Tootfinder

Monadic functors forgetful of (dis)inhibited actions
Alexandru Chirvasitu
https://arxiv.org/abs/2404.13169 https://arxiv.org/pdf/2404…

Monadic functors forgetful of (dis)inhibited actions
We prove a number of results of the following common flavor: for a category $\mathcal{C}$ of topological or uniform spaces with all manner of other properties of common interest (separation / completeness / compactness axioms), a group (or monoid) $\mathbb{G}$ equipped with various types of topological structure (topologies, uniformities) and the corresponding category $\mathcal{C}^{\mathbb{G}}$ of appropriately compatible $\mathbb{G}$-flows in $\mathcal{C}$, the forgetful functor $\mathcal{C}^…

This https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.14221 has been replaced.
initial toot: https://mastoxiv.page/@arXiv_csCL_…

Improving the Robustness of Large Language Models via Consistency Alignment
Large language models (LLMs) have shown tremendous success in following user instructions and generating helpful responses. Nevertheless, their robustness is still far from optimal, as they may generate significantly inconsistent responses due to minor changes in the verbalized instructions. Recent literature has explored this inconsistency issue, highlighting the importance of continued improvement in the robustness of response generation. However, systematic analysis and solutions are still l…

ASD, emotional memory, fears
Emotional memory is a bitch, and people in the spectrum are particularly vulnerable to it.
Let's say that something triggers the emotion of fear in you. You may be consciously recalling some bad memories, you may be imagining a possible outcome. However, when emotional memory comes into action, things are much worse. Your nervous system immediately brings the deep feeling of fear that is associated with the memory. You may even no longer be able to recall the memory, forget it entirely, yet your mind will ceaselessly keep hitting you with a whole set of emotions that you can't control, every single time it happens.
What's even worse, these things add up. Bad memories create fear. Fear creates more bad memories. These memories amplify the emotional reaction — and the wheel turns.
But the worst is the lack of understanding. People telling you that you are being irrational, that you are being an embarrassment to your family, that they have to give stuff up because of you. So the emotional memory becomes richer with the feelings of embarrassment, guilt and low self-esteem. All coalescing into a huge ball of emotion.
Today, you know it's not true. The fear wasn't irrational at all, it's pretty understandable in people who are #ActuallyAutistic, even "typical". Yet, what's the point of knowing that, if these emotions are deeply seated in your memory, and they will haunt you forever, and prevent you from ever having an illusion of normal life?

Hey, you should try our new prescription medication! 💊
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⚠️ Do not take this medicine if you are pregnant, breastfeeding, or a human person. Ask your doctor if it's right for you.

It's now been about 2 weeks or so since the wife and I got our first memory foam mattress, which we decided on a Nectar brand.
During these two weeks or so, I've been sleeping considerably better. I sleep a bit later than I was there for a while as I now wake up around 6am instead of between 4am - 5am.
I also don't wake up with a sore back, headaches or feeling like I want to immediately go lay down on the couch and take a nap. (cont...)

Autism spectrum, feelings and (against all odds) a Witcher quote
"""
[…] Because you're a witcher and you can't feel any emotion. You don't want to fulfill my request, because you think that you care about her, you think that… Geralt, you are with her only because she wants that, and you'll be with her for as long as she wants to. What you're feeling is a projection of her emotion, her interest in you. To all demons of the Pit, Geralt, you're not a child, you know who you are. You're a mutant. Don't misunderstand me, I'm not saying this to offend or disdain you. I'm just stating a fact. You're a mutant, and one of the basic features of your mutation is your full immunity to emotion. You've been made like this so that you could do your job. Do you understand? You can't feel anything. What you're taking as emotion is actually cell memory, somatic memory, if you know what that means.
"""
(Andrzej Sapkowski, Miecz przeznaczenia, Okruch lodu, Istredd's words, my own translation)
However the context is different, it made me think of my own problems with emotions.
Am I capable of love? Or perhaps I can merely project somebody else's feelings, return them at the best. Or perhaps just intellectually be aware of what I am supposed to feel.
Was perhaps that, what I used to take for "love", actually gratitude that somebody was nice to me, or that she showed interest?
Or perhaps was it that she fitted into an unrealistic model that I've engraved into my personality as a child?
Or just an attachment, a feeling of safety, stemming from a large data set. A conviction that unpleasant surprise is no longer that likely.
Or just desperation, a need that's been forced into me since I was a child and that now I'm trying to attain based on what the media, books and personal stories tell me about it.
Or even something resembling a Stockholm syndrome. "At least she's paying attention to me. I know the worst she could do to me."
#ActuallyAutistic

Racism is always a national issue in the US, and it's a major force in presidential elections.
But it plays out locally in all sorts of other ways; in communities, relationships, and individual lives.
Springfield's superintendent of schools is resigning after being recorded on an answering machine calling local black families scumbags, thieves, stupid, etc.
His targets included the high school principal and a school committee member.

Springfield superintendent resigns amid criticism over disparaging remarks made against an elected official | WBUR News
Springfield Superintendent Daniel Warwick has resigned following backlash over disparaging remarks he made about a member of the Springfield School Committee. The announcement came after a Thursday morning press conference at which the main target of the comments, Latonia Monroe Naylor, defended herself and her family.

Feeling a bit shy about this, but I wrote a short story as part of the Alice Munro memorial tribute organized by my friend Tara Penry
https://open.substack.com/pub/salrandolph/p/pony-rodeo?r=8oef&utm_campaign=post&utm…

Pony Rodeo
A short story, "Pony Rodeo," written in thanks to the great Alice Munro.

Feeling a weird paradox of…
…the optimism of how everything is better because we’re moving away from the decades-old mess of poor memory management with protections that C/C can’t enforce, and even improving on models like Garbage Collection (with Automatic Reference Counting and Borrow Checking), strong typing, powerful and accessible high-level languages…
…and the pessimism that actually *using* software feels so much worse nearly every day—especially on the web.

Findings, published Jan. 17 in Cell Stem Cell, show that dopamine neurons infected with SARS-CoV-2 stop working and send out chemical signals that cause inflammation.
Normally, these neurons produce dopamine, a neurotransmitter that plays a role in feelings of pleasure, motivation, memory, sleep and movement.
Damage to these neurons is also connected to Parkinson’s disease.
“This project started out to investigate how various types of cells in different organs respond to …

SARS-CoV-2 infection causes dopaminergic neuron senescence
Yang and colleagues demonstrate that SARS-CoV-2 can infect hPSC-derived midbrain dopamine (DA) neurons and induce cellular senescence. Several drug candidates were identified to rescue SARS-CoV-2 infection and DA neuron senescence. Inflammation and cellular senescence were also identified in substantia nigra tissue of COVID-19 patients.