3 ms·

Summary: https://slatestarcodex.com/2020/06/22/nyt-is-threatening-my-safety-by-revealing-my-real-name-so-i-am-deleting-the-blog/ https://slatestarcodex.com/2020

Summary: https://slatestarcodex.com/2020/06/22/nyt-is-threatening-my-safety-by-revealing-my-real-name-so-i-am-deleting-the-blog/ https://slatestarcodex.com/2020/06/22/nyt-is-threatening-my-... NYT was writing a piece about rationality, SSC, lesswrong, east bay, maybe AGI, etc. Evidence suggests it wasn't a hit piece (at least initially) and was just about the rationality community/bay area influence since a lot of people don't really know about lesswrong. As part of it NYT said they had to reveal his real name and he asked them not to (details described in that blog post). This created controversy.

vmception 6y ago
I’m sorry, rationality, lesswrong, AGI?? Adjusted gross income? Et Cetera? A lot of people know what this is and it bothers them? I’m still lost, so I looked at that older blog post and its also not explained there and the linked subreddit is the “non political one” so, reading the room here, there is a political context and those above terms are political and I should google something about “lesswrong politics” I’ll maybe check out that particular rabbit hole in synthesizing but can you enlighten me further because I still have no idea what you’re talking about
- fossuser 6y ago
  AGI = Artificial General Intelligence, watch this for the main idea around the goal alignment problem: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUjc1WuyPT8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUjc1WuyPT8 They're explicitly not political, lesswrong is a website/community and rationality is about trying to think better by being aware of normal cognitive biases and correcting for them. Also trying to make better predictions and understand things better by applying Bayes' theorem when possible to account for new evidence: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayes%27_theorem https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayes%27_theorem (and being willing to change your mind when the evidence changes). It's about trying to understand and accept what's true no matter what political tribe it could potentially align with. See: https://www.lesswrong.com/rationality https://www.lesswrong.com/rationality For more reading about AGI: Books: - Superintelligence (I find his writing style somewhat tedious, but this is one of the original sources for a lot of the ideas): https://www.amazon.com/Superintelligence-Dangers-Strategies-Nick-Bostrom/dp/1501227742 https://www.amazon.com/Superintelligence-Dangers-Strategies-... - Human Compatible: https://www.amazon.com/Human-Compatible-Artificial-Intelligence-Problem/dp/0525558632/ https://www.amazon.com/Human-Compatible-Artificial-Intellige... - Life 3.0, A lot of the same ideas, but the other extreme of writing style from superintelligence makes it more accessible: https://www.amazon.com/Life-3-0-Being-Artificial-Intelligence/dp/1101970316/ https://www.amazon.com/Life-3-0-Being-Artificial-Intelligenc... Blog Posts: - https://intelligence.org/2017/10/13/fire-alarm/ https://intelligence.org/2017/10/13/fire-alarm/ - https://www.lesswrong.com/tag/artificial-general-intelligence https://www.lesswrong.com/tag/artificial-general-intelligenc... - https://www.alexirpan.com/2020/08/18/ai-timelines.html https://www.alexirpan.com/2020/08/18/ai-timelines.html The reason the groups overlap a lot with AGI is that Eliezer Yudkowsky started less wrong and founded MIRI (the machine intelligence research institute). He's also formalized a lot of the thinking around the goal alignment problem and the existential risk of discovering how to create an AGI that can improve itself without first figuring out how to align it to human goals. For an example of why this is hard: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/4ARaTpNX62uaL86j6/the-hidden-complexity-of-wishes https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/4ARaTpNX62uaL86j6/the-hidden... and probably the most famous example is the paperclip maximizer: https://www.lesswrong.com/tag/paperclip-maximizer https://www.lesswrong.com/tag/paperclip-maximizer
  - vmception 6y ago
    Great yeah that sounds like something I wish I knew existed Its been very hard to find people able to separate their emotions from an accurate description of reality even if it sounds like a different political tribe, or moreso that people are more willing to assume you are part of a political tribe if some words don't match their political tribe’s description of reality even if what was said was most accurate I’m curious what I will see in these communities
    - fossuser 6y ago
      I recommended some of my favorites in another comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25866701 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25866701 I found the community around 2012 and I remember wishing I had known it existed too. In that list, the less wrong posts are probably what I'd read first since they're generally short (Scott Alexander's are usually long) and you'll get a feel for the writing. Specifically this is a good one for the political tribe bit: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/6hfGNLf4Hg5DXqJCF/a-fable-of-science-and-politics https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/6hfGNLf4Hg5DXqJCF/a-fable-of... As an aside about the emotions bit, it’s not so much separating them but recognizing when they’re aligned with the truth and when they’re not: https://www.lesswrong.com/tag/emotions https://www.lesswrong.com/tag/emotions

vmception 6y ago

I’m sorry, rationality, lesswrong, AGI?? Adjusted gross income? Et Cetera? A lot of people know what this is and it bothers them? I’m still lost, so I looked at that older blog post and its also not explained there and the linked subreddit is the “non political one” so, reading the room here, there is a political context and those above terms are political and I should google something about “lesswrong politics” I’ll maybe check out that particular rabbit hole in synthesizing but can you enlighten me further because I still have no idea what you’re talking about

fossuser 6y ago
AGI = Artificial General Intelligence, watch this for the main idea around the goal alignment problem: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUjc1WuyPT8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUjc1WuyPT8 They're explicitly not political, lesswrong is a website/community and rationality is about trying to think better by being aware of normal cognitive biases and correcting for them. Also trying to make better predictions and understand things better by applying Bayes' theorem when possible to account for new evidence: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayes%27_theorem https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayes%27_theorem (and being willing to change your mind when the evidence changes). It's about trying to understand and accept what's true no matter what political tribe it could potentially align with. See: https://www.lesswrong.com/rationality https://www.lesswrong.com/rationality For more reading about AGI: Books: - Superintelligence (I find his writing style somewhat tedious, but this is one of the original sources for a lot of the ideas): https://www.amazon.com/Superintelligence-Dangers-Strategies-Nick-Bostrom/dp/1501227742 https://www.amazon.com/Superintelligence-Dangers-Strategies-... - Human Compatible: https://www.amazon.com/Human-Compatible-Artificial-Intelligence-Problem/dp/0525558632/ https://www.amazon.com/Human-Compatible-Artificial-Intellige... - Life 3.0, A lot of the same ideas, but the other extreme of writing style from superintelligence makes it more accessible: https://www.amazon.com/Life-3-0-Being-Artificial-Intelligence/dp/1101970316/ https://www.amazon.com/Life-3-0-Being-Artificial-Intelligenc... Blog Posts: - https://intelligence.org/2017/10/13/fire-alarm/ https://intelligence.org/2017/10/13/fire-alarm/ - https://www.lesswrong.com/tag/artificial-general-intelligence https://www.lesswrong.com/tag/artificial-general-intelligenc... - https://www.alexirpan.com/2020/08/18/ai-timelines.html https://www.alexirpan.com/2020/08/18/ai-timelines.html The reason the groups overlap a lot with AGI is that Eliezer Yudkowsky started less wrong and founded MIRI (the machine intelligence research institute). He's also formalized a lot of the thinking around the goal alignment problem and the existential risk of discovering how to create an AGI that can improve itself without first figuring out how to align it to human goals. For an example of why this is hard: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/4ARaTpNX62uaL86j6/the-hidden-complexity-of-wishes https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/4ARaTpNX62uaL86j6/the-hidden... and probably the most famous example is the paperclip maximizer: https://www.lesswrong.com/tag/paperclip-maximizer https://www.lesswrong.com/tag/paperclip-maximizer
- vmception 6y ago
  Great yeah that sounds like something I wish I knew existed Its been very hard to find people able to separate their emotions from an accurate description of reality even if it sounds like a different political tribe, or moreso that people are more willing to assume you are part of a political tribe if some words don't match their political tribe’s description of reality even if what was said was most accurate I’m curious what I will see in these communities
  - fossuser 6y ago
    I recommended some of my favorites in another comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25866701 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25866701 I found the community around 2012 and I remember wishing I had known it existed too. In that list, the less wrong posts are probably what I'd read first since they're generally short (Scott Alexander's are usually long) and you'll get a feel for the writing. Specifically this is a good one for the political tribe bit: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/6hfGNLf4Hg5DXqJCF/a-fable-of-science-and-politics https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/6hfGNLf4Hg5DXqJCF/a-fable-of... As an aside about the emotions bit, it’s not so much separating them but recognizing when they’re aligned with the truth and when they’re not: https://www.lesswrong.com/tag/emotions https://www.lesswrong.com/tag/emotions