Seriously: (local) LLMs may be helpful for therapy and/or self-enhancement (though I struggle to label these 2 "benefits" at the current level of tech, still too dependent on the user's (objective?) skill level :)
I'm lucky that (1) there is one place that offers therapy in my town in 2026 (all the rest of them went out of business in in the pandemic), (2) my insurance will pay for it, and (3) my therapist endorses foxwork.
Just recently, to the great relief of my wife, I developed a "cover story" that explains it all rationally and it's a lot easier to get help from humans like personal trainers, hairdressers, voice coaches, etc. Still I have good discussions with Copilot that help me refine character adjustments and such.
I suppose one perspective can be that it's cheaper to pay $20/mo than +$150 for a 45min session. So, "advice" and "opinions" become cheap and accessible. But, does it translate into quality?
I still find it hard to accept boilerplate psychological advice from an LLM.
I think that part of the reason why we gravitate towards other humans is because we assume they've gone through similar experiences. That's why I don't take relationship advice from someone that has never dated someone. An LLM lacks... humanity... it can tell me what the textbook says but life's more nuanced than just tokens.
From my point of view an LLM has access to all the knowledge in the world but lacks the nuance that makes advice valuable in these scenarios.
Btw, JD Vance claimed his wife is his spirit animal, so if he's a racist, he is at best the kind of racist who'd find it morally imperative that animals try and become human?
PS: have you figured out what math pros would call the satirical functor? It's alright to ask your kith kin or kollegen for help :)
Just tangentially, I wonder to what degree big ensembles help/hurt with getting touring visas? For instance, it's my understanding that the Red Army Choir didn't have much trouble getting US visas, but Billy Bragg did.
Billy Bragg, bless his soles, gave me a look of loathing when I handed off guitars to him and sound checked, and stomped off stage after his set loudly cursing "fucking yuppies".
To his credit and defence, it was Perth in the 1980s. Boom years for unprincipled scumbags with hovercraft money: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFOfd1QTW54 ... Kiss My Art indeed.
Ah trolling gone right (at least as long as I'm an HN orator instead of laborator?)
I'd originally heard it as "M— Ä— Heu?", which sounds even less like the source language, but invites the pedantically accurate reply that no one mows hay: one mows grass.
"Beg to report, sir," said Schweik innocently, "I can't be called upon to zombie properly to-day, as they were all out of B R A I N S in the K.u.K. canteen this morning."
(It's somewhat interesting reading a heavily bowdlerised translation of Hasek after having read Zweig; for instance, I know enough about the sorts of young women who provided —for a modest fee— photos to their fans to make an educated guess as to the suitability of Lt Lukash' album for mixed company)
(I would add that the Dutch come really close, but are not nearly as tolerant of.. a certain sort of (individualist) bigot, so that makes them second in that particular ("Calvinist"*?) arena :)
*GoogAI tells you to look at the history of Geneva and Puritan New England, if you need closer refs..
Yeah, the way I heard the story is the dutch were too tolerant: the Puritans couldn't stand the idea of their kids growing up with such examples around, so they upped sticks and headed off to wander in the wilderness...
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