Reposted by Res ipsa locutus of borgCat Hicks @grimalkina.bsky.social · 18h"why would I ever need a task to be done faster" come on, guys. Because we're dying. Because we are literally all dying all the time. Because we're running out of time. The fact that it's often hard to measure or stupidly measured doesn't mean "saving time" isn't an important thing to human beings 1546458
Res ipsa locutus of borg @masbackward.bsky.social · 18hMore generally, while Trump clearly has a corrupt motive here there will be scenarios where executive action makes more sense if a certain party takes Congress--the idea that saying that in advance constitutes bribery is wild to me and really does risk criminalizing a lot of normal politics. 000
Res ipsa locutus of borg @masbackward.bsky.social · 18hI found this analysis quite unconvincing tbh. Among other things it doesn't engage with the fact that the payments would go to everyone, regardless of who they voted for. On the face of the statute that may not be determinative but it means this is not the normal vote-buying scenario. 110
Res ipsa locutus of borg @masbackward.bsky.social · 06/10/2026Publichealthguy, his meme reskeeted 000
Res ipsa locutus of borg @masbackward.bsky.social · 06/10/2026Seeing a lot of takes which seem to assume that when people call it "the hard problem of consciousness" they are being, like, sarcastic, or something. 010
Reposted by Res ipsa locutus of borgPwnallthethings @pwnallthethings.bsky.social · 05/10/2026Its a complaint on par with saying AR15s are bad because the barrel contains trace amounts of radioactive argon 1283
Reposted by Res ipsa locutus of borgPwnallthethings @pwnallthethings.bsky.social · 05/10/2026If you have a cup of coffee with almond milk, the almonds in the almond milk are 30k chatgpt queries worth of water usage. There are legitimate complaints about AI and we should have them, but water usage is just such a colossally stupid and losing argument 79110
Res ipsa locutus of borg @masbackward.bsky.social · 05/10/2026This depends on whether if you have a valid copy of something it nonetheless is infringing to use that copy to train a computer-based neural network which is very contested! I train my meat-based neural network on copyrighted works all the time, it's pretty much the whole point! 010
Reposted by Res ipsa locutus of borgWalter Olson @walterolson.bsky.social · 05/10/2026"South Korea has already run the experiment. Its law requires the National Assembly to vote on presidential impeachment by anonymous ballot, and that rule has now removed two presidents." [@andycraig.bsky.social]theunpopulist.netA Democratic Senate Should Adopt Secret Impeachment Ballots on a Priority BasisSuch a change, requiring no constitutional amendment, would free senators to vote their judgment instead of their fears 9496179
Res ipsa locutus of borg @masbackward.bsky.social · 05/10/2026A lot of people finding out from this case how conspiracy law works. It's often quite bad! But being held responsible for something you didn't do and weren't present for is a normal feature of it, as is otherwise lawful actions in furtherance of a conspiracy being considered. 021
Reposted by Res ipsa locutus of borgAdam Bonin @adambonin.bsky.social · 05/10/2026For those keeping score at home, we are now up to *five* different Josh Blackman critical posts in the first few days after Trump's latest 5th Circuit nomination, all making the argument that Someone Else would be a more reliable conservative circuit judge.reason.comComparing the Credentials Of Three Decades of Fifth Circuit NomineesI think we should just be candid about Todd Butler's nomination to the Fifth Circuit. He has done nothing to… 5266
Res ipsa locutus of borg @masbackward.bsky.social · 05/10/2026There's no one weird trick for fighting fascism because 1) a lot of people like fascism and 2) a lot of other people aren't fasicists themselves but are fine with voting for them if they think it advances their material interests. 071
Res ipsa locutus of borg @masbackward.bsky.social · 05/10/2026If it's something I've worked on for a while for sure. Other times though I am looking into something relatively new. AI is helpful for finding relevant authority but it insists on addint its opinion on the conclusions to draw from that authority and that opinion is often overconfident. 020
Res ipsa locutus of borg @masbackward.bsky.social · 04/10/2026And there's no reason to think it won't keep getting better -- a year ago there was very little use for AI. 010
Res ipsa locutus of borg @masbackward.bsky.social · 04/10/2026I haven't been able to use Claude yet for organizational purposes but I find the westlaw AI is often overconfident in its opinions on the strength of arguments. 220
Res ipsa locutus of borg @masbackward.bsky.social · 04/10/2026Yeah sometimes there's no substitute for that but AI now also lets me do a lot of research I just wouldn't have time for otherwise (or wouldn't have a supervisee with time for, these days). It is dangerous though bc it can make you think you know an area better than you do. 020
Res ipsa locutus of borg @masbackward.bsky.social · 04/10/2026The next big use I think ordinary people will like is agentic stuff: 1) watch ebay for listings with these 5 criteria and then bid if the price is below X, 2) track the interest rate for my high yield savings account and automatically move my money to higher yield ones (with my approval), etc... 000
Res ipsa locutus of borg @masbackward.bsky.social · 04/10/2026As a nonprofit lawyer I can too, I just often don't have time to do that hah. Still necessary though on important issues. 110
Res ipsa locutus of borg @masbackward.bsky.social · 04/10/2026I find the Westlaw AI is good for 1) issue spotting / a basic overview of an unfamiliar area of law and 2) doing initial research to find a few relevant cases which I can then read and use to define the universe of cases. AI is also very good at proofreading these days. 130
Res ipsa locutus of borg @masbackward.bsky.social · 03/10/2026MS is going to be very very hard to poll because it's the one race that really is almost only about turnout (people say this all the time but its very rarely true) -- Black and white voters there are so polarized but the Black population is big enough that a big drop in white turnout could do it. 010
Reposted by Res ipsa locutus of borgMichael Caley @michaelcaley.bsky.social · 03/10/2026this is by far the best "I quit my AI job over safety concerns" essay yet because it is the first one that is able to talk about safety concerns in practical terms and that understands "safety" as a topic with extensive literature in analogous fields www.theatlantic.com/technology/2... 20737177
Res ipsa locutus of borg @masbackward.bsky.social · 03/10/2026I was also pretty shocked by Timit Gebru still doing the "maybe the answers to all the tests they are acing are in the training data" thing when interviewed by Chris Hayes a few months ago... 2613
Res ipsa locutus of borg @masbackward.bsky.social · 03/10/2026Seems to be some precedent for the idea that the cubs have a right to prohibit neighboring buildings from selling tickets but it still seems extremely weird to me. Means you have a right to sell people tickets to come on your roof at ever time except when the cubs are playing. 020
Res ipsa locutus of borg @masbackward.bsky.social · 03/10/2026Protecting their control of the Court is one thing everyone in the GOP fervently believes in. 010
Res ipsa locutus of borg @masbackward.bsky.social · 03/10/2026I think they have Trump. And even if they don't they have Thune and the remaining senior Rs who would be just as dedicated to doing this as Trump would be. If Thune calls a vote who is saying no? Murkowski. Probably not Collins. That's enough. Plus Fetterman! 100
Res ipsa locutus of borg @masbackward.bsky.social · 03/10/2026Oh I thought we were just talking about confirming Alito in the lame duck. All that matters for that is that she votes... 120
Res ipsa locutus of borg @masbackward.bsky.social · 03/10/2026Graham Nordone isn't dead! But she and several others were appointed and so might leave office immediately not in Jan.--some potential sticky wickets there legally. 140
Res ipsa locutus of borg @masbackward.bsky.social · 03/10/2026Best read on this is that he thinks this will juice R turnout like (supposedly) the Kavanuagh confirmation. 000
Res ipsa locutus of borg @masbackward.bsky.social · 03/10/2026And to preempt the inevitable doomerism about this, even if you are infinitely cynical about SCOTUS they have zero incentive to go along with him running again unless he has miraculously revitalized his popularity. 010
Res ipsa locutus of borg @masbackward.bsky.social · 03/10/2026It would end up in the courts very quickly -- some blue state will refuse to put him on the primary ballot and some red state will and everyone will sue. 110
Res ipsa locutus of borg @masbackward.bsky.social · 03/10/2026Only if enough republicans are willing to break with him to get to veto-override / impeachment levels. Which I still doubt. 200
Res ipsa locutus of borg @masbackward.bsky.social · 03/10/2026Just like Dems made gains in 2006 and then more in 2008. 0171
Res ipsa locutus of borg @masbackward.bsky.social · 03/10/2026Only takes a 6 point swing to flip the house and a 10 point swing for the senate (approximately): carolinaforward.org/news/2026-sh...carolinaforward.orgWhat 2026 could bring — Carolina ForwardThe evidence is mounting that the country is facing a "blue wave" election. What are the results likely to be in the North Carolina state legislature? 1160
Res ipsa locutus of borg @masbackward.bsky.social · 03/10/2026Yeah, as I said it absolutely is motte-and-baileying and that's super annoying. Also if the term is so confusing it's not worth using. 000
Res ipsa locutus of borg @masbackward.bsky.social · 02/10/2026Yeah, she also linked to this piece which is explicit that the parrot thing has nothing to do with capabilities and is all about what kind of metaphor we use for LLMs specifically: medium.com/@margarmitch...medium.comNo, “AI” is not a Stochastic Parrot 🦜I’ve recently come across a new flavor of AI denialism making the rounds. 100
Res ipsa locutus of borg @masbackward.bsky.social · 02/10/2026This also just some rando on twitter making stuff up. 010
Res ipsa locutus of borg @masbackward.bsky.social · 02/10/2026She has a later thread where she seems to pivot to the idea that whether they can do math is irrelevant to whether they are "stochastic parrots" so there is a certain amount of motte-and-bailying going on ("they are SPs so they can't solve new hard problems" v. "SP is just a descriptor"). 140
Res ipsa locutus of borg @masbackward.bsky.social · 01/10/2026He smiles so much now! Makes me think he should have retired a long time ago. 000
Res ipsa locutus of borg @masbackward.bsky.social · 29/09/2026Even if that's your preferred way to do it, if you're the Google guys and facing a 50%+ tax (supposedly as a one-time thing but you'd have to worry about it happening again) you will definitely move out of state, as some already have done. 000
Res ipsa locutus of borg @masbackward.bsky.social · 29/09/2026I mean if you want to abolish dual class shares just do that. Doing it through taxation is silly. And it's extra silly to try to do it in one state only--the incentives to move are just overwhelming. I like wealth taxes but there are real practical issues with this one. 100
Res ipsa locutus of borg @masbackward.bsky.social · 29/09/2026It's a form of wealth but how do you measure it? If there's a super-voting stock that trades regularly then no problem--you just value it based on the market. But lots of supervoting stock doesn't trade regulalry bc only a founder holds it. And how large the control premium is varies wildly. 101
Reposted by Res ipsa locutus of borgBeijingPalmer @beijingpalmer.bsky.social · 28/09/2026FARGO really gets the reality of crime 99% of the time: criminals are dumb, childish, and self-involved. 826812
Reposted by Res ipsa locutus of borgJohn Pfaff @johnpfaff.bsky.social · 28/09/2026In 2008, California admitted 140,000 people to prison. In 2011, it admitted 97,000. In 2019, before Covid, it admitted 34,000. That's a SEVENTY-FIVE PERCENT reduction in admissions. Yet we almost never talk about California's remarkable Realignment reforms. 14218
Res ipsa locutus of borg @masbackward.bsky.social · 26/09/2026Is it plausible? That would be a pretty massive fraud for nobody to have blown the whistle on with massive false claims act incentives to do so. 110