I disagree with that analogy, because LLMs have a lot of connections between text fragments, which an encyclopedia doesn't have to such a deep degree. An encyclopedia also can't interpret and output relevant knowledge from an input prompt.
It helps a lot to set expectations though, especially when thinking of an encyclopedia not as a row of dusty old books but as an 'archive of human knowledge'.
A slightly more precise analogy is probably 'a lossily compressed snapshot of the web'. Or maybe the Librarian from Snow Crash - but at least that one knew when it didn't know ;)
That is not exactly true. If you factor in state, county and property taxes, the taxes in the US are similar or sometimes even higher than other western European countries (It depends on the income and living situation, you could maybe approximate the average by looking at the state budget per capita (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_governm...), but calculating it is far more complicated).
If you factor in insurance, Americans pay more as their percentage of income. In the US there is more private and public bureaucracy in the healthcare system, higher wages for doctors (because they often have to repay their student debt and prices are on average higher in the US) and overall higher prices for equipment and drugs (often due to (often lobbied) laws that favor some US businesses). In Europe health care is treated more as a public service (although there is also for profit health care there). The high profits for US companies in the medical sector have to come from somewhere and they often come from the pacients and the taxpayer, because the US also subsidizes their health care system by taxes. In fact the US government spends more per capita than other governments in the world on health care.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_total_h...
Besides that the taxes in the US are more inefficiently spend than in many western European countries. I could write a long essay about that, but this is just a comment to a hn comment and I already spent to much time on writing it.
The most stupid question is when they ask you if you are a terrorist or plan a terrorist attack in America. Even if someone would be a terrorist, why would someone give an honest answer to this question.
Oh, this question is decades old and I believe 15 years ago it was still solved by an *asterisk:
"Answering yes in this question does not disqualify you from receiving a visa".
People entering US from other countries are treated like shit regardless if they have visas or their countries apply for visa-less process. Both of those suck, you are treated like a criminal from the very first meeting in consulate, they take your fingerprints and you still have a decent chance of being put back after arrival. Business visas are more pleasant but it was for so long just "pay for more predictable process" and still has a lot of flaws.
Iceland, and specifically some of our financial institutions, was placed on a terrorist list by the British PM Gordon Brown during the financial crisis in 2008. His thinking was to be able to freeze the funds these institutions held in Britain.
I know of many people who worked on the floor in those institutions during that time that have joked about what would happen if they would technically tell the truth on those ESTA questionnaires.
How can they not have proof you are lying about being a terrorist if they don't have proof you are a terrorist, thus lying? Are you sure it's not ridiculous?
A grandparent once accidentally checked yes for their baby and was irrevocably fucked. No way to correct the record ever, that kid is permanently listed as a terrorist.
In the article you referenced they state that the baby was cleared after a trip to the embassy. The costs were because they needed to reschedule flights. But the baby was cleared to enter.
I meant there's no way to clear the ESTA ineligible flag ticking that box set, which means this baby will need to have an in person interview every time they want to enter the US for the rest of their life.
