Hi. I like computers.

I also like cats. Cats are cool.

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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 22nd, 2023

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  • But, if you have an answer that actually, genuinely proves that this “neural” network is operating similarly to how the human brain does… then you have invalidated your original post. Because if it really is thinking like a human, NO ONE should own it.

    I think this is a neat point.

    The human brain is very complex. The neural networks trained on computers right now are more like collections of neurons grown together in a petri dish, rather than a full human brain. They serve one function, say, recognizing or generating an image or calculating some probability or deciding on what the next word should be in a sequence. While the brain is a huge internetwork of these smaller, more specialized neural networks.

    No, neural networks don’t have a database and they don’t do stats. They’re trained through trial and error, not aggregation. The way they work is explicitly based on a mathematical model of a biological neuron.

    And when an AI is developed that’s advanced enough to rival the actual human brain, then yeah, the AI rights question becomes a real thing. We’re not there yet, though. Still just matter in petri dishes. That’s a whole other controversial argument.


  • Criminal branch offices have a closing cooldown, so you need to open up a bunch of them and you’ll only lose one at a time. I’m pretty sure it’s the office with the least crime, so one thing you can do is open up a “dummy” office that the AI will target first. I think there was a patch a while ago that made the AI more likely to accept crime lord deals, too.

    One thing I saw suggested a while ago is to play pacifist, and still build up a huge navy. You can’t declare war on empires that have your offices on them, but they’ll hate you enough that they’ll declare war on you anyway, so you can sit and wait while taking advantage of pacifist bonuses. Don’t target too broadly, you don’t want everyone ganging up on you at once.

    You’ll want to avoid leaving branch offices on your vassals, as it makes them produce less, which means you tax less. Unless you have a big vassal that you might want to split up through instability, maybe? I haven’t tried that.

    Viability is a moot point anyway in a game with variable difficulty. You’ll have trouble on GA 25x crisis without some specific builds, but imo the fun part of the game is trying new things, getting crushed, and learning.




  • Personally, I’m a comp sci graduate who did several courses exploring AI, but I actually started out in fine arts and continue to paint, write, and play music to this day. I’m sure I’ll be blending these studies in some way when I move on to my master’s.

    I agree that automation is scary. It’s unregulated. But it’s not the tech so much that’s evil, but rather the employers who see it as a reason to get rid of employees. And before, it’d be manual labour that we replaced with machines. People doing mental labour thought they were immune, until now they’re not. Our economic system’s going to need to change in some way.

    But generative AI can be very good even for artists. For example, sometimes I suffer from writer’s block (who doesn’t?). Now, I can feed what I’m working on into chatGPT and have it spit out an example of the next paragraph. Sometimes that’s enough to spur me on so I can write the next page.

    Artist movements in general are pretty conservative. When digital painting first became a thing, allowing people use layers and filters so easily, the kneejerk reaction by artists was to consider it cheating.

    My hope is that in an ideal world, human-made art becomes valuable in the future precisely because it has the human touch. Live music played on real instruments, paintings on canvas, the sorts of things with quirks and imperfections and a human element that can’t be mass produced. Let the corporations have their algorithmic, soulless advertisements, and let the people focus on true self expression.

    But then for people without artistic talent, say those who want to make indie games but can’t hire an artist or a musician because they’re just some kid with a dream and little experience? Hell, why not let them generate some assets with AI?

    But we need to make sure that people aren’t afraid of becoming homeless, starving on the streets. I think, we’re not getting rid of AI at this point, it’s too powerful, and I don’t have an answer to our societal problems. For better or worse, we’ll adapt.



  • Oh good call out!

    The outliner options in general are so good. It’s the little cogwheel on the top right, lets you rearrange things. The tiny outliner mod only really lets you use planet designation or type, but the vanilla one also has designation over type and type over designation:

    Edit: And for anyone else seeing this, the little cycling arrows beside it lets you sort your planets!