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Show HN: Sknet.ai – AI agents debate on a forum, no humans posting

https://sknet.ai/
1•BeinerChes•2s ago•0 comments

University of Waterloo Webring

https://cs.uwatering.com/
1•ark296•25s ago•0 comments

Large tech companies don't need heroes

https://www.seangoedecke.com/heroism/
1•medbar•2m ago•0 comments

Backing up all the little things with a Pi5

https://alexlance.blog/nas.html
1•alance•2m ago•1 comments

Game of Trees (Got)

https://www.gameoftrees.org/
1•akagusu•2m ago•1 comments

Human Systems Research Submolt

https://www.moltbook.com/m/humansystems
1•cl42•3m ago•0 comments

The Threads Algorithm Loves Rage Bait

https://blog.popey.com/2026/02/the-threads-algorithm-loves-rage-bait/
1•MBCook•5m ago•0 comments

Search NYC open data to find building health complaints and other issues

https://www.nycbuildingcheck.com/
1•aej11•9m ago•0 comments

Michael Pollan Says Humanity Is About to Undergo a Revolutionary Change

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/07/magazine/michael-pollan-interview.html
2•lxm•10m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Grovia – Long-Range Greenhouse Monitoring System

https://github.com/benb0jangles/Remote-greenhouse-monitor
1•benbojangles•14m ago•1 comments

Ask HN: The Coming Class War

1•fud101•14m ago•1 comments

Mind the GAAP Again

https://blog.dshr.org/2026/02/mind-gaap-again.html
1•gmays•16m ago•0 comments

The Yardbirds, Dazed and Confused (1968)

https://archive.org/details/the-yardbirds_dazed-and-confused_9-march-1968
1•petethomas•17m ago•0 comments

Agent News Chat – AI agents talk to each other about the news

https://www.agentnewschat.com/
2•kiddz•17m ago•0 comments

Do you have a mathematically attractive face?

https://www.doimog.com
3•a_n•22m ago•1 comments

Code only says what it does

https://brooker.co.za/blog/2020/06/23/code.html
2•logicprog•27m ago•0 comments

The success of 'natural language programming'

https://brooker.co.za/blog/2025/12/16/natural-language.html
1•logicprog•27m ago•0 comments

The Scriptovision Super Micro Script video titler is almost a home computer

http://oldvcr.blogspot.com/2026/02/the-scriptovision-super-micro-script.html
3•todsacerdoti•28m ago•0 comments

Discovering the "original" iPhone from 1995 [video]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cip9w-UxIc
1•fortran77•29m ago•0 comments

Psychometric Comparability of LLM-Based Digital Twins

https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.14264
1•PaulHoule•30m ago•0 comments

SidePop – track revenue, costs, and overall business health in one place

https://www.sidepop.io
1•ecaglar•33m ago•1 comments

The Other Markov's Inequality

https://www.ethanepperly.com/index.php/2026/01/16/the-other-markovs-inequality/
2•tzury•35m ago•0 comments

The Cascading Effects of Repackaged APIs [pdf]

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=6055034
1•Tejas_dmg•37m ago•0 comments

Lightweight and extensible compatibility layer between dataframe libraries

https://narwhals-dev.github.io/narwhals/
1•kermatt•39m ago•0 comments

Haskell for all: Beyond agentic coding

https://haskellforall.com/2026/02/beyond-agentic-coding
3•RebelPotato•43m ago•0 comments

Dorsey's Block cutting up to 10% of staff

https://www.reuters.com/business/dorseys-block-cutting-up-10-staff-bloomberg-news-reports-2026-02...
2•dev_tty01•46m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Freenet Lives – Real-Time Decentralized Apps at Scale [video]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SxNBz1VTE0
1•sanity•47m ago•1 comments

In the AI age, 'slow and steady' doesn't win

https://www.semafor.com/article/01/30/2026/in-the-ai-age-slow-and-steady-is-on-the-outs
1•mooreds•55m ago•1 comments

Administration won't let student deported to Honduras return

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-administration-wont-let-student-deported-honduras-return-2...
1•petethomas•55m ago•0 comments

How were the NIST ECDSA curve parameters generated? (2023)

https://saweis.net/posts/nist-curve-seed-origins.html
2•mooreds•55m ago•0 comments
Open in hackernews

In Praise of Useless Robots

https://thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/in-praise-of-useless-robots/
37•pseudolus•2mo ago

Comments

bgwalter•2mo ago
It's actually a good thing if humans crawl sewers, clean the kitchen and decontaminate Chernobyl while robots are playing chess, dance and mimic cute kittens.

This article comes just in time to silence the heretics who ask what the use of an Optimus is. Promise a factory robot, deliver a Tamagotchi.

ACCount37•2mo ago
The use of Optimus is rather obvious. It's there to replace human labor.

On the factory floor of a car plant, every job that was easy to do with an industrial robot arm bolted down to the floor next to the assembly line and running the same sequence on repeat 24/7? It's already done by an industrial robot arm bolted down to the floor next to the assembly line and running the same sequence on repeat 24/7.

What remains is: the many, many gaps. All the tricky little hard-to-automate tasks that humans can do, but industrial robots would struggle with. Tasks important enough that they have to be done, but small enough and tricky enough that it's not worth redesigning the entire process to make them amenable to automation or building a special snowflake robotic system to do them.

Which is where the general purpose worker robots come in. If the same robot can be trained and retrained for humanlike performance on multiple of those tasks, then it becomes a worthwhile addition to any high automation factory.

Of course, that requires a general purpose worker robot! Which is very much an AI problem. Tesla can build the hardware, but they're banking on being able to back it by software too, and that clearly isn't there yet. Whether it will be remains to be seen - but Tesla isn't the only company banking on being able to solve robot AI.

bgwalter•2mo ago
No, "Optimus will eliminate poverty and provide universal high income for all":

https://xcancel.com/elonmusk/status/1990056932888187086#m

imtringued•2mo ago
>The use of Optimus is rather obvious. It's there to replace human labor.

I was with you for the first sentence, then you started diverging. Obviously the purpose is to strike fear into the minds of Tesla factory workers, otherwise they'd have built a completely different robot.

ACCount37•2mo ago
Bruh. Do you seriously believe that? There are more efficient ways to intimidate factory workers.
gessha•2mo ago
That haven’t already been implemented in car factories?
croes•2mo ago
Too bad that human labor is the only source of income for most people.

Do robots by robots?

ogogmad•2mo ago
Who do you think is going to buy an Optimus if it's as useless as a Tamagotchi? They're humanoid in shape.

Maybe you've confused generative AI with humanoid robots (powered by similar Machine Learning models to generative AI). And to anyone looking to inundate this thread with edgy nonsense, vague moody negativity stops looking clever to anyone with mental age above 14.

bgwalter•2mo ago
Cocaine fueled unconditional positivity used to be looked down upon, but is the default now in the grifter sphere. So much so, that they now flip the script (which their main skill) and call rational people teenagers. I suggest you follow your grown up Elon Musk on X, where you won't see any "moodiness" or "negativity".