Utility Maximizer's guide to replicators, networks, game theory, and civilization
Let me give you some context to the below document. I have a friend on discord who has been experimenting with very unconventional machine learning models. He recently confided in me some frankly sensationalistic and hard to believe claims of breakthrough. He claims that his model has tapped into a previously invisible “information field“. He … Continue reading The Body of the Universe
Introduction This will be a long article. I was spurred to write it by this post on the SlateStarCodex subreddit. It rubbed me the wrong way. I worry AI safety folks are risking the same fate of the New Atheists. That is, the vast majority of people who disagreed with them had bad philosophical justifications … Continue reading Reasonable Reasons to NOT be THAT Worried about AI Doomsday
Stop me if you've heard this: Now with self-driving cars, engineers will be faced with dilemmas. They will have to decide the answers to certain contentious questions in moral philosophy. For example, should a car go straight and hit the child, or divert and hit the man? How should the software be programmed to behave? … Continue reading No, self-driving cars don’t require we solve “trolley problem” moral dilemmas
Part 1: Modus-Tollens Moral arguments are hard because often you are arguing with someone who simply has different fundamental presuppositions than you do. It’s hard to apply formal logic to morality because when reach those base axioms, you’re at an impasse. However, one thing that we can do is show that the opponent’s moral system, … Continue reading Find the Absurdities in Your Own Arguments
To what extent do you have “fate?” And no, I’m not talking about free will and determinism. I mean the expectation that your experiences are going to follow a certain trajectory. You can experience a bit of existential dread: you are not the character of a movie or novel, and nothing is going to happen … Continue reading Do the Gods Have a Plan for You?
Part 1: Free Speech Almost all free-speech-advocates make the argument for free speech in a flawed way. It’s understandable; the complete case for free speech is more complex than even what I will provide in this essay. I think the right case for free speech is from a “political freedom” frame. A good, popular, short-form … Continue reading Political Freedom is Really Only About Managing Recursion
So, in proving that I can do whatever the most prominent thought leaders of our time can do, except better (ok, you be the judge), I present to you
Preface I don’t believe everything written here. The point of this article is to shock you with something sufficiently far outside of your normal sensibilities that you may momentarily jump-start your moral outlook. If you had a negative reaction to that last sentence, you should stop reading now, because you probably won’t like my writing … Continue reading Maximum Realism
I present, The Gig Economy. I didn't write it, but I made this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsUi7MaYqwc&t=4840s And, what would be more interesting to readers of this website, I made video versions of my adaptive valley series. In 3 parts: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91bMrQyRJ60 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wDpFSXTUlc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-vGCYZXiXg&t=151s
Everyone in physics and/or computer science reads XKCD. People in these fields frequently reference and link to it. I'll admit I have done so. The vast majority of the comic strips (from here on just "comics") are basically mundane. Some are kind of interesting. A small number are legitimately objectionable. Over the last 2 days, … Continue reading The 10 Most Society-Damaging XKCD Comics
Epiphany a Week 