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Jblx2on Mathematics in the age of AI

Apparently, it is Palomar:

https://terrytao.wordpress.com/2026/08/18/palomar-a-registry...

Jblx2on Mathematics in the age of AI

Are dolphins obsolete?

Jblx2on Mathematics in the age of AI

Yes, you still need to be careful, especially if you have reason to think that the proof was from a malicious actor.

https://leodemoura.github.io/blog/2026-8-1-postmortem-for-ke...

(N.B. from August 2026)

Jblx2on Mathematics in the age of AI

It will be interesting to see the evolution of journals in the next ten years for sure. Have they outlived their usefulness? Maybe everyone will just upload papers to arXiv, along with a copy of the formal proof.

Jblx2on Mathematics in the age of AI

Mochizuki enters the chat

Jblx2on The Amazon tax

How do you even know something is authentic on Amazon, and not a counterfeit? What with the return scams and whatnot. That's why I avoid Amazon for most things are aren't close to disposable. I feel like there could a niche for a site that only sells as authorized distributor. To cut down on things like counterfeit and made-with-toxic materials items, etc. So no fly-by-night "marketplace" sellers. But what do I know.

Jblx2on Every student is cheating with AI

>Take-home exams

Is this a left-over artifact of the covid-19 times? Why would there be take-home exams? I know I'm getting old, but wouldn't a return to in-class exams be the first line of defense?

Jblx2on Fairphone 6 and PostmarketOS working main camera

Is there a general consensus why "AI" isn't helping out a lot for a free software phone?

  - AI code generation is way over-hyped and is only 1% capable of the feats that the advocates claim.
  - AI is too expensive to use, and even if it is 100 times less expensive than a human for the same task, there is still too much cost involved.
  - AI are secretly nerfed for free-software projects.
  - No one has bothered to try AI on free-software phone projects yet.
  - Other?

Jblx2on My friends all hate AI; I just joined an AI startup

I feel like I fall into the neutral camp for the current round of AI bots. I've seen less-capable people churn out text/documents that aren't really better or more informative than their human level slop, except for more voluminous. So I guess that goes in the slightly negative column. But not a huge negative, since it just needs to be mostly ignored, like their previous human content. It is mostly a bit insulting to generate this slop. If I wanted to know what the chat bot has to say about something, I'd ask it myself. There is more low-effort slop on YouTube to wade through, but that probably means I should engage in something more productive than YouTube. Does that count as a positive or negative? The current crop of LLMs make meme generation easier. Again, is that a positive or negative? I'm not a professional computer programmer so churning out reams of code doesn't really excite me. Most of the questions I ask the bot are apparently too hard for them to answer correctly. Like I was wondering about the modulus of elasticity of "low-stretch" synthetic fiber ropes vs steel-wire cables. And it seems like it couldn't give me a straight answer. Like I just want the data using the same/consistent units so I can compare. Data center build-out/expansion isn't something I fear. There was some boring AI-generated art on the wall of a beach rental house I went to recently. It is something I wouldn't generally even notice, but one of my children looked closely, and sure enough there were oddly shaped sea shells and other artifacts. Again, luke-warm to that. Did some corporate artist lose a commission on some stock image art? I guess I could feel a little bit bad about that. I wouldn't have thought the rental was worse if they just had a blank wall.

Jblx2on If You Cut Down a Tree for a Better View in Australia, Authorities Block It

>(L) Lumberjack felling a tree using an electric saw.

You can literally see the pull-start cord on the chain saw in the photo. I'm kind of doubting anyone is making a hybrid gas/electric chain saw (but will be happy to be corrected). Why are either of those two images even included in the article?

Jblx2on Cultivating a state of mind where new ideas are born (2023)

That sounds like a recipe for living like hunter/gatherers. I for one appreciate modern medecine, indoor plumbing, and hope to live long enough to see someone step foot on Mars. Each to their own, but I appreciate all the work our ancestors have put forth, planting the trees whose shade they knew they wouldn't enjoy.

Jblx2on “Code was never the hard part” is an insult to all programmers

I'm not seeing any other posts of yours on this comment thread. Maybe you forgot to hit the "reply" button (or accidently outed an alt?) My only point was that majormajor saying that programmers might only be roughly the same smartness as electrical or mechanical engineers would put them comfortably above the average person.

Jblx2on “Code was never the hard part” is an insult to all programmers

Is the argument that electrical and mechanical engineers are not smarter than the average person? How about figure 8 (PDF page 86) of:

https://web.archive.org/web/20120905095856/http://www.ssc.wi...

Jblx2on “Code was never the hard part” is an insult to all programmers

>Writing code doesn't have a notably higher (if at all higher, vs lower!) IQ requirement compared to some of the basic components of EE

Average IQ of Electrical Engineers: 121

https://www.iqcareerlab.com/tools/iq-for-profession/electric...

...which is the top 10% of the population.

https://www.desperateminds.com/blog/iq-120.html

Jblx2on The "Disability Dongle": Why Silicon Valley Hates Me and You

Holy smokes, that comes across as "We just want all people to be impoverished equally".

Jblx2on SQLite Critical CVEs or LLM Slop?

Seems like most of it is covered by: Entropy increases.

Jblx2on The most official water costs $120k a gallon

ahem U.S. Customary

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_customary_units

Jblx2on US Approves Launch of Satellite That Can Reflect Sunlight and Illuminate Earth

Apparently Wired is now pay-walled. Here is another article about things:

https://www.space.com/space-exploration/satellites/this-comp...

...I wonder what the cost per minute is to use this? Seems like each mirror can only be used by one user at a time. Unlike a Starlink or other communication satellite which can be used by lots of users simultaneously. I suppose eventually there will have to be restrictions on these satellites, so that you can't use them to harass people. Or use a bunch of these as a concentrated solar forest-fire starter.

Jblx2on LEDs’ potential to save our night skies

I know we can be all righteous and intellectual on HN. But the article pretty much glosses over the large number of people who are afraid of the dark. Not afraid of crime in the dark. Actual adults who are apparently having a visceral reaction to the dark. What percentage of people is this? What percentage of those would adapt in a positive manner?

Jblx2on Germany maybe found a new source of renewable energy

The Fukushima where there has been one death attributed to radiation exposure (lung cancer that happened years later)? And 20,000 people died as a result of the earthquake and tsunami?

Jblx2on Stripe and Advent have made a joint offer to acquire PayPal – sources

>FedNow

There is no recourse if something goes wrong with FedNow, right? Like you get scammed, and the scammer just keeps the money. Seems like a pretty big difference (in theory anyway) to PayPal. Although I'm apparently not the right guy to ask, since I really don't see the use case for PayPal vs. credit card.

Jblx2on Einstein's relativity rules chemical bonds in heavy elements, new research shows

Electrons in an antenna aren't transitioning between quantum states and are still radiating.

Jblx2on Einstein's relativity rules chemical bonds in heavy elements, new research shows

If the spatial extent of the proton is not infinite, this would imply that the charged quarks making up the proton are accelerating. Why aren't these quarks then emitting electromagnetic radiation, thus slowing down? I thought electrons were essentially standing waves around the nucleus, and thus not accelerating. Maybe there is a good youtube video explainer? Seems like there would also be an associated temperature and blackbody radiation of these quarks.

Jblx2on New York City to ban deceptive subscription practices

  $15/month * 12 months = $180
  $12/month * 12 months = $144
  $120 / 12 months = $10/month

Jblx2on New York City to ban deceptive subscription practices

>$12/month subscription if I have to pay $120 in a lump sum up front.

Sounds like they are giving you two months free if you pay with a lump sum in advance.

Jblx2on US seeks cheaper hunter-killer drones after Iran destroys $1B worth of Reapers

I guess it doesn't matter if the Iranian people want regime change in their country. Lots of people want lots of different things (plus a pony). It only matters what they do. And it doesn't appear that they want regime change enough to take the risks of making it happen. I suppose this is the hubris of polling.

A.) Would you be happy if the government changed? (85% approval)

B.) Are you willing to potentially sacrifice your life and the lives of your sons to change the government? (3% approval)

Jblx2on US seeks cheaper hunter-killer drones after Iran destroys $1B worth of Reapers

Don't overlook the "the people of this foreign land are yearning to be free of their current rulers, and just need a little help from their neighborly U.S. armed forces" trope. I think there are plenty of people who actually believe it.

Jblx2on Mexico Speech Laws for Protecting the Powerless Instead Used to Silence Critics

Water is wet. How could that have been predicted?

Jblx2on Chat Control passed first round in EU Parliament

Even with the hugely expansive U.S. government and executive branch, an executive order is much more restricted in scope than a law passed by congress.

Jblx2on China sentences official to death for taking $325M in bribes

>a concentration camp

Most people at these facilities can leave at any time, right? Just so long as it isn't back into the United States? They can return to their country of origin, or another country. I'm sure someone will offer a correction if this particular facility was holding people for other crimes in addition to their unauthorized alien status.