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As synthetic image fidelity gets closer and closer to indistinguishable from genuine pictures, what, exactly can one do to tell the difference absent something like SynthID?

Who, exactly, is the "[email protected]" whose only attributable contribution is FUD regarding SynthID (and what are their motives)?

Reddit has started putting up a paywall of sorts to block mobile web users, saying that instead, users should install the app. old.reddit.com remains as an ugly workaround.

The whole thing is nuts:

1. All of reddit's content is UGC. They write literally nothing themselves. There's a strong argument that everything there written by unpaid users should be considered a public good.

2. Tech companies are now, ostensibly, aware of value of having users who engage intentionally instead of compulsively. Mobile apps, with their notifications etc., encourage compulsion. Websites less so.

It will be an interesting reckoning when the polity wakes up to the idea that as social media companies don't pay for the content, they should have no right to restrict access to it. LLMs likewise wouldn't work at all without the petabytes of data they either got for free from users or purloined, and so the argument for their weights being public goods is similar.

We can't control what the telcos do with text messages, but we exclusively use SOC 2 Type II compliant providers.

Quell (textquell.com)

Broken relationships can be difficult and nerve-wracking. Quell gives you an SMS number that enables you to put boundaries around your communication with someone who is blowing up your phone and making your life hard. Their texts are intelligently filtered so that hostility is removed while information is preserved. All raw texts are also routed to email for record-keeping and rewrite verification.

The dozens of "contributors" being presented in random order is, one would suppose, an anti-poaching tactic?

If I were the CCP this is perhaps the cleverest talking point I could have possibly come up with, propping up TikTok while simultaneously condemning democracy.

But to substantively respond: NO. This is exceptionally naive. Democracy assumes shared fates and aligned incentives among (both voting and communicating) participants. A foreign adversary mainlining their interests into half the population of the US absolutely violates this assumption.

It's unclear why the researchers believe that when a dog doesn't learn the names of a bunch of toys it means that they can't.

There are lots of things people are able to learn today that they "couldn't" a few years ago (programming, math, reading). How are the researchers able to tell that the limitation lies with the dog and not with the trainer/household?

(According to GPT4)

Using the hydrostatic pressure formula:

Pressure = Density of water × Acceleration due to gravity × Depth

Assuming the same density of water (1,000 kg/m³) and acceleration due to gravity (9.8 m/s²):

Pressure = 1,000 kg/m³ × 9.8 m/s² × 4,000 m Pressure = 39,200,000 Pascal (Pa)

Converting to atmospheres:

Pressure in atmospheres = 39,200,000 Pa / 101,325 Pa/atm Pressure in atmospheres ≈ 387 atm

Considering a safety factor of 2, as before, we can calculate the required thickness:

Required thickness = Pressure / (Tensile strength × Safety factor) Required thickness = 387 atm × 101,325 Pa/atm / (434 MPa × 2)

Converting units:

Required thickness ≈ 39,200,000 Pa / (434 × 10^6 Pa × 2) Required thickness ≈ 0.045 meters or 1.48 inches

Therefore, at a depth of 4,000 meters, the titanium walls of the submersible sphere with a 10 ft diameter would need to be approximately 1.48 inches thick to resist implosion, assuming a safety factor of 2. Again, please note that this estimation may vary based on the design, shape, and structural considerations of the submersible sphere. Consulting with experts is essential for accurate calculations and safety assessments.

As for amount of titanium required:

First, let's convert the wall thickness to meters. Since 1 inch is approximately 0.0254 meters, the wall thickness of 1.5 inches would be approximately 0.0381 meters.

Now, let's calculate the internal volume of the sphere by subtracting the volume of the inner sphere (10 ft diameter minus 2 times the wall thickness) from the volume of the outer sphere (10 ft diameter):

Inner radius = Radius of the sphere - Wall thickness Inner radius = 1.524 meters - 0.0381 meters Inner radius = 1.4869 meters

Inner volume = (4/3) * π * (Inner radius)^3 Inner volume ≈ 14.012 cubic meters

Outer volume = (4/3) * π * (1.524 meters)^3 Outer volume ≈ 14.137 cubic meters

Now, we can calculate the volume of the titanium walls by subtracting the inner volume from the outer volume:

Titanium wall volume = Outer volume - Inner volume Titanium wall volume ≈ 14.137 cubic meters - 14.012 cubic meters Titanium wall volume ≈ 0.125 cubic meters

Finally, we can calculate the mass of titanium using the density of titanium (4,506 kg/m³):

Mass of titanium = Titanium wall volume * Density of titanium Mass of titanium ≈ 0.125 cubic meters * 4,506 kg/m³ Mass of titanium ≈ 563.25 kg

Therefore, with a wall thickness of 1.5 inches, the approximate amount of titanium required for the walls of the submersible sphere with a 10 ft diameter would be approximately 563.25 kilograms.

Titanium is currently around $6/kg, so ~$3.4k for just the titanium that made up the wall.