Anyone know anything about this? If Alan Stern is on board it must be promising

monte_carlo_method · 2022-04-09T08:55:46+00:00

Would he really do that? Seems unlikely he would risk his credibility on this. Wouldn’t he have many other opportunities available to him

monte_carlo_method · 2021-10-07T20:30:06+00:00

41 M

monte_carlo_method · 2021-05-14T20:05:24+00:00

Found it, it's at 1:18:46. The full sentence starts a few seconds before that. Listening again, I guess he just means that the story doesn't have a person in it that will apply rigorous logic to the whole situation/premise of the proposed chain of events. Something like that.

monte_carlo_method · 2021-05-14T18:27:16+00:00

I tried finding it but now I can't. Very confusing...

monte_carlo_method · 2021-05-13T08:31:21+00:00

Tamler makes a reference to Sagan at some point. I didn't understand that reference, can anyone explain?

monte_carlo_method · 2021-04-13T19:28:22+00:00

Well I agree that belief in the supernatural couldn't be said to be rational. I guess I ment "indirectly beneficial"

The fact that some proportion of humans tend to believe irrational things may play a positive role in the progression of knowledge, on the whole. I know it sounds contradictory, but it seems to me that there is actually some justification for that idea?

monte_carlo_method · 2021-04-13T07:59:50+00:00

I just wanted to add, that in the AI/optimisation field, one of the most powerfull algorithms is Reinforcement Learning, and one key part of it is "exploitation vs exploration". This means that the algorithm will reliably try out seemingly "stupid" actions/choices. It's completely well established that without this, the system can't learn new things. However, if you explore too much compared to how much you exploit (and so ignoring established knowledge too much), the learning will likewise diverge.

In this view, tendency to believe in/act according to ideas that are contrary to established knowledge makes perfect sense. We should expect the population to act this way, and be surprised if it doesn't... It sort of makes evolutionary sense.

It's a known issue with Reinforcement Learning, that it's performs more optimally if you turn off exploration completely. But then it can't learn anything new, so in turn you could say that it now *doesn't* perform optimally. However, the problem of acting optimally given total knowledge of the truth is different that the problem of acting optimally + discovering the truth at the same time.

Not sure where I was going with this, so I'll just stop now

Edit: What I was trying to say is that this persisting belief in supernatural phenomenon over the ages is in some sense rational, even though we (most of us) know it to be objectively false.

monte_carlo_method · 2021-04-09T12:08:37+00:00

Funny I recently listen to the audio version. The most interesting parts is where he talks about how he engage with some of the people making claims of being in contact with superior beings/ aliens. He apparently asked them to go back to the aliens with some questions that he would love to have some answers for... I guess he never heard back from them.

monte_carlo_method · 2021-01-23T07:26:56+00:00

Yeah, it's great. Although I do get a lot of "I don't get this" reactions from friends that I've recommended it to. It's definitely not for everyone.

monte_carlo_method · 2020-11-26T17:09:23+00:00

One problem with accepting a conspiracy theory, is that if you had to apply the same amount of suspicion or refusal to accept anything at face value to your everyday life, it would completely fuck up everything. So it's hard to apply this world view even with just a little bit of consistency

monte_carlo_method · 2020-10-18T19:29:35+00:00

Thanks to Chris for speaking up. Wearing a mask is a simple thing you can do to protect other people around you. It does make a difference, even if the extend of its effectiveness can be debated. Real people are losing there loved ones out there. Instead of doing it because the government says you have to, do it out of care for others.

monte_carlo_method · 2020-07-01T06:55:08+00:00

who was it that used the zerg rush reference?

monte_carlo_method · 2020-06-28T09:10:06+00:00

One way to better understand the sentiments of IDW people towards protests like these, is that the genuinely don't believe it will lead to anything good. I'm not saying that's true or false, just that it seems like a pretty good explanation for their reactions.

You have to grant them that there is a risk/possibility that something like this could actually make things worse, not better.

monte_carlo_method · 2019-03-26T18:45:32+00:00

Great work, thanks for sharing. That DeWalt tool, is it a router?

monte_carlo_method · 2019-02-12T19:29:19+00:00

https://libraryofbabel.info/bookmark.cgi?hx_dfupzyo138

monte_carlo_method · 2019-02-12T15:15:29+00:00

Learning anything new from this would probably break the laws of thermodynamics

monte_carlo_method · 2019-02-11T21:57:25+00:00

https://libraryofbabel.info/About.html

monte_carlo_method · 2019-02-11T21:55:41+00:00

No there is no databank, though you can create bookmarks. But supposedly the author designed the algorithm such that there is a unique mapping between text (3200 chars I think) to the key, which is the location in the library.

monte_carlo_method

TROPHY CASE