linux-kernel - I got bit by the stochastic parrot when apologizing (to LKML and Alexander Viro; by Hans Reiser)

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Message-ID: <js2F0hMRQx22Zft8fmp1rPPcQnrU1Q6Gpd9-wrguyWL0qepBKpbaJ5k6YHTw18ok2HTKz2WZNfUiS3kdxDICKZ5sNzlckrCViYqjMzZPzEM=@proton.me>
Date: Thu, 11 Sep 2025 18:39:59 +0000
From: DistractedLinguist <DistractedLinguist@...ton.me>
To: "linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org" <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>
Subject: I got bit by the stochastic parrot when apologizing (to LKML and Alexander Viro; by Hans Reiser)

Editor note: Mr. Reiser sent this to me to post on his behalf. I will print and send any replies to Mr. Reiser for his review and comment. 

A kind journalist scanned my handwritten apology, and it got posted all over the place. The original of my posting can be found here: (https://lkml.org/lkml/2024/1/18/245)

"Viro was this guy whose career focus was locking."

The OCR software changed the "o" to an "a" to make it:

"Viro was this guy whose career focus was lacking.” 

Everyone must have thought: "He was an ass then, and he is still an ass, plus he sure has that wrong."

Alexander Viro knows more about locking than I ever will, and it would have been a privilege to have been able to learn from him if my social skills had been enough to earn me that privilege.

I can see that for a stochastic parrot, which understands word pattern probabilities not word meanings, "focus was lacking" is a far more probable word pattern than "focus was locking". Sigh.

My humble apologies to Alexander Viro and the LKML. 

If people are interested in my experiences of humans being worse than AI's due to their stochastic parroting being more affected by what they want to be true, or want to hear, ask me. It might be off-topic for the LKML though.

I humbly apologize to all those in the community that I hurt by my crime, including those who invested so much into coding Resier4 for so little pay only to have the dream we pursued dashed by my terrible crime.

If I should parole I will try to make all the amends I can to those I have harmed. In prison we learn to start by trying to make a "living amends", which means to change who we are so that we are no longer the person we were when we committed our crime. I have been working on that for 19 years, and I believe I am no longer the man I was, but instead a man who understands MLK's words: "only love can fight hate.", a man who has gone from having no patience for the Serenity Prayer to understanding just how much it can improve my life, and a man who is now more humble and more eager to take the time to acknowledge the ways in which others are right.

If I parole I can attempt to do more "indirect amends" as prisoners call it, in which we try to make up for our crimes through acts of service to the community. I have some chip design, filesystem design, economics of free software and AI design ideas I will pursue if I am found worthy of a second chance in society. (Details if asked). Alas, I cannot make direct amends to the lovely person I killed.

Once again, I apologize to all. Humbly apologize.