Philippa Cowderoy @flippac.org · 10/10/2026The difference is that the training data isn't code: programming language nerds like me couldn't give it formal semantics that let us directly treat it as code, for example ("tokens", yes, but 8 bit micro BASICs had tokens as an implementation concept and they're kinda trivial) 000
Philippa Cowderoy @flippac.org · 10/10/2026So you can think of the result of training as a program produced by another program (or, if it then calls the result, as one big self-modifying program - but that's not how LLMs work) 100
Philippa Cowderoy @flippac.org · 10/10/2026Pretty sure my thermostat isn't conscious. But also, what you've actually defined is what AI people mean by "agent" if the black box doesn't have to be computational. 000
Philippa Cowderoy @flippac.org · 10/10/2026By telling us we shouldn't shoot at nazis in Wolfenstein? 010
Philippa Cowderoy @flippac.org · 10/10/2026It's really not any more notable than "write in the style of..." or any given RP prompt though: the work happened at training time 100
Philippa Cowderoy @flippac.org · 10/10/2026It's almost certainly got human descriptions of sufficient pain in its training data, fwiw 100
Philippa Cowderoy @flippac.org · 10/10/2026I'm aware that neurobiology goes way beyond what most people in computer science think it does: it's still not a good sign in terms of default ethical positions though 130
Philippa Cowderoy @flippac.org · 10/10/2026I'd want to see evidence that our bodies are doing something supercomputational before getting into whether qualia are even the right model - but then, the psych* field is still arguing about how much I and people like me "simulate" in my brain rather than doing for real 000
Philippa Cowderoy @flippac.org · 10/10/2026I'm certainly a lot more worried about LLMs "rolepaying" evil AI from their training data (including things written specifically about LLMs)! 010
Philippa Cowderoy @flippac.org · 10/10/2026I don't think we end up with simulated kittens guiding missiles, to pick one SF example, but there's room for a lot of other fucked up and we should acknowledge that a materialist viewpoint doesn't have any answers here. 110
Philippa Cowderoy @flippac.org · 10/10/2026Yeah, I'm distinctly concerned by the line of research that's got as far as running a simulated fruit fly connectome inside a simulated body in a wider physical simulation for much that reason. 210
Philippa Cowderoy @flippac.org · 09/10/2026Thought just occurred: once it's *on* Disney+, that's a significant price drop even if there wasn't a single other thing you'd watch in a month 000
Philippa Cowderoy @flippac.org · 09/10/2026Only active reason to see it any sooner is if you're planning on catching the two Avengers films in the cinema, yeah. If Coyote vs Acme's still showing near you and you haven't seen it, seeing it in the cinema's worth it because even at this stage it's participating in something specific. 000
Philippa Cowderoy @flippac.org · 09/10/2026(all rent vs buy is set to "if there's a modest chance you'll rewatch it, just buy it" now, which... well, there are two points of view on that, as it were) 100
Philippa Cowderoy @flippac.org · 09/10/2026to put it another way: it's plenty doable to match the cheaper cinemas at home for everything except maybe surround sound, which it absolutely was not with DVDs 100
Philippa Cowderoy @flippac.org · 09/10/2026right, and they're not offering a DVD equivalent stream at this point - they're offering you "not quite as good as the cinema but you really do need to know what to look for" plus a tapering price point not great in your circumstances, but buying for a watch party isn't too awful given inflation 100
Philippa Cowderoy @flippac.org · 09/10/2026Personally it involved shit like becoming a carer and being left to burn the fuck out consistently having received no support (admittedly because the concept was way more understudied) with executive function issues, but what would I know?... Oh, right, how mainstream education treated me. 010
Philippa Cowderoy @flippac.org · 09/10/2026(They also price like you've got a decent setup and will be watching with at least one other person, which is why it costs more than seeing it in the cinema alone!) 100
Philippa Cowderoy @flippac.org · 09/10/2026They're in the period where previously it wouldn't have been available to rent yet (it would've been a Sky Movies situation) so the rental price is massive, yeah They're also totally not backing off that too fast because it's the best MCU film since Endgame 100
Philippa Cowderoy @flippac.org · 09/10/2026Anyone who played before the series went 3D absolutely felt the scene they chose to use the modern series theme for too, yeah. You're not going to make a TV show that's canon to the GTA games, but the Fallout one is and that changes things for that part of the audience. 000
Philippa Cowderoy @flippac.org · 08/10/2026Fucky sleep is weird, yeah. I'm surprisingly "morning person" if I *am* waking up naturally early for a while, but normally only if there's sunlight! Which is why even when my sleep phase cycles at a steadyish rate for a while I get very much the opposite rep... 010
Philippa Cowderoy @flippac.org · 07/10/2026Watch them fire both Zaslav and anyone who worked on CvA and still works there... 000
Philippa Cowderoy @flippac.org · 06/10/2026Sometimes their name in the copyright when filling in the license at the top of someone else's code, too 1441
Reposted by Philippa CowderoyJim Rossignol @rossignol.bsky.social · 06/10/2026This gets said constantly, but it worth reiterating: Games Workshop being bigger than fishing is important to shout about because you wouldn't know it from government talking points, which are rarely about anything creative or artistic. Growth won't involve fish or steel, it will involve goblins. 502625643
Philippa Cowderoy @flippac.org · 06/10/2026Without suggesting anything actually happen: would the character leave if the love interest died? 110
Philippa Cowderoy @flippac.org · 06/10/2026If you're up to the rewatch then 10 Things I Hate About You does an excellent job weaving these for two couples and does subtle but mean things to the "big gesture" scene too. 000
Philippa Cowderoy @flippac.org · 06/10/2026Am not one, but: you want two and maybe to play with how they interact: one that's things about them that would render any HEA at the start unconvincing (they need to change, and not all of it should come from each other)... ...and an external one which may or may not involve a villain. 100
Philippa Cowderoy @flippac.org · 06/10/2026I don't think I get too worried until it starts to pick up antibiotic resistance, but... It's also a hell of a thing to read "according to the World Health Organization, the pandemic was considered active until 1959, when worldwide casualties dropped to 200 per year" on wikipedia. 000
Philippa Cowderoy @flippac.org · 05/10/2026Or a pasta sauce that's suspiciously hot! (for personal use I tend to learn how much of a given hot sauce produces what effects in me then adjust what goes in anything I'm cooking accordingly - it's rare I cook for someone with similar or higher tolerance though) 010
Reposted by Philippa Cowderoymcc @dryad.technology · 04/10/2026Have you noticed, lately, or noticed people around you commenting, that there just seems to be no money anymore. There's no money for companies to make the tv shows you like, the video games you like, the local diner you like shut down, no one you know can find a job. Think about that in context of 6163442431
Philippa Cowderoy @flippac.org · 05/10/2026"Don't let tolerable be the enemy of utter shite for our profit" 000
Philippa Cowderoy @flippac.org · 05/10/2026(I know that's often at least somewhat ironic: problem is, the moment you're posting that to an audience who doesn't know you well enough...) 010
Philippa Cowderoy @flippac.org · 05/10/2026(But also the thing where "boymode" stretches well into "if you just told someone people'd see it" territory) 110
Philippa Cowderoy @flippac.org · 05/10/2026Also the thing when people project that onto someone who's just not that femme 120
Philippa Cowderoy @flippac.org · 05/10/2026Hell, sometimes it might make sense to straight up ask people! Just, sometimes that means you need grounds you can point to for why you think they might be in that position. 010
Philippa Cowderoy @flippac.org · 05/10/2026How dare you say that! It's completely normal for them. 100
Philippa Cowderoy @flippac.org · 04/10/2026tbf, some people should have to use a communal bog brush - but that's just poetic injustice for you 000
Philippa Cowderoy @flippac.org · 04/10/2026Jean's something of a frequent flier (but yeah, while I'd be lying if I claimed not to be an X-Men fan, most of the notable highs were "for a Marvel or DC comic at the time" - the original Days of Future Past was on the edge of indie territory at the time, for example) 000
Philippa Cowderoy @flippac.org · 04/10/2026Hey, Krakoa got to let humanity actually respond to the whole phenomenon! 000
Reposted by Philippa CowderoyDennis Furia @furiagames.bsky.social · 03/10/2026Tickled with my contribution to a discussion about life lessons learned from XCOM 2. 12713
Philippa Cowderoy @flippac.org · 03/10/2026Some do warrant a reread because you really will miss stuff, but usually if you've been there done that re some good authors already you've usually got a feel for when that might be, right? 010
Philippa Cowderoy @flippac.org · 01/10/2026(I've been on benzos over a decade and it's been hard work and taken a lot of letting opportunities slide to not develop a serious tolerance/increased need problem there, so it's not like I have no idea what "hard to stop" feels like) 010
Philippa Cowderoy @flippac.org · 01/10/2026I can't comment first hand on the hard to put down beyond "because bodies do that", but there's a certain calming/soothing effect the few times I've smoked (usually in solidarity with somebody who's had an utterly shit day). Once your body starts expecting that as normal, bad things happen. 100
Philippa Cowderoy @flippac.org · 30/09/2026It's the one thing you're allowed to take time from for slack, right? (Don't ask how much I'm doing of things that aren't basically killing time and surviving - or rather, ask me in person next time I make it to something you're at) 010