I'm not going to read it"

joshtronic 2 hours ago | parent

How would you approach this. You email a company that has something you want to license. An agent responds. Do you abandon your pursuits at that point and consider other options?

variety8675 2 hours ago | parent

I mean honestly yes, if given the choice not to interact with an AI system for something I will. Simple example, the Comcast AI slop bot stonewalls you online, but you can walk into a retail location and have a human resolve the issue in 30 seconds

joshtronic 2 hours ago | parent

Totally get that. I think the fear there is that maybe this is the timeline where we just keep running out of those options.

I still favor a longer line with a human or two in the loop at the store rather than self checkout. Depending on the time of day, self checkout is the only options. Fortunately, there's usually problems and you still get a chance to connect with a human :)

RMS drew a line in the sand with how he interacts with closed-source systems. Starting to wonder if that's how extreme we need to be AI systems.

AnimalMuppet 2 hours ago | parent

Depends on how close other options are to what I want.

But if you're going to have an agent rather than a human respond to enquiries from potential customers (= $), then I'm not convinced I'm going to like how you respond after I am a customer.

joshtronic 2 hours ago | parent

Yeah, that closeness of options makes it tough to really dig the heels in. Also, you can become a customer today, and have them fire their entire support staff and replace it with an agent tomorrow. Dwindling QC and CS isn't a new concern though, just need to make sure the space isn't owned by a single company

vips7L 1 hour ago | parent

Yes.

joshtronic 1 hour ago | parent

Let's say it was critical for the business, with no viable alternatives? I'm all for "find a way or make one" but there are times when you need to be more practical than dogmatic.

Would love to hear your thoughts

cpoile 1 hour ago | parent

One of the nicer blogs I’ve read on the subject, thanks Josh.

joshtronic 1 hour ago | parent

Appreciate the kind words, tyty :bow:

levelZero 41 minutes ago | parent

Pretty sure you only get to drink the Kool-Aid once. At least in UK this is Jim Jones ref.

joshtronic 32 minutes ago | parent

Similar here in the states, but we've neutered it a bit to effectively describe the "One of us, one of us" scene from the movie Freaks

DubiousPusher 22 minutes ago | parent

To the chagrin of the unfortunate General Foods corporation, the water flavor enhancement product used at Jones Town was actually Flavor Aid.

And maybe that's a pretty good analogy to what's going on with this post. It contemplates a world of suburban parental neglect and private burrito taxis and lays them at the feet of AI. But these were happening before LLMs burst onto the scene.

In a world of $3,000 rent and $3,000 medication and $3,000 preschool, what do you expect will happen?

joshtronic 5 minutes ago | parent

TIL on the Flavor Aid. Appreciate you taking the team to read and respond!