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Each token affects the probabilities of subsequent tokens. Let's say you want the model to produce Python code, and you are using a grammar to force JSON output. The model wasn't trained on JSON-serialized Python code. It was trained on normal Python code with real newlines. Wouldn't forcing JSON impair output quality in this case?


The defining characteristic of science is that one can independently arrive at a logical conclusion by observing cause and effect. There is no belief or indoctrination necessary. Having faith in science is an oxymoron (although it's all too common).


> The defining characteristic of science is that one can independently arrive at a logical conclusion by observing cause and effect.

I'm not sure it's about observation of cause and effect. There are excellent youtube videos about the strangeness of time and how cause and effect are convenience terms. Reason is the basis for science, which we construct practices around that are effective in describing the physical universe.

Having a unique characteristic is not sufficient to differentiate a practice that serves the same purpose as any other religion. Other religions are more sociologically founded and aimed, but they serve a similar niche.

ie There's not a practical way to test out every scientific fact (although many have died trying), given the wealth of knowledge that exists and extreme costs to even perform the experiments. Faith in science is not an oxymoron, unless you want to define faith tautologically, to assert it is so.


Yes it is.

Predictable reliable cause and effect is entirely sufficient to cleanly differentiate science from religions that have no such demonstrable experiments.

> There's not a practical way to test out every scientific fact

They're documented - pick one that ionterests you and lets go on the reproduction.

Can we say the same about any "fact" of a religion? - WE can about the bulk facts in science.

That's your cleaving differentiation.


> > There's not a practical way to test out every scientific fact

> They're documented - pick one that ionterests you and lets go on the reproduction.

In all fairness, I made a straightforward statement and you have assumed I said something else - I did not say any single scientific "fact". This is not the point that I was making (trying to disprove a fact).

> Can we say the same about any "fact" of a religion?

You're getting into the weeds here. If I have a religion that's called AlmostScience that includes a fairy tale that teaches morality but otherwise teaches the history and practices of the scientific method. Is it not a religion? I'm making an equivalence claim and you're attacking details of a strawman religion.


The constructor of std::string is constexpr in C++20. A runtime call to 'strlen' (or equivalent) can be optimized out by computing the string's length at compile time and initializing the object accordingly.


> The constructor of std::string is constexpr in C++20.

If I recall correctly, from C++20 onward all member functions of std::string are constexpr.


In the absence of IDE features, you can't differentiate between value arguments and reference arguments unless you view the callee's prototype. Pointers do not have this problem.


In the absence of IDE features, you also can't differentiate between a function taking a pointer and a const pointer. You must be aware in all cases that the value that you pass to the function may be modified. Yes, the function would not be modifying the pointer itself, but the outcome is exactly the same. A reference is pretty much equal to a non-nullable pointer in this context.


> In the absence of IDE features, you also can't differentiate between a function taking a pointer and a const pointer.

So? It still helps me with decoding `foo(bar, baz)`, as without the `&` I KNOW that bar and baz would not change after the call. And since both bar and baz are in the local scope, I already know whether they are pointers or not.

With pointers, all the information necessary to determine if bar and baz would change after a call to foo is in the local scope. With references that information is elsewhere.


Another biblical example is Psalm 90:10: "Our days may come to seventy years, or eighty, if our strength endures; yet the best of them are but trouble and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away."


Member functions have an invisible argument: the pointer to the C++ object. You can access this argument using the 'this' keyword. John Carmack describes pure functions like so:

> Pure functions have a lot of nice properties. Thread safety. A pure function with value parameters is completely thread safe. With reference or pointer parameters, even if they are const, you do need to be aware of the danger that another thread doing non-pure operations might mutate or free the data, but it is still one of the most powerful tools for writing safe multithreaded code.

Emphasis on 'value parameters'. The invisible 'this' argument is not passed by value, it is passed by reference. By Carmack's definition, C++ member functions are not pure.


The title of the linked article has a question mark, while the HN title does not.


Anyone can create a fake 'seized' page.


Sure, at this point. Yishan resigned from Reddit in 2014.


Seems like he had it under control, and was recording it in order to publicize the problem and possibly get it fixed.


Yeah, maybe, that’s why I said I wasn’t sure if he was an idiot. He sounded a little surprised to me. But I still wouldn’t have personally done it.


If it was one of your kids getting off that school bus does that change your perception of the situation?


It wouldn't change my perception of the situation - clearly the driver was in control the whole time and being highly observant of surroundings.


Does involving your kids turn you into an irrational reactionary?


I don't have any children, so no.


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