the world’s status hierarchy is built on top of stock/token prices.
both AI and crypto present opportunities for fast run-ups of market capitalization for those with ambition or grievance to contest the higher echelons.
@ouguoc https://www.deepseek.com/
i don’t think that’s a fair characterization. they seem to have achieved close-to-frontier performance much more cheaply both to train and operate, and perhaps without access to the most advanced GPUs.
obviously they build on the largely American foundational research. but OpenAI wants 500B (fucking absurd) to build out off of that.
AI:
Great US champions do it with great fanfare, exorbitant finance, yielding either vapor or some bloated, uncompetitive thing.
China: Some firm you’ve never heard of, one of probably a zillion such firms, does it on a shoestring, it works well, costs a fraction of what anyone thought possible.
@taral exactly.
“if Trump wants your opinion, he’ll tell you what he wants it to be.” @pkrugman https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/voodoo-trade-policy-comes-to-america
Suppose Elon Musk’s, um, hand gestures, his support of AfD, and promotion of replacement theory have persuaded you he has some interest or fascination with the historical Nazi movement. 1/
Musk has been fascinated by the number 420, which (4/20) is Hitler’s birthday but also a marijuana signifier, for many years. https://observer.com/2024/04/elon-musk-number-420-tesla-twitter/ 2/
Is your inference he recently became Nazi-curious, and previously had fetishized 420 solely over marijuana, or that he had some interest in Nazism for a long time and enjoyed the ambiguity and plausible deniability that 420’s marijuana associations afforded? 3/
If the latter, is it plausible that the wealthiest and most influential figure in “tech” would have remained supportive of the Democratic Party and its racially, culturally, and sexually progressive values if only partisans had been less mean to tech? 4/
Or is it more plausible that any apparent progressivism was always feigned and as Musk’s wealth and power grew he would become emboldened to openly advocate for his views? 5/
We can’t know! In some counterfactual universe where the racially, socially, and culturally progressive party was also the low taxes on rich people and deferential to monopoly party, maybe Musk’s material interests would have overwhelmed his, um, “playful” fascinations. 6/
But in anything like the actual universe, I think the evidence suggests there was little hope the party both more economically and culturally progressive could have retained this person’s support if a more materially friendly, more racially “realist” party could champion his interests. /fin
@_dm it was unprofitable capex, but not wasted, it was ultimately used.
i’m not sure the same will be true of whatever too much money thrown at less efficient AI. they actually laid fiber. sometimes cash travels fruitlessly from one pocket to the next.
@_dm just when a chinese firm trained a model that performs near the current frontier, that was trained and runs much more cheaply. i’m sure this will be money well spent. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DeepSeek
if you were to observe the world through infrared goggles, would it be visibly more hazy now than 40 years ago?
@distractal i mean, a séance at least would constitute some cognizable method.
@megmac yeah. people are saying it's like, an expression of love, opening his heart.
the precious dear.
@buermann what did Marc Andreeson say about Musk? https://x.com/pmarca/status/1870915523623670176
Tweet from Marc Andreeson: The thing about Elon’s alleged political power is that it mainly flows from just saying things out loud that are obviously true.
A hand gesture that culminates remarkably like a Nazi salute but begins with a hand on the heart might have been some novelty, something not intended as a Nazi salute. 1/
A longstanding fascination with the number 420 is pretty weak tea as evidence, even if 4/20 is Hitler's birthday. 2/
Support of AfD in Germany doesn't mean you are a Nazi sympathizer, even if that party has neonazi connections. 3/
Circumstantial evidence could always be coincidental. But as circumstantial evidence piles up, the probability of coincidence declines. 4/
Sure it could all be a gag! Trigger the libs! 5/
But that's just a different interpretation of the basic claim, that jokingly or not Musk has some longstanding interest in communicating support of Nazi-ish things. (And the support of AfD doesn't seem too jokey?) /fin
@admitsWrongIfProven they keep trying.
@admitsWrongIfProven yes, it did a bit. he's called himself a socialist in the past, but only in his usual words-have-no-meaning ha-ha way.
AI is has become a cargo-cultish shibboleth among politicians. Was for the Biden Administration, is for the Trump Administration, the UK is going whole hog.
( On the UK, see this excellent piece by @williamcb.bsky.social https://williamcullernebown.substack.com/p/big-tech-in-the-uk )
Are there any efforts in European countries / the EU to supplant US-based communications platforms?
we can't see the future. our base case always has to be muddling thru — turbulence sure, but things mostly remaining as they mostly have been.
but if we crack, if we really do take a turn towards political violence, disappearings, camps, in retrospect it will seem we were astonishingly well warned.
given the success of $TRUMP and $MELANIA, what if somebody tried making a memecoin called $DOGE?
man, we’re going to have the mother of all tourism booms when people learn that those on temporary visas are not subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, so it’s like “The Purge” for them. https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/protecting-the-meaning-and-value-of-american-citizenship/ ht @qjurecic