It'll be useful eventually, but I wouldn't bank on soon. My final project in college was related to quantum computing, which at the time (18 years ago) was effectively entirely theoretical. I've enjoyed seeing the steady, albeit slow, progress.

The areas where quantum computing will really shine are problems which involve a huge number of possible answers, but only one best or correct one. The traveling salesman problem is a classic of computer science, as you can scale it up in complexity to the point where any traditional computer will eventually choke on the sheer number of permutations to test. Great way to demonstrate the need for clever solutions and well-written algorithms vs brute force approaches. An adequately sophisticated quantum computer, however, will theoretically be able to solve the traveling salesman problem nearly instantly, regardless of the level of complexity / number of nodes to navigate. Because it just tests all possible answers simultaneously.

This isn't really true though and greatly understates how amazing this demo, and current AI actually is.

Saying the agents are obeying a set of human defined rules / freedoms / constraints and objective functions would lead one to imagine something more like video game AI.

Typically video game AI works on a set of weighted decisions and actions, where the weights, decisions and actions are defined by the developer; a more complex variation of:

if my health is low, move towards the health pack,
otherwise, move towards the opponent

In this demo, no such rules exist. It's not given any weights (health), rules (if health is low), nor any instructions (move towards health pack). I guess you could apply neural networks to traditional game AI to determine the weights for decision making (which are typically hard coded by the developer); but that would be far less interesting than what's actually happening here.

Instead, the agent is given a set of inputs, a set of available outputs, and a goal.

4 Inputs:
- Position of the agent itself
- Position and type (other agent, box, ramp) of objects within a limited forward facing conical view
- Position (but not type) of objects within a small radius around the agent
- Reward: Whether they are doing a good job or not

Note the agent is given no information about each type of object, or what they mean, or how they behave. You may as well call them A, B, C rather than agent, box, ramp.

3 Outputs:
- Move
- Grab
- Lock

Again, the agent knows nothing about what these mean, only that they can enable and disable each at any time. A good analogy is someone giving you a game controller for a game you've never played. The controller has a stick and two buttons and you figure out what they do by using them. It'd be accurate to call the outputs: stick, A, B rather than move, grab, lock.

Goal:
- Do a good job.

The goal is simply for the reward input to be maximised. A good analogy is saying 'good girl' or giving a treat to a dog that you are training when they do the right thing. It's up to the dog to figure out what it is that they're doing that's good.

The reward is entirely separate from the agent, and agent behaviour can be completely changed just by changing when the reward is given. The demo is about hide and seek, where the agents are rewarded for not being seen / seeing their opponent (and not leaving the play area). The agents also succeeded at other games, where the only difference to the agent was when the reward was given.

It isn't really different from physically building the same play space, dropping some rats in it, and rewarding them with cheese when they are hidden from their opponents - except rats are unlikely to figure out how to maximise their reward in such a 'complex' game.

Given this description of how the AI actually works, the fact they came up with complex strategies like blocking doors, ramp surfing, taking the ramp to stop their opponents from ramp surfing, and just the general cooperation with other agents, without any code describing any of those things - is pretty amazing.

You can find out more about how the agents were trained, and other exercises they performed here:

https://openai.com/blog/emergent-tool-use/

That's the hilarious thing with the new movies.

TFA came out and everyone complained that it was just an update of a New Hope.

TLJ came out and broke with tradition and a very vocal minority hated it (the movie still made over a billion dollars... you can't say that everyone hated it).

WWANRGLD? At what point was Lucas not rich? Before A New Hope (even then he already had a few successful movies under his belt)? or do you mean before he was ridiculously rich (prequels? disney buy out?)?

It's possible that Kylo Ren will be redeemed, but it'd be very predictable.

So, this is obviously pulled from selected data.
Is this pulled from within the US? A specific state?
All of North America? (doubtful)

This definitely doesn't cover Europe , and most definitely doesn't include Asian countries.

I find it's interesting that the top names all pull from the Bible. It gets more diverse into the 2000s but even Noah isn't breaking from tradition.

They missed my favourite, the Bartini Bariev VVA-14M1P, which was a hybrid Ekranoplan/traditional aircraft which could fly at higher altitudes, but was designed to maximize the ground effect so it could cruise very long distances at sea level.

Shouldn't that read "A bear faces Chuck Norris in combat"? It's traditional to list the more dangerous predator second.

The animator's last name is Beer.

If I married a woman with a last name like that, I'd say screw tradition, I'm taking her last name.

Yeah... that's my takeaway.

Just a guess based on the rest of the photos, not an accusation. It could just as easily be juxtaposing strong family involvement VS absentee parenting. That said, her expression is not a happy one.

I paid more attention to the man's clothes and weapon than hers when making my guess. I honestly didn't notice her head scarf on my tiny screen.
The impression I've always had is that in many if not most middle eastern/North African areas where traditional clothes and weapons like he's wearing are common, women are usually banned from schools....at least until recently. I do admit that's a stereotype, and perhaps ignorant.

wtf is this?

The thing is, the traditional arts related to that sword have not died out. They're still practiced. You can literally go on youtube and see exactly what a strike with that sword looks like.

It doesn't look anything like that.

Why did you need to replace the cheerleading batons with fake weapons? All those moves are just as impressive with sticks and a whole hell of a lot less embarrassing for everyone involved.

At a life expectancy of 44 heart-disease for the Masaai is the least of their concerns.... but the it's also a myth that they have perfect health on beef https://nutritionstudies.org/masai-and-inuit-high-protein-diets-a-closer-look/

Traditional Okinawan's eat very little fish - less than 4% of their calories is from animal products.
https://www.superfoodly.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/pie-chart.png

These are the people who we now see living to well over 100 years old. Where as modern Okinawa's have a far worse life expectancy now that they have more animal foods in their diet.

Both of these cultures are further examples of how fewer animal foods in the diet always has better health outcomes.

And thanks to the vegan 7th Day Adventists in Loma Linda, we know that zero animal products has the best health outcomes.

This is a very strong indication that animal products are obsolete in the human diet.

He did mention fish/white meat, however he was making the point that meats aren't what is making them healthy - the Mediterraneans are healthy despite these animal foods. They are healthy because of the large intake of whole plant foods, as is the case in Japan.

And we know this, because within Japan itself there's a clear relationship between health, and amount of animal products consumed. The traditional Okinawan diet (the place which has the most centenarians int he world) is just 6% calories from animal products, the rest being from sweet potato and rice and veg. Where as mainland Japan where they eat more animal products they don't do as well as their Okinawan neighbors.

This relationship of animal food intake & rates of chronic diseases works on a local level or a global level. Less is always better, all the way to none (Loma Linda 7th day Adventists many of which are vegan by religion tend do the best out of all of the blue zones, when it comes to chronic disease).



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Omega 3 is present in so many plant foods - such as flaxseed/linseed, hemp, chia, and even sea algae (which is where the fish get their omega 3 from)

The benefit of getting omega 3 from plant sources means almost no saturated fat, no cholesterol, no mercury, no IGF-1 raising protein structures (and no antibiotics if you are eating farmed fish). Also they say the ocean will be fishless by 2048..... (which also coincides with the Post Atomic Horror era for the Trekkies out there lol)

Fish also don't have any fiber, (the one macro nutrient everyone pretends doesn't exist, and most people are deficient in). Stay regular and prevent diverticulitis/diverticulitis, and avoid hemorrhoids, and even varicose veins.

Flax also contains lignans which prevents/treats prostate cancer https://www.healthline.com/health/prostate-cancer/flaxseed-and-prostate-cancer.


You just get so much more nutrition out of plants over all. Animal products tend to have a higher amount of a single compound or nutrient, but they have a lot of baggage with it. It's like buying a car, you don't necessarily want the one with the biggest engine, the total package is what's important.


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Whether or not Barnard is a vegan shill, doesn't change the nutritional profiles of foods as shown above.

It also doesn't change the fact he looks, acts and speaks amazing for someone that's 65 years old - clearly putting his theory into practice with wonderful results. And while that is anecdotal, that's certainly something nobody would say about Atkins, or Loran Cordain (Paleo advocate) or Jimmy Moore (Keto advocate), who all look like they could drop dead any minute (and Atkins literally did drop dead).

As per tradition, I believe I must *quality and *promote this.

It's become an annual tradition on the sift

Ok, I was going to keep silent, because I am no way an expert on Maori culture, but this is just so full of bullshit.

1: There are obviously Maori people at that wedding... the bride for instance.
2: Women do perform haka, it's just traditionally different from mens haka, but even that is changing/
3: Pakeha can't perform Haka? Tell that to the All Blacks... just make sure your health insurance is paid up first.
4: There are no full-blood Maori's left.... oh fuck right off with that nonsense. There are no "full blood" anybody of any kind left. Doesn't make you any less Maori if that's your culture.

And Kapa Haka can be performed for all kinds of reasons. You can perform a haka to welcome someone to a marae for example.

This is the first I've ever heard or seen this. Not knowing the traditional ceremony or history, all I know is that I could relate to it when I first got married at 20.