It'd be (insert noun) and the first one is far and away the best but on the big picture you are absolutely correct that it is fantastic. Children of Time (first one) is maybe my favorite book ever.
Yes Children of Time is very good. Tchaikovsky is excellent at portraying alien/non-human minds. You can tell he studied zoology and psychology at university.
Children of Time so very good, it is in the top 5 of my favorite books of all time. I enjoyed the second one as well, and found the third one to be a bit inconsequential and I didn't re-read it when I re-read part 1 and 2.
> He’s not wrong, but it does make me wonder: even if the code was not the point, what do you do if it was the thing that brought you joy?
You still write the code! We do lots of things that could be done more efficiently. People build their own furniture and make their own clothes and brew their own beer. If you love doing something for its own sake, keep doing it.
This is 100% an AI generated post. Incredibly disappointing to see this stuff making its way to HN. If you want to promote your school, at least write a post yourself.
> I'm not sure the approach of "completely autonomous coding" is the right way to go.
I suspect the author of the post would agree. This feels much more like a experiment to push the limits of LLMs than anything they're looking to seriously use as a product (or even the basis of a product).
I think the more interesting question is when the approach of completely autonomous coding will be the right way to go. LLMs are definitely progressing along a spectrum of: Can't do it -> Can do it with help -> Can do it alone but code isn't great -> Can do it alone with good code. Right now I'd say they're only in that final step for very small projects (e.g. simple Python scripts), but it seems like an inevitability that they will get there for increasingly large ones.
I'll start by saying that in my past life I was a PM, and from that angle I can very much see how people writing code for large-scale, production systems take real issue with the quality of what LLMs produce.
But these days I run a one-man business, and LLMs (currently Claude Code, previously GPT) have written me a ton of great code. To be clear, when I say "great" I don't mean up to your standards of code quality; rather, I mean that it does what I need it to do and saves me a bunch of time.
I've got a great internal dashboard that pulls in data from a few places, and right now CC is adding some functionality to a script that does my end of month financial spreadsheet update. I have a script that filters inbound leads (I buy e-commerce brands, generally from marketplaces that send me an inordinate amount of emails that I previously had to wade through myself in order to find the rare gem). On the non-code front, I have a very long prompt that basically does the first pass of analysis of prospective acquisitions, and I use Shortcut.ai to clean up some of the P&Ls I get (I buy small e-commerce brands, so the finances are frequently bad).
So while I can't speak to using LLMs to write code if you're working in any sort of real SaaS business, I can definitely say that there's real, valid code to be had from these things for other uses.
One of my friends did a job for a government. He generated the code for it with some LLM. It provided a result which was about what he thought should be. He - or anybody - never checked the code whether it really calculated what it should have. “It did what [he] needed it to do”. Now the said government started to make decisions based on a result which proved by nobody. In other words, lottery.
What you mentioned doesn’t mean anything until there is no hard proof that it really works. I understand that it seems to you that it works, but I’ve seen enough to know that that means absolutely nothing.
Thanks, I can relate to the parent poster, and this is a really profound comment for me. I appreciate the way you framed this. I’ve felt compelled to fact check my own LLM outputs but I can’t possibly keep up with the quantity. And it’s tempting (but seems irrational) to hand the results to a different LLM. My struggle is remembering there needs to be input/query/calculation/logic validation (without getting distracted by all the other shiny new tokens in the result)
> Once issued, the e-ID will be stored in a secure digital wallet application on the user’s smartphone or other compatible device.
That sounds like Apple & Google-blessed Android only, open source gadgets and non-Microsoft desktops not supported. Estonia at least used smart cards where a reader can be plugged into just about anything.
The problem with e-ID is its focused on identity verification, not just age verification and that's where the problem lies.
We still need the ability to be psuedoanonymous online. We should be able to verify age without divulging any identifying information to the service requesting age verification.
An e-ID registry could work on a sort of public/private key system so long as the services requesting informatino from the registry only receives a yes or no of "is this person old enough" and no further information.
If an e-ID can vouch you are citizen number #3223423, it should be able to use the same crypto to vouch that your birth date predates a threshold, without revealing anything else. It's more a question of requirements gathering & UX (and political will).
I'm obviously not going to show my id to Zuckerberg's website or any porn sites, casinos because I don't trust those bastards. They're also not the police, so they lack the proper autoritah to request my an id.
I think the point of the comment you are answering to is that in Switzerland, they are building a system where you can prove your age without telling who you are to the website, and without telling which website you visit to your government.
The government might not know which website exactly, but the fact that you are looking to verify your age is in itself a datum that you might not want the government to know. "Palata was either looking at porn or buying drugs in January 2026" is probably not something you want the government to know, even if the specifics are obscure.
It doesn't have to be exclusively digital. You can be psuedoanonymous using some form of key as verification. To get a key, you have to present your ID in person at, for example, the social security office or local DOL.
All the key does is attest that "this person is over X years old" with no other identifying information associated with it.
I think blending in person & digital together is going to be the best way forward. Like going to the store and buying alcohol. I have little privacy risk from the cashier glancing at my ID for a second to check my birth date.
> I have little privacy risk from the cashier glancing at my ID for a second to check my birth date.
Imagine your abusive ex is looking for you. She could go to a few alcohol vendors in the area and tell them "Respectful cashier, I suspect that my husband is reverting back to being an alcoholic. If you see the birthdate 1971-06-21 then please phone me after he leaves".
To which the vender replies "Why on earth would I check if someone over the age of 50 might be under the age of 18 (or 21 in some parts of the world)".
Well, I did have many more recent exes in my early twenties than I do in my fifties.
But also the mechanics of the check might be important. For instance, I always go to take the baby out of the back seat when I park, even though I have not driven a baby in years. Because I do not want to ever risk leaving a baby unattended in a car. The store policy might be to check every ID, even in seemingly obvious cases.
But that would require the government to set up the system that lets you present your ID and get a key. They haven't done that, so it's not valid to blame businesses for not using it.
> with no other identifying information associated with it
Not possible, the key itself becomes identifying information similar to how an IP address + timestamp is identifying information even though their is no information abut you stored in the IP address or timestamp.
A digital ID, like someone said below. But people (in the UK at least) go mental about that, despite the government already having all the information anyway. Creating a easy way to securely share that information with a 3rd party for online verification is apparently the work of the devil.
In the real world you turn up in person with a passport, or maybe use snail mail as a way to verify an address which is hard to fake.
Online we have to pretend it is still the internet of the 90s where it's all just chill people having a fun time using their handle...
I mean I dislike JD Vance as much as the next guy, but I don't see how it's unreasonable to appeal to the federal government for assistance in dealing with international legal issues. That's very much in the government's remit.
You do when the fine is more than double your annual revenue in the foreign nation, has international and geopolitical implications, impacts many other US businesses, could harm foreign relations, and will harm regular US citizens.
That's exactly the type of thing the Executive Branch is supposed to deal with.
Executive branch is supposed to deal with other countries' laws and courts? Does it also hold for European executive branches and American laws? I don't want to even imagine a world that works like this.
> Does it also hold for European executive branches and American laws?
Yes, if a US law is overreaching and directly impacting people in the EU. That is literally how the world works in practice so I'm not sure what to tell you.
CLOUD act is overreaching and impacting people in the EU. What EU governments are doing is avoiding US-based cloud services for critical applications, because it's an US law, not a European one
Thank they should act like it and respect the laws of the countries.
If you run to the US executive to assert US understanding of law onto other countries you are geopolitical important, however, as a tool for the US national interest not as a true international company. A true international company would serve their customers in their legal systems. Fight the laws there, try to make them better, but don't strongarm them with other country forces. They are a sovereign country.
When a country is trying to impose extra-territorial laws, then it goes beyond enforcing their sovereignty, and it is completely reasonable for the affected to request diplomatic intervention.
Whataboutism. What do you expect Cloudflare to do about the US imposing extraterritorial laws? How is that in any way relevant to their dilemma at hand?
"Whataboutism" is being overused to the point of meaninglessness. It describes deflecting criticism by raising an unrelated issue. I did not do that. I did not avoid a question or dodge the criticism. I just pointed out an irony.
It would be nice if we had an international agreement on how to apply sovereignity on the internet without infinging on sovereignity of other countries. US would be in a great position to initiate this if the current administration had any understanding of what "international agreement", "sovereignity" or "other countries" means.
Well the law is surely addressing European/Italian citizens and business. If you serve them from the US and target Italians for financial gain, you are no longer extraterritorial because you operate there as a business.
Italy has authority over what Italian companies or subsidiaries are allowed to do, and they have authority over any operations that foreign companies have within Italy and any dealings that foreign companies have with Italians or others in Italy. They do not have authority over foreign companies operating in foreign countries serving foreign customers, just because that company also does business in Italy. That is extraterritorial, and is what this law is requiring by demanding that Cloudflare remove DNS entries worldwide.
They have all right to sanction or restrict a company which has a legal footprint in their territory.
When you are incorporating as a company in a country you are subject to their laws. Period. If that includes rules how you act worldwide, than that is a part of it.
Do not get me wrong, restricting free speech or apply IP law outside your territory is IMHO not right for a country to do.
This is objectively false. You're telling me ASML isn't geopolitically important? That TSMC isn't geopolitically important? We are likely to enter a war for the latter within the next decade.
Why would Italy pick Cloudflare over Bunny.net or even CDNetworks if Cloudflare can't follow their laws? Today US tech products sell well in Europe because of the past 80 years of positive relationships. So Cloudflare is the obvious choice over CDNetworks, but for how long will it be like that?
When the risks are too high, then exit the market. When you do business in a market, adhere to the laws there.
It is however the business of governments to foster harmonized (globalized) markets. But the US has killed so many regulations and collaborations in the last year, that there is little hope that this will improve any time soon. They do not want globalization anymore but American first. Reactions of other countries will be higher fines, more regulation and higher entry barriers.
> When the risks are too high, then exit the market. When you do business in a market, adhere to the laws there.
And when you want help to improve your terms of trade, you can petition your government to assist.
> It is however the business of governments to foster harmonized (globalized) markets.
It is the business of governments to further the interests and wishes of their people.
> But the US has killed so many regulations and collaborations in the last year, that there is little hope that this will improve any time soon.
Is Italy's actions here fostering "harmonized (globalized) markets", I wonder?
> They do not want globalization anymore but American first.
If globalization is what Americans want, then that is what their government should be accommodating. If it's not, then the government should not.
Even if "the experts" think something is right or wrong, even if some economic factor or other might objectively improve with a particular policy, it should be up to the people to decide. Self-determination is one of the most fundamental human rights there is, too often ignored by the ruling class.
Well first off, generally if you are arrested in another country you would in fact call your government. Most people do this, and it'd be foolish not to. If you get sued for a large amount of money or defrauded or face any number of other issues, also reasonable to call your government.
Anyway, not a great comparison because you're talking about legal regulations governing speech on the internet. This isn't a jaywalking ticket, it's a deeply complex regulatory issue involving politics, law and international relations. It's also an issue that the current administration has shown interest in, so if you're an affected American business it would be pretty foolish not to seek help there.
> If they so choose to dissolve their teeth and decimate their guy bacteria, who am I to intervene?
In this case, I'm the American taxpayer who is paying for all of this food, and, perhaps more importantly, paying for all of the medical treatment they receive because of the consequences of these choices.
When your consumption is being paid for by other people, it's perfectly reasonable for those people to put limits on your choices, especially when they're footing the bill for the consequences of any bad choices you make too. We're a wealthy country and shouldn't let people starve, but you don't need ice cream or Coke or Pringles not to starve.
Sure it's not a cure-all, but for the overwhelming majority of people who are obese, being thin and not lifting weights would be an improvement health-wise.
If the alternative to using Ozempic is eating a healthy diet and exercising regularly, then sure, the latter is better, but the target population for it is people who have spent many years not eating healthy or exercising and who are unlikely to start in the near future.
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