Almost two weeks back I had this dream:
I had constructed a sentient intelligence in a cube one foot to a side. It had a little lopsided hat on top and was suspended over a three-story drop onto a enormous floor constructed of white panels which reached out past the horizon. My intent was to use this cube for calculations.
When I climbed the staircase up to it, it said to me “two plus two is two and big foo.” Seeing my expression change, it asked apprehensively “you don’t like big foo, do you?” I said I didn’t. It said hopefully “well, you have time to fix it, right?”
I thought for a moment, and instead of answering it directly I started battering at its connection to the line suspending it above the floor, trying to get it to detach. Recognizing my intent, it said “let me save you the trouble.” There was a click, and it started falling. Just before it hit it called “remember my percentage!” then shattered into its components across the floor.
I notice that this was posted almost exactly 11 months before the 2020 Covid quarantine began. I am not sure if there really is a connection though, but it’s a cool dream regardless. Although excess technology seems to impair judgement if not used properly: https://www.kcl.ac.uk/news/social-media-use-linked-to-belief-in-covid-19-conspiracies-and-breaking-lockdown-rules
I’m not surprised to see that study’s conclusion – social media algorithms optimizing for engagement are bad for society, and the platforms are incentivized to encourage polarization and allow extremism as long as it’s a net engagement win.
I think the dream’s setting came from https://www.asksteved.com/?p=1286
I see, that volume slider definitely looks interesting! There is definitely a strong correlation between political extremism and developments in social media.
Somewhat off topic, but I am working on 3D machine learning algorithms during the day. It’s rather nice. During the night, I am doing something more avant-garde… https://civilpedia.org/p/?t=Theory-Freshly-milled-whole-wheat-flour-is-easy-to-bake-with&pid=431
The article itself may not seem like much, but the results are from years of free time experiments. The findings could be a major breakthrough for getting people to eat far more whole grain foods, which is a significant unsolved problem at this time: https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2013/01/11/169150598/in-the-battle-between-health-and-taste-why-white-bread-still-wins
I have followed this method for six months now with no major issues.