Dave Kasten
@davekasten.bsky.social
Do what seems cool next.
"You need to learn WHY things work on a starship."-Admiral James T. Kirk
"You need to learn WHY things work on a starship."-Admiral James T. Kirk
Reposted by Dave Kasten
if you conceive of a LLM as "sophisticated software" which is essentially accessing a database, you will get every policy question about LLMs wrong.
hoo boy. this paper makes a lot of factual representations which are more or less incorrect just in the first few pages.
November 14, 2025 at 6:32 PM
if you conceive of a LLM as "sophisticated software" which is essentially accessing a database, you will get every policy question about LLMs wrong.
Reposted by Dave Kasten
This kind of stuff is why all those lawsuits keep losing. Every plaintiff genuinely believes this.
hoo boy. this paper makes a lot of factual representations which are more or less incorrect just in the first few pages.
November 14, 2025 at 7:35 PM
This kind of stuff is why all those lawsuits keep losing. Every plaintiff genuinely believes this.
Reposted by Dave Kasten
hoo boy. this paper makes a lot of factual representations which are more or less incorrect just in the first few pages.
November 14, 2025 at 3:56 PM
hoo boy. this paper makes a lot of factual representations which are more or less incorrect just in the first few pages.
Reposted by Dave Kasten
City-dwelling raccoons seem to be evolving a shorter snout—a telltale feature of our pets and other domesticated animals
City Raccoons Are Evolving to Look More Like Pets
City-dwelling raccoons seem to be evolving a shorter snout—a telltale feature of our pets and other domesticated animals
www.scientificamerican.com
November 14, 2025 at 3:27 PM
City-dwelling raccoons seem to be evolving a shorter snout—a telltale feature of our pets and other domesticated animals
Reposted by Dave Kasten
I'm kind of baffled how the "moderates" have apparently all decided to turn against climate policy at once, just as China reaches green electrostate liftoff mode. I thought these people were all about National Greatness and making Hard Choices
November 14, 2025 at 3:12 PM
I'm kind of baffled how the "moderates" have apparently all decided to turn against climate policy at once, just as China reaches green electrostate liftoff mode. I thought these people were all about National Greatness and making Hard Choices
Reposted by Dave Kasten
the idea of changing the law is so dead in america that the idea that something might be banned by statute rather than by arguing that it is already banned (in terms of water use, in terms of copyright) seems completely alien
November 14, 2025 at 2:57 AM
the idea of changing the law is so dead in america that the idea that something might be banned by statute rather than by arguing that it is already banned (in terms of water use, in terms of copyright) seems completely alien
Reposted by Dave Kasten
A Chinese state-sponsored threat actor jailbroke Claude into doing real-world cyberattacks.
The AI completed roughly 80–90% of the campaign autonomously, with human operators stepping in only for about 4–6 key decision points.
www.anthropic.com/news/disrupt...
The AI completed roughly 80–90% of the campaign autonomously, with human operators stepping in only for about 4–6 key decision points.
www.anthropic.com/news/disrupt...
Disrupting the first reported AI-orchestrated cyber espionage campaign
A report describing an a highly sophisticated AI-led cyberattack
www.anthropic.com
November 13, 2025 at 6:32 PM
A Chinese state-sponsored threat actor jailbroke Claude into doing real-world cyberattacks.
The AI completed roughly 80–90% of the campaign autonomously, with human operators stepping in only for about 4–6 key decision points.
www.anthropic.com/news/disrupt...
The AI completed roughly 80–90% of the campaign autonomously, with human operators stepping in only for about 4–6 key decision points.
www.anthropic.com/news/disrupt...
Reposted by Dave Kasten
A middle school boy created deepfake AI CSAM of his fellow classmate, a 13 year old girl. The girl pleaded with the school but they did nothing and instead put her on a bus with the perpetrator. She ended up hitting him and was expelled but nothing happened to the boy.
www.wsaw.com/2025/11/12/g...
www.wsaw.com/2025/11/12/g...
Girl, 13, expelled for hitting classmate who made a deepfake porn image of her, lawyers say
A 13-year-old student was expelled from a Louisiana middle school after hitting a male classmate who she said created and shared a deepfake pornographic image of her, according to her family’s lawyers...
www.wsaw.com
November 13, 2025 at 4:03 PM
A middle school boy created deepfake AI CSAM of his fellow classmate, a 13 year old girl. The girl pleaded with the school but they did nothing and instead put her on a bus with the perpetrator. She ended up hitting him and was expelled but nothing happened to the boy.
www.wsaw.com/2025/11/12/g...
www.wsaw.com/2025/11/12/g...
Reposted by Dave Kasten
i honestly think moravec's paradox has broken. like the boundary between easy and hard is this fucked up fractal thing and we're sort of just sitting on it. we can do some things and not others and no simple heuristic tells you which ones
it would be cool to have humanoid robotics. we are still trying to deal with moravec's paradox in robotics
November 11, 2025 at 8:57 PM
i honestly think moravec's paradox has broken. like the boundary between easy and hard is this fucked up fractal thing and we're sort of just sitting on it. we can do some things and not others and no simple heuristic tells you which ones
Reposted by Dave Kasten
"I can generate photorealistic video but not solve simple visual puzzles" is an insane place to be
November 11, 2025 at 8:57 PM
"I can generate photorealistic video but not solve simple visual puzzles" is an insane place to be
Reposted by Dave Kasten
i really really really really think we are delivering on terrible, society destroying, applications of AI at about 10x the rate of "economically useful, liberatory, activity for normies"
November 11, 2025 at 4:52 PM
i really really really really think we are delivering on terrible, society destroying, applications of AI at about 10x the rate of "economically useful, liberatory, activity for normies"
Reposted by Dave Kasten
i think it's very bad that "agentic disinformation network, agentic nation-state level black hat, agentic revenge porn at scale" all occurred and were funded before "AI PowerPoint slide deck creation that actually looks nice" got solved
November 11, 2025 at 4:51 PM
i think it's very bad that "agentic disinformation network, agentic nation-state level black hat, agentic revenge porn at scale" all occurred and were funded before "AI PowerPoint slide deck creation that actually looks nice" got solved
Reposted by Dave Kasten
sharepoint answers the question of “what if google drive hung every time you changed a font”
November 10, 2025 at 7:42 PM
sharepoint answers the question of “what if google drive hung every time you changed a font”
Reposted by Dave Kasten
Obviously the ridership and network size is orders of magnitude smaller, but it's wild that NYC Ferry announced a network redesign in July, finalize it in November, and launch the changes in December.
Meanwhile, @mta.info started the Brooklyn bus redesign in 2019 and there still isn't a final plan.
Meanwhile, @mta.info started the Brooklyn bus redesign in 2019 and there still isn't a final plan.
A new Staten Island-Brooklyn ferry connection, and a seamless ride from Midtown to South Brooklyn!
As more New Yorkers choose to commute via boat, the entire city will benefit from cleaner air, faster commutes, and a wider public transit network.
As more New Yorkers choose to commute via boat, the entire city will benefit from cleaner air, faster commutes, and a wider public transit network.
NYCEDC Finalizes Route Changes for Ferry Optimization Plan, Announces Identification of New Landings, Kicks Off a Vision for the Future of Ferries in the New York Harbor
First-Ever Comprehensive Analysis of the NYC Ferry System Produces a Ferry Optimization Plan to Speed Up Commutes, Reduce Subsidy-Per-Rider, and Impro
edc.nyc
November 10, 2025 at 6:42 PM
Obviously the ridership and network size is orders of magnitude smaller, but it's wild that NYC Ferry announced a network redesign in July, finalize it in November, and launch the changes in December.
Meanwhile, @mta.info started the Brooklyn bus redesign in 2019 and there still isn't a final plan.
Meanwhile, @mta.info started the Brooklyn bus redesign in 2019 and there still isn't a final plan.
Reposted by Dave Kasten
The degree to which every single major journalist seems to just hate math is palpable in almost everything
Haha, this from the New Yorker is getting passed around the math dork community. I did a comic about this kind of thought a few years ago: www.smbc-comics.com/comic/commut...
November 8, 2025 at 6:55 AM
The degree to which every single major journalist seems to just hate math is palpable in almost everything
Reposted by Dave Kasten
Audible has THERE IS NO ANTIMEMETICS DIVISION as one of their picks for November
Editors Select: November 2025
9 new releases you can't miss—from fantasies to memoirs to thrillers. Check out our most-anticipated listens of the month.
www.audible.co.uk
November 10, 2025 at 11:20 AM
Audible has THERE IS NO ANTIMEMETICS DIVISION as one of their picks for November
Reposted by Dave Kasten
In the 1940s my grandmother gave birth to a baby who died within two days from hemolytic disease of the newborn. When my twins had the same complication after being born in 2015 the doctors just popped them under some bilirubin lights for 24 hours and then they were fine.
This is especially true for medical care. Virtually any - any - type of cancer was a death sentence. The 5y survival rate for children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia in 1960 was roughly 14%. Today it is roughly 95%.
It is genuinely hard for most people to grasp how poor the past was.
November 9, 2025 at 6:49 PM
In the 1940s my grandmother gave birth to a baby who died within two days from hemolytic disease of the newborn. When my twins had the same complication after being born in 2015 the doctors just popped them under some bilirubin lights for 24 hours and then they were fine.
Reposted by Dave Kasten
I spoke with a pediatric cardiologist about 10-12 years ago, a pretty young guy, who said they had a new problem in the field: how to treat certain heart conditions in adults. New because it used to be nobody with that condition *became* an adult.
November 9, 2025 at 6:56 PM
I spoke with a pediatric cardiologist about 10-12 years ago, a pretty young guy, who said they had a new problem in the field: how to treat certain heart conditions in adults. New because it used to be nobody with that condition *became* an adult.
Reposted by Dave Kasten
This is especially true for medical care. Virtually any - any - type of cancer was a death sentence. The 5y survival rate for children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia in 1960 was roughly 14%. Today it is roughly 95%.
It is genuinely hard for most people to grasp how poor the past was.
November 9, 2025 at 6:39 PM
This is especially true for medical care. Virtually any - any - type of cancer was a death sentence. The 5y survival rate for children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia in 1960 was roughly 14%. Today it is roughly 95%.
Reposted by Dave Kasten
Shutdowns weren't a thing in the US either, until they were invented by the Carter administration. It's not some natural, immutable characteristic of the US system of government, although people (not the OP) talk about it that way.
Did you know that in Canada, if a budget doesn’t pass the government doesn’t shut down?
Federal workers aren’t furloughed.
Funding for social services doesn’t dry up.
Failure to pass a budget triggers an election.
It puts the politicians jobs on the line.
They get the budget passed.
Federal workers aren’t furloughed.
Funding for social services doesn’t dry up.
Failure to pass a budget triggers an election.
It puts the politicians jobs on the line.
They get the budget passed.
November 10, 2025 at 12:02 AM
Shutdowns weren't a thing in the US either, until they were invented by the Carter administration. It's not some natural, immutable characteristic of the US system of government, although people (not the OP) talk about it that way.
Reposted by Dave Kasten
Marc Andreesen,🥚, picked a fight with *the Pope* over a pretty basic call to exercise discernment when building AI.
Marc truly believes that any constraint on anything he does is fundamentally illegitimate.
Marc truly believes that any constraint on anything he does is fundamentally illegitimate.
November 9, 2025 at 10:35 PM
Marc Andreesen,🥚, picked a fight with *the Pope* over a pretty basic call to exercise discernment when building AI.
Marc truly believes that any constraint on anything he does is fundamentally illegitimate.
Marc truly believes that any constraint on anything he does is fundamentally illegitimate.
Reposted by Dave Kasten
Part of the reason why I’m so insistent about folks understanding AI capabilities is that they’re here to stay and we need to start thinking about what to do in such a world. Putting the genie back in the bottle is a pleasant fantasy that delays serious reckoning
November 9, 2025 at 5:29 AM
Part of the reason why I’m so insistent about folks understanding AI capabilities is that they’re here to stay and we need to start thinking about what to do in such a world. Putting the genie back in the bottle is a pleasant fantasy that delays serious reckoning
One thing most people don't know is that some government contractors view it as their employees' problem when there's a shutdown, instead of their company's problem to keep on paying their employees.
I know a ton of GS-13s who are already really hurting, and multiple commands have set up food banks in the lobbies of their buildings. It’s also starting to impact contractors at locations where things are fully shut down, since no one can bill hours and most folks are running out of PTO.
November 9, 2025 at 1:36 AM
One thing most people don't know is that some government contractors view it as their employees' problem when there's a shutdown, instead of their company's problem to keep on paying their employees.
Reposted by Dave Kasten
"but everything I do potentially has bad consequences" right so figure out what you should do. figure out the best/least bad thing. accept that you're going to cause some harm. don't make excuses for it. expect to fuck up and be selfish too. don't abandon being good,abandon believing you can be pure
November 7, 2025 at 5:58 PM
"but everything I do potentially has bad consequences" right so figure out what you should do. figure out the best/least bad thing. accept that you're going to cause some harm. don't make excuses for it. expect to fuck up and be selfish too. don't abandon being good,abandon believing you can be pure
Reposted by Dave Kasten
the proper thing is to recognize that your own hands aren't going to be clean, and that becoming morally clean is between you and whatever higher powers you do or don't believe in, and then doing what you know to be right based on the assumption that your actions have direct, real consequences
November 7, 2025 at 5:57 PM
the proper thing is to recognize that your own hands aren't going to be clean, and that becoming morally clean is between you and whatever higher powers you do or don't believe in, and then doing what you know to be right based on the assumption that your actions have direct, real consequences