Unrelated to my recent posts on sciencefiction, and not sure if this is something I should ask here publically but it is the easiest place I could think off. But @[email protected] is Rationalwiki dead or not?
this post was submitted on 04 May 2025
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Ran across a Bluesky thread which caught my attention - its nothing major, its just about how gen-AI painted one rando's views of the droids of Star Wars:
Generative AI has helped me to understand why, in Star Wars, the droids seem to have personalities but are generally bad at whatever they're supposed to be programmed to do, and everyone is tired of their shit and constantly tells them to shut up
Threepio: Sir, the odds of successfully navigating an asteroid field are 3720 to one!
Han Solo (knowing that Threepio just pulls these numbers out of Reddit memes about Emperor Palpatine's odds of getting laid): SHUT THE FUCK UP!!!!!!
"Why do the heroes of Star Wars never do anything to help the droids? They're clearly sentient, living things, yet they're treated as slaves!" Thanks for doing propaganda for Big Droid, you credulous ass!
With that out the way, here's my personal sidenote:
There's already been plenty of ink spilled on the myriad effects AI will have on society, but it seems one of the more subtle effects will be on the fiction we write and consume.
Right off the bat, one thing I'm anticipating (which I've already talked about before) is that AI will see a sharp decline in usage as a plot device - whatever sci-fi pizzazz AI had as a concept is thoroughly gone at this point, replaced with the same all-consuming cringe that surrounds NFTs and the metaverse, two other failed technologies turned pop-cultural punchlines.
If there are any attempts at using "superintelligent AI" as a plot point, I expect they'll be lambasted for shattering willing suspension of disbelief, at least for a while. If AI appears at all, my money's on it being presented as an annoyance/inconvenience (as someone else has predicted).
Another thing I expect is audiences becoming a lot less receptive towards AI in general - any notion that AI behaves like a human, let alone thinks like one, has been thoroughly undermined by the hallucination-ridden LLMs powering this bubble, and thanks to said bubble's wide-spread harms (environmental damage, widespread theft, AI slop, misinformation, etcetera) any notion of AI being value-neutral as a tech/concept has been equally undermined.
With both of those in mind, I expect any positive depiction of AI is gonna face some backlash, at least for a good while.
(As a semi-related aside, I found a couple of people openly siding with the Mos Eisley Cantina owner who refused to serve R2 and 3PO [Exhibit A, Exhibit B])
AI will see a sharp decline in usage as a plot device
Today I was looking for some new audiobooks again, and I was scrolling through curated^1^ lists for various genres. In the sci-fi genre, there is a noticeable uptick in AI-related fiction books. I have noticed this for a while already, and it's getting more intense. Most seem about "what if AI, but really powerful and scary" and singularity-related scenarios. While such fiction themes aren't new at all, it appears to me that there's a wave of it now, although it's possible as well that I am just more cognisant of it.
I think that's another reason that will make your prediction true: sooner or later demand for this sub-genre will peak, as many people eventually become bored with it as a fiction theme as well. Like it happened with e.g. vampires and zombies.
(^1^ Not sure when "curation" is even human-sourced these days. The overall state of curation, genre-sorting, tagging and algorithmic "recommendations" in commercial books and audiobooks is so terrible... but that's a different rant for another day.)
Back in the twenty-aughts, I wrote a science fiction murder mystery involving the invention of artificial intelligence. That whole plot angle feels dead today, even though the AI in question was, you know, in the Commander Data tradition, not the monstrosities of mediocrity we're suffering through now. (The story was also about a stand-in for the United States rebuilding itself after a fascist uprising, the emotional aftereffects of the night when shooting the fascists was necessary to stop them, queer loneliness and other things that maybe hold up better.)
I've noticed the occasional joke about how new computer technology, or LLMs specifically, have changed the speaker's perspective about older science fiction. E.g., there was one that went something like, "I was always confused about how Picard ordered his tea with the weird word order and exactly the same inflection every time, but now I recognize that's the tea order of a man who has learned precisely what is necessary to avoid the replicator delivering you an ocelot instead."
Notice how in TNG, everyone treats a PADD as a device that holds exactly one document and has to be physically handed to a person? The Doylist explanation is that it's a show from 1987 and everyone involved thought of them as notebooks. But the Watsonian explanation is that a device that holds exactly one document and zero distractions is the product of a society more psychologically healthy than ours....
That is a bit weird, as iirc the robots in star wars are not based on LLMs, the robots in SWs can think, and can be sentient beings but are often explicitly limited. (And according to Lucas this was somewhat intentional to show that people should be treated equally (if this was the initial intent is unclear as Lucas does change his mind a bit from time to time), the treatment of robots as slaves in SW is considered bad). What a misreading of the universe and the point. Also time flows the other way folks, LLMs didn't influence the creation of robots in SWs.
Also if the droids were LLMs, nobody would use them to plot hyperspace lanes past stars. Somebody could send a message about Star Engorgement and block hyperspace travel for weeks.
But yes, the backlash is going to be real.
E: ow god im really in a 'take science fiction too seriously' period. (more SW droids are not LLMs stuff)
E: ow god im really in a ‘take science fiction too seriously’ period.
People taking sci-fi too seriously was how LessWrong and the AI bubble happened, I'd say you're pretty far from taking it too seriously :P
looks up from recording my new mathematically speaking 'a podcast for the new thinking man' podcast
A phew, I was worried for a moment there.
E: Apologies, it is real I should have googled it. I know nothing of the podcast, I just tried to make a 'this is what a Rationalist/logic bro would name their podcast' joke. Ow god he even has an episode about conflict theory (but in contrast to Scotts post on conflict theory he actually talks about a historical mathematician so not the same thing, but that was a moment of double take). There is also an Adam Allred who is a 'masculinty speaker' or something, who is also into AI, Maga and everything else of course, but not sure if they are the same person (nope different people, turns out if you are called Adam Allred you are forced to make a podcast). But the math podcast Adam seems to be a good guy who is pro lgbt/BLM etc. (He did get his twitter account hacked which is now spamming people).
Derek Lowe comes in with another sneer at techbro-optimism of collection of AI startup talking points wearing skins of people saying that definitely all medicine is solved, just throw more compute at it https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/end-disease (it's two weeks old, but it's not like any of you read him regularly). more relevantly he also links all his previous writing on this topic, starting with 2007 piece about techbros wondering why didn't anyone brought SV Disruption™ to pharma: https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/andy-grove-rich-famous-smart-and-wrong
interesting to see that he reaches some of pretty much compsci-flavoured conclusions despite not having compsci background. still not exactly there yet as he leaves some possibility of AGI
it’s not like any of you read him regularly
Of course not he is a capitalist pigdog! A traitor to the cause! Bla bla. ;)
I posted his work here before, despite thinking he isnt totally correct about his stance on capitalism stuff. He seems to be a good source on the whole medical chemistry science field. And quite skeptical and hype resistance. (Prob also why he I could make de self deprecating joke above). He wrote also negatively about the hackers who do homemade meds thing.
He wrote also negatively about the hackers who do homemade meds thing.
i've heard about them before and got reminded of their existence against my will recently. (do you know that somebody made a recommendation engine for peertube? can you guess which CCC talk from last winter was on top of pile in their example?)
you know, i think they have a bit of that techbro urge to turn every human activity into series of marketable ESP32 IOT-enabled widgets, except that they don't do that to woo VCs, they say they do that for betterment of humanity, but i think they're doing it for clout. because lemmy has only communist programmers and no one else, not much later i stumbled upon an essay on how trying to make programming languages easier in some ways is doomed to fail, because the task of programming itself is complex and much more than just writing code, and if you try, you get monstrosities like COBOL. i'm not in IT but it seems to me that this take is more common among fans of C and has little overlap with type of techbros from above.
so in some way, they are trying to cobolify backyard chemistry. the thing that is stupid about it is that it has been done before, and it's a very useful tool, and also it does something completely opposite than what they wanted to do. it's called solid phase peptide synthesis, and it replaces synthetic process that previously has been used in liquid phase (that is, like you do usually in normal solutions in normal flasks). (there's also a way to make synthetic DNA/RNA in similar way. both have a limitation that only a certain number of aminoacids/bases is actually practical). the thing about SPPS is that it can be automated, and you can just type in sequence of a peptide you want to get, and machine handles part of the rest.
what you gotta give it to them is that automated synthesis allows for a rapid output of many compounds. but it's also hideously expensive, uses equally expensive reagents, and requires constant attention and maintenance from two, ideally more, highly trained professionals in order to keep it running, and even then syntheses still can fail. in order to figure out what got wrong you need to use analytical equipment that costs about as much as that first machine, and then you have to unfuck up that failed synthesis in the first place, which is something that non-chemist won't be able to do. and even when everything goes right, product is still dirty and has to be purified using some other equipment. and even when it works, scaleup requires completely different approach (the older one) because it just doesn't scale well above early phase research amounts.
what i meant to say is that while automation of this kind is good because it allows humans to skip mind-numbingly repetitive steps (and allows to focus on "the everything else" aspect of research, like experiment planning, or parts of synthesis that machine can't do - which tend to be harder and so more rewarding problems) this all absolutely does not lead to deskilling of synthesis like this bozo in camo vest wanted to, i'd say it's exactly the opposite. there's also the entire aspect of how they don't do analysis or purification of anything, and this alone i guess will kill people at some point
on how trying to make programming languages easier in some ways is doomed to fail
This is prob right, but the 'in some ways' part does a lot of work here. Think the issue is that some complexity can be removed without problem, and some absolutely cannot. And the problem of figuring out which is which is hard. (Which if you squint, seems to be similar to the chemistry stuff you describe here). With software it (as far as I can tell) is also quickly that bigger projects need bigger teams, and that adds a lot of communication problems, and as a non-stacking process you can't just add more programmers to make stuff go faster (compared to for example building a building, which can be sped up a lot more with just more workers) as these communication problems remain. From what I heard is that this, and the problem of maintaining software on a large scale is what Java was trying to fix. Which is why all programmers love Java. It is a language for enterprise scale projects. (On that note, which is also why a lot of reason people hate Java for the wrong reasons, a lot of the hated stuff makes sense if you recall it is made for enterprise scale projects/teams etc. It is an attempt to make those projects easier (lets leave it in the middle if that attempt worked or not (Do think it is amusing that Minecraft of all things was coded in Java by a single person (initially))).
Interesting our community seems to attract a few outspoken chemistry people. Not something I know much about, know somebody who does something with crystal chemistry machines, and when he technically talks about it I'm happy I understand about 30% :).
i can't find that essay now, but i think it was written in latex, and also complained on top of cobol about java, ada (in military context) and a kind of non-programming where block diagram made by non-programmers was turned into executable
In other news, SoundCloud's become the latest victim of the AI scourge - artists have recently discovered the TOS allows their work to be stolen for AI training since early 2024.
SoundCloud's already tried to quell the backlash, but they're getting accused of lying in the replies and the QRTs, so its safe to say its not working.
Artist notices that his horror creations get listed by AI bots as real. Decides to troll. It works. 2 hours, 1 source. We are so cooked.
The self-fulfilling prophecy machine will ensure that engorgement will become a household term
Yes, of course this stuff isn't new, google bombing (or looking for the specific words where there suddenly are more black than white people on a google image search) has been a thing for a while now. But this has the added authority of googles AI saying it. And it also needs just 1 source (which always was a fiction account) which is what makes it scary.
The whole trust me im lying multi step program of getting something into the media can be tossed out. It is now even easier to lie online.
Quick update from Brian Merchant: he's looking for stories about AI screwing people over.
If you've got any, send them to [email protected]
Here’s a fun one… Microsoft added copilot features to sharepoint. The copilot system has its own set of access controls. The access controls let it see things that normal users might not be able to see. Normal users can then just ask copilot to tell them the contents of the files and pages that they can’t see themselves. Luckily, no business would ever put sensitive information in their sharepoint system, so this isn’t a realistic threat, haha.
Obviously Microsoft have significant resources to research and fix the security problems that LLM integration will bring with it. So much money. So many experts. Plenty of time to think about the issues since the first recall debacle.
And this is what they’ve accomplished.
https://www.pentestpartners.com/security-blog/exploiting-copilot-ai-for-sharepoint/
Is that this one or a different instance of the same bug?
I think that these are different products? I mean, the underlying problem is the same, but copilot studio seems to be “configure your own llm front-end” and copilot for sharepoint seems to be an integration made by the sharepoint team themselves, and it does make some promises about security.
Of course, it might be exactly the same thing with different branding slapped on top, and I’m not sure you could tell without some inside information, but at least this time the security failures are the fault of Microsoft themselves rather than incompetent third party folk. And that suggests that copilot studio is so difficult to use correctly that no-one can, which is funny.
Abusing privileged identities like this to do things is apparently a thing the younger hackers are quite good at so this will all be fun.
@rook @BlueMonday1984 wow. Why go to all the trouble of social engineering a company when you can just ask Copilot?
@rook @BlueMonday1984 Maybe they have asked CoPilot to write the code that restricts access for CoPilot?
(Sometimes this future feels like 2001 A Space Odyssey, just as a farce. And without benevolent aliens.)
Thankfully I'm able to say "what is sharepoint?"
I did meet it once. A client used it in their office. But when they wanted us offshore (via satellite link) to contribute to it, it became awfully unstable, probably because of latency/ unstable data links.
It's M$. I doubt it has improved.
They’re already doing phrenology and transphobia on the pope.
(screenshot of a Twitter post with dubious coloured lines overlaid on some photos of the pope’s head, claiming a better match for a “female” skull shape)
I've never looked into how they do the phrenology but was immediately struck by the "female" skull having larger forehead. So they say women are big brained?
I think this mostly proves that Leo XIV is a moe anime character.
Painting a cross on the skull of the pope and then claiming this is wrong is a whole new kind of heresy.
.....I was unprepared for reading this post
Got a nice and lengthy sneer from film blog That Final Scene: the uncanny valet is not your friend (and other AI stories)
Beyond being an utter castigation of AI bros' "attempts" at aping art, its also wonderfully written from start to finish. Go check it out.
New eugenics conference just dropped
"Chatham House rules" so they can happily be racist without anyone pointing fingers at them.
the genomic emancipation of humanity
ffs, the euphemisms keep piling on today.
https://xcancel.com/GuiveAssadi/status/1920232405324955825
Steven Pinker: I've been part of some not so successful attempts to come up with secular humanist substitutes for religion.
Interviewer: What is the worst one you've been involved in?
Steven Pinker: Probably the rationalist solstice in Berkeley, which included hymns to the benefits of global supply chains. I mean, I actually completely endorse the lyrics of the song, but there's something a bit cringe about the performance.
from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTVJjmabaas which nobody should watch, obviously
If someone creates the world's worst playlist, that would play right after RMS's free software song.
I remind you that the original folk song is a fucking banger and nerds have only heard the worst version in the world
🎵 I'm a drop-shipping girl / in a shittified world / chat me up / bot me down / let's go party! 🎵
hymns to the benefits of global supply chains
We did it, we discovered awful's equivalent to Nostalgia Critic's The Wall
I want to make a CoE joke or something but jesus christ you really can’t improve on this.
OT: Estonia (and Helsinki) were very nice, but I did not see a single delivery robot running around. Stayed across from the MalwareBytes HQ tho, I thought that was cool.
There certainly are delivery robots going around in Helsinki, but not to the extent you're guaranteed to see them on any given day if you're just strolling around.
Glad you enjoyed your visit.
broadcom continuing to make vmware even more unappealing
bit of a fucking weird thing to do, too. guess they’re going full oracle?
subscriptionless vmware users
perpetual license holders
What a bunch of weird and off-putting ways to avoid saying owners of a product that they fucking bought.
The article is about broadcom sending cease and desists to vmware owners who download updates by the way, because apparently to be entitled to any kind of after sale support you need to be leasing the product.
What if we throw the CEO into a peat bog when the company underperforms?
"Don't worry, in the future when science discovers a cure for being a turd, we'll fish you out and bring you back to life."
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