log in as root

this post presents some problems and an idea to solve them. I have successfully deployed this idea on my laptop for over a year. all my scripts are open source, but this isn't a tutorial and I don't advise copying what I've done unless you know what you're doing. some innovation required, batteries not included, no warranty express or implied, etc.

status quo

sandboxing is when an app or component is prevented from accessing or modifying the rest of the system, generally for security.

how published research can lead us astray

a hypothetical

suppose you're a straight man, and you're single (for some of you, this may not take a great leap of imagination). also suppose you have a cat named Micromort.

you'd like to be less single (or at least less celibate), so you install the hot new dating app: Bink-2-Boink. you write a quick bio and add some pictures, but on the last slot you pause. you've got a good picture of yourself snuggled up with little Mort, but is that the right choice? women tend to like animals, right? but what does having a cat signal about you? some people might make a snap decision based on their gut, but not you. it's a brutal dating market out there, and you need all the alpha you can get. you decide to consult the literature.

*according to Tess

I just implemented the light/dark toggle for BlogPlat, which runs this blog. there's a suprising amount of subtle complexity in this simple feature, so I'm writing this in case it's useful to anyone.

state machine

modern browsers expose the browser/system setting via window.matchMedia('(prefers-color-scheme: dark)'). we want to respect this by default.

why let matrices have all the fun?

foom

aka fast takeoff. the theory goes something like this:

humans are smart. humans make AIs. as of early 2024 the AIs are less smart than the smartest humans at most general tasks, but at some point they will surpass us. the AIs will then build smarter AIs than the humans could. those AIs will rapidly develop even smarter AIs.

why would I want to log in as root?

minor convenience of not having to type sudo, or remember which commands need it. also the satisfaction of knowing that your operating system will do whatever you tell it to.

how do I log in as root?

assuming you're running Linux, sudo passwd root should let you set a root password on most distros. on a TTY you can now log into the root account using that password.

abstractions make complex thought possible. multiple abstractions can often achieve similar but not identical results.

everyone has a tendency to push abstractions that benefit themselves, and powerful entities can be quite effective at this. since our relationship to some of these entities is adversarial, many of the abstractions we use are working against us.

let's call abstractions we've accepted without too much thought "borrowed abstractions".

an abstraction is a concept that allows you to understand or do stuff with a thing without caring specifically what the thing is.

suppose you're in the shipping industry. loading and unloading cargo is slow and unreliable because different goods needed to be handled differently. you have an idea: make every customer put their goods in containers with the same dimensions. now you can move the containers around. every container can be handled the same. your workers don't even need to know what's inside a given container, as long as they know what to do with it.