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Eliezer, I believe you just created the Yudkowsky Ambition scale. My startup, http://automicrofarm.com/ http://automicrofarm.com/, rates between a 3 and a 5,
by ph0rque 14y ago
Eliezer, I believe you just created the Yudkowsky Ambition scale.
My startup, http://automicrofarm.com/ http://automicrofarm.com/, rates between a 3 and a 5, depending on how successful it becomes, in my opinion.
- Eliezer 14y agoHoly schmaloly, that actually is a 3 if it works. Anyone else got 3 or higher?
- stcredzero 14y agoGo after "Railroad Baron Money." That is to say, to invest in a fundamentally new kind of very useful infrastructure, like a subset network of computers where DRM actually works. If not absolutely, then well enough in practice. That would mean it would take something like 2 to 3 years for people to jailbreak new hardware, and almost a year to break revisions to old devices that fix an earlier jailbreak. (We're getting close to this level of security for some organizations.) The trick is to be one of the Barons when networks are becoming widespread, and not an early innovator who gets in the history books but dies penniless. (Again fits with the railroad analogy.) (And yes, trusted computation [DRM] as it is practiced now is bad, in the way that many things only possessed by only the powerful are also bad.)
- rdl 14y agoYeah, some kind of trustworthy computing would be around a 4-5 on the scale. Maybe 6.
- michaelt 14y agoWe already have a subset network of computers where DRM lasted from 2006 to 2010 - the PlayStation 3. Now, it's a console with some good games, but I wouldn't rate it as equivalent in social impact to electricity or nuclear weapons.
- rdl 14y agoRight, it was a game console, and not even a particularly good one. A real computing device (I'd accept tablets, but really, enterprise desktops and especially servers) would be entirely different. What I really care about is servers which can be trusted to be "fair" by all parties -- server operators, software operators, and end users. There is absolutely nothing like that today, and it's impossible without trusted computing. It's unclear if trusted computing itself is feasible (it's theoretically possible). If it works, we end up with Vernor Vinge's _True Names_
- stcredzero 14y ago> Yeah, some kind of trustworthy computing would be around a 4-5 on the scale. Maybe 6. A great sign for this idea, is that it gets pooh-poohed and shouted down, particularly by people who don't even hear the entire thing and just pattern match the security part. The idea that DRM can be useful and beneficial to society as a whole is precisely "What You Can't Say" for large swathes of the tech community and even more mainstream society.
- martindale 14y agoWe've got a solid 5 with what we're building at LocalSense: https://localsense.com https://localsense.com -- but it contains elements of #9 which is strangely high on the list.
- untog 14y agoA local, social offers app is going to be "equivalent of the invention of electricity"? I don't mean to sound down on the idea- I'm sure it could work out great. But come on.
- jarek 14y agoHustle!!!1
- martindale 14y agoAll day, err'day.
- nooneelse 14y agoOnly way I can read that comment as anything but shameless self-promotion (or, more generously, over the line entrepreneurial-delusion) is if they intend to morph their using of social status to get things into being whuffies.
- martindale 14y agoYou're on the right track.
- martindale 14y agoNo worries, it's easy to be down on the public message right now. We're all pretty confident in the plan to overhaul the way commerce works in general, possibly to the end of supplanting "money" entirely. :)
- poppysan 14y ago
- swombat 14y agoI have one idea I'm still incubating in the back of my head that's a 6. It's achievable technologically, but I'm not yet in the right place in my life to be the one to achieve it. Edit: It's not a drug - but it will, imho, produce a change in the basic human condition, if/when implemented.
- dusklight 14y agoI downvoted you because you added nothing to the conversation by claiming you have a 6 but then adding no details to it. Hey I can do that too. I have an idea that ranks a 7! I am cooler than you! But I am not going to tell you what it is because I think having a good idea is harder than executing well and I don't have many good ideas and I am afraid you are going to steal mine.
- powertower 14y ago> Edit: It's not a drug - but it will, imho, produce a change in the basic human condition, if/when implemented. He's probably talking about an idea similar to the H+ neural implant (http://www.youtube.com/user/HplusDigitalSeries http://www.youtube.com/user/HplusDigitalSeries). It's a nano device that is injected into or around your spine/brain, and after a week it learns how to interface with your body. Then it links out to the network and you can do all the things that we can do now online, except it's all in your head.
- Alex3917 14y ago"Anyone else got 3 or higher?" I have a drug that could massively raise the IQ of the world's population, in total more than the power of all the world's computers combined. And it costs only a couple pennies per person per year. Iodine.
- FF8C69 14y agosource please
- vhf 14y ago« According to WHO, in 2007, nearly 2 billion individuals had insufficient iodine intake, a third being of school age. Iodine deficiency can have serious consequences, causing abnormal neuronal development, mental retardation, congenital abnormalities, spontaneous abortion and miscarriage, congenital hypothyroidism, and infertility. Later in life, intellectual impairment reduces employment prospects and productivity. » http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140673608610090/fulltext http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140673...
- anthonyb 14y agoGoogle, please.
- jmvoodoo 14y agohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iodine_deficiency http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iodine_deficiency
- gwern 14y agoUnfortunately, the iodine has to be available before the third trimester for the full 10-15 point effect. :) For everyone reading this, it's already far far too late. I've been compiling some of the child & adult iodine studies into a little meta-analysis: http://www.gwern.net/Nootropics#iodine http://www.gwern.net/Nootropics#iodine Current conclusion: for 13+ year olds, the effect size is (95% CI) -0.11 to 0.29. Yes, we can't even rule out that iodine is harmful to adults.
- jayturley 14y agoA mobile-based distributed trust system that reflects what other people think of you and your skills, is resistant to gaming, and doesn't start with the premise of lots of Bitcoins.
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- fleitz 14y agoPeople thinking and resistant to gaming are pretty much mutually exclusive.
- mahyarm 14y agoThe Bear Group is doing something similar to automicrofarm, but with biofuels: http://www.innovationnewsdaily.com/767-robot-grows-biofuel-for-everyone.html http://www.innovationnewsdaily.com/767-robot-grows-biofuel-f...
- bfrs 14y agoVicarious (http://vicarious.com/ http://vicarious.com/) which recently got $15 million from Peter Thiel & Dustin Moscovitz would be a 9 on your scale.
- naranja83 14y agowww.loomio.org I would say rates between 3 and 4.
- mej10 14y agoThat is awesome and I really hope you can pull it off.
- ph0rque 14y agoAlso, I think you should rework the Yudkowsky Ambition scale a bit: * 3 and 4 are really on the same level, just interchangeable * 6 should really be an 8 or a 9, since it enables 7, 8 and perhaps 9 * the whole scale should be expanded so that 2-10 become 11-20, and 1 becomes e.g. a weekend hack that can bring in enough revenue to buy me a new toy every once in a while.
- TeMPOraL 14y agoOr, we can just keep this weekend hack as -9.
- olalonde 14y agoI think it would be fair to qualify it as a log scale :)
- pdog 14y agoMy notes: * While 3) and 4) both create sweeping political changes, 4) is decidedly scarier owing to the sheer destructive power. 3) encompasses positive change as well. * 6) may enable 7), 8) and perhaps 9), but is less ambitious in that it doesn't seek to bring those frighteningly ambitious ideas into reality (it only possibly enables them). * Zero.
- warfangle 14y agoI've been following/researching aquaponics for quite some time. It really does seem like the future - I hope you can pull this off.
- patrickk 14y agoYou may be interested in Garduino - a nice intersection of geek and growing stuff. Something that's on my to-do list. http://www.instructables.com/id/Garduino-Gardening-Arduino/ http://www.instructables.com/id/Garduino-Gardening-Arduino/
- thebigshane 14y agoIn case anyone missed the small blog link on the bottom: http://blog.automicrofarm.com http://blog.automicrofarm.com More information about the idea there. Count me interested! As long as it doesn't involve entomophagy... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entomophagy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entomophagy
- ph0rque 14y agoThanks... we have no plans on raising insects for human consumption! Right now, our prototype is producing fish, berries and vegetables; we'll be experimenting with fruit trees, beans, and eventually poultry (for eggs at first), mushrooms, and honey.
- rabidonrails 14y agointrigued, but the blog is down :(
- ph0rque 14y agoTry again... it's on tumblr, so we hope it can stay up!
- abecedarius 14y agoThat's a shame, since good insects to eat are hard to find: http://www.bayesianinvestor.com/blog/index.php/2012/09/05/eating-insects/ http://www.bayesianinvestor.com/blog/index.php/2012/09/05/ea...
- ph0rque 14y agoSince we will be providing a "platform", as it were, for building your own ecosystem of plants and animals, feel free to raise insects :)
- trafficlight 14y agoThis is fascinating. I'd love to build one of these setups.
- scarmig 14y agoFrighteningly ambitious, indeed. I fear it will fail, but I wildly hope it succeeds. Least I can do is add myself to your mailing list...
- Sukotto 14y agoI tried to add your RSS feed [1] to my reader, but there are no articles there. I think you've misconfigured something. Would love to have a nano tank like the one you describe. Please keep us posted. [1] http://blog.automicrofarm.com/rss http://blog.automicrofarm.com/rss
- ph0rque 14y agoHmm, chrome wants to install an app from the store, but firefox renders the feed just fine (it's not empty). What browser/OS are you using, or do you have stand-alone reader?
- Sukotto 14y agoTo reproduce: 1) Open Google Reader http://www.google.com/reader http://www.google.com/reader 2) click the red "Subscribe" button 3) paste the rss url from your site's sidebar http://blog.automicrofarm.com/rss http://blog.automicrofarm.com/rss 4) click "Add" 5) GReader says "You have subscribed to 'AutoMicroFarm Blog. ... "AutoMicroFarm Blog" has no items'
- ph0rque 14y agoFollowed your steps exactly, and got all the blog posts. Maybe it was some kind of delay?
- sammyo 14y agoI clicked through looking for an auo-micro-composting mechanism. And auto-harvesting. Did you have ideas about handling blights, molds and other diseases?
- ph0rque 14y agoFor auto-composting (not sure how micro you need to go...), we're thinking of using Black Soldier Fly Larvae to process the compost and auto-harvest into the fish tank for a snack for the fish. Another option is using earthworms, and manually (eventually automatically) harvesting them into the fish tanks, thus recycling one's food scraps back into food. As far as blight and mold, those problems have been identified and solved with greenhouse and hydroponics growing. The key to these problems and other diseases is to make it easy to prevent, or failing that, treat those diseases. But again, this is a solved problem.
- trafficlight 14y agoKottke just picked this up. http://kottke.org/12/09/the-scale-of-startup-ambition http://kottke.org/12/09/the-scale-of-startup-ambition