iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Paul Topping @paultopping.bsky.social · 15h

It's actually a little of each. Trump began wanting to give examples of cities Iran might nuke. Then it occured to him that he could give a couple of blue cities as a stab against Dems. Iran shouldn't nuke any of our cities but, if they must, these would be Trump's first choice.

000

Paul Topping @paultopping.bsky.social · 18h

When does MAGA admit to itself that their leader has lost the plot?

110

Paul Topping @paultopping.bsky.social · 19h

He makes no serious attempt to prove that cheating has occurred and he lies constantly. He's also been told there's no cheating by people supposedly on his side, but I guess we'll never know for sure.

000

Paul Topping @paultopping.bsky.social · 22h

Even if Trump et al know voter fraud is a lie (they do), they also know that keeping the many conspiracy stories alive helps them maintain the "Dems are bad" stink. Their supporters think, even if half are lies, that means the other half are true. This is how "flooding the zone with shit" works.

100

Paul Topping @paultopping.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

Amazon needs to start packaging their bobcats better.

010

Paul Topping @paultopping.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

I think he knows that AI is keeping the stock market and many other parts of the economy going. If he tanks AI, he tanks the economy, and loses all his friends and investments.

000

Paul Topping @paultopping.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

Made me look that up in Wikipedia.

000

Paul Topping @paultopping.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

How does the doom scenario depend on intelligence being well-defined? All kinds of intelligence can be bound into the AI framework. Same as AI can be given a calculator, it can be given access to any other s/w we have ever invented.

010

Paul Topping @paultopping.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Actually, the keyboard issue is one that may be caught in fuzz testing where a test program feeds random input data to the program being tested. I'm guessing they didn't do that back then though but I might be wrong. If not, they should have.

010

Paul Topping @paultopping.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

A big problem with spaceflight software is the difficulty of testing all possibilities before it must confront reality. Also, there are many situations in which the software has no viable options. For example, your spacecraft may run out of fuel before finding a suitable landing spot.

110

Paul Topping @paultopping.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

How are people going to compare their scores if each game is tuned to individual preferences?

010

Paul Topping @paultopping.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

True but we must also recognize that failing to impeach is deadly to the party leading the effort. There's wasted time and energy and the potential impeachee will crow to all that they've been exonerated and that the impeachment effort was fraudulent. So count the votes before getting into it.

000

Paul Topping @paultopping.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Sure, Trump doesn't actually want Iran to nuke LA and San Diego. He only wants everyone to know that if Iran did want to nuke US cities, those two would be good choices.

000

Paul Topping @paultopping.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Getting back to normal in politics is not about treating your opponent as normal when they clearly aren't. Instead it is about telling it like it is while sticking scrupulously to the truth. In short, it's about the truth, not faux courtesy.

0121

Paul Topping @paultopping.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

I can report first-hand that potential damage is taken into account when prioritizing bug fixes. Security bugs are extremely important. Next perhaps are bugs that cause the user to lose valuable work. Software companies do triage.

110

Paul Topping @paultopping.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Lil' Marco's been to MAGA school! Got the stupid "fake news" meme down pat. If he thinks he can rejoin the real world after Trump fades, he can forget it.

000

Paul Topping @paultopping.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Yes, it should be just the first rule of input, regardless of species.

060

Paul Topping @paultopping.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

"America is at its best when it implements all my ideas and no one else's."

010

Paul Topping @paultopping.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Which really means that texture is cheaper to produce than taste. Can't wait for the 100% texture snacks!

000

Paul Topping @paultopping.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

First rule of human input: the user may hit any key, click any button, at any time. Good software must handle it properly.

4423

Paul Topping @paultopping.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Everyone knows not to put your carry-on in those size checking thingies.

000

Paul Topping @paultopping.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Awm, leave poor Ken alone. He's just making sure he loses this race and can sink into obscurity.

020

Paul Topping @paultopping.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Nonsense! Cats are just cooler.

000

Paul Topping @paultopping.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

"I could be a lot worse" is not the reassuring message Trump thinks it is.

090

Paul Topping @paultopping.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

I agree but the interpretation that he supposedly didn't mean aligns so well with things he has said on other occasions. In this case, he started off telling us how a nuclear Iran could destroy our cities but that morphed into a hint that he might be ok with that as long as they were blue cities.

020

Paul Topping @paultopping.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

It is possible we'll see a few years where the AI architecture finds more low-hanging mathematical fruit, followed by very little of substance until we are much closer to AGI.

010

Paul Topping @paultopping.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

And the fact that they can mostly get away with that is also a sign of our broken system.

020

Paul Topping @paultopping.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

I think a lot of people heard his rallies before the election but heard only promises of things they liked and ignored the mental illness. Now there are no more promises and the mental illness is cranked up to 11.

010

Paul Topping @paultopping.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

I think it's "phenomenal consciousness" that's considered a made up philosopher's term. In most everyday uses, people understand "consciousness". They don't understand what "phenomenal" brings to the table. I know how it is explained but it still seems fuzzy.

110

Paul Topping @paultopping.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

And don't expect the US government to be honest about it either. Trump has already told us it's just flu.

0211

Paul Topping @paultopping.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Please don't assume that I misuse words. Installed as in "caused to be there". DNA causes the brain structures to be created that process the raw input that you are hungry. It's called interoception. DNA also is responsible for the brain algorithms that resolve that hunger.

000

Paul Topping @paultopping.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Agree except for the assertion that so many people think the brain works like a computer. I'm sure someone out there thinks that way but not people working in these fields. Still, they do underappreciate innate knowledge and structure. They are blank slaters that won't admit it.

000

Paul Topping @paultopping.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Installed just means it got there because of evolution. No evolution, no brain. No one said that DNA was a blueprint. It does, however, determine how our brain develops. DNA is not a blueprint in that it isn't a one-to-one map. Instead, it controls a developmental process that creates a brain.

100

Paul Topping @paultopping.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Paxton doesn't even realize what a favor his party is doing for him. If he was calling the shots in his campaign, he would be even lower in the polls. He has nothing of substance to offer the electorate.

000

Paul Topping @paultopping.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Everything our bodies do, including our brains, was installed by evolution. If you disagree, then we are not talking the same language.

110

Paul Topping @paultopping.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

People often don't think about stuff like that. Explains our political situation.

0171

Paul Topping @paultopping.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

The all-time best stupid human trick.

000

Paul Topping @paultopping.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

What sane person on the left would say both parties are the same? There is a both-sides problem but it isn't coming from the left. Trump does something bad, X, then MAGA says it's not bad because some Democrat did Y, where X is much, much worse than Y.

010

Paul Topping @paultopping.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

In theory but any criminal referrals they make aren't binding on the DOJ. Nothing is likely to happen while Trump is president. It would essentially be begging him to declare the person innocent. Not only would no investigation occur, Trump would get on his soapbox and whine about weaponization.

000

Paul Topping @paultopping.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Miller is a good example. He's an awful guy but what law has he broken? Most voters want something done about immigration and may agree that what Miller has done is bad but elections have consequences. Probably the only thing that will work is to vote the bums out of office.

100

Paul Topping @paultopping.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

My fear with impeachment is that, unlike a court, it is inherently a partisan affair. The party of the person being impeached will always portray it as "weaponization" and most voters can't tell if it is true or not. They have way more faith in the courts, especially when a jury is involved.

100

Paul Topping @paultopping.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

New laws would not stop SCOTUS from misinterpreting them but surely they don't misinterpret every law. Many times SCOTUS has ruled against Trump and forced him to back down. Having laws on the books that Trump violates enables SCOTUS to rule against him.

100

Paul Topping @paultopping.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

No doubt discontinued because too few customers got the joke in the name and they couldn't think of a better one.

010

Paul Topping @paultopping.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

We are stuck with this SCOTUS for many years. They have established that the president, once elected, can do as he pleases as long it is covered by executive prerogative and not covered by explicit law. The point of new laws would be to cover those cases.

200

Paul Topping @paultopping.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

While I don't think much of Kennedy as president, his presence in the 2028 race would help against those goobers by blowing up their inevitable lies from within the GOP.

010

Paul Topping @paultopping.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

And how well has impeachment worked to stop someone like Trump? Even with Nixon, impeachment didn't really work. Nixon quit under the threat of impeachment because of fear of losing. I don't want to count on that. I prefer we have laws with real teeth that constrain an unethical president.

100