If you aren't aware: a Virtual Private Network creates a fully encrypted link between you and a remote node. So long as your encryption keys are secure, there's no way for anyone (even a global superpower) to listen to or intrude on that connection. There is no possible way to break into this connection, even with the entire planet's computing resources.
From the outside, all you can see is a stream of encrypted data between two nodes. You cannot tell where the traffic goes once it exits the VPN server or what it contains.
The only way to compromise a VPN connection is the most straightforward and pedestrian: compromise the VPN host and directly spy on their clients with their own hardware.
The GFW certainly can and has detected such encrypted streams and blocked them for being un-inspectable. With a VPN you can perfectly hide what you're doing and you can perfectly prevent intrusion. You cannot prevent someone noticing you're using a VPN. China can simply blanket ban connections that look like VPN traffic. But they cannot tell what you're doing with that VPN.
Thanks for the reply. In order to connect to the VPN, your first call must be over https, from China, to the VPN. How does that circumvent the phenomenon in the article, where a nation state was injecting TCP to cause your connection to hang up, thus no VPN connection?
You do not establish a VPN connection in the clear. You must give your client the encryption key before connecting. All transactions are fully encrypted from the beginning.
Besides that, when negotiating a secure connection through unencrypted channels you typically use Diffe-Hillman to establish the encryption keys. As far as I'm aware, this method cannot be broken. Both nodes compute their own private encryption key and do math to create unencrypted data that must be verified by the other node's key. Even if you had full control of the data stream, you can't determine those private keys and cannot break into the encrypted connection that follows.
Also VPNs are typically UDP, but there's no hard requirement as far as I know.
Awesome thanks for all of that. Then it sounds like the only way a nation state could block VPNs is if they decided to "go nuclear" and do what the person above said-- block anyone who they detect is using a VPN/encrypted channel.
Based on that information, the theory for why a nation state would block https like this for a moment is either an accident, or to only block the low hanging fruit of people who don't use a VPN.
LLMs are bad for bad programmers. LLMs will make a bad programmer worse and make a layperson think they're a prodigy.
Meanwhile, the truly skilled programmers are using LLMs to great success. You can get a huge amount of value and productivity from an LLM if and only if you have the skill to do it yourself in the first place.
LLMs are not a tool that magically makes anyone a good programmer. Expecting that to be the case is exactly why they don't work for you. You must already be a good programmer to use these tools effectively.
I have no idea what this will do to the rising generation of programmers and engineers. Frankly I'm terrified for them.
I agree so much. I get why: "Designers" consider plastic to be low-class, metal is radio-opaque, so that leaves glass as the only option even though it has zero functional advantages over plastic (glass is heavier and more fragile).
Imagine if it was a panel of plastic, and that you could easily replace it if it got too scuffed up.
Maybe Apple and Amazon are the only cool heads in this absolute shitstorm.
The real, intrinsic value of AI is essentially zero compared to the hype and tech-biz cargo culting. If I were John Apple, I would simply sit back and wait while all your competition dump all their money into the AI bonfire. Once the dust settles all the hyped-up ai startups are dead, you can come in and pick up whatever worked best and have a stellar AI product with no real cost. Assuming such a product can exist, it still isn't clear.
I don't think companies not literally setting billions of dollars on fire is a bad thing.
It was because they backstabbed us. We showed them how factories work and helped them set up manufacturing back in the day so we could be cooperation partners.
Instead we were backstabbed by the CCP through IP theft and other corporate espionage. Yes America wanted a cheaper manufacturing partner and China at the time when “real communism” was fading seemed like a good partner to onboard for the new century ahead.
I don’t think Americans are insane. It’s that Americans have to live in a world dominated by warlords, weirdos (Kim Jon Un and others like him), shithead dictators and religious zealots.
We aspire to achieve greatness and manifest destiny. Meanwhile we are blocked by literally everyone else who can’t get their shit together.
So yes, it’s necessary for our end goals. I don’t think it’s as bad as what others were already doing to each other before our intervention (hey nothing is perfect and punching up is easy af). It’s not like others don’t benefit. I’m sure for the majority where it worked out they like the GDP boost and using American tech and services. Or they can also copy what we tried and worked and try implementing it there.
While we are building cool stuff, we have to live in a mostly evil world with awful dictators and zealots of all sorts (commies, sky daddy, etc).
It took Europe 50 years to chill tf out and we had to bail them out each time they kicked off a world war. Most of the world is still not a desirable place to live (it’s why my parents moved from a hellhole to here for a better life).
If some people think we are crazy then I suggest they don’t come here for education (even if they plan to go back) or work. Save the room for someone else who actually wants to join the American journey.
> we showed..
> we aspire...
> we were backstabbed...
> we are blocked...
> we are building...
> we have to...
> we had to...
> we are crazy...
It's not 'we,' it's just your opinion, comrade. If the USA were actually run by people with views the same as yours, it'd be no different from Russia or China. But thankfully, there are still many who get that life is about collaboration and compromise, who don't live in fear nor have the dream of domination.
I’m just stating my honest beliefs. Geopolitics or business is won through communication but it’s not “bruh we are all one dawg” because been there done that, most of the world would rather kill each other over dumb shit.
Since we believe in higher ideals, we have to do what’s necessary. Do you think the deals made are 1:1? Or does power imbalance play a huge role in getting a 3:1?
Bond wires really are a thing of the past now except in niche applications or legacy chips. Flip chip designs have the die directly interface with a substrate that is then soldered to the board. With the kinds of speedy signals modern chips use, bond wires introduce impedance mismatch that degrades quality. This is related to why you don't see many new designs using pins.
We know how to build green energy at scale. Were not doing it because its politically undesirable to a chunk of the country and the fossil fuel industry.
I don't think nationalism should be re-enforced even for 'ends I like'. I think it's better to convince people to do something on the merits. So I asked if there was a reason to push 'but China' and if you look below, someone gave me that. Which is what makes HN powerful and worth visiting. Attacks, not so much.
IF (and ONLY if) you are fully cognizant and aware of what you're doing and what you're talking to, an LLM can be a great help. I've been using a local model to help me work through some trauma that I've never felt comfortable telling a human therapist about.
But for the majortiy of people who haven't seriously studied psychology, I can very easily see this becoming extremely dangerous and harmful.
Really, that's LLMs in general. If you already know what you're doing and have enough experience to tell good output from bad, an LLM can be stupendously powerful and useful. But if you don't, you get output anywhere from useless to outright dangerous.
I have no idea what, if anything, can or should be done about this. I'm not sure if LLMs are really fit for public consumption. The dangers of the average person blindly trusting the hallucinatory oracle in their pocket are really too much to think about.
My personal view is that we humans are all too easily drawn into thinking "this would be a danger to other people, but I can handle it".
I believe that if you are in apsychological state such that the input from an LLM could pose a risk, you would also have a much reduced ability to detect and handle this, as an effect of your state.
That’s how people dig deeper and deeper holes and it becomes much harder to exit them. “I’m immune to propaganda” and then go out and buy a Disney themed shirt.
Therapy is a bit different though. It's meant to make you think. Get your mind unstuck from the loop or spiral it's in. Generally you will know what's wrong but your mind keeps dancing around it. There's a lot of elephants in the room. In that sense it doesn't quite matter that much if it tells you to do something outrageous. It's not like you're going to actually do that, it's just food for thought. And even an outrageous proposition can break the loop. You'll start thinking like oh no that's crazy. Maybe my situation isn't so bad.
The problem is when you start seeing it as an all knowing oracle. Rather than a simulated blabbermouth with too much imagination.
In general it's been very positive for me anyway. And besides I use it on myself only. I can do whatever I want. Nobody can tell me not to use it for this.
Even if it just tells you (sometimes incorrectly) that nothing is wrong and just sides with you like a friend, even that is good because it takes the pressure of the situation so reality can kick in. That doesn't work when stress is dialed up to the maximum.
It also helps to be the one tuning the AI and prompt too. This always keeps your mind in that "evaluation mode" questioning its responses and trying to improve them.
But like I said before, to me it's just an augmentation to a real therapist.
Getting therapy is part of the job. Not sure about 'psychology as a discipline' but the therapists I know definitely get therapy and LLM exposure as well.
As I was told by one: the fact that you're able to tell your LLM to be more critical or less critical when you're seeking advice, that in itself means you're psychologically an adult and self-aware. I.e. mostly healthy.
She basically told me I don't look like a dork with my new DIY haircut. (Though I *did" complete CBT so I kinda knew how to use the scissors)
But they work with sick people. And that can mean a range of things depending on that clinical context. Usually sick things.
I think the main point people should focus on and take away should be that the people that know the truth about psychology and psychotherapy know that its a very vulnerable state where the participant isn't in control, has no ability to discern, and is highly malleable in such states.
If the guide is benevolent, you may move towards better actions, but the opposite is equally true. The more isolated you are the more powerful the effect in either direction.
People have psychological blindspots, some with no real mitigations possible aside from reducing exposure. Distorted reflected appraisal is one such blindspot which has been used by Cults for decades.
The people behind the Oracle are incentivized to make you dependent, malleable, cede agency/control, and be in a state of complete compromise. A state of being where you have no future because you gave it away in exchange for glass beads.
The dangers are quite clear, and I would imagine there will eventually be strict exposure limits, just like there are safe handling for chemicals. Its not a leap to understand there would be harsh penalties within communities of like-minded intelligent people who have hope for a future.
You either choose towards choices for a better future, or you are just waiting to die, or moving towards such outcomes where you impose that on everyone.
If you aren't aware: a Virtual Private Network creates a fully encrypted link between you and a remote node. So long as your encryption keys are secure, there's no way for anyone (even a global superpower) to listen to or intrude on that connection. There is no possible way to break into this connection, even with the entire planet's computing resources.
From the outside, all you can see is a stream of encrypted data between two nodes. You cannot tell where the traffic goes once it exits the VPN server or what it contains.
The only way to compromise a VPN connection is the most straightforward and pedestrian: compromise the VPN host and directly spy on their clients with their own hardware.
The GFW certainly can and has detected such encrypted streams and blocked them for being un-inspectable. With a VPN you can perfectly hide what you're doing and you can perfectly prevent intrusion. You cannot prevent someone noticing you're using a VPN. China can simply blanket ban connections that look like VPN traffic. But they cannot tell what you're doing with that VPN.