flueterflam

Several answers touch on this already. "Intelligence" is a very flattering "magic" feeling that doesn't really explain what is happening with LLMs.

Probablistic/Statistical weights are heavily involved here. But it feels "intelligent" because of a combination with ever-expanding processing/computational speed and power that can be thrown at the prompts. Things that were previously limited to on-site super computers can now be accessed via the internets/online services.

It's worth noting also that dynamic "seeding", such as via on-demand searches can contribute to better/worse context resolution.

AI is the common speak for large language model querying (with all the above, plus other details), in mind. So, Probablistic Inferencing (at) Super Speed (i.e. "PISS") seems about right to me!

I somewhat agree... but struggling with WHO updates and submits their resume for "fun"?? Like, just getting the "setup" for those job applications is ACTUAL work, in and of itself... For half those applications, you need to deal with creating an "application portal" account which stops me before I get anywhere.. 😅 Why even submit the resume, at that point? What am I missing here..? People like the entire PROCESS and/or think it's "fun"??? Is it "really" possibl~~y~~e to find any aspect of the process.... "fun"? I suppose I'd agree if misunderstanding it?

While not thoroughly informed on gun evolution, definitely agree! They were clearly used in the 1500s onward, at least for European usage. 1806 simply marks a year of notable military pistol production (like the Harpers Ferry model) although maybe others?

Whoa, whoa, whoa... Slow down there, boss! You're suggesting the US gov't is setting up a false flag event via entrapment??? UnHeArD oF1!1!!!!111!!

As a millenial, I have one boomer parent and one from the silent generation (1944). They got married late-ish in life and waited a LONG time for kids. AND I have a younger brother by 8 years. I agree he's not a boomer by FAR, but the parent comment is definitely false.

EDIT: typo - on -> one

An anecdote in agreement:

The CEO of my company left in September 2025. For years leading up to that, there were 3-4 layoffs/riffs of approx. 5% reductions (edit: yearly reductions). Never hired more US employees except for VP and C-level until we became very top-heavy. What jobs they do replace are primarily India and some in Argentina, many are contractors. They "cook the books" by avoiding taxes and "creatively" avoiding reporting gains/losses due to having a large amount of contractors. 2025 ended up losing a ton of customers due to churn (i.e. leaving or not renewing contracts). Most of our customera are US or North America-based and the contractor teams have such high turnover that customers are sick of us not supporting them well anymore.

Know where that former CEO is now? An AI startup.

You're right. I was thinking "alphabetic" would resonate more with a general audience, albeit not 100% accurate. Thanks for pointing it out!

As a bonus note, the term "mora" is used to describe a syllabic character.

(edit: typo)

In case you're wondering, the "Japanese" section of the shirt has a mixture of actual Katakana (usually used for "style" or foreign words) and Hiragana (used for native words and [grammar] case markers). Plus, random shapes that look somewhat like Katakana. Some appear to be backwards Katakana, while some are simply made up (like the "R" character).

Also, the shirt says you need to turn you head to read it... But traditional Japanese, which was written top-down and right-to-left, was readable without turning your head. T L K
H I I
I K N
S E D
_ _ A

(edit: Vertical text is weird in Markdown)

I realize it's meant as a joke. But if you know Japanese, even if only how to read the non-Kanji, alphabetic characters (Katakana and Hiragana), it borders on lame. Especially since they faked a bunch of the characters.

This is actually false in a literal translation sense. That's the interpretation/implication of the title. Similar to how you would interpret the title of a biography called, "Abraham Lincoln", as "The story (of the life) of Abraham Lincoln", despite the latter not being the actual title.

In this case, the title is literally "Odysseyus" where "-us" is the nomative (subject) case case marker required in Latin. The English literal translation is, therefore, simply "Odyssey", his name.

Because it's an epic story, however, it matches English and general writing conventions to translate it as "The story/journey/epic/tale/what-have-you of Odyssey."

Over time, especially in English, "O/odyssey" has taken on a more generic term, as well. So, adding the extra stuff in an interpreted translation (vs. literal translation) also helps differentiate the title of the book from a generic odyssey that might be a grand adventure by/with a different main character.

Even the Sun's light can take thousands of years to actually exit the sun.

The wording is not how light from our sun works... Unless you're simplifying greatly. It's not in a maze or some container that takes thousands of years to escape. The light is based on photons that are emitted via nuclear fusion then some mass being converted to energy/photons.

I've read that photons can bounce around (i.e. be absorbed and re-emitted) an estimated 40,000 years... but we all should understand that is a) an estimate and b) an estimate for the inner-most photons. Photons created via near-surface level areas of the sun may be emitted outward from the sun near-instantaneously.

All this to say that the light/photon(s) don't/doesn't start out as light. However, once a photon exists, it may be trapped for thousands of years due to the shear amount of mass trapping it and needing to be absorbed/re-emitted until space-bound!

Went there in the mid-2000s. Awesome to see it over 100 years ago! Thanks for the share! It's not a huge walk from the ocean either, iirc. Something like 4-6 blocks.