Tech & Science polls

The latest questions in Tech & Science. Vote, then see how the country splits by party, age, region and more.

LIVETech & ScienceEarly — be one of the first· 5d agocloses in 6d

When an AI coding assistant's security flaw exposes users' data, who is most to blame?

“We need a way to downvote bad questions like this. The question does not tell me what specific incident they are talking about nor does it present the key facts needed to have an informed opinion. If you get sick from eating a chicken sandwich who is responsible?” — Dense1
💬 1 comment & details →
LIVETech & ScienceEarly — be one of the first· 6d agocloses in 8d

Hacktivists published the identities of about 41,000 U.S. Homeland Security officials — can leaking government officials' identities ever be justified?

“Identifying government employees shouldn't be problematic with the rare exceptions of those working as undercover agents for, say, the CIA. Doxing them is another thing altogether.” — JE_Thomas
💬 3 comments & details →
LIVETech & ScienceEarly — be one of the first· 8d agocloses in 3d

After a startup broke into a leading AI company's internal systems, do you trust AI companies to keep sensitive data secure?

“No change. The security posture of every player in the tech industry for the last 20 years is that they will do the barest minimum on security and accept 0 liability. Pre-LLM we lived in a world where every week we hear about script kiddies breaking into this or that company and stealing data or encrypting it and holding the company hostage. AI has changed NOTHING here. To be fair I am picking on tech here. Corporate liability in general has been in free fall since the rise to dominance of neo-liberalism in the 1980s” — Dense1
💬 2 comments & details →
LIVETech & ScienceEarly — be one of the first· 9d agocloses in 4d

U.S. measles cases have more than doubled this year as outbreaks spread — who is most responsible?

“Vaccination is the single most important medical intervention ever devised. Life expectancy in this country was about 50 years a century ago, mostly because so many children died before the age of 15 from communicable diseases. Smallpox once killed millions. Polio, rubella (watch a video of an unvaccinated child with rubella some time), and yes, measles. I don't have the figures at hand but something like 1 in 20 children who contract measles will require hospitalization, 1 in 1,000 will die even with the best care medicine can offer, usually of encephalitis. Measles is no joke. There is all sorts of crap information circulating but this is you child's life. Be a responsible parent, learn the real facts, and get your kids vaccinated.” — JE_Thomas
💬 2 comments & details →
LIVETech & ScienceEarly — be one of the first· 9d agocloses in 3d

Should local communities be allowed to block new AI data centers?

“Of course. Let the data centers make the case to those they'll most directly impact. Two possible outcomes: 1) they'll make a deal that sufficiently benefits the local community or 2) they'll go elsewhere and avoid landing where they're not wanted.” — dagman
💬 1 comment & details →
LIVETech & ScienceEarly — be one of the first· 16d ago

If it were proven safe, would you get a brain implant that lets you control devices with your thoughts?

“This could be all kinds of genuinely useful - the real question is not just "is it safe?" in the conventional sense, but also 'is it 100% free of backdoors and strings that the manufacturers or indeed anybody other than yourself can pull in order to control you (in any sense)'?” — Scaramouche
💬 2 comments & details →
LIVETech & ScienceEarly — be one of the first· 18d agocloses in 3d

Is AI company Anthropic worth its roughly $1.5 trillion IPO valuation?

“There is really no way to know. This is basically gambling. With the Internet we knew it would change the world and be big. What know one knew was how to make big money from it and who would win. It turns out gate kept surveillance capitalism and Google won and made trillions. If "AI" turns out to be amenable to strong gate keeping as advertising did and if Anthropic ends up being the winner then it is severely undervalued right now. If it doesn't then it is was over valued. Without a time machine I see no real way to guess and nothing the companies involved can do but keep doubling down and trying to become the big winner.” — Dense1
💬 2 comments & details →
LIVETech & ScienceEarly — be one of the first· 23d ago

Should social media apps be required to offer a chronological feed by default instead of an algorithmic one?

“Required by whom? I would agree it should be offered as the one true right way to implement it according to me but I don't thinkg I have fiat power over giant evil corporations. Do I believe the federal government of the USA or maybe the EU should be lagislation UI design for the tech industry? Um no” — Dense1
💬 2 comments & details →
LIVETech & ScienceEarly — be one of the first· 24d ago

Should parents be allowed to genetically choose non-medical traits like height or eye color for their babies?

“Eye color is pretty straightforward but many other traits are formed by the interplay of multiple genes. The possibility of unintended consequences suggests caution. but people ae going to do what they're going to do. All of the world's problems, all of the opportunities to better the arc of mankind, and people want to make sure that their daughter is blond. Eff me in the eye with a fork.” — JE_Thomas
💬 3 comments & details →
LIVETech & ScienceEarly — be one of the first· 24d ago

Anonymous accounts: essential or toxic?

“The background, experience, and motivations of the speaker influence their credibility. And, to state the obvious, people tend to behave differently when their reputations are on the line. Remove personal accountability and it's remarkable how quickly civility disappears.” — dagman
💬 2 comments & details →
LIVETech & ScienceEarly — be one of the first· 27d ago

Could a computer or AI ever become truly conscious?

“A better question in my opinion is, "will we ever be able to definitively tell if another human is conscious or just a p-zombie?" In current LLMs while the model itself certainly has no persistent consciousness I can imagine there could be a form of transient individual consciousness that exists for a fleeting moment during inference and then is gone forever. We would have no real way of detecting or proving it though and I'm not sure what if any meaning it would have.” — Dense1
💬 3 comments & details →

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