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> The Reason article blurs the distinction between SciAm's opinion pieces and its factual (or putatively factual) reporting.

How are readers to know the difference?


Sorry, I can't tell whether this is sarcasm or not. If it's a genuine question, the articles are labelled.

You can't expect people to read past the title, cmon now.

So the articles themselves have no opinions? They don't make conclusions and use carefully chosen words to sway the reader?

Other than to simplify the concepts for a subjectively "inclined" reader, no. Language is not mathematics. There is no perfection in the area of communication. This is not an insightful observation.

Scientific America aimed to be informative and useful in context of that information, when I was a reader (80s).


> There is no perfection in the area of communication.

Bull puckey. I can be precise in my estimate, and contextual in my language.

"We believe x to be generally true because of y chance of likelihood" while not precise in conclusion, it is precise in its intent, which is to communicate a degree of certainty and to convey integrity of thought.

This is commonsense science writing that even the plebs can understand.


Labeled by whom, and following what set of rules or guidelines? Are those rules agreed upon and enforced in some way? What are the consequences for breaking those rules?

> Labeled by whom, and following what set of rules or guidelines?

Ostensibly, the staff. More specifically, editors and leadership.

> Are those rules agreed upon and enforced in some way?

Editorials were labeled to distinguish scientific findings, distilled to simple language for a larger audience, from opinion pieces and what-ifs. This evaporated over time.

> What are the consequences for breaking those rules?

The content wasn't published.

Asking inane questions with simple answers, that are readily available, is not productive.


You're not thinking deeply enough about the problem, which is annoying because I'm addressing the main thrust of the original article.

Staff/editors/leadership cannot be trusted to label correctly if they are serving their own agendas. This is a real problem when we're looking to science to guide sociopolitical decision making, e.g. during a pandemic, or in childcare, or with the environment.


> Staff/editors/leadership cannot be trusted to label correctly if they are serving their own agendas

This can be boiled down to "nobody can be trusted to do anything", which is technically true.

The question is, is there evidence of motives leading to actual misbehavior? Having a nonzero motive to misbehave isn't the same as that.


It can be boiled down to incentive alignment - though a lot of people (falsely) believe that incentives can (or should) be tuned for social good.

> is there evidence of motives leading to actual misbehavior?

Yes. Having a 'very strong opinion' is a strong indicator that a publication concerned with science has gone off the rails.


> It can be boiled down to incentive alignment

Sure, if "it" here means your opinion of what's important.

Incentive alignment and misalignment isn't evidence of wrongdoing, though.

> Having a 'very strong opinion' is a strong indicator that a publication concerned with science has gone off the rails.

Interesting opinion. I thank you for it and respectfully disagree.


Having reliable sources for scientific news and a high standard for truth therein is obviously important, moral, and good. Your opinion is wrong.

> Having reliable sources for scientific news and a high standard for truth therein is obviously important, moral, and good.

I'm glad we could find shared ground here. I wholeheartedly agree, even if I respectfully disagree with your totally unrelated very strong opinion that "Having a 'very strong opinion' is a strong indicator that a publication concerned with science has gone off the rails"


It is vitally important that scientists put their duty above their burning desire to have a 'hot take', especially in medicine and public health.

This shouldn't be controversial.


> You're not thinking deeply enough about the problem,

> Staff/editors/leadership cannot be trusted to label correctly if they are serving their own agendas. This is a real problem when we're looking to science to guide sociopolitical decision making,

...or you know, you could have stated what you meant instead of asking questions you didn't care about for your own reasons.

None of what you say applies to a publication any more than other forms of communication. There is a lot of philosophical rambling in these threads.


I do care about my questions which are germane to the point of the article. I'm not being philosophical or obtuse; "who watches the watchers" is a common consideration in dealing with accountability and truth, and is indeed a core value of the scientific method.

Scientific publications don't get to free themselves from that obligation if they want to be regarded as either.


It's weird we're at the point where there are a decent number of adults who have likely never read an actual magazine.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/11/191121141347.h...

Magnesium deprivation stops pathogen growth - November 21, 2019


The user interface for LLMs is stuck in C:\

That's where I'd focus.


Voice for LLMs is surprisingly good. I'd love to see LLMs used in more systems like cars and in-home automation. Whatever cars use today and Alexa in the home simply are much worse than what we get with ChatGPT voice today.

Do you mind if I ask how this works

1) with people who aren't on icloud/iOS?

2) publishing-wise? Like are they getting 'feeds' in their imessage apps or...?


1) it doesn't work outside of iOS/macOS really. 2) it's an app on both platforms with it's own communication protocol

You can use Google Photos similarly and it's cross platform. Not sure about commments tho

Line and Facebook also have "private" social media feeds. By private I mean only people you approve can view. No idea how mined they are for data for ads


AFAIK, it's IOS only. The one android user in my family switched to iphone after feeling left out for a year. Other groups also are all iphone

The feed is actually in the Apple Photo app. There is a section for "shared albums" and a link to "activity" that has a feed UI.

I've always thought if the shared album was tied directly to the group message that would be nirvana, but I don't believe that's a possibility.


Best of luck with you on this endeavor.

Regarding getting celebrities and influencers, you're going to have to pick from a group of people who are either highly tolerant of seeing their content next to, say, something really odious, or are already considered persona non grata. I'm certain you understand the reasons for this, so let me jump straight to my suggestions:

1. Work on a federated model a la bluesky that is censorship-proof but highly customizable so that people can form up around content they want to see and content they one (this is a very hard balance)

2. Be 'free speech friendly' and accept the fact that you may have to censor, but just be transparent about it. One of the biggest problems with censorship on the bigs is that its opaque, inconsistent, and nonsensical and hurts people who have no idea what they're doing or why it's 'inconsistent with Meta's values' or what the fuck ever.

You are opening a can of worms but its also a much-needed alternative so I wish you the best of luck.


Impossible to get a group of people that large to behave strategically.

So you're asking the wrong questions.

What about the democrats ideology is unpopular? Because that is what people are voting on, not strategy.


There is the LGBT. Specially the T part. The right thing is to do is support their rights, and it is very hard not to do the right thing when you know what the right thing is. However, the republicans have weaponized it against the democrats. They call them radical left and they campaign saying things like the want to convert your sons in girls and other awful things. It is an imposible choice because it can cost you the election.


Except both sides disagree on the "right thing."

It's same for both sides. Pro-life stance cost them a lot of votes and could easily cost them election.


I think it is because people who think or say "what about me?" hear "what about me?" from others as if it's support of their own view, when really their core issues could be totally different. "Yeah, what about us?"

As opposed to "we need to help everyone, especially highly victimized groups". And then people infight over which groups require more attention vs everyone else.


No, that's the crux of the problem as framed by purported rationalists including EA.

The real existential question, once you jerk off into the cosmological mirror for long enough, will still be "do you want to?"


For less than the price of a candy bar you can feel better about yourself for the rest of the day. Small acts acts of kindness are rational even if the guy does go buy a bottle of gin.


I would feel shitty about myself that I got taken in by a scam.


> I would feel shitty about myself that I got taken in by a scam.

Sorry, what are you referring to?


For example, someone telling you a completely fabricated pity story to get you give them money could be said to be scamming people.


scarcity mindset


yes but it was cancelled after becoming too popular



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