Technology
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Background: In the year 2023, machine learning based chatbots finally became superior to the average human*. One interesting feature of these chatbots is that they provide the ability for the user to regenerate an answer. Here’s how the ChatGPT system handles answer regeneration: Not bad at all! [*] If you don’t believe this, please spend…
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Background: In the early 2020s, the appeal of short (< 1 minute) videos became widespread, with TikTok, YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels, and other services vying for market share. (Surprisingly, the earliest major entrant into this genre, Vine (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vine_(service)), completely failed and was shut down in 2017). The Issue: Unfortunately, the popularity of “bite-sized” videos has…
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Background: People who do not live in a jungle frequently associate the “sounds of the jungle” (e.g. the noises of birds and other miscellaneous creatures) with a sort of exotic and faraway mystique. Proposal: This idea is already used in theme parks, but there’s no reason we can’t apply it everywhere: any business that has…
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Background: In the mid-2010s and 2020s, the service “Twitter” was a popular method for celebrities to share short messages with their followers. It had the unusual property of requiring short posts (originally only 140 characters). This was originally due to ancient historical limitations on sending messages (called “SMS”es) over phones, but a slightly-increased limit was…
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Background: Supposedly, changing a phone’s display to only show a drab grayscale tends to reduce the amount of time that the phone’s owner spends fiddling around on the Internet. Proposal: Here’s a simple software-only hack that would make people more aware of the amount of time they’re spending on their phones, and might give them…
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Background: Thanks to modern technology, it’s possible for many meetings to be conducted over video chat. The Issue: Frequently, it’s not really necessary for a participant in a meeting to be paying attention: that person’s time could be better spent doing actual work, or writing emails. But it is important for the person to look…
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Background: Various governments and organizations have made efforts to reduce the number of firearm discharges by impulsive and/or unqualified individuals. The Issue: Currently, by design, a firearm is relatively easy to operate. Unfortunately, this makes it easy to accidentally fire, or for a child to find a gun and shoot it. Additionally, an individual may…
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Background: It’s easily possible to receive an overwhelming number of phone notifications these days. Typically, this is a mix of emails, text messages, multiple messaging apps, and the occasional demanding apps spamming you with notifications that “you earned 10% off your next order!” The Issue: It’s possible to silence some of these alerts, but sometimes…
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Background: Generally, the more letters / symbols your alphabet has, the more hassle it is to type on a keyboard. There are ways to mitigate this issue (e.g. Japanese and Chinese manage), but it’s a lot more straightforward if you can just cut down the number of symbols entirely. English, with 26 letters plus a…
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