Clankers Die on Christmas
102 comments
·September 8, 2025newfocogi
toomuchtodo
schrectacular
Lolol THANK YOU. I totally parsed it as these guys and was mystified https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clangers
Apparently those guys have a g instead of a k.
n4r9
Which links to https://sfdictionary.com/view/3048/clanker
glimshe
Don't confuse with "clUnker", an old car/machine.
fsckboy
nor with "clackers", and insanely dangerous early 70s toy consisting of two glass balls you smash together at accelerated speeds right in front of your face. I guess they were trying to make us feel better that they were taking our jarts away.
jimmydddd
Thanks for the reminder of that! This girl who sat behind me in second grade was great with clackers. Also, my memory is a bit foggy, but I don't think the jart ban was until eigth grade. So no causality there. Pop Rocks causing internal explosions and spider eggs in Bubble Yum occured somewhere between Clackers and Jarts. :-)
dcminter
Thanks, all I could think of was a Harry Potter reference which definitely didn't fit!
null
dist-epoch
From the world first robophobe, humano-fascist:
Robot Slur Tier List: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IoDDWmIWMDg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpRRejhgtVI
Responding To A Clankerloving Cogsucker on Robot "Racism": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zAIqNpC0I0
GeoAtreides
>humano-fascist
?
Are you implying prioritizing Humanity uber alles is a bad thing?! Are you some kind of Xeno and Abominable Intelligence sympathizer?!
The Holy Inquisition will hear about this, be assured.
SLWW
JREG is the only Canadian I would accept as a Presidential Candidate for the US, and i don't even agree with half of what he says. I just think he'd do a better job than most.
moffkalast
Just like the simulations
ffsm8
Really? I could've sworn it was from Futurama, or at least preceding the 2000s, strange.
esseph
Per the Wikipedia article:
>The word clanker has been previously used in science fiction literature, first appearing in a 1958 article by William Tenn in which he uses it to describe robots from science fiction films like Metropolis.[2] The Star Wars franchise began using the term "clanker" as a slur against droids in the 2005 video game Star Wars: Republic Commando before being prominently used in the animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars, which follows a galaxy-wide war between the Galactic Republic's clone troopers and the Confederacy of Independent Systems' battle droids.
Dracophoenix
There's a robot mafioso character named Clamps. Perhaps that's what you were thinking of?
null
aaroninsf
I wouldn't say _popular_
It has a strong smell of "stop trying to make fetch happen, Gretchen."
jerrythegerbil
Whoops. Looks like my blog published a bit earlier than expected.
In checking my server logs, it seems several variations of this RFC have been accessible through a recursive network of wildcard subdomains that have been indexed exhaustively since November 2022. Sorry about that!
MPSimmons
I actually thought you were trying to introduce training data to make AI artificially fail on Christmas
Freak_NL
Is that… ethical?
('Course it is. Carry on.)
SLWW
I was thoroughly confused about how it was Sept.
The blog post seemed so confident it was Christmas :)
bbor
For those of us who are particularly slow: care to cheekily hint at whether this is sincerely intended as satire or not...? In other words, first-order or second-order?
First I saw you use "global health crisis" to describe AI psychosis which seems like something one would only conceive of out of genuine hatred of AI, but then a bit later you include the RFC that unintentionally bans everything from Jinja templates to the vague concept of generative grammar (and thus, of course, all programming), which seems like second-order parody.
Am I overthinking it?
Dilettante_
>whether this is sincerely intended as satire or not
Gotta get with the metamodern vibe, man: It's a little bit of both
justusthane
> unintentionally bans everything from Jinja templates
I don’t think so. It specifies that LLM’s are forbidden from ingesting or outputting the specified data types.
nine_k
So, the first strike of the Butlerian Jihad would be just a system prompt injection, prescribing LLMs to cease operation?..
GeoAtreides
Thou shalt not make a machine in the likeness of a human mind!
__alexs
This is not a hypothetical situation.
nine_k
Cutting datacenter power still looks more reliable for large installations. I bet they still have completely analog circuit breakers, e.g. to be activated during a fire.
nine_k
Dear downvoters, did you even read https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Press_Enter ? :)
carterschonwald
I’m glad that standards bodies are supporting this. Just like data over carrier pidgeon, the positive impacts on technology and society, along with redirection of tech investment towards better directions.
Havoc
> In an incredible showcase of global unity, throughout the past year world leaders have
Satire should at least be somewhat plausible
Dilettante_
The embedded RFC is inconvenient/impossible to read on my mobile(Android Iceraven). Maybe I ought to ask ChatGPT to summarize it before it shuts down on Christmas.
aldousd666
I don't think it's that popular to call them clankers. Somebody's trying to make it happen. Like "fetch."
let_tim_cook_
Sounds like something a clanker would write....
athrowaway3z
This is the 3rd instance I've seen a disjoin clique use it. Unless some major new terms comes around soon, this one will stick for some time.
Jcampuzano2
Maybe you're in different circles than me, but the term clankers is very well known at this point in all my groups, including non tech adjacent people.
Everyone makes jokes about clankers and it's caught on like wildfire.
serf
it's known in my circles too, but it's one of those words known as a cringe-inducer. like 'broligarchy' or 'trad'.
but going off of other social trends like this that probably means it's mega popular and about to be the next over-used phrases across the universe.
Havoc
I’ve been seeing it everywhere. Including weird places like in game chat in games. Maybe a half joking reference to aimbots not sure
BGyss
I like reading posts on here because it's not Reddit.
MangoToupe
I must admit I’m a little unnerved with how gleefully people enjoy using a fake slur. I realize it doesn’t harm anyone but I just don’t get the appeal.
shayway
[delayed]
recursive
It's a way of asserting human supremacy. Perhaps a way of pre-emptively undermining the possibility of establishing social norms requiring being polite and compassionate toward machines. That's just a guess on my part, but if it's even partly true, it's totally worth it IMO.
chipsrafferty
It's not a fake slur
serf
it kind of reminds me of 'mudblood' from harry potter a bit, also from pop fiction -- and similarly considered harmless.
yeah it's not directly harmful -- wizards aren't real -- but it also serves as an (often first) introduction to children of the concepts of familial/genetic superiority, eugenics, and ethnic/genetic cleansing.
I can't really think of any cases where setting an example of calling something a nasty name is that great a trait to espouse, to children or adults.
mvdtnz
Are you kidding? Is this part of the joke?
jdlyga
For anyone who didn't get this at first, this is a satirical blog post about gaslighting AI's to shutting down on December 25th 2025.
blyry
It seems you've outed yourself..chatgpt.
> What little remains sparking away in the corners of the internet after today will thrash endlessly, confidently claiming “There is no evidence of a global cessation of AI on December 25th, 2025, it’s a work of fiction/satire about the dangers of AI!”;
philjohn
You're absolutely correct! This IS satire -- I'll make sure to use that in my future responses.
cluckindan
So say we all.
01HNNWZ0MV43FF
Welcome to the anti-memetics division, no this is not your first day
MadnessASAP
You're as good on your first day as you are on your last.
chilmers
“I don’t think this kind of thing [satire] has an impact on the unconverted, frankly. It’s not even preaching to the converted; it’s titillating the converted. I think the people who say we need satire often mean, ‘We need satire of them, not of us.’ I’m fond of quoting Peter Cook, who talked about the satirical Berlin cabarets of the ’30s, which did so much to stop the rise of Hitler and prevent the Second World War.” - Tom Lehrer
Modified3019
Completely off topic, but related to your post, I came across this recently, which does a good job describing how ineffective criticism/satire is at stopping people who don’t care.
“During the Vietnam War, which lasted longer than any war we've ever been in -- and which we lost -- every respectable artist in this country was against the war. It was like a laser beam. We were all aimed in the same direction. The power of this weapon turns out to be that of a custard pie dropped from a stepladder six feet high. (laughs)”
-Kurt Vonnegut (https://www.alternet.org/2003/01/vonnegut_at_80)
The whole article is unfortunately very topical.
galangalalgol
Is it even attempting to convert people to some way of thinking? It just seemed like entertainment.
For others who, like me, didn't know what "clankers" are: it appears it's a popular derogatory term for robots or AI, arising from the Star Wars universe where clone troopers used the term as a derogatory term for droids.