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Comment by lucianbr

14 days ago

"Honestly" and "literally" are now used in English for emphasis. I dislike this, but it's the current reality. I don't think there's any way to get back to only using them with their original meanings.

I don't think anyone needs to change their language. I understand that it's a common way to indicate candor, but it's hilariously inappropriate for a computer to say "some times I might lie to you to save your feelings, but this time, you really are ugly and you need to know."

  • The computer isn't saying anything. It does not think or have agency. It just replicates what people might say in a context. And people might say what you put in quotes, without it being hilariously inappropriate.

    Of course if you tink of the computer as a person you get strange results. A compiler error isn't the compiler telling me anything. It's the compiler writer telling me something. So a compiler error might contain a joke, and the joke might make sense, although obviously computers and compilers don't have a sense of humour.