Otto Kretschmer

Huh? Catholics (whom I am not) don't need to reject any branches of science ? I used creationism as a shortcut of young eartth creationism which is what's typically understood by that term. The Catholic Church doesnt believe in that.

They do but in a different, less dogmatic way. The Catholic Church officially accepts evolution as a valid scientific theory (see the encyclical Humani Generis from 1950) and does not believe the world to be 6000 years old, the Genesis story is treated more like a metaphore than a literal account. The Genesis account was never taken fully literally by the Catholic Church, Saint Augustine of Hippo already warned against taking it too seriously. Today the Catholic Church accepts all findings of science, including the big bang, it just posits that God is the First Cause.

For 99% of human history being factually accurate was far less important than being socially accepted, a tribal group full of freethinkers without ingroup-outgroup thinking would have fractured and died out. It all mighjt just be evolutionary legacy.

Here in Europe creationism is a fringe thing and the only churches that profess to it are imports from the US, not native European ones. The problem with ideological fanaticism of any kind (religious, political, even economic aka the Austrian school) isn't that it's wrong or unfalsifable but that it's actively harmful. In the US kids have died due to their parents using faith "healing" instead of taking their child to a doctor and let's not even start figuring out how many people died due to political ideologies.

I have experience with debating creationists from over a decade ago as well as recent one with debating Stalinist apologists (who actually consider their belief system to be "science") and honestly, debating such people genuinely feels like trying to punch through a castle wall with a fist - all evidence to the contrary is either rejected outright or reinterpreted to fit the dogma. No change in the core dogmas is possible. One Muslim creationist actually told me she will accept evolution but only if I show her the fossil record of every single generation over millions of years which would require possession of millions or even dozens of millions of fossils. The problem is that for such people their belief system is not just a set of opinions (like prefering bolognese over carbonara) but it seems to be a core part of identity, attacking their beliefs is equal to a personal attack on them and their tribe. But maybe it makes sense to take part in such discussions for the sake of onlookers?

Ok, thank you. I thought it's some shady organization based in Norway that I don't know about.

@TheVat What Norwegian squid?

It's happening again.

So back to the topic. Any ideas?

Lol I quoted a wrong person. I was supposed to quote @swansont's post, not yours. @swansont Chatbots are far from the most important thing in AI. There is this stuff for example: https://deepmind.google/science/alphafold/

What makes you think that AI produces exclusively slop? If AI produces exclusively slop, what makes you think it'll remain like that forever? It's a lot like expecting computers to remain frozen at ENIAC level forever, quite irrational isn't it?

No, DeepSeek uses regular transformer architecture with a few innovative things, mixture of experts (MoE) and multi head latent attention (MLA) but it's a normal LLM. I mostly use Gemini 2.5 Pro in Google AI Studio and Alibaba's Qwen series. Latest Qwen3 VL is at 2.5 Pro level.

Just... what? And when? I read an article some time ago about a Chinese AI based on spiking neural networks that requires ~90% less computational resources but it's an early stage model and I don't remember where the article was published. I also cannot comment on the merits of spiking neural networks themselves as my knowledge of comp sci is modest in general.

Why should anyone dislike this place enough to pull off a DDoS on it?

I am not a student, university education is long beyond me - I graduated with a master's degree in law in 2019. I used to be a big science fan at age 13-14 but that interest waned in favor of military stuff, history/alt history and geopoltiics/current events in addition to a multitude of other lesser interests.

Have you guys read The God Delusion? From what I've read about that book, it seems to have been written mostly for the Anglosphere - young Earth creationism (or creationism in general) is a big thing in the US but here in Poland as well as in other majority Catholic, mainline Protestant and Eastern Orthodox countries it barely even exists, the official stance of said churches is theistic evolution which isn't at odds with the theory of evolution.

Hi. I read The Selfish Gene in 2014, now I'm planning to re-read it together with The Blind Watchmaker and The Extended Phenotype. What would be the best order to read those two books in and what other books of Richard Dawkins would be a good addition to these three, not counting The God Delusion obviously?

By extraversion I mean the Big Five extraversion which is broader than the popular understanding of the world, since it also includes stuff like assertiveness, activity level and excitement seeking and not just sociability. I mean an actual change in the trait itself and not just behavior. Someone who behaves in a less extroverted way due to having more family- or work-related responsibilities and doesn't have time for socializing but still feels the same urge to be social doesn't count here.

Eh, I've already retracted that downvote. I had overreacted a bit yesterday.

It just occured tro me - should we even debate religious folks? With the exception of stuff like creationism and faith healing, most of human religion is pretty harmless even though it can be bizarre at times.

Care to elaborate? So far - you shall feel the honour of being downvoted.

I do know that faith and reason are technically separate - but since the number of possible religions is infinite and none of them can be proven empirically, why not subscribe to all possible religions at once? Like, just build a shrine with the infinity (♾️) symbol or whatnot and pray to it.

The tv series The Expanse was based on a series of books, it is actually a good hard sci fi.

How would you describe yourselves? I myself have experienced quite a significant poltiical evolution from being a Libertarian at age 18-21, then a Social Democrat and then a non demonational Marxist this year (age 31-31) although I am tolerant of other left wing movements as well as Christian Democrats. Mostly socially progressive as well, ambivalent about gun rights (gun ownership rate is negligible here in Poland and there isn't much debate about it). My political evolution towards the left started with a gradual realization that free market cannot solve everything roughly at age 21.

An Axiomatic Framework for the Domestic Feline SystemLet the universe of discourse be denoted by U. We define a cat, c, as an element of the set C, such that C is a proper subset of the set of Felidae (F), which is in turn a proper subset of Mammalia (M). c ∈ C ⊂ F ⊂ M ⊂ U The entity c is fully described by its state-space, morphology, behavioral functions, and governing quantum-metaphysical principles. 1. Axioms of Morphology and StateAxiom 1.1 (Corporeal Uniqueness): For any c, there exists a unique physical body, B, associated with it. ∀c ∈ C, ∃! B Axiom 1.2 (Standard Configuration): The body B is a topological manifold characterized by the following properties, subject to a standard deviation ε: Limbs (L): The cardinality of the set of locomotive appendages is |L(B)| = 4 ± ε. Caudal Appendage (T): There exists a flexible, uni-dimensional appendage T, such that Length(T) > 0. (Note: A null set, T = ∅, is a permissible, albeit recessive, variant). Surface Manifold (S): The surface S(B) is covered by a dense vector field of keratin filaments (f). The density function ρ(f) over S is greater than a specified baseline ρ_min, defining the property IsFurry(B). Retractable Claws (K): B is equipped with a set of claws K, where the state of each element k ∈ K can be described by a binary function: State(k, t) ∈ {Retracted, Extended}. Axiom 1.3 (State Function): The state of c at any time t is given by the function S(t), which maps to a discrete set of primary states: S(t) ∈ {Sleeping, Hunting, Grooming, Demanding_Sustenance, Observing, State_of_Chaos} The probability distribution over these states is heavily skewed: P(S(t) = Sleeping) ≈ 0.65 P(S(t) = State_of_Chaos) can be modeled as a series of Dirac delta functions, δ(t - t₀), where t₀ frequently corresponds to 3:00 AM local time. 2. Behavioral Functions and PostulatesFunction 2.1 (Vocalization Operator, V): The cat c possesses a vocalization operator V that maps a set of input stimuli Σ to a set of acoustic outputs Ω. V: Σ → Ω where Ω = {Purr(ω, A), Meow(f, I), Hiss, Chirp, ∅}. Purr(ω, A) is a low-frequency oscillation (ω ≈ 25 Hz) of variable amplitude A, which paradoxically can signify either contentment or distress. Meow(f, I) is a function of frequency f and intensity I, typically used to signal a non-zero value for the Demand_Sustenance state. Postulate 2.2 (The Principle of Minimal Action): The cat c will, for any given objective, follow a path that minimizes action, where "action" is defined as caloric expenditure. This naturally leads to the high probability of the Sleeping state (see Axiom 1.3). This is suspended only during State_of_Chaos. Postulate 2.3 (The Observer Path Intersection Theorem): Let an Observer O move with a velocity vector V_O. The cat c will, with high probability, adjust its position vector P_c such that its projected path P_c(t + Δt) intersects P_O(t + Δt), maximizing the potential for the Observer to trip. Function 2.4 (Topological Deformation, Φ): A cat's body B is subject to a transformation Φ that allows it to occupy a container V_cont where the perceived volume of the cat Volume(B) appears to be greater than the volume of the container Volume(V_cont). Φ: B → V_cont such that B' ⊂ V_cont. This demonstrates that a cat can behave as a non-Newtonian fluid, filling the shape of its container. 3. Quantum and Metaphysical PrinciplesPrinciple 3.1 (The Schrödinger Operator of Intent, Ĥ_door): The state of a cat relative to a closed door is a quantum superposition. The cat's wavefunction |ψ⟩ is a linear combination of two eigenstates: |Wants_In⟩ and |Wants_Out⟩. |ψ⟩ = α|Wants_In⟩ + β|Wants_Out⟩, where |α|² + |β|² = 1. The act of an Observer opening the door constitutes a measurement, which collapses the wavefunction to one of the two states. An immediate subsequent measurement will show that the system has evolved into the orthogonal state with near-certainty. Principle 3.2 (The Multi-Life Hypothesis): The existence of c is not a scalar but a vector L in a 9-dimensional Hilbert space of "lives". L = (l₁, l₂, ..., l₉) A catastrophic event E acts as an operator that transitions the system from state l_i to l_{i+1}. The system is considered terminated only when an operator E is applied to the state l₉. ConclusionA cat c is a semi-autonomous, topologically deformable, quadrupedal entity governed by the principle of minimal action. Its behavior is a probabilistic function of its internal state, and its physical location relative to observers and barriers is subject to principles of quantum mechanics. It operates as a closed system for the majority of a 24-hour period, becoming an open system primarily to emit or receive matter and entropy (food, affection, chaos).