MurphyA/hacker-news huggingface dataset:
by danielparsons | 2026-02-28 20:55:51+00:00
*entire curve to-date (I should have clarified). Yes it will get better for a long time, but where we are on the curve is harder to say. Lots of metrics to choose from, like "well it's incorrect 90% less often than a year ago, so that's a 10x improvement!". But the real metric that matters is how useful it is to people, and based on user data it looks like the only area it's getting exponentially more useful YoY is for programming. Lot of coders using it 10x more than before to code 10x faster. Not sure any other profession uses it for more than a juiced-up search engine / proofreader.
by YZF | 2026-02-28 20:56:59+00:00
Netanyahu is not religious. He is, as the parent says, secular. If my cat quacked he's still not a duck.

There is "religion" in the broader sense which can be any set of beliefs but Netanyahu is as secular and logical as can be. He may be overly logical in the sense of advancing his personal agenda (avoiding standing trial) over the interests of his country but he's still very different than the religious crazies in Tehran where logic plays no role and g-d is everything.
by Arainach | 2026-02-28 20:57:40+00:00
>At least then it would somewhat represent the collective will and intelligence of the people.

You seem to think the "training data" represents the collective will and intelligence and is otherwise unbiased, but that's completely untrue.

The combined data of the Internet is by no means a uniform representation of humanity's thoughts, opinions, and knowledge. Many things are dramatically overrepresented. Many things are absent entirely. Nearly everything is shaped by those with the money and power to own and control platforms and hosts.

Crawling the internet for knowledge is intense sampling bias.
by datsci_est_2015 | 2026-02-28 20:58:11+00:00
> That alone hints that it is very hard to bring a dictatorship down with just aerial attacks.

This has been painfully obvious since aerial bombing became possible, but we’ve had so many generals and executives obsessed with the concept that it continues to be a core doctrine, like Kissinger and Curtis LeMay, neither of for whom I have anything but deep contempt.
by samf | 2026-02-28 20:58:16+00:00
Right, and a nice thing about software is that retirement doesn’t mean you have to stop doing what you used to do.

I’m retired (I know, I’m very lucky), and I’ve done as much or more coding since retirement than I did in my job. But to be fair, AI has really changed how I’m going about things, and I’m not sure what the future is going to bring. I really worry about my adult children and their careers.
Show HN: MCPX – Turn any MCP server into a composable CLI for agents
by ldkge | 2026-02-28 20:58:27+00:00
I built MCPX: https://github.com/lydakis/mcpx

Core idea:
MCPX turns MCP servers into Unix-composable commands for agent workflows. It is primarily for agents that are shell-first, and secondarily useful for humans running tools directly.

For me, a practical use case is OpenClaw:
OpenClaw can call `mcpx` like any normal CLI and use MCP servers immediately, without implementing custom MCP transport/auth plumbing in OpenClaw itself. This also fits well with Codex Apps mode, where connected apps can be exposed as MCP servers through the same command contract.

Command contract:
- mcpx
- mcpx <server>
- mcpx <server> <tool>

Design choices:
- schema-aware `--help` (inputs + declared outputs)
- native flag surface from MCP `inputSchema`
- pass-through tool output for normal shell composition (`jq`, `head`, pipes)
- explicit exit mapping (`0/1/2/3`)
- stdio + HTTP server support
- optional caching
- `mcpx add` for bootstrapping server config from install links/manifests/endpoints

Examples:
- mcpx github search-repositories --help
- mcpx github search-repositories --query=mcp
- echo '{"query":"mcp"}' | mcpx github search-repositories

Install:
- brew tap lydakis/mcpx && brew install --cask mcpx
- npm i -g mcpx-go
- pip install mcpx-go

I would love feedback on command UX, schema/flag edge cases, and where this should stop vs expand.
by dahauns | 2026-02-28 20:59:04+00:00
> I pushed through to the bitter end of Ghosts n' Goblins. And damned if I wasn't rewarded with the message, "This was all an illusion created by Satan."

Weeell...here's the thing. Erm. You didn't push through to the end. You just got the "bad" ending.

The game does very much have a proper ending, and reaching it is surprisingly straightforward.

You just have to beat it twice.
by thundergolfer | 2026-02-28 21:01:29+00:00
Few things push AI bull spirits on me like seeing these kind of (pretty much correct) diagnoses of the challenges of AI in society.

The proposed solutions are utterly fanciful. They rely on the presence of social and political competencies which have almost completely disappeared.

The OP at least points to the plausible outcome of "protocol lockdown" instead of healthy adaption. Ezra Klein recently made a similar point that AI could end up being over-regulated like Nuclear because irresponsible private industry and weaknesses in our political systems cause a chronic allergic reaction in the demos.

This is an aside, but it always irks me when people throw out the "critical thinking" thought-terminating cliché.

> Critical thinking taught alongside AI literacy.

Critical thinking is not a skill unto itself. You cannot think critically about things you do not understand. All critical thinking is knowledge-based. Where one does not have knowledge, they must rely on trust, or in substitution a theory of incentives which leads to a positive outcome without understanding of details and dynamics. But that substitution theory is itself knowledge.

As to "AI literacy", we could have started on computing literacy 30 years ago when it became obvious that computing was going to dominate society. You can't understand AI without understanding computing.
by skydhash | 2026-02-28 21:01:58+00:00
> a lot of code is ugly and utilitarian too,

And as everyone who can abstract well knows: Ugly code that have staying power have a reason to be ugly. And the best will be annotated with HACK and NOTE comments. Anything else can be refactored and abstracted to a much better form. But that requires a sense of craftsmanship (to know better) and a time allowance for such activity.
by reify | 2026-02-28 21:02:13+00:00
Total bollocks in my area.

I am still on copper cabling, its shite, as you can well imagine.

1.2 MiBS download and 100 kibs upload, my granny can run faster and she is dead

received a letter in July last year claiming that fibre was being installed in my area. So I contacted them for an install.

For the first 6 months, weekly updates which were mainly apologies for wasting my time and effort.

They said it was an issue with my landlord. I contacted my landlord, they are keen to get Fibre installed.

then it was the usual excuse; MDU - Multi Dwelling Unit. We dont do MTU's

One small block of 6 flats in a road where every house in teh road has full fibre but they cant be bothered to supply 6 flats

I got a new router delivered as a christmas present, fuck knows what I am supposed to do with that. maybe I can stick it up the engineers arse when he arrives in 2030.

Absolutely no contact since december 2025.

wankers
by cedws | 2026-02-28 21:02:41+00:00
It may very well have stunted my learning. What’s the point of absorbing information when you have a consortium of experts available 24/7?

Saying what you said about it being down to being how you use LLM comes from a privileged position. You likely already know how to code. You likely know how to troubleshoot. Would you develop those same skillsets today starting from zero?
by tombert | 2026-02-28 21:03:32+00:00
That's something that has bothered me about this entire administration, particularly the bizarre and disturbing involvement of the Diablo-cheating billionaire.

Everyone knew that a lot of politicians have been for sale, but I didn't realize how cheaply they were for sale. Musk able to buy his way into being in charge of an idiotic department with basically no regulation while still being allowed to CEO like five companies, and he did it for like $100 million. That's a lot of money, more than I'll ever be worth, but it's way less than I would think it would cost to buy the presidency, in charge of billions (and maybe trillions?) of dollars of sales and contracting.
by YZF | 2026-02-28 21:03:39+00:00
> If you're a religious Jew, then you believe you have a mandate from God (so an irrefutable right, or even obligation, needing no justification) to settle and rule not only the West Bank but the entire region. So there will always be that motivation, as long as religious Judaism exists in Israel.

I would say this is generally false.

There are many religious Jews who believe there should be no state of Israel until the Messiah comes. Judaism is very open to interpretations and certainly within the question of modern state politics doesn't have as much to say as you seem to think it does.

There are many different Rabbis in Israel with different political opinions and generally their followers will tend to hold similar beliefs. There are right wing Rabbis and left wing Rabbis, it's not uniform at all. During the Oslo peace process there were many religious people supporting and many opposing, pretty much the same as secular.

What is true is that some Israelis view their right to the land in the context of the biblical promise God made our people. That is not the same thing. Funny enough I'd say more Christians believe the literal promise and it's implication on current day politics than Jews. It's also true that religious people these days tend to be more right leaning politically. But the religion isn't mandating those world views it just that they can align.
by cornholio | 2026-02-28 21:03:49+00:00
It's hard to believe such an in depth overview of the anthropology of marriage skips the massive elephant in the room: that polygynous societies were widely found to be in a perpetual state of civil war and are unable to develop stable modern institutions. When a substantial part of your young men have no chance of ever buying themselves a wife, the only way they can be recognized and respected as adult men is to join a militia that promises one, or at least gives them guns so they can take the cows they need by force.

The corollary for western monogamous society should be clear: traditional marriage is not strictly repressive, it's also a form of egalitarianism and redistribution of social capital.

If we dismantle marriage and let raw pastoralist dynamics run rampant, we might very well see the same hypergamous tendencies and that many of those excluded from the love market take up "other", less peaceful pastimes.
by Nevermark | 2026-02-28 21:03:50+00:00
Simply spending money to get someone you like elected isn’t bribery.

To the degree great inequality leads to this being decisive in elections, it is a corrupting influence, but the term for it is still not “bribery”.

But when a presidential candidate tells oil companies they should donate because he is going to help them, that’s solid bribery.

When companies pay to “settle” ridiculous accusations, or “donate” to a president’s causes, while their mergers or other business legal issues depend on an openly pay-for-play president’s goodwill, that’s solid bribery.

The country’s policies, discipline, reputation and competence (economic, diplomatic and political) are being sold off for a tiny fraction of what their future adjusted value is worth.
by ldkge | 2026-02-28 21:04:29+00:00
Happy to answer anything technical here.

1. How is your agent using MCP today?

2. Where did MCPX make your agent workflow easier?

3. Where did MCPX get in the way in real agent loops?

4. What MCP workflow do you want to do that MCPX still doesn’t support?

5. What output/error behavior made automation brittle?

Concrete examples or snippets are especially helpful.
by 0xbadcafebee | 2026-02-28 21:04:43+00:00
As an older person, I'm not worried. The world changes all the time. People are put people in difficult situations, and they have to adapt. "Oh no, how will people learn things?" is not that big of a struggle in the grand scheme. We're not burning books or giving people lobotomies. People can still learn if they want to, easier than ever before. Businesses will adapt, people will adapt, by necessity. Things will be very different, sure. But then we get used to the difference, and it becomes normal.

Kids today couldn't imagine how people used to live just 100 years ago, like it was the dark ages. People from that age would probably look at kids 10 years ago and think, these poor children! They don't know how to work hard! They don't know anything about life! They're glued to these bizarre light machines! Every age is different.
by b112 | 2026-02-28 21:04:51+00:00
Your first sentence is bizarre, considering this post is longer than you last. And really, more engagement is a bad thing? Come now.

I feel you're still not getting it though. Because it's not about which side is worse, or who started it, or who's right about something, or who voted for who. It's about how this is discussed, how this is handled.

That's the biggest problem there is.

And yes, I said "barely", and it's quite true. A Democrat could easily be elected just as unhinged. An independent. Yet this sort of highlights my point.

If you stand Trump up against any other US president, just as with an ape or a human, he's literally identical on 98% of things. And really, it's more like 99.9% from an external viewpoint. Yet just as with an ape, that small amount can result in startling differences.

But your parties? The differences are barely noticeable.
by hu3 | 2026-02-28 21:04:53+00:00
I think Rust has a big flaw to overcome in the age of LLMs: slow compilation.

If they can't fix this, a language with similar guarantees, even syntax, but fast compilation is bound to succeed in niches where Rust is desireable.

Iteration speed is a big bottleneck in agentic workflows. Well, any workflow.
by rootusrootus | 2026-02-28 21:04:59+00:00
I don't normally think people would accuse me of being an optimist, but I feel like Trump's influence has lower limits than many people think, and the opposition seems pretty strong. If there are any serious attempts at shenanigans during the midterm elections I think you are right that there would be widespread civil unrest. There are plenty of people willing to fight, especially when the stakes are as high as an actual election.

I think it is actually plausible that in the end, nothing too interesting happens and the elections go off as normal. Trump is a lame duck already, will not be on any future ballots, and I'm certain that GOP politicians know how badly they do on ballots that do not include his name. By the time November rolls around they will be in full CYA mode trying to ensure their own reelection and strategizing on how to mitigate the expected damage in 2028. At the rate Trump is going, we could see a super majority Dem Congress in 2028 and that would be a catastrophe for the GOP. I think they're going to start reining him in. His primary threats for 2028 will not be that convincing.
by svilen_dobrev | 2026-02-28 21:05:09+00:00
some hand-wavy thoughts..

> it has them (preconceptions), it's just that you don't know what they are.

further in this direction... the "thing" might evolve into some cyclic (or not) system. a bit like that LIFE game, emerging a tv-tennis-like ping-ponging, or whatever. How would you know there is such thing? just stats/counts do not tell. (Which pulls another freaky question - how would u notice a different intelligence/world-order/culture/resemblance-of?)

maybe feature: some stop-gap animation over world-map in time? Then, some pattern analysis over that.. History of the world, part one..

btw check these "interactive simulations", maybe some ideas about "loading" the agents with preconceptions :)

https://ncase.me/
by sheepscreek | 2026-02-28 21:06:20+00:00
> Rust happens to be an extremely good tool. There

Sir (or ma’am), you stole literally the line I came to write in the comments!

To anyone new picking up Rust, beware of shortcuts (unwrap() and expect() when used unwisely). They are fine for prototyping but will leave your app brittle, as it will panic whenever things do not go the expected way. So learn early on to handle all pathways in a way that works well for your users.

Also, if you’re looking for a simpler experience (like Rust but less verbose), Swift is phenomenal. It does not have a GC, uses ARC automatically. I spent months building a layer on top of Rust that removed ownership and borrow considerations, only to realize Swift does it already and really well! Swift also has a stable ABI making it great for writing apps with compiled dynamic components such as plugins and extensions. It’s cross platform story is much better today and you can expect similar performance on all OS.

For me personally, this relegates rust for me to single threaded tasks - as I would happily take the 20% performance hit with Swift for the flexibility I get when multithreading. My threads can share mutable references, without fighting with the borrow checker - because it’s just a bad use case for Rust (one it was not designed for). A part of my work is performance critical to that often becomes a bottleneck for me. But shouldn’t be a problem for anyone else using RwLock<Arc<…>>. Anyway - they’re both great languages and for a cli tool or utility, you can’t go wrong with either.
by bthornbury | 2026-02-28 21:07:47+00:00
The classic papers describing diffusion are full of dense mathematical terms and equations.

For many (including myself) who haven’t stretched those particular math muscles since diff eq class a decade or so ago, the paper is just an opaque wall of literal Greek.

In this post I describe my personal understanding of diffusion models in less-dense terms, focusing on intuitive understanding and personal mental models I use to understand diffusion.
by dzonga | 2026-02-28 21:08:18+00:00
great article.

one thing it mentions is how in Europe etc - places with limited land quickly pivoted to monogamy was due to limited resources. in places with limited resources, raising kids under monogamy has shown to produce the best results i.e kids tend to have better future success.

however, even though legal systems in the west restrict polygyny - due to inequality - its coming back - we already see that with onlyfans etc / high levels of prostitution in younger western females - the richer guys can maintain a harem - while the plebs become sexless incels.
by porcoda | 2026-02-28 21:08:52+00:00
I noticed the same thing, having also written an interpreter for the Wolfram language that focused on the core rule/rewriting/pattern language. At its heart it’s more or less a Lisp-like language where the core can be quite small and a lot of the functionality built via pattern matching and rewriting atop that. Aside from the sheer scale of WL, I ended up setting aside my experiments replicating it when I did performance comparisons and realized how challenging it would be to not just match WL in functionality but performance.

Woxi reminds me of some experiments I did to see how far vibe coding could get me on similar math and symbolic reasoning tools. It seems like unless you explicitly and very actively force a design with a small core, the models tend towards building out a lot of complex, hard-coded logic that ultimately is hard to tune, maintain, or reason about in terms of correctness.

Interesting exercise with woxi in terms of what vibe coding can produce. Not sure about the WL implementation though.

(For context, I write compiler/interpreter tools for a living - have been for a couple decades)
by tombert | 2026-02-28 21:09:04+00:00
I've said it a million times, but I'll repeat it.

There are a lot of conspiracy nuts like Alex Jones, and the amusing thing to me is that there is a conspiracy of elites who are exerting large amounts of unelected control of the government, and who are actively working to keep you down to enrich themselves, and it's not even a secret.

We call these people "billionaires", and at this point they don't even bother hiding it. Trump had a streamlined bribery system with his stupid cryptocurrency and being in charge of a publicly traded company while in office, Musk bought his way in so he could be in charge of a new department and start defunding any organization that has ever tried to investigate him, and there are hundreds of examples.

Instead morons like Alex Jones will go on the radio and blame lizards or something, and then his listeners will take that and then start blaming Jews or Mexicans, while cheering on the actual conspiracy that's making their lives terrible.
by kelseyfrog | 2026-02-28 21:09:11+00:00
I took it as more of correctly making the prediction and not being taken seriously either when it was made nor when it was fulfilled.

We've seen responses ranging from "You're overreacting. That won't happen," to "It's not going to get worse." Somehow it does and yet they continue the same lines.

There's obviously something else going on, perspective-wise or psychologically. I've always wanted to follow with them and understand what exactly the dynamic is.
by piker | 2026-02-28 21:09:37+00:00
> The Department of War may use the AI System for all lawful purposes, consistent with applicable law, operational requirements, and well-established safety and oversight protocols. The AI System will not be used to independently direct autonomous weapons in any case where law, regulation, or Department policy requires human control, nor will it be used to assume other high-stakes decisions that require approval by a human decisionmaker under the same authorities. Per DoD Directive 3000.09 (dtd 25 January 2023), any use of AI in autonomous and semi-autonomous systems must undergo rigorous verification, validation, and testing to ensure they perform as intended in realistic environments before deployment.

The emphasized language is the delta between what OpenAI agreed and what Anthropic wanted.

OpenAI acceded to demands that the US Government can do whatever it wants that is legal. Anthropic wanted to impose its own morals into the use of its products.

I personally can agree with both, and I do believe that the Administration's behavior towards Anthropic was abhorrant, bad-faith and ultimately damaging to US interests.