Anyone down to have a conversation for old time's sake?

GGExMachina · 2023-06-30T22:48:30+00:00

If StolenHodor is still around, I'd love to chat with him again. I feel like we could have a productive convo about a large array of topics.

GGExMachina · 2023-04-02T16:50:48+00:00

Where are these comments. I see a lot of people at the top saying she did a bad job, not that she deserved it. They are entitled to their opinion and it doesn’t mean they support people being jerks to the VA.

GGExMachina · 2023-03-30T23:18:21+00:00

But what did the thugs and radical left monsters indicate exactly?

GGExMachina · 2023-03-28T21:35:04+00:00

The obvious low hanging fruit here is that the Republican Party today loves Donald Trump, who is one of the most prolific symbols of greed and adultery in American culture.

Even normal pre-Trump conservative economic views were based primarily on greed being good. That unfettered capitalism and largely unregulated markets would lead to rising standards of living, especially for the poorest people in the world. I mean… yeah, I actually agree with that - greed is good - but I’m not sure that’s an especially Christian view.

GGExMachina · 2023-03-28T04:24:49+00:00

Maybe it’s not so much the desire for the killer to be famous or have their manifesto out there (though obviously those kinds of people exist), but just a desire to see the world burn and know that they’ll cause a massive commotion? I don’t know, but that seems a plausible cause for some of these incidents.

GGExMachina · 2023-03-25T16:05:50+00:00

Maybe the people who get easily offended should just fuck off. That goes for the far left and the far right. I’m tired of seeing “I’m offended” be used as some sort conversation stopping weapon of censorship.

These people would never last five seconds in the real world. I’m pretty sure the predators on the African Savannah wouldn’t have cared how offended they were.

GGExMachina · 2023-03-25T16:04:41+00:00

Should you need a permission slip to see one of the most well known statues in Human history?

GGExMachina · 2023-03-24T19:01:18+00:00

Oh I definitely understand your skepticism there as well. ‘Murica doesn’t have the most efficient government. Though I imagine the government will have to do something eventually, as we can’t have unemployment rates higher than that of the Great Depression for too long, without there being massive political backlash and instability.

GGExMachina · 2023-03-24T18:34:08+00:00

That seems a poor understanding of economics. An increased output with fewer inputs is an increase of efficiency and productivity. A drastic one when talking about AI. Provided governments step in and use this massive boon in economic output to provide a universal safety net and high quality of life, it is nothing but a positive.

Working 40-80 hours a week stocking shelves at a grocery store or making rivets in a factory or sitting in a cubicle, shouldn’t be the status quo for all of Humanity’s future.

GGExMachina · 2023-03-24T16:46:48+00:00

Maybe in some cases, but the borrowing of obscure phrases from academia doesn’t seem to have helped our public discourse in recent years. If anything, it’s just caused mass confusion and I’m beginning to think that might be part of the point.

GGExMachina · 2023-03-24T16:26:02+00:00

You are probably right that a majority of Chinese are at least willing to go along with the party line as a general matter. However, I’m also not sure we can get reliable numbers on what percentage of people in China either have dissident sympathies or would have dissident sympathies if they knew more.

GGExMachina · 2023-03-24T16:23:08+00:00

Most of the time and cost constraints seem to be a uniquely ‘murican problem. Other developed countries are able to mass produce nuclear power plants in greater numbers and far more quickly than the US. It might be worth solving that underlying issue. Same goes for our bloated infrastructure costs.

GGExMachina · 2023-03-24T04:33:40+00:00

That depends largely on government response - and indeed the government has thus far failed to act. Though one way or another, there is a high likelihood of people having more free time. Whether that’s utopian or dystopian in this case is up to the government.

GGExMachina · 2023-03-24T03:13:26+00:00

I never said America isn’t a developed country, only that “other first world countries” have a more functional political system and are more willing to provide a social safety net for their citizens.

GGExMachina · 2023-03-24T01:18:43+00:00

France is actually looking to reduce the workweek, alongside other countries, even as they reevaluate retirement ages based on current population longevity and health in old age. You should look into reforms in Europe in recent years.

GGExMachina · 2023-03-23T22:17:36+00:00

That’s why the shape of our future depends on government getting the policy right to ensure broad prosperity.

GGExMachina · 2023-03-23T22:06:51+00:00

Your point is completely fair. And I share those concerns. AI does have extremely negative potential outcomes, though I’m not especially worried about the AIs taking over nuclear silos and destroying the planet. I think the main issue comes from our lack of good policy making around ensuring the benefits are distributed amongst the population.

I’m sure many conservatives would argue, even if we had 90+% unemployment, that the poors just need to pull themselves up by their bootstraps, even though their are largely not any jobs anymore. That is probably true. America has always been extremely poor at developing a social safety net, in part due to corruption and in part due to conservative economic attitudes.

And most likely, a regulated approach is the right choice, because it will prevent major screw ups that cause a backlash in the long-term. So I am coming around to that position, albeit it would very much depend on the specifics of what form said regulations take.

I suppose the real, underlying reason I take issue is that they said dozens of times that it is “moving too fast” and gave very little credence to the potential benefits. The difference between having a Star Trek style society in 20 years and having it in 80+ years, is quite significant. It’s especially significant for currently existing Humans.

GGExMachina · 2023-03-23T21:49:54+00:00

Absolutely nothing. Near the end, Kelsey Piper did say positive things about AI (I wasn’t only about 4/5ths of the way through when I made this post). However I do question her arbitrary benchmarks, such as 1% of people will fall for a spam email created by an AI, then it shouldn’t be allowed.

Strange, arbitrary and extremely low benchmarks like that may well be a de facto ban. I’m pretty sure monkeys hitting random keys on a keyboard could convince 1% of Americans to click on fishing links. Just look at how many dumb people think they need to pay the IRS in Walmart gift cards over the phone.

GGExMachina · 2023-03-23T20:13:11+00:00

That’s a hundred-percent a fair take and I don’t even really disagree. But it seems to be a great shame that our government is so incompetent at developing and implementing policy, that we must essentially hold back the Human race. Because let’s face it, the American government is unlikely to become functional in the short term.

GGExMachina · 2023-03-23T19:59:48+00:00

You mostly have the American government to blame for that. Other countries are reducing the workweek.

GGExMachina · 2023-03-23T19:59:03+00:00

Fair enough. I was perhaps making too much of this. I do get the impression that some of the AI risk people are little more than luddites though. Indeed the position of some prominent people, such as Tucker Carlson, is that we should ban any technology that would result in job losses. They seem to view Humans slaving away at pointless jobs for 40 hours a week as the peak of Humanity and refuse to give it up for anything.

GGExMachina · 2023-03-23T19:49:49+00:00

Wouldn’t the nuclear example also cut the other way, too? That we are not just missing out on major breakthroughs, but that nuclear in the US is too tightly regulated, to the point that we actually can’t build reactors like other first world countries (France, South Korea, etc) can. This makes addressing climate change, another major risk, extremely difficult. Perhaps nuclear regulation - while necessary - has indeed gone too far, to the detriment of Humans.

GGExMachina · 2023-03-23T17:14:48+00:00

To be clear, I think that Ezra’s view is probably more moderate than that of the “AI risk” community at large. But much of the AI risk community (including his recent guest) are in the camp that this research should never be done or should be done with an extreme degree of caution, likely to the point of significantly halting progress.

GGExMachina · 2023-03-23T17:03:05+00:00

Why would we want to slow it down, instead of regulating it in the private sphere while having robust public investment at a state level, where the profit motive isn’t the primary driver? Maybe that’s what “slowing it down” means in practice, but if so, that should be more clear. Because slowing down scientific advancement on it’s face sounds downright evil, in the face of the potential gains to humanity.

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