@b@xoxo.zone

· 3mo ago

Replying to

The simpler approach to AI, I propose, is to go back to the other thread: when you say you're going to mass-harvest the work of creators so that you can replace those creators at mass scale, that's dead center in the sphere of unfair business dealings. If you only pay creators with enough leverage and tell the others you're entitled to ignore stated conditions about a copyrighted work and take whatever you want, that's unfair dealing. Isn't that easy? You don't need metaphysics. 5/7

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b @b@xoxo.zone

· 3mo ago

Replying to

When somebody tells you that a work is transformative and therefore fair use, they're equating comparative criticism with the whole of copyright law. Fediverse, the thing I most want you to get out of this paper is that the ordinary property approach to copyright is why copyright is problematic. We don't have to go full libertarian here and declare that anybody can take anybody's work, but there's a vision of copyright without everybody on the defensive about when imitation is too much. 4/7

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b @b@xoxo.zone

· 3mo ago

Replying to

The ordinary property approach leads to a sort of analysis where judges try to isolate the spark of creativity in an earlier work and determine whether a later work used that spark, and if so, whether it added sufficiently novel changes to that spark. It's comparative art criticism, but by judges. Brought to AI, it turns into downright metaphysics: is the spark of human creativity encoded in model parameters? And now everybody is confused. 3/7

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b @b@xoxo.zone

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@beccadax Yeah, we live in a two-tier world, where flight software and other mission-critical components show that we know how to make systems reliable, but for the great majority of human-facing software we just...don't.

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b @b@xoxo.zone

· 4mo ago

It finally happened: I sent a colleague 200 lines of code, and he 'improved' it by feeding it to an AI. Was so chipper when he sent me 2,000 lines in return, but then having to fix it and explain to them why the robot-generated version wasn't workable took most of my day. I'm never getting that time back.

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b @b@xoxo.zone

· 3mo ago

Replying to

There are two threads of copyright law: ∙ As protection of unique artistic expressions. There is a "spark of creativity" which is like any ordinary property. ∙ Unauthorized copying as bad faith business dealings. Creators can't create knowing that anyone can copy their work for free. Both are part of the judicial understanding of copyright law, but at different times in history, one has been more prevalent than the other. Right now, the first is very ascendant. 2/7

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b @b@xoxo.zone

· 4mo ago

Card games: they don't all have to be trick taking or set collection. Carbondale is a grid-building, friendly thievery card game playable with the standard decks of cards you have in your house right now: https://carbondale.network .

#SelfPromotionSunday

carbondale.network

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b @b@xoxo.zone

· 5mo ago

At work, have been sporadically passing around that essay I wrote on the history of modern math and how it advises better computing technique (see link below), and I think a few people have taken it to heart and are writing better code.

Best reaction so far: "the big lesson is to stay on good terms with your exes."

https://codeberg.org/b_k/math_outside_time/raw/branch/master/out/math_without_time.pdf

#SelfPromotionSunday

codeberg.org

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b @b@xoxo.zone

· 5mo ago

RE: @ethanschoonover@mastodon.social

This is how I do toothpaste. 💯 , would recommend.

mastodon.social

Ethan J. A. Schoonover: "While the NYT is giving iffy advice about how muc…" - Mastodon

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b @b@xoxo.zone

· 5mo ago

My metaphorical hat is off to those of you in academia. 95% of my interactions with academics are stellar and the highlight of my day, and then 5% are with the most toxic, defensive, gatekeeping jerks I ever have to deal with. I don't know how those of you who encounter those people every day manage.

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b @b@xoxo.zone

· 5mo ago

In a feat of incredible brand consistency, you can't even log in to IRS's Free File Fillable Forms without doing mental arithmetic.

This is why I wrote a tax calculator in python: https://github.com/b-k/py1040 . I do the math there, then copy to FFFF and everything goes fine.

GitHub

GitHub - b-k/py1040: A U.S. personal income tax calculator

A U.S. personal income tax calculator. Contribute to b-k/py1040 development by creating an account on GitHub.

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b @b@xoxo.zone

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@yaelwrites Music gets weird treatment relative to pure noise. People talking loudly because they're on a bus and have to hear each other over engine noise? Fine. People running lawn mowers at 85db? Their legal right. Air conditioners, autos? Part of city living we must silently accept. Police sirens? They must be doing something important. But music---now that's a nuisance.

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b @b@xoxo.zone

· 5mo ago

For you fans of science writer/comic musician Liz Landau, her latest is really her finest. Passed it on to an expectant coworker, who commented "I'm tearing up just a little".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJ71REKRdWY

Lab Baby

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b @b@xoxo.zone

· 6mo ago

(1/3) Concrete Blonde:still stuck in my head, still sounds great.

Primarily guitarist James Mankey with the finest effects of 1990, and the superlative, superlative voice of Johnette Napolitano.

They got a few singles on the radio, about an alcoholic ex (
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdpTcvSn8HQ ), the vampire song that initiated their goth period ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbJmWCuMiEM ), the Wall of Voodoo cover about AIDS ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsEUcRHlS0w ). Heard but not fact checked: Bela Lugosi babysat Napolitano as a kid.

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