Sean Robbins
@seanrobbins.bsky.social
A Software Engineer and Idiot. Amateur philosopher. Professional Bristolian. I like cheese
Pinned
Sean Robbins
@seanrobbins.bsky.social
· Jan 1
I know I need to start posting on more on Bluesky, but sorry it didn’t make my New Year’s resolutions this year. Maybe next year.
Reposted by Sean Robbins
This vignette is from the autobiography of the film director Lewis Gilbert (1920-2018). His grandmother Annie was a Russian-Jewish refugee who he says spoke Yiddish and almost no English. It's a beautiful example of the connection between generations, languages and cultures. London, around 1927:
November 15, 2025 at 11:39 AM
This vignette is from the autobiography of the film director Lewis Gilbert (1920-2018). His grandmother Annie was a Russian-Jewish refugee who he says spoke Yiddish and almost no English. It's a beautiful example of the connection between generations, languages and cultures. London, around 1927:
Nostalgia is often a form of fantasy fiction, where we choose to filter out what was unpleasant about the past and preserve only the things that we liked.
Ah the 1970s.
Stagflation, three day weeks, collapsing infrastructure. Civil War in Northern Ireland. In yer face racism and bigotry everywhere. Bin strikes. Strikes in general. Blackouts. Industrial decline. Wage inequality. Dog crap everywhere. And households spent 25% of their income on food.
Stagflation, three day weeks, collapsing infrastructure. Civil War in Northern Ireland. In yer face racism and bigotry everywhere. Bin strikes. Strikes in general. Blackouts. Industrial decline. Wage inequality. Dog crap everywhere. And households spent 25% of their income on food.
November 14, 2025 at 9:44 AM
Nostalgia is often a form of fantasy fiction, where we choose to filter out what was unpleasant about the past and preserve only the things that we liked.
Reposted by Sean Robbins
Genuinely the most shocking realisation of my adult life is how dramatically those of us who enjoy thinking are outnumbered by those who find it wholly unpleasant and worth significant cost and effort to avoid.
October 28, 2025 at 9:45 PM
Genuinely the most shocking realisation of my adult life is how dramatically those of us who enjoy thinking are outnumbered by those who find it wholly unpleasant and worth significant cost and effort to avoid.
What if we crossed gambling with lines of credit? What could possibly go wrong?
October 23, 2025 at 9:53 AM
What if we crossed gambling with lines of credit? What could possibly go wrong?
Satirist, satirise thyself.
Dave Chappelle criticized the status of free speech in the United States while on stage at the Riyadh Comedy Festival in Saudi Arabia.
Dave Chappelle Criticizes Free Speech in America at Saudi Arabia Comedy Festival
Dave Chappelle criticized the status of free speech in the United States while on stage at the Riyadh Comedy Festival in Saudi Arabia.
bit.ly
October 2, 2025 at 8:22 PM
Satirist, satirise thyself.
Tribe of Frog is now enough of an institution to be covered in the Guardian!
Eat, sleep, rave, ribbit! How Tribe of Frog became the UK’s trippiest, happiest club night
Eat, sleep, rave, ribbit! How Tribe of Frog became the UK’s trippiest, happiest club night
Playing the oft-reviled subgenre of psytrance, this Bristol event is celebrating its 25th year. Amid the UV paint and crochet frog hats, we find out why it’s thriving
www.theguardian.com
October 2, 2025 at 10:08 AM
Tribe of Frog is now enough of an institution to be covered in the Guardian!
Reposted by Sean Robbins
THE MEME IS REAL
September 29, 2025 at 1:38 AM
THE MEME IS REAL
These use cases may well be better met by smaller, specialised models. Which may make the energy usage trade off more attractive.
By only aiming at LARGE, much of the industry may be shooting at the wrong target.
By only aiming at LARGE, much of the industry may be shooting at the wrong target.
Will LLMs someday predict renewable electricity output, or guide dispatch decisions, as well as today's (far less resource intensive) systems? It's possible. Will the incremental performance improvement be worth all the pollution and power grid strains/costs from data center buildout? I doubt it.
September 18, 2025 at 1:43 PM
These use cases may well be better met by smaller, specialised models. Which may make the energy usage trade off more attractive.
By only aiming at LARGE, much of the industry may be shooting at the wrong target.
By only aiming at LARGE, much of the industry may be shooting at the wrong target.
Reposted by Sean Robbins
if you’re an isolated, angsty, strange young man, please know that you can become a Kierkegaard scholar instead of joining fringe online communities
September 12, 2025 at 11:30 PM
if you’re an isolated, angsty, strange young man, please know that you can become a Kierkegaard scholar instead of joining fringe online communities
Reposted by Sean Robbins
As a governor who cares about the well-being of my people, I can’t live in a fantasy land where I pretend Trump is not tearing this country apart for personal greed and power.
September 3, 2025 at 3:50 PM
As a governor who cares about the well-being of my people, I can’t live in a fantasy land where I pretend Trump is not tearing this country apart for personal greed and power.
Drops whatever I was doing and immediately seek to know what this is about.
the whole evangelical furry mom to polycule porn artist saga actually did seriously derail the social organizing capacity of the furry right wing
September 2, 2025 at 8:49 PM
Drops whatever I was doing and immediately seek to know what this is about.
Reposted by Sean Robbins
think that if "we must debate the fascists not no-platform them!" is your view then we have probably reached the stage, globally, where you may wish to wonder if your preferred way of doing things is actually working
August 21, 2025 at 9:06 AM
think that if "we must debate the fascists not no-platform them!" is your view then we have probably reached the stage, globally, where you may wish to wonder if your preferred way of doing things is actually working
Tommy Robinson fondly evokes the era of ‘Jack the Ripper’, when there was a large Yiddish speaking community in the East End with their own schools, theatres and clubs. Aside from yearning for days associated with brutal murder, he’s also illiterately wrong on immigration.
Tommy Robinson fondly invoking the days when the East End was run by gangsters and women were in danger of being killed
August 13, 2025 at 9:08 AM
Tommy Robinson fondly evokes the era of ‘Jack the Ripper’, when there was a large Yiddish speaking community in the East End with their own schools, theatres and clubs. Aside from yearning for days associated with brutal murder, he’s also illiterately wrong on immigration.
Reposted by Sean Robbins
Instead of regurgitating the bromide that LLMs are just "autocomplete on steroids" (even by people who know better), maybe we can actually engage in some public education. The problem with genAI is better expressed through a classic computer science concept, known as SYMBOL GROUNDING. 🧵
August 12, 2025 at 4:33 PM
Instead of regurgitating the bromide that LLMs are just "autocomplete on steroids" (even by people who know better), maybe we can actually engage in some public education. The problem with genAI is better expressed through a classic computer science concept, known as SYMBOL GROUNDING. 🧵
Reposted by Sean Robbins
I am becoming increasingly anxious about:
1) The Government’s lack of meaningful response to this, and indeed the pandering to it.
2) The way it’s being covered by broadcasters.
1) The Government’s lack of meaningful response to this, and indeed the pandering to it.
2) The way it’s being covered by broadcasters.
They see brown men and think their women and children are under attack. And they get a bbc article about their 'legitimate concerns'. How long before they have legitimate concerns about the rest of us?
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
'People are angry': Behind the wave of asylum hotel protests
The BBC visits sites of protests to hear the voices of those opposed to the hotels and others in support of asylum seekers.
www.bbc.co.uk
August 10, 2025 at 9:47 AM
I am becoming increasingly anxious about:
1) The Government’s lack of meaningful response to this, and indeed the pandering to it.
2) The way it’s being covered by broadcasters.
1) The Government’s lack of meaningful response to this, and indeed the pandering to it.
2) The way it’s being covered by broadcasters.
FWIW I don’t think ‘intelligent’ in the same way as human intelligence is the right model. It retains an incredible amount of data, so I think of it not as smart like Einstein smart, but an animated statistically indexed Encyclopaedia Brittanica.
This analogy is obviously imperfect.
This analogy is obviously imperfect.
biggest problem with ai discourse is that nobody can correctly measure its intelligence. it is very obviously smarter than the haters say. it is also very obviously dumber than the advocates say.
August 8, 2025 at 9:14 PM
FWIW I don’t think ‘intelligent’ in the same way as human intelligence is the right model. It retains an incredible amount of data, so I think of it not as smart like Einstein smart, but an animated statistically indexed Encyclopaedia Brittanica.
This analogy is obviously imperfect.
This analogy is obviously imperfect.
Presumably they could have found a long list of men and ran a monthly column on it.
Six years ago today, a writer for Cosmo put out a request to PR agencies to talk to men who have had an erection that didn't lead to orgasm. Sometimes I wonder if she found a man who had experienced this horror.
August 8, 2025 at 11:56 AM
Presumably they could have found a long list of men and ran a monthly column on it.
Reposted by Sean Robbins
Didn’t want to believe this was true. It’s true.
August 7, 2025 at 9:13 PM
Didn’t want to believe this was true. It’s true.
Reposted by Sean Robbins
The extreme right is at war with reality.
And reality is losing.
And reality is losing.
New YouGov polling. A monumental failure of our political class to educate, a monumental failure of our media to report fairly, for a generation
August 5, 2025 at 7:42 AM
The extreme right is at war with reality.
And reality is losing.
And reality is losing.
Clearly Trump has an eye for beauty. Those fossil fueled generation methods are a joy to behold. Soo beautiful.
August 1, 2025 at 11:47 AM
Clearly Trump has an eye for beauty. Those fossil fueled generation methods are a joy to behold. Soo beautiful.
The idea that interview questions are to be ‘solved’ rather than explored, challenged or expanded upon through conversation, is a source of much misunderstanding.
The ability to generate a plausible looking solution in seconds only compounds this folly.
The ability to generate a plausible looking solution in seconds only compounds this folly.
Once more for those in the back:
The fact that LLMs can "solve" most common interview questions is damning of our interview processes, but not a sign that it can take our jobs.
The fact that LLMs can "solve" most common interview questions is damning of our interview processes, but not a sign that it can take our jobs.
July 28, 2025 at 8:52 AM
The idea that interview questions are to be ‘solved’ rather than explored, challenged or expanded upon through conversation, is a source of much misunderstanding.
The ability to generate a plausible looking solution in seconds only compounds this folly.
The ability to generate a plausible looking solution in seconds only compounds this folly.
Reposted by Sean Robbins
In a stunning moment of carnal desire, my calculator said “BOOBIE5”
no it wasn’t and no it didn’t
July 21, 2025 at 8:44 AM
In a stunning moment of carnal desire, my calculator said “BOOBIE5”
Still available on Amazon.co.uk for a mere £204.11. I thought maybe if you buy books at this price, you can expect an editor to have checked out the contents? www.amazon.co.uk/Mastering-Ma...
July 20, 2025 at 2:17 PM
Still available on Amazon.co.uk for a mere £204.11. I thought maybe if you buy books at this price, you can expect an editor to have checked out the contents? www.amazon.co.uk/Mastering-Ma...
Reposted by Sean Robbins
In Italy women were expected to marry their rapist, which excused him from the crime legally, until the 1960s. Franca Viola, who had to face down both society and the Mafia when she refused to do this, should be known more widely as one of the great heroines.
July 18, 2025 at 8:39 PM
In Italy women were expected to marry their rapist, which excused him from the crime legally, until the 1960s. Franca Viola, who had to face down both society and the Mafia when she refused to do this, should be known more widely as one of the great heroines.
This seems basically unworkable and obedience to this would more detract model behaviour (just look at the mess resulting from attempts to influence Grok).
Government intervention risks damaging US AI industry, and will further push people towards open models.
Government intervention risks damaging US AI industry, and will further push people towards open models.
White House officials are preparing an executive order targeting tech companies with what they see as “woke” artificial-intelligence models, their latest effort to go after diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
White House Prepares Executive Order Targeting ‘Woke AI’<br>
The order would be one of several expected to be released outlining the president’s vision for winning the AI race with China.
on.wsj.com
July 17, 2025 at 11:22 PM
This seems basically unworkable and obedience to this would more detract model behaviour (just look at the mess resulting from attempts to influence Grok).
Government intervention risks damaging US AI industry, and will further push people towards open models.
Government intervention risks damaging US AI industry, and will further push people towards open models.