day 18
bit of a breather episode
As long as you ensure A* / Dijkstra's (is there a functional difference if the edge weights are constant?) you'll get the shortest path. Part 2 was just simulation for me, if I started in the state of part 1 it took a minute to run through the rest of the bytes.
re: p1
I literally created different test inputs for all the examples given and that found a lot of bugs for me. Specifically the difference between literal and combo operators.
I honestly had no idea of the original Russian meaning of the gloss. To me "refusenik" implies some sort of hard-left hippie.
Edit finally went and read the linked article.
Schneier and Sanders:
We agree with Morozov that the “refuseniks,” as he calls them, are wrong to see AI as “irreparably tainted” by its origins.
Morozov:
Meanwhile, a small but growing group of scholars and activists are taking aim at the deeper, systemic issues woven into AI’s foundations, particularly its origins in Cold War–era computing. For these refuseniks, AI is more than just a flawed technology; it’s a colonialist, chauvinist, racist, and even eugenicist project, irreparably tainted at its core.
But the original term was not for people refusing to take an action - it was the state refusing to allow their actions! It's done a 180, but considering no-one now remembers the plight of Soviet Jews attempting to emigrate to Israel it's not that strange.
Doctor Parkinson declared, "I'm not surprised to see you here
You've got smokers cough from smoking, brewer's droop from drinking beer
I don't know how you came to get the Bette Davis knees
But worst of all young man, you've got industrial disease"
I am geniunely shocked that Elsevier had this journal under its imprint.
re: day 14 part 2
I had nfc how to solve this but someoone on the subreddit mentioned that miminizine the "safety score" was the way to go too ... I guess your explanation is the correct one. Also the way the puzzle is generated is to start with the tree and go "backwards" a couple of thousand steps and use a number of of those as starting positions. Probably throw in some random robots as noise.
Diamond Age is an interesting idea, the original Primer was for the elite and used distributed encryption to farm out the qualified work to skilled artisans. In the end though, a cut-down primer (using some sort of AI? it's been a long time since I read it) is used to educate and train the girl army used by one of the faction in the final battle.
It's not really explained but I suspect the OG Primer had a robust payment model that ensured that the service oculd be kept solvent.
Assuming the company will last 5 years is awfully optimistic.
I feel exactly the same.
re: 11p2 discussion
I was also on my way to building a multilevel memoization cache with "branches", when I just happened to stumble on an incredibly elegant solution in the subreddit. I stole it and awarded myself only 1 point for today. Because I'm worth it.
sounds horrorshow to me
FWIW I just got an email from GitHub announcing that Copilot is now free for my account (a very basic one).