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Linas Vepstas

Linas Vepstas

@linas.org

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Linas Vepstas @linas.org · Sep 17

I am fascinated by ideas from AGI: a mashup of math, computing, physics, sociology, linguistics, psychology, structuralism and more. I explore these ideas via Atomese, this odd compute system that is part of the OpenCog AtomSpace. Described here: bsky.app/profile/flee...

Fleeky @fleeky.bsky.social · Sep 16

@linas.org please please make an opencog profile here so you can talk a bit about it and where you are going in the development , looks like you are doing a lot of interesting things there and i bet other people would be as fascinated by it as me :)

Linas Vepstas @linas.org · 4h

The number of corners on a typical neural-net hypercube is larger than the number of atoms in the universe. Much larger.

Linas Vepstas @linas.org · 5h

She's drunk as a skunk when she starts texting. My general impression is everyone in or near the White House is knockered out of their gourds on drugs or booze.

Linas Vepstas @linas.org · 5h

The median normie physicist is distributed on the surface of a soap bubble. All of physics has been subject to fashion trends since forever. Everyone wants to think about the fun new thing instead of the impossible old thing that won't crack despite years of work. That's just how it is.

Linas Vepstas @linas.org · 6h

Who are these so-called Dems, and why do they hate us so much?

Linas Vepstas @linas.org · 6h

Why not both?

Linas Vepstas @linas.org · 6h

Day late and a dollar short.

Linas Vepstas @linas.org · 9h

You can't say this, because I imagine a lot of people would get mad at you, if you did. You're a public persona. I am not. So I can say it. But I also imagine this is not news to you. (Oh, I mis-spelled "kompromat". Oops.) bsky.app/profile/lina...

Linas Vepstas @linas.org · 3d

Some decades ago, Trump was flyin to Moscow regularly to get the russian bankers to bail him out of bankruptcy. I imagine there's a metric eff-ton of compromat of Trump doing 13-year-old russsian girls. This shouldn't be some mystery at this point. I think it's pretty clear, by now.

Linas Vepstas @linas.org · 9h

Well, the crazy perks were kind of crazy. There was (is?) this management technique: "let's get them to hang out in the office 16 hours a day" and that works if you've got ping-pong tables and the employees are single. Grad school was definitely like that.

Linas Vepstas @linas.org · 10h

But also I'm a techie; I have mobility. I have more choices than "work in an Amazon warehouse or be unemployed". That kind of lack of choices is at the root of corporate misery. The fact that Bezos wants to create yet more misery is really a big problem.

Linas Vepstas @linas.org · 10h

I also heard a lot of really terrible things about working for Dell. But yet they chug along. Disclaimer: I am not a business analyst.

Linas Vepstas @linas.org · 10h

Well, careful, I guess more than a few Silicon Valley companies managed to scale this past a few hundred employees. Each used different formulas to get there. Didn't always work out. Some of them are hated for a reason. I got to visit Microsoft a fair bit; I have no clue how people could stand it.

Linas Vepstas @linas.org · 10h

I mean, if you're a VC investing money into a startup, *of course* you don't want and office like "The Office". Of course you want "Seal Team A". And if you're ruthless in hiring practice, you might get that. But that doesn't scale pas a few hundred employees. Reversion to the mean.

Linas Vepstas @linas.org · 10h

TV show "The Office" is not inaccurate. It really is kind of like that.

Linas Vepstas @linas.org · 10h

I dunno. I assume so. Culture doesn't change that quick. I think most companies operate this way. Most companies can't afford to piss of their employees, and they know it. What you might be hearing are some very noisy twitter posters and VC's in Silicon Valley who are, uhh, "opinionated".

Linas Vepstas @linas.org · 11h

IBM execs weren't like royalty. And it wasn't about being "benevolent". Lateral movement was relatively easy: if your boss is a fuckup, you could transfer to work for someone else. Some transfers could even be lateral-but-up. Fuckups didn't get to stay in charge. People would leave them.

Linas Vepstas @linas.org · 11h

What's going on the US right now is pure Soviet bullshit. Most people call it "fascist", but that's cause they have no clue about the Soviets. The Nazis seemed competent... authoritarian, yes, but capable. The GOP is mostly evil clowns, buffoons, bozos and 12-year-olds. Literally evil.

Linas Vepstas @linas.org · 11h

So the boss, and the bosses boss, and the 3rd line and the exec were constantly listening to what the people below were saying, cause they knew that's where info came from, they knew if something was going to break, the news would come from below. (Its also where good news would come from.)

Linas Vepstas @linas.org · 11h

FWIW, the boss also took feedback. And not just a little. Everyone friggin hated meetings where we were constantly giving status, updates, and feedback. It was like "if you let me skip this meeting, then I could do my job. Please let me skip this meeting."

Linas Vepstas @linas.org · 11h

Hierarchical organizations are "authoritarian" in that the boss tells you what to do. But also IBM, Qualcomm and I think most others are incredibly woke, trying to be fair in hiring and promoting based on ability. Competent people tended to rise. "Succeeded upwards".

Linas Vepstas @linas.org · 12h

? I mean, if you want potholes fixed and the electricity to stay on, someone's gotta do it. Paying someone to do maybe-not-fun jobs, and paying someone else to be the boss seems to work. But the meta-issue is capitalism, and not hierarchical organization.

Linas Vepstas @linas.org · 12h

So, add this to the #surrealism folder. I want to dunk on Karline Leavitt for being 12 years old. But no. This is classic Soviet surrealism. This is what the Eastern Europeans lived with in the 1970's, 1980's. And the GOP has faithfully recreated it on US soil. So much for anti-communism, huh?

MAKS 25 👀🇺🇦 @maks23.bsky.social · 14h

🤔 Interaction between HuffPost and Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt

Linas Vepstas @linas.org · 13h

I'm both. Both extrovert and introvert. So, not manic depression, but still oscillatory, depending on the circumstances.

Linas Vepstas @linas.org · 13h

But this "failing upwards" thing is a Silicon Valley invention. Many/most of the IBM executives were geniuses. The rank-n-file, who I'm calling "midwits" were actually reasonably smart. Engineers. No one had a bloated ego. Anyone with an ego mostly got pushed out or left.

Linas Vepstas @linas.org · 13h

I'm no expert at corporate hierarchy, but I worked IBM, Qualcomm. Not entirely pleasant, but its a very reasonable way to organize mid-wits to do something, that you wouldn't be able to pull off as a volunteer effort. At least, not with the same set of people as volunteers.

Linas Vepstas @linas.org · 13h

It's not "unintentional". Some of them would be here in Austin, and would go to the same parties. There's definitely overlap. And I've got some very tenuous connections into the VC crowd. Some of them are sharply super-MAGA. Like this: lithub.com/how-silicon-...

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