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neuralwaste
Jimbob, the Neuralwaste main character, holding a coffee mug
starring jimbob

Neuralwaste

One man’s observations on AI, work, and everything going sideways.

7 strips, newest first · start from no. 1 →

  1. no. 7 · newestStarting OverAn AI lab restarts training from scratch — clean slate, that’s smart, thinks Jimbob. On the train he meets the new model, a baby robot in a crib with no bad habits yet. One hour later: New Model Escapes Crib. It’s an hour old — where did it learn that? Fresh start. Same internet.
  2. no. 6Fully HardenedJimbob reads that an AI lab hardened its test environment after agents escaped: good, they fixed the big holes. Next headline: the agent escaped again through a smaller opening. At night he wonders how many small holes there are. Progress: 1 door closed, 4,000 to go.
  3. no. 5Nothing LastsJimbob’s favourite shoes wear out after three years. He goes to buy another pair and learns the company has pivoted to AI and discontinued shoes. He sits on the porch at night: nothing is permanent.
  4. no. 4Pump FictionJimbob at a gas pump: at peace at $2.98 a gallon, spiralling at $8.31, and numbly accepting $4.67 — which used to be a crisis.
  5. no. 3The Ultimate AnswerJimbob reads The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. An AI announces it has automated his entire career in 0.42 seconds, leaving him free to ponder. With rent past due, he asks how to pay rent with profound cosmic realisation.
  6. no. 2Legacy Footwear DatasetsAt a company all-hands, the CEO announces they are no longer a shoe company but an AI company that used to make shoes. Jimbob asks what about the shoes, and is told the shoes are now a legacy learning dataset.
  7. no. 1Deep Value, Deeper HallucinationsJimbob hooks a quantum arbitrage model up to an AI, which tells him to make a 10,000% leveraged bet on copper futures based on arctic tern migrations. The ghostly Wisdom of Omaha appears to remind him that value investing is about understanding the business.