technocrit

We are constantly fed a version of AI that looks, sounds and acts suspiciously like us. It speaks in polished sentences, mimics emotions, expresses curiosity, claims to feel compassion, even dabbles in what it calls creativity.

But what we call AI today is nothing more than a statistical machine: a digital parrot regurgitating patterns mined from oceans of human data (the situation hasn’t changed much since it was discussed here five years ago). When it writes an answer to a question, it literally just guesses which letter and word will come next in a sequence – based on the data it’s been trained on.

This means AI has no understanding. No consciousness. No knowledge in any real, human sense. Just pure probability-driven, engineered brilliance — nothing more, and nothing less.

So why is a real “thinking” AI likely impossible? Because it’s bodiless. It has no senses, no flesh, no nerves, no pain, no pleasure. It doesn’t hunger, desire or fear. And because there is no cognition — not a shred — there’s a fundamental gap between the data it consumes (data born out of human feelings and experience) and what it can do with them.

Philosopher David Chalmers calls the mysterious mechanism underlying the relationship between our physical body and consciousness the “hard problem of consciousness”. Eminent scientists have recently hypothesised that consciousness actually emerges from the integration of internal, mental states with sensory representations (such as changes in heart rate, sweating and much more).

Given the paramount importance of the human senses and emotion for consciousness to “happen”, there is a profound and probably irreconcilable disconnect between general AI, the machine, and consciousness, a human phenomenon.

https://archive.ph/Fapar

The project’s GitHub repository shows an impressive slate of features, but also notes that things are changing as this is alpha software. The CAD kernel is a common one brought in via WebAssembly, so there shouldn’t be many simple bugs involving geometry.

We’ve seen a number of browser-based tools that do some kind of CAD. CADmium is a recent entry into the list. Or, stick with OpenSCAD. We sometimes go low-tech for schematics.

In recognition of World Environment Day, we examine the environmental toll of the new space race and what’s at stake as climate change accelerates here on Earth. Billionaires are racing to conquer the cosmos, launching hundreds of rockets yearly for exploration and profit. But the cost to our planet is mounting. Are we turning our backs on the planet we still call home?

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyMMljT9W1k

Bonus: Whitey on the Moon

After I post an article, I can see where the article was cross-posted. I would like to see this before posting, so I don't repost the same article to the same comm.

Is it possible to look up if/where an article is posted (without posting it)?

Sorry if this is the wrong comm for this. Thanks.

YouTube pulled a popular tutorial video from tech creator Jeff Geerling this week, claiming his guide to installing LibreELEC on a Raspberry Pi 5 violated policies against "harmful content." The video, which showed viewers how to set up their own home media servers, had been live for over a year and racked up more than 500,000 views. YouTube's automated systems flagged the content for allegedly teaching people "how to get unauthorized or free access to audio or audiovisual content."

Geerling says his tutorial covered only legal self-hosting of media people already own -- no piracy tools or copyright workarounds. He said he goes out of his way to avoid mentioning popular piracy software in his videos. It's the second time YouTube has pulled a self-hosting content video from Geerling. Last October, YouTube removed his Jellyfin tutorial, though that decision was quickly reversed after appeal. This time, his appeal was denied.

Over the last several decades, the Food and Drug Administration has allowed pharma companies to sell hundreds of drugs to patients without adequate evidence that they work and, in many cases, with clear signs that they pose a risk of serious harm.

A federal judge ruled today that Florida cannot enforce a law that requires social media platforms to block kids from using their platforms. The state law "is likely unconstitutional," US Judge Mark Walker of the Northern District of Florida ruled while granting the tech industry's request for a preliminary injunction...

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/39876981

Giving people the power to build community and bring the world closer together so we can shoot them

A U.S. cryptocurrency investor is facing criminal charges after allegedly kidnapping and torturing a man in Manhattan for weeks in an attempt to steal his bitcoin BTC $109,773.69

John Woeltz, 37, was arraigned on Saturday on multiple charges, including kidnapping, assault, and illegal gun possession, after he held a 28-year-old Italian man captive in a luxury townhouse, authorities say...

Archive: https://archive.is/VzbEn

The U.S. Senate has never been closer to approving a major piece of crypto legislation as it mulls the stablecoin-regulation bill, but some Democrats are insisting that the final debate needs to address the accused conflicts of President Donald Trump.

On today’s episode of Uncanny Valley, we discuss how WIRED was able to legally 3D-print the same gun allegedly used by Luigi Mangione, and where US law stands on the technology.