@nprofile1q... In practice for my development world I haven't found Arch (actually EndeavourOS) all that unstable.

@nprofile1q... Yeah, there really is no moat at all unless the big corp AI players get government to put on a lot of regulations and red tape that protects them from more innovative players. Naturally all such companies are betting government to do just that. Never mind that China wins the "AI race" for sure then.

@nprofile1q... I love GLM 5.1 and I believe 5.2 is out. Cleaner answers and equal or better depth than Claude or Perplexity and better code snippet suggestions even in relatively less common software languages.
I use them under nano-gpt.com router than asks for no email etc and lest you subscribe with XMR. And their user interfaces is better than most of the big corporate players offer to boot.

@nprofile1q... Well I guess its is official. Asked an AI:

Is there any real evidence IQs are dropping in the US or in the West generally

Yes, there is substantial evidence from recent studies suggesting that average IQ scores in the **United States** and other developed Western nations have declined, reversing the long-standing "Flynn effect." A 2023 study published in the journal *Intelligence* analyzed data from nearly **400,000** American adults between 2006 and 2018, finding significant drops in **verbal reasoning**, **matrix reasoning**, and **mathematical abilities**.

Researchers from **Northwestern University** and the **University of Oregon** identified a "reverse Flynn effect," where cognitive scores fell across most domains despite a slight increase in spatial reasoning. This trend mirrors findings in other countries like **Finland**, **France**, and the **UK**, where IQ gains from the 20th century have stalled or reversed since the turn of the millennium.

Potential explanations for this decline include:
* **Educational shifts**: Changes in the quality or content of education and test-taking skills.
* **Technology and lifestyle**: Increased reliance on digital devices, reduced reading of printed material, and fragmented attention spans.
* **Environmental factors**: Issues such as nutrition and the less intellectually demanding nature of modern service-sector jobs.

Experts caution that while raw scores are falling, this does not necessarily mean humans are becoming less intelligent, as IQ tests measure specific cognitive skills that can be influenced by environmental and testing factors.

@nprofile1q... Engineering goof practice for safety is essential not overrated. So is needed maintenance. But you know that. I am always getting snark and sarcasm wrong.

@nprofile1q... Using probablistic software (LLM) to do most everything including tool selection, planning, scheduling and other tasks we have very excellent deterministic software for is stupid, ineffectual, and very very expensive. It is an overhype cycle again. Not to say it is used for far too many things it is not fit for.

@nprofile1q... What about the Flynn Effect? It is reversed? Where is this documented?

@nprofile1q... Yeah, I don't believe in IP generally. Google is basically evil because it makes its money by harvesting massive surveillance data on everyone and selling it.

@nprofile1q... I though "State Capitalism" or "Corporatism" were pretty synonymous with Fascism economically?

@nprofile1q... If anything the media companies made a lot more money because the unlicensed copies exposed a LOT more people to media they later bought.

@nprofile1q... Well shit. The activists are blowing AI up as their next demon? I am old enough to have been in Vietnam War protests starting when I was 16. That and the real hippies. But when Vietnam ran down it was like the activists searched for something else. Back then they demonized nuclear power. We still haven't recovered from that hysteria. These can be very dangerous and disruptive things across generations. I was really surprised how fast something like that could be ramped up with one-side porpaganda.

You are right. It is a pity all that energy isn't poured into something really important like the massive surveillance and control grid. I always though Alex Jones was some government plant to make actual freedom people look bad but his "Prison Planet" meme unfortunately is quite true and becoming more so every day.

@nprofile1q... Scary that Telegram was ever presented as private much less secure. It never was.