AI Summarized Hacker News

Front-page articles summarized hourly.

Turbopack: Building faster by building less

Turbopack, the new default Next.js bundler, achieves fast iteration by using an automated, fine-grained incremental caching system. It uses value cells to track function-level dependencies and their data, enabling selective recomputation when changes occur. An aggregation graph speeds queries over large dependency graphs. It supports dirtiness propagation and demand-driven execution (active queries). Historically, manual dependency graphs hinder caching; Turbopack builds caches for files, ASTs, metadata, and chunking data. Recently added file-system caching persists caches to disk for faster restarts. The architecture aims to scale to large apps with instant builds and fast React Fast Refresh.

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Show HN: FaceTime-style calls with an AI Companion (Live2D and long-term memory)

Beni AI BETA is a presence-native companion offering real-time voice, video, and text with live captions, plus opt-in memory and action plugins that act with your approval. It centers on continuity across sessions (memory that matters) and perception-aware features, forming a platform to turn any IP into a living companion and then into short-form content—across web and mobile with no-code creation. Beni is the reference IP proving the loop of presence, memory, and expression, designed to scale IP into creator content.

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Scientists identify brain waves that define the limits of 'you'

Researchers linked alpha-wave frequency in the parietal cortex to the sense of body ownership during the rubber hand illusion. In 106 participants, synchronized touches to real and rubber hands produced ownership feelings, and EEG showed alpha frequency correlated with timing-difference detection. When scientists used transcranial alternating current stimulation to speed up alpha waves, participants felt a stronger sense of ownership; slowing them reduced it. The findings suggest alpha waves help define the body's boundary and could inform treatments for conditions like schizophrenia or phantom limbs, and improve prosthetics and VR. Nature Communications.

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Clawdbot - open source personal AI assistant

Clawdbot is a personal AI assistant you run on your own devices, accessible across numerous channels (WhatsApp, Telegram, Slack, Discord, Google Chat, Signal, iMessage, Teams, Matrix, Zalo, WebChat) and native macOS/iOS/Android nodes. It uses a local Gateway control plane to coordinate multi‑channel inboxes, multi‑agent sessions, tools, and a live Canvas, with Voice Wake and Talk Mode for hands‑free interaction. Install via npm/pnpm, run the gateway, and onboard with a wizard. It supports Claude Pro/Max and OpenAI models, sandboxed security, and includes a built‑in skills registry (ClawdHub).

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Over 36,500 killed in Iran's deadliest massacre, documents reveal

Iran International reports that Iran’s January 8–9 crackdown killed upwards of 36,500 civilians across 400 cities, describing it as the deadliest two-day massacre in history. Based on classified IRGC documents and testimonies, deaths include extrajudicial killings and wounded people shot in hospitals; official tallies vary and may undercount due to concealment. The coverage also notes a media credibility crisis as authorities suppress information, a worsening internet blackout, and independent efforts (satellite tools like Toosheh/Starlink) to keep reporting alive. Related items cover Emory Larijani's firing and calls for US policy shifts toward regime change.

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Show HN: A small programming language where everything is a value

Herd is a simple interpreted language where everything is a value and pass-by-value semantics prevent side effects across copies. It uses reference counting for reference types; mutations copy only when necessary. Immutability is the default; use var to mutate and set for local changes. Core types: (), bool, number, string, list, dict, function. Features include blocks, list/dict literals, pattern matching, destructuring, a pipe operator, modules/imports, and a standard library. Built-in multithreading via Parallel with no data races. Design favors dynamic typing, no user-defined types, a naive single-pass JIT with Cranelift and NaN-boxing. Hobby project.

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LED lighting undermines visual performance unless supplemented by wider spectra

Modern LED lighting (350–650 nm) suppresses retinal mitochondrial function, reducing visual performance, especially color-contrast sensitivity. Adding broad-spectrum incandescent light (including infrared 800–1700+ nm) for 2 weeks improved color-contrast thresholds in both protan and tritan ranges by ~25% across subjects, with benefits lasting up to 6 weeks after removal. The study suggests LEDs may have wider health implications via systemic mitochondrial signaling. Wider-spectrum light, akin to daylight, may be beneficial; potential solutions include incandescent or broad-spectrum lighting, or LEDs with extended infrared, though energy considerations remain.

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Bitwise conversion of doubles using only FP multiplication and addition (2020)

Dougallj shows how to convert a 64‑bit IEEE-754 double to its bitwise representation as two unsigned 32‑bit integers (and back) using only floating-point multiplication and addition, with no bitwise ops, branches, or division. After outlining IEEE‑754 doubles (sign, exponent, fraction) and special values, the article details arithmetic constructions to extract the sign, 11‑bit exponent, and 52‑bit fraction, then assemble high/low 32‑bit words, and invert the process. Caveats include inability to distinguish NaN and Infinity (and -Infinity) without bit-casts, -0 vs +0, and dependence on IEEE rounding. It also discusses optimizations (dirty_floor) to reduce operations.

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The '3.5% rule': How a small minority can change the world

Nonviolent civil resistance is typically more effective than violence. Erica Chenoweth and Maria Stephan found that across hundreds of campaigns (1900–2006) nonviolent protests succeeded about 53% of the time, violent ones 26%. They identify a '3.5% rule': when roughly 3.5% of the population actively participates, major political change becomes likely. The mechanism: broad, inclusive participation disrupts society and earns police/military sympathy; general strikes and boycotts broaden support. Notable successes include the Philippines' People Power (1986), Estonia's Singing Revolution, Georgia's Rose Revolution, and Sudan/Algeria in 2019; but failures occur if unity collapses. Extinction Rebellion draws on this.

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Hackable personal news reader in bash pipes

news.sh is a hackable Bash-based personal news reader that filters RSS feeds by your interests. It uses uv, jq, bat, and pandoc to summarize content, with an optional Gemini API key for LLM processing. Setup requires creating a private Gist describing your interests and exporting GIST_ID, then running ./news.sh. Customize feeds by editing the feeds list. Translation features auto-wrap non-English entries and can use Perplexity or Google Translate; you can adjust languages and prompts. It serves as a template for your own news-reading workflow.

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AI Tribalism

AI tribalism: Nolan Lawson recounts how, by 2025, most of his code is written by AI (Claude Code) and he now views software development as transformed. He critiques the AI debate as tribal, notes practical gains from AI—plan mode, bug finding, benchmarking—yet acknowledges bugs and concerns (security, performance, accessibility). He suggests using multiple agents for checks and staying curious even if imperfect. His takeaway: experiment, empathize with others in different camps, and recognize the near-term upheaval as the toolset evolves beyond traditional coding.

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