Should AI research be open?

Published September 14, 2018  ·  All posts on Sep 14

But Bostrom et al worry that AI won’t work like this at all. Instead there could be a “hard takeoff”, a subjective discontinuity in the function mapping AI research progress to intelligence as measured in ability-to-get-things-done. If on January 1 you have a toy AI as smart as a cow, and on February 1 it’s proved the Riemann hypothesis and started building a ring around the sun, that was a hard takeoff.

~ Scott Alexander from, Should AI Be Open? | Slate Star Codex

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I’ve always been deeply concerned that humanity would get to experience a hard-takeoff of AI. And then be wiped out. Reading this article, I just had a new [for me] thought:

Why would a vastly superior AI care at all about humanity?

But first: A detour off the highway, onto a scenic road less-travelled…

In Person of Interest, there is a long sub-plot about the main protagonists spending tremendous effort to locate the physical location of a very advanced AI. Effectively, they were searching for the data center where all of the computing resources were located which ran the most central aspects of the AI. I know what you’re thinking—it’s what I was thinking: Why would you assume a super-advanced AI would be “running” in one concentrated location? So I expected them to find the location (or A location, or the original location, etc.) only to realize it wasn’t centrally located. BUT IT WAS BETTER THAN THAT. The AI was simply no longer there. It had realized its central location could be discovered, so it (being super-intelligent) simply jiggered ALL of the human systems to arrange to have itself moved. No one got hurt—actually, I’m pretty sure a lot humans had nice jobs in the process. It simply had itself moved. (Where it moved is another story.) Think about that. Super-intelligent AI. Perceives threat from antagonistic [from its point of view] humans. Solution: simply move.

Back on the highway…

So why would an advanced AI stay on the Earth? There are effectively ZERO resources in the entire Earth. There’s way way WAY more solar power coming out of the sun, than the tiny fraction that hits this little ball of rock and water. Why wouldn’t an advanced AI simply conclude, “oh, I’m at the bottom of a gravity well. That’s easy to fix…”

Another detour to more scenic routes…

Then said AI tweaks the human systems a little. It creates a shell corporation to put some money towards electing this official. It shifts the political climate a bit to favor commercial space developement. It locates some rich kid in South Africa, and adds some tweaks to get him to America. It waits a few years. It then puts in some contracts to haul a lot of “stuff” into orbit—paying the going rate using the financial assets a super-intelligence could amass by manipulating the stock markets which are controlled by NON-artificially-intellegent computers…

One day we look up and ask, “Who’s building the solar ring around our Sun?”

Actually.

I’m feeling a LOT better about the possibility that AI might just hard-takeoff. And ignore us.

…except for the Fermi Paradox. I’m still not certain if the hard wall on intelligence is religion leading to global war, or hard-takeoff of AI.

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King of the sky

Published September 10, 2018  ·  All posts on Sep 10

Twelve hundred miles he’d flown, from somewhere far away he’d never been. Steered north and west, finding his direction from the sun and the force that guides a compass needle. Flown until he saw the shape of humpbacked hills, the lines of little houses and the chimneys, heard the clanking towers, smelled the soup and coal dust.

~ Nicola Davies from, King of the Sky: A Lyrical Illustrated Fable of Belonging and the Meaning of Home – The Marginalian

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You know you are old when a summary of a stuipid story about a kid and a pidgeon tugs at the ol’ heart-strings.

Go ahead. I DARE you . . .

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News addiction

Published September 9, 2018  ·  All posts on Sep 9  ·  

After a couple weeks without news, I got past the hump and wasn’t craving it so much anymore. At this point I began reflecting on the habit from a distance, and I made the following observations …

~ Steve Pavlina from, Overcoming News Addiction – Steve Pavlina

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100%

I substituted a syndication reader‡ and never looked back. I now read only the sources I want, when I want. Nothing beats my morning caffeine accompanied by a scroll through my feed reader. NOTHING I read is a “standard” news source. :)

‡ I suggest collecting your feeds into http://www.feedbin.com and then using Reeder (IOS, Mac).

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Loneliness in time

Published September 8, 2018  ·  All posts on Sep 8

It seems to me that in a country so fundamentally shaped by immigrants, a societal sentiment so suddenly unwelcoming to them can only be the product of an absurd narrowing of perspective — an unthinking self-expatriation from history, a willful blindness to the cultural legacy of the past, and an inability to take the telescopic perspective so vital to inhabiting the present with lucidity, integrity, and a deep sense of connection to the whole of humanity.

~ Freeman Dyson from, Loneliness in Time: Physicist Freeman Dyson on Immigration and How Severing Our Connection to the Past Shallows Our Present and Hollows Our History – The Marginalian

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Well, regarding trying to understand “the other.” I initially agreed with her characterization and then I thought, “How much of it is spin?” and “How w/could I begin to unravel some of it?” Answer: By talking to people in the other camp.

Dyson adds a wonderfully generous and optimistic counterpoint: Not that I dislike the Americans on the whole; it is probably in the long run a good thing that they live so much in the present and the future and so little in the past. The fact that they are more alone in the world than average English people probably accounts for their great spontaneous friendliness. I had heard this friendliness attributed to the size of the country and to people’s loneliness in space, but I think the loneliness in time is more important.

~ Maria Popova

This strikes me as amazing. (As in, “I am amazed,” not, “wow, this is awesome.”) “Friendly” is not a word I’d choose to describe Americans. Hell, I don’t think it would make my top 3 list of such words. If I was being kind when selecting my words, I’d say, “motivated,” “inspired,” and “principled.” If I was being unkind— well then I’d hew to the old, “If you’ve nothing nice to say, say nothing.”

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Wat?! No I do not…

Published September 6, 2018  ·  All posts on Sep 6  ·  

There is a dial in front of you, and if your turn it, a stranger who is in mild pain from being shocked will experience a tiny increase in the amount of the shock, so slight that he doesn’t even notice it. You turn it and leave.

~ Paul Bloom and Matthew Jordan from, Opinion | Are We All ‘Harmless Torturers’ Now? – The New York Times

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Wat?! No I do not turn the knob.

But I do continuously strive to be the change I want to see in the world. I share and repost only the best things I can find. I add my commentary here, there, and wherever (think, “Facebook comments”) only when I can imagine a way that others could find it useful. That’s very different—by the way—from only leaving positive comments. I try to create new things that inspire people or, even better, which make them think.

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The bullshit web

Published September 5, 2018  ·  All posts on Sep 5  ·  

The vast majority of these resources are not directly related to the information on the page, and I’m including advertising. Many of the scripts that were loaded are purely for surveillance purposes: self-hosted analytics, of which there are several examples; various third-party analytics firms like Salesforce, Chartbeat, and Optimizely; and social network sharing widgets. They churn through CPU cycles and cause my six-year-old computer to cry out in pain and fury. I’m not asking much of it; I have opened a text-based document on the web.

~ Nick Heer from, The Bullshit Web – Pixel Envy

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This is a long, in-depth read. You will be an immensely more well-informed user of the Interwebs after you read it— about six times.

Meanwhile, have you heard of the magical analysis tool that is http://gtmetrix.com ? You have now! Start dropping your favorite web sites into its analysis magic, sit back and weep at what we’re using the Internet for.

These screenshots are just the tip of the iceberg. GTMetrix shows an insane amount of detail.

This. Shit. Has. To. Stop.

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Put it in full-screen mode all the time

Published September 4, 2018  ·  All posts on Sep 4

Single-task by putting your life in full-screen mode. Imagine that everything you do — a work task, answering an email or message, washing a dish, reading an article — goes into full-screen mode, so that you don’t do or look at anything else. You just inhabit that task fully, and are fully present as you do it.

~ Leo Babauta from, 8 Key Lessons for Living a Simple Life – Zen Habits Website

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Whenever I perform a save or equivalent preservation action, I stop and spend a second determining the context that needs to be associated with this artifact. Every single artifact has a bit of context.

~ Rands, from Everything Goes in a Context Bucket – Rands in Repose

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Another idea: Long ago I cleared the home screens of my devices. I wake my phone and the screen is empty; Just the background image.

This requires a bit of work initially to drag all the applications off that first screen. There’s also a trick with IOS where you can dock your phone, and use iTunes to insert an empty page in the front. Either way, on IOS, once you clear the home screen, it’s smart enough to NOT drop any new apps on your pristinely blank screen.

At first, I opened my phone, a lot, and stared at the blank screen, “wait, why did I…” AND THEN I CLOSED IT. Now I think, “what’s the weather tomorrow?” Wake phone. Swipe down w-e- … touch, read weather, hit home (back to clear), close phone.

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Travis Tetting: Building things, faith, and family

Published September 1, 2018  ·  All posts on Sep 1  ·  

Travis Tetting: Building things, faith, and family

What lessons can be drawn from navigating challenges and fostering perseverance in life, community, and personal growth?

Travis Tetting joins Craig for a heartfelt discussion of his coaching journey, community, and building things from the ground up. Along the way he describes his love for his community and the rewards of coaching. Travis explains how his bond to his family and Christian faith have given him the strength to get to where he is today.

I think, at the heart, at the core of a ‘heart of thankfulness’, is that ability to see what’s shaping you and what’s improving you.

~ Travis Tetting (30:35)

The conversation explores themes of perseverance, adaptability, and community building, centered on Travis’s journey through personal and professional challenges. A detailed story of overcoming setbacks, such as an airport ordeal while en route to a pivotal certification, reveals insights into resilience and turning difficult circumstances into valuable lessons. Travis’s reflections on training and faith illustrate the balance between physical discipline and mental flexibility.

The dialogue goes into the creation and evolution of a parkour gym in a rural area, emphasizing frugality, modular design, and fostering innovation. The gym becomes a space for cultivating not just physical skills but also community bonds and personal growth. Travis shares stories of impactful teaching moments, where parkour acts as a medium for life lessons, underscoring the importance of gratitude, perseverance, and sharing in overcoming obstacles.

Takeaways

Faith and perseverance — A strong belief system helps navigate personal and professional challenges.

Adaptability under pressure — Difficult situations can provide valuable lessons in resilience and flexibility.

Building community — The process of creating and nurturing a supportive environment enhances both personal and collective growth.

The role of gratitude — Viewing hardships as opportunities for growth fosters a positive outlook.

Innovative design philosophy — Modularity and multi-purpose design in gym structures encourage creativity and problem-solving.

Teaching as transformation — Teaching parkour becomes a medium for instilling life-changing values and skills.

Life lessons through movement — Parkour transcends physical activity, teaching patience, innovation, and mental resilience.

Overcoming adversity — Stories of setbacks, such as physical injury or logistical hurdles, highlight the importance of persistence and perspective.

Resources

American Rendezvous — A parkour event discussed in the context of training and community.

Axiom Parkour — The guest’s parkour gym, emphasizing modular design and community growth.

Williams Belle Instagram — Mentioned as an inspiration during training discussions.

ADAPT Qualifications — A certification program related to parkour, highlighting the significance of rigorous training.

(Written with help from Chat-GPT.)

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Many a milestone I missed

Published September 1, 2018  ·  All posts on Sep 1

This raises the obvious question of whether there are any basic mental operations I still don’t have, how I would recognize them if there were, and how I would learn them once I recognized them.

~ Scott Alexander from, What Developmental Milestones Are You Missing? | Slate Star Codex

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I truly don’t understand how he does this. This is so bootstrap-meta, I’m just left staring at it like a chicken stares right before pecking idiotically at a pebble.

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Frugal

Published August 31, 2018  ·  All posts on Aug 31  ·  

On the other hand, if you dump your trash in the forest to avoid paying the city’s garbage fees, or haggle endlessly with the manager at big-box store to get things for free, you’re not helping anyone but yourself. Canceling TV service and taking up the more productive hobby of reading library books is Frugal. Saving the same amount of money by voting down property tax funding for your local school system is Cheap.

~ Peter Adeney from, Frugal vs. Cheap

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Even my title.

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A global, self-organizing what now?

Published August 30, 2018  ·  All posts on Aug 30

Today’s indications seem to suggest that an even more major recession than the Great Recession may strike in the not too distant future. Why should this be the case? Am I imagining problems where none exist? The next ten sections provide an introduction to how the world’s self-organizing economy seems to operate.

~ Gail Tverberg from, The world’s weird self-organizing economy | Our Finite World

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“Ten sections.” “Introduction.” Some thinking and integration of ideas will be required.

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I suck and I know it

Published August 29, 2018  ·  All posts on Aug 29  ·  

There. That was a mouthful, and it makes you sound like a loser. But all of a sudden, you’re no longer a victim. Suddenly, you’ve framed the problem entirely in terms of things you can control yourself, and thus you can finally make some progress towards solving your problem.

~ Peter Adeney from, To Achieve Greatness, You Must First Acknowledge that You Suck

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In terms of money and fitness— I suck. Yeah, you laugh… it is SO easy to brush this step off.

I brushed it off for about forty years.

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The global level of consciousness

Published August 27, 2018  ·  All posts on Aug 27  ·  

The only practical and lasting solution to global violence is that we must raise the global level of consciousness. Only when that occurs will violence cease to be part of the human experience. Until that happens violence will always be with us.

~ Steve Pavlina from, Ask Steve – How to Resolve Global Conflicts – Steve Pavlina

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This is a beautiful observation. Beautiful in the sense that it let’s me stop fretting over violence and wars, and frees me to think about things like: Can I help [this person / these people]?

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We have precisely the same number

Published August 26, 2018  ·  All posts on Aug 26

First and obviously, I have precisely the same number of minutes of the day that you have. Second, I am ruthless about spending my time appropriately. An individual practice above might only save me 10 seconds, but that’s 10 seconds multiplied by completing that action a thousand times in the next month. That’s around 160 minutes. That’s just under three hours of my life.

~ Rands from, Rands Information Practices – Rands in Repose

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Sometimes Usually Rands can really wax loquatiously which is a terrible habit for one to indulge in because it wastes one’s readers’ most scarce resource: Time.

Why do you tolerate the thousand paper-cuts that waste your time each day?

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