I've been struggling to summarize the novella I am working on, tentatively titled "The Bottle Oracle."
I think I'm getting closer:
When a brilliant, though troubled, researcher is hired by one of the world's most powerful tech companies to give their model an edge in the accelerating AI arms race, she meets an ancient voice—and is thrown into an existential struggle over who gets to control the future.
I already posted one recipe on Cake's We Like's thread but I feel like posting another one today for Chicken Piccata Meatballs
Ingredients
1 lb. ground chicken
1/2 cup panko breadcrumbs
2 Tbsp. grated pecorino Romano cheese
1 tsp. dried Italian seasoning
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
1/4 tsp. black pepper
1 large garlic clove, grated on a Microplane
1 large egg, lightly beaten
2 Tbsp. olive oil
1 medium shallot (1 1/4 oz.), minced
2/3 cup unsalted chicken stock
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
3 Tbsp. drained capers
3 Tbsp. cold butter, cut into small pieces
2 Tbsp. chopped fresh parsley (optional)
Place chicken in a large bowl. Add breadcrumbs, cheese, Italian seasoning, salt, pepper, garlic, and egg; mix well with hands.
Divide mixture into 16 equal portions, shaping each into a ball.
Heat oil in a large cast-iron skillet over medium. Add meatballs to pan; cook 10 minutes, browning on all sides. Remove meatballs from pan (they won’t be completely done).
Add shallots to pan; cook 2 minutes, stirring frequently. Add stock, lemon juice, capers, and meatballs to pan; cook until liquid reduces slightly and center of meatballs register 165°F on a thermometer.
Remove pan from heat. Gradually add butter to pan, stirring into sauce.
Now to bring it up before I go to bed to avoid the 4:30 am cussathon.
And I texted my boss to get an idea how more fucked up my backroom will be. Is it normal fucked or bring the gas can fucked? Because our third (overnight stocking) team has been taught over the years the less they do the less is expected of them, the more they can refuse to do, and eventually critical mass will hit and they will be absolved from cleaning up their shitshit. My team will get to do the clean up, then rush to catch up our work.
Not this time! We are all, including our boss, refusing to more than the occasional minimum to keep the fire lane open, for safety. The stand off has lasted all summer, and the worse it gets, the more we dig our heels in. My boss is 100% behind us and is instructing us what critical daily work to skip because the inventory is inaccessible or to skip resets until my fixture area is cleared out. Store manager is pissed but can't do much. He's rightly claiming health and safety and she can't fight that! It's getting to the point she's going to have to call in support from other stores, a sign to corporate the store manager is losing control. Oh well, that's exactly what happened.
As I child I was exposed to a wide range of 1950's sci-fi flicks. I was particularly scared by Donavan's Brain, a B-level flick featuring among others Nancy Davis, before she became Ms. Nancy Reagan. Mad scientist extracts the brain from the body of a tycoon involved in a plane crash; he keeps it in a vat, where it starts growing and pulsating, and eventually starts telepathically taking control of him. The brain knows what you are thinking, so how to stop it? Another one was the Vincent Price film The Tingler: weird parasite wraps itself around your spine and can kill you. It feeds on people's fears. Very shlocky, but also scary, if you are a kid. Then there were some classics like Invasion of the Body Snatchers and The Fly (the original, although the 1986 remake is also very good). I wasn't as creeped out by those, somehow, but they certainly have scary premises.
I have two songs that have been perennial favorites for over 50 years. Their release bracketed the summer between my freshman and sophomore years in high school and that was a wonderful time in my life. The first, 𝘉𝘭𝘶𝘦 𝘚𝘬𝘺 by the Allman Brothers will forever be associated with a crush I had at that time (Hi Val!). The second, 𝘚𝘶𝘨𝘢𝘳 𝘔𝘢𝘨𝘯𝘰𝘭𝘪𝘢 by the Grateful Dead, became a summer theme song that always reminds me of hiking and climbing adventures that began in 1973 when my friends and I started driving and could venture off on our own for a weekend camping trips.
“So we’ve invented magic beans. Yes they just look like a chatbot hooked up to the internet. But MAGIC. the chatbot might use the internet to LEARN STUFF. You can fire all of your workers and just grow magic beanstalks”
30 trillion dollars later. Beans appear to be just regular legumes….
“AKSHULLY the beans may try to kill us all. There are rumors of giants at the tops of beanstalks. We have to keep investing in said beans, or else China will have their army of fe fi fo giants. The most important thing is we keep buying beans”
(Silicon Valley frantically throws billions at planned bean IPOS. Donald Trump prepares to write a trillion dollar bean check /take all beans for himself)
I am currently cracking up at the sensationalism around "a greater than 10% chance that AI could 'kill all humans' in the next decade." 10% is like a NOTHING chance, yet it's being waved about like we're doomed.
I really don't think AI is going to kill humanity: that is a techbro fantasy. AI doing some serious damage, now, that's a possibility. The AI companies, as well as their customers, try to set guardrails around these LLMs, so they won't do anything harmful. But those guardrails are generally not airtight. In fact, it may be impossible to make them so, given that you have a practically unlimited universe of possible inputs to the AI, then a vast opaque reasoning and information retrieval step, then the generation of outputs that are unpredictable. The recent case in which an internal OpenAI experiment led to the hacking and infiltration of another company (more than one company, actually) is a case in point.
As I've said before, even the horror stories reinforce the idea that what they're calling AI is like our sci-fi pre-conceptions of AI, that it's inevitable and unstoppable, and thus our only recourse is to give AI companies more money so they can figure out how to do it right.
Agreed. Their solution to monitoring AI is just third party AI. This line that AI is somehow out of our control is nonsense. AI is simply the reflection man's mental processes as they shape completing tasks. If AI is programmed by people who think it's ethically okay to divert from instructions, then that will be reflection in how AI performs.
Among many, many problems, one of them is what happens when technical terms get out into general world. 'Learning,' in the case of these programs, meant that when users indicated how well they liked or didn't like responses, it would change the weights in the complicated probabilities that were used to make that response, to make similar responses more or less likely in the future. That's all it meant.
But people who didn't already understand the tech heard 'learning' and dragged whatever they associated with the word into their view of the tech.
I am having a Nice Time floating peacefully in my pool on a beautiful late-summer Sunday. The water is a little chilly now but nice after a few minutes. I hold onto summer as long as I can and will go inside only when I am forced. Labor Day isn’t the end.
I was in a good mood even before I read this. I like this feature! Friday I had some relatives over for pizza. I mean what is a better way to celebrate Friday? Even though it wasn't my birthday, my two small grandnieces bought me a birthday present. A new paint set. In celebration of giving things. Extremely touched.
Good times news from me!
I've been struggling to summarize the novella I am working on, tentatively titled "The Bottle Oracle."
I think I'm getting closer:
When a brilliant, though troubled, researcher is hired by one of the world's most powerful tech companies to give their model an edge in the accelerating AI arms race, she meets an ancient voice—and is thrown into an existential struggle over who gets to control the future.
I'm proud of myself.
Such excellent good news nice times. 😻
I already posted one recipe on Cake's We Like's thread but I feel like posting another one today for Chicken Piccata Meatballs
Ingredients
1 lb. ground chicken
1/2 cup panko breadcrumbs
2 Tbsp. grated pecorino Romano cheese
1 tsp. dried Italian seasoning
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
1/4 tsp. black pepper
1 large garlic clove, grated on a Microplane
1 large egg, lightly beaten
2 Tbsp. olive oil
1 medium shallot (1 1/4 oz.), minced
2/3 cup unsalted chicken stock
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
3 Tbsp. drained capers
3 Tbsp. cold butter, cut into small pieces
2 Tbsp. chopped fresh parsley (optional)
Place chicken in a large bowl. Add breadcrumbs, cheese, Italian seasoning, salt, pepper, garlic, and egg; mix well with hands.
Divide mixture into 16 equal portions, shaping each into a ball.
Heat oil in a large cast-iron skillet over medium. Add meatballs to pan; cook 10 minutes, browning on all sides. Remove meatballs from pan (they won’t be completely done).
Add shallots to pan; cook 2 minutes, stirring frequently. Add stock, lemon juice, capers, and meatballs to pan; cook until liquid reduces slightly and center of meatballs register 165°F on a thermometer.
Remove pan from heat. Gradually add butter to pan, stirring into sauce.
Serve with pasta of your choice!
Sprinkle with parsley, if desired.
(drools)
𝘞𝘦 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘴𝘰𝘯𝘨𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘢𝘭𝘸𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘭𝘪𝘧𝘵 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘮𝘰𝘰𝘥𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘩𝘪𝘵𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘴𝘱𝘰𝘵, 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘯𝘰𝘯-𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴!
High school first love ... Meatloaf's "Bat Out of Hell", Elvis Costello
College ... Yes "90125", J. Geils, The Cars, The Kinks, Pink Floyd's "The Wall"
Vladdy just went deep at the Rogers Centre (in Toronto, naturally) *for the first time this season*. How is that even possible??
LAUNDRY IS DRY!! REPEAT LAUNDRY IS DRY!!!
Now to bring it up before I go to bed to avoid the 4:30 am cussathon.
And I texted my boss to get an idea how more fucked up my backroom will be. Is it normal fucked or bring the gas can fucked? Because our third (overnight stocking) team has been taught over the years the less they do the less is expected of them, the more they can refuse to do, and eventually critical mass will hit and they will be absolved from cleaning up their shitshit. My team will get to do the clean up, then rush to catch up our work.
Not this time! We are all, including our boss, refusing to more than the occasional minimum to keep the fire lane open, for safety. The stand off has lasted all summer, and the worse it gets, the more we dig our heels in. My boss is 100% behind us and is instructing us what critical daily work to skip because the inventory is inaccessible or to skip resets until my fixture area is cleared out. Store manager is pissed but can't do much. He's rightly claiming health and safety and she can't fight that! It's getting to the point she's going to have to call in support from other stores, a sign to corporate the store manager is losing control. Oh well, that's exactly what happened.
I always dump my clean laundry right on the bed so I will definitely put it away at the end of the day.
That's not how you spell YMCA.
.....
Aplogies in advance.
======
Protesters at the Irish Open.
shitler’s international golf links and hotel Doonbeg, Ireland.
Thank you, Doonbeg!
https://bsky.app/profile/34thparallel.bsky.social/post/3mvfpycmeik2s
Bwahahahhahahahahaha!!! Brilliant!
Oh, that's just lovely. I hope they harass him endlessly while he is there.
Someone should play an air horn while he's teeing off. Or just play an airhorn when he's talking.
I'm sure someone could organize a loud bang.
Maybe a farmer with a crow scaring device. Those sound exactly like a rifle going off.
(Iirc, that's because they are actually firing blank ammunition).
A chorus of death whistles from every direction.
Either that or a particularly belligerently-toned trombone.
Some nice times Bunday bunnies! https://bsky.app/profile/dailybunnies.bsky.social/post/3mvg5qqvmas2f
As I child I was exposed to a wide range of 1950's sci-fi flicks. I was particularly scared by Donavan's Brain, a B-level flick featuring among others Nancy Davis, before she became Ms. Nancy Reagan. Mad scientist extracts the brain from the body of a tycoon involved in a plane crash; he keeps it in a vat, where it starts growing and pulsating, and eventually starts telepathically taking control of him. The brain knows what you are thinking, so how to stop it? Another one was the Vincent Price film The Tingler: weird parasite wraps itself around your spine and can kill you. It feeds on people's fears. Very shlocky, but also scary, if you are a kid. Then there were some classics like Invasion of the Body Snatchers and The Fly (the original, although the 1986 remake is also very good). I wasn't as creeped out by those, somehow, but they certainly have scary premises.
All some of my favorite pictures!
Once again, a beautiful collection of Nice Timesᵀᴹ. So much joy. Thanks Ziggy.
𝘞𝘦 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘴𝘰𝘯𝘨𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘢𝘭𝘸𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘭𝘪𝘧𝘵 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘮𝘰𝘰𝘥𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘩𝘪𝘵𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘴𝘱𝘰𝘵, 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘯𝘰𝘯-𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴!
I have two songs that have been perennial favorites for over 50 years. Their release bracketed the summer between my freshman and sophomore years in high school and that was a wonderful time in my life. The first, 𝘉𝘭𝘶𝘦 𝘚𝘬𝘺 by the Allman Brothers will forever be associated with a crush I had at that time (Hi Val!). The second, 𝘚𝘶𝘨𝘢𝘳 𝘔𝘢𝘨𝘯𝘰𝘭𝘪𝘢 by the Grateful Dead, became a summer theme song that always reminds me of hiking and climbing adventures that began in 1973 when my friends and I started driving and could venture off on our own for a weekend camping trips.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UToUzWgHGyQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DL-lXXFSAtI
I always dreamed my true love would dedicate Sugar Magnolia to me. : )
Lovely memories! Music is a time machine.
“So we’ve invented magic beans. Yes they just look like a chatbot hooked up to the internet. But MAGIC. the chatbot might use the internet to LEARN STUFF. You can fire all of your workers and just grow magic beanstalks”
30 trillion dollars later. Beans appear to be just regular legumes….
“AKSHULLY the beans may try to kill us all. There are rumors of giants at the tops of beanstalks. We have to keep investing in said beans, or else China will have their army of fe fi fo giants. The most important thing is we keep buying beans”
(Silicon Valley frantically throws billions at planned bean IPOS. Donald Trump prepares to write a trillion dollar bean check /take all beans for himself)
A story not about beans
"We made much worse SPAM bots. Now give us a trillion dollars before China does it worse!"
I am currently cracking up at the sensationalism around "a greater than 10% chance that AI could 'kill all humans' in the next decade." 10% is like a NOTHING chance, yet it's being waved about like we're doomed.
I really don't think AI is going to kill humanity: that is a techbro fantasy. AI doing some serious damage, now, that's a possibility. The AI companies, as well as their customers, try to set guardrails around these LLMs, so they won't do anything harmful. But those guardrails are generally not airtight. In fact, it may be impossible to make them so, given that you have a practically unlimited universe of possible inputs to the AI, then a vast opaque reasoning and information retrieval step, then the generation of outputs that are unpredictable. The recent case in which an internal OpenAI experiment led to the hacking and infiltration of another company (more than one company, actually) is a case in point.
It's just a powerful virus.
As I've said before, even the horror stories reinforce the idea that what they're calling AI is like our sci-fi pre-conceptions of AI, that it's inevitable and unstoppable, and thus our only recourse is to give AI companies more money so they can figure out how to do it right.
Agreed. Their solution to monitoring AI is just third party AI. This line that AI is somehow out of our control is nonsense. AI is simply the reflection man's mental processes as they shape completing tasks. If AI is programmed by people who think it's ethically okay to divert from instructions, then that will be reflection in how AI performs.
Among many, many problems, one of them is what happens when technical terms get out into general world. 'Learning,' in the case of these programs, meant that when users indicated how well they liked or didn't like responses, it would change the weights in the complicated probabilities that were used to make that response, to make similar responses more or less likely in the future. That's all it meant.
But people who didn't already understand the tech heard 'learning' and dragged whatever they associated with the word into their view of the tech.
I am having a Nice Time floating peacefully in my pool on a beautiful late-summer Sunday. The water is a little chilly now but nice after a few minutes. I hold onto summer as long as I can and will go inside only when I am forced. Labor Day isn’t the end.
I remember a year we were swimming in a friend's pool almost until Thanksgiving. In New England.
Sleep like an Egyptian:
https://www.reddit.com/r/cats/s/timZlld1dV
At first glance, I thought it was a lion-shaped toy～ Turns out it was moving 🤩
https://xcancel.com/DearGozde/status/2098755320956797114?s=20
Oh yeah, those bags are cute! They came up in my IG ads.
Occasionally "The Babylon Bee" successfully makes a funny:
https://substack.com/profile/155629765-sterwonk/note/c-336346676
Surprised that got past their editors.
I was in a good mood even before I read this. I like this feature! Friday I had some relatives over for pizza. I mean what is a better way to celebrate Friday? Even though it wasn't my birthday, my two small grandnieces bought me a birthday present. A new paint set. In celebration of giving things. Extremely touched.
Awwwww. Lovely.