JarJarJedi
Streamlined derailments and counteridea reeducation
User ID: 1118
JarJarJedi
10d ago
Super cool, but I am afraid it'd be the same as with jetpacks - the tech exists for a while now but it's not practically usable outside of flashy demos.
JarJarJedi
10d ago
No, no one is in favor of broad spectrum debanking.
For a thing that no one is in favor of, it's weird how it already happened with all nine largest US banks: https://www.occ.gov/news-issuances/news-releases/2026/nr-occ-2026-90.html
In reality, debanking had been a popular tool for a while before the Left got so bold it decided to deploy it at present scale. It had been used against legal but "disfavored" industries for years. Look up Operation Choke Point for example. It had been going on for a long time, except that, as always, the boundaries eroded further and further until it arrived to a point where to get debanked, you just need to be publicly known to be a thought criminal.
JarJarJedi
10d ago
I wonder what the Catholic theology has to say about it - can you put term limits on this office and how does it sit with the doctrine of papal supremacy? I mean, if the Pope is God's earthly representative, wouldn't it be kind of presumptuous for mere mortals to say "today you are the God's vicar but after 2pm tomorrow you just an old dude"?
JarJarJedi
11d ago
John Paul II was 58 when elected. One of the longest ruling popes on record. Not everybody would like that - it's one thing if you don't like him and he's gone in 5 years, and another thing if it's over 25 years.
JarJarJedi
12d ago
That is very similar to what charter cities are trying to do I think. Except that not having the backing from someone with massive military and balls to use it, it is very vulnerable to plunder at the first sign of producing any value that can be plundered. Or even without it, just by virtue of being an example that things can be done differently it's an irritant to local powers that would have it destroyed just out of spite.
JarJarJedi
12d ago
The Right watches in horror the irreversible ratchet of their nation being diluted; the Left watches the irreversible ratchet of lives being wasted.
There's an obvious solution for this of course. If the resource on Western Goodness in certain territory is limited, we need to produce more Western Goodness in another territories, so that the lives could be saved there without being constrained by the limited supplies of a single country or small set of countries. But, of course, this obvious solution is considered the worst of all possible evils. That's where the symmetry breaks - the Left doesn't just want to save the lives, they want to save the lives in a way that would precisely replicate the conditions which made it necessary for the lives to be saved in the first place! If we take your abortion analogy, it's be as if the pro-lifers would insist on the act of birth never ever happening - while the life of the fetus is sacred, it can never be born and become a full-responsible human. Imagine there was a technical way to prolong the pregnancy indefinitely - and imagine pro-life movement that would insist on banning both abortions and births.
JarJarJedi
12d ago
I'd advise to just try and go. Worst thing you'd feel nothing and would then try some other place. But maybe in some place you'd feel a little connection. If it's not your habit, you won't just get all the benefits from the start - that's like going to the gym once and expecting to be instantly fit. But if it's working a little, you could keep working at it and maybe it will get better.
JarJarJedi
15d ago
Read 10 Books That Screwed Up the World by Benjamin Wiker. An interesting critical review of several "foundational" books on modern liberal culture. Of course, not without bias, as one might have guessed from the title, and one can debate the selection until blue in the face, but leaving that aside, the author raises some interesting points. Of course, blaming a handful of books in all the troubles of humanity is a bit too harsh, in my opinion, but if you take them not only as books but as expressions of the dominating thought patterns and cultural phenomena, then I think the author has a good ground to stand on.
Finishing that, I've switched to a different area and started Monster Hunters International. Pretty fun so far, though I think I like Dresden's writing a bit better. Will report more when I finish it.
JarJarJedi
17d ago
I think the US really missed the mark by not having "Chains of Office".
Nah don't think so. US moved to the early Roman model, where the office holder, while they can have massive powers, only hold these powers while required by some substantial need, and surrender them at once when the need passes. Of course, it doesn't exactly work this way (neither did it for Romans) but at least that's the general idea. The alternative is that some random asshole, having beaten another random asshole by 17 votes, suddenly is some special semi-divine entity floating in the sky above well beyond mere mortal's reach. That's such bullshit. At least in Middle Ages there were real differences - the nobles were better clothed, better armed, better fed, better educated, usually healthier, often smarter, etc. so there was at least some basis to treating them differently. Obviously, that didn't always held but at least there was some logic in it. Now everybody is basically the same, not getting into the weeds of HBD, nobody has any claim on being better than anybody else. So what's the point?
I can understand blinging up the Head of State - we need to show those foreigners how rich and powerful we are, so they would respect us. But the mayor? Who cares about the mayor? Their task is to make sure the garbage is getting taken out and the buses run on schedule. Don't get me wrong, it's an important task, deserving of respect - but as a job, not as some kind of divine mandate.
JarJarJedi
19d ago
An exercise company named "Sore Necks"? Hmmm....
JarJarJedi
20d ago
I think you are right. I am going to Reddit exclusively for a handful of niche communities - and those could have existed on any platform. But they exist on Reddit because it's the default place, so I have to go to Reddit to read them. I'd happily not go there because the rest of Reddit is a toxic dump, but I have no choice.
JarJarJedi
21d ago
the ones that have disgust-forward personalities and conventional morality (we're talking Kohlberg 3/4s)- to throw out the survey.
That's the big difference, right here. Cults can be very selective. They only need 0.01% to join to survive (in fact, much less - in a nation of hundreds of millions, typical cult size is probably dozens). Totalitarian regimes can't thrive on 0.01% success. That's why crimestop is the technique that works on 99% of people - because it's designed for mass control. Cult filters, on the other hand, are completely fine with rejecting 99% of people - as long as the remaining 1% is a good match.
JarJarJedi
21d ago
As I understand, if you get it from inhaling vapors from a broken vial, it'd be 100% pneumonic. One gets the bubonic one via an infected insect bite, and the way of ingress defines how it goes - if it's the bite, it goes to the closest lymph node, settles there and you have a bubo. If it's inhaled, it settles in the lungs, thus pneumonic. You don't need to modify anything between one and the other, it's just how it got in that matters.
JarJarJedi
21d ago
The best guess is a common, regular, run of the mill Russian fuckup. A low-paid under-trained lab worker, in a lab neglecting basic safety protocols because nobody's got time for that elaborate shit, breaks a vial with live pathogen. Not wanting to get chewed up by the superiors, cause trouble, and maybe get docked some pay for causing trouble, she never reports it. When she feels bad, she goes to the regular local hospital. In the hospital, nobody has any idea about who she is and why she's there, so she is treated as anybody who'd show up with respiratory symptoms in the beginning of the flu season. Except it doesn't go like flu at all, instead she dies quickly and horribly. People start checking and find out where she'd been working. Major "oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck" flags start going up, and people start bouncing it up the chain of command, which automatically engages "lie, deny and hide" strategy, but it's obviously too big to be handled like that now. So the real containment protocols - which existed in Russia since the Tsar's times, it's not their first rodeo by far - start activating, and that's where everybody learns about it.
The plague control labs have existed in Russia since forever, and not only for plague, for other diseases too. Those labs deal with monitoring, defending against, etc. various pathogens occurring naturally, including the plague. There were also weaponization efforts, including in Russia, but as far as it is known, Irkutsk lab hasn't been any part of that system. Of course, there's always possibility of something that we don't know coming up, but so far the best guess is the lab fuckup, followed by multiple chained safety protocol fuckups.
JarJarJedi
21d ago
I disagree. Crimestop is designed to prevent a rational consideration of undesirable matter - because considering it may lead a person to conclusions or thought patterns that are disapproved by the Party. However, the cow question, if pondered seriously, would most likely lead people to become disgusted and more entrenched in the value of their current culture - "we normies have our faults, but at least obsessing with questions like that isn't one of them". It's not a slippery slope, rather it's the opposite of it - the more you try to go there, the more all of your instincts scream at you to turn back. Except, of course, for the rare few that are really into it. Crimestop is not designed to guard against a rare few freaks - it is designed to control the masses. This question is designed to filter for certain kind of freaks.
JarJarJedi
21d ago
If the experience with gun control or drug control teaches us something, it's how hard is to prevent people from doing something they want to do. And how much control does it require to have even a limited degree of success in it. Imagine a world where only ISIS and the Sinaloa cartel has the true AI... And the CIA/NSA of course but we don't talk about it. OTOH the regular citizens ae required to have government monitoring software on any device smarter than a thermostat.
JarJarJedi
21d ago
Is anyone arguing for "give Eliezer and Scott full exclusive access to prompting the first ASI instead of Sam or Dario"?
It's not personally Scott and Eliezer. It's the Oversight Committee (there's always a committee). But who do you think will influence forming the committee and who do you think the members of the committee would look for guidance when faced with tough decisions? Wouldn't it be the folks that convinced the government that the committee is needed in the first place? Or at least folks aligned with them?
but he is not in the position to do that and will never be.
He personally may be not. But some more savvy, slick and energetic politician taking cues from him might be. Marx or Gramsci did not personally take power.
Eliezer is not a critical stakeholder with whom one needs to coordinate.
If Eliezer does not matter, then it doesn't matter who says what about him. I am fine with this outcome, where whatever he says and does is immaterial and he has no influence on the outcome of things. I am afraid however it's not entirely the case, as a lot of people who are very knowledgeable in the industry and are at least adjacent to its control levers are significantly influenced by him (either personally or by the ideology he embodies). Maybe I am worrying for nothing, I'd be happy with that outcome too.
JarJarJedi
21d ago
Are they paranoid about China or is their only problem with China that they think they can control the US government easier than they can control the CCP? Imagine if CCP told them "you know what, we decided you are right and we're pausing our AI research, but we are kind of concerned the US would gain unfair advantage. So we need you to, you know, sabotage US a little - not a lot, just to maintain parity, nobody is going to get hurt and everybody wins!" Would they take the deal? I know a lot of their ideological predecessors took the similar deal with the USSR and the nukes...
JarJarJedi
22d ago
You have DoW directly saying that EA and all that it stands for is anti-American
Are they wrong? I mean, I don't know if there's a pure-rational EA-based case for patriotism and American exceptionalism, but I certainly didn't notice a lot of people in EA circles looking for one and trying to build one up. I suspect if somebody seriously and earnestly did so, they'd be expelled from a lot of EA spaces. I mean, I understand there could be a very different view about what "American" is about, but if we talk about what a middle ground conservative working for DoW understands about it, how much the EA movement is his friend and how much it is his enemy? I am not asking who is right and wrong between them, but if we stand on the position of DoW, what would be the correct evaluation of EA from their side?
JarJarJedi
22d ago
While Scott is a blogger that writes thoughtful and occasionally entertaining blog posts, I certainly couldn't care less about where he stands in relationship to donkeys, NASCAR or juvenile justice, unless he chooses do discuss one of these topics on the blog. HOWEVER, if he comes forward as a part of a movement that claims them - or people selected by them, or people selected by the process influenced by them - need to receive extraordinary powers which will possibly control the destiny of humanity for millennia forward - and while I don't know if it's true or not, they certainly claim it is true - I think I am entitled to apply strict scrutiny here. Weird deviant blogger is not a threat to me, and I am fine with having dozens of them around without feeling the least bit unsafe. Weird deviant cult vying for absolute control over one of the most important technologies in the history of humanity - hey, that's maybe not what I am fine with. And if they proclaim they can align the AI, maybe it's time for me to ask - align AI with what exactly, and do I really want the AI to be aligned with that?
JarJarJedi
22d ago
And it wasn't a particularly good job either, according to the experts: https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/real-monet-ai-chaos
JarJarJedi
22d ago
Twelve Caesars by Mary Bird. Contrary to my initial expectations, this is not the book about Roman History per se (though it features as a background) and not about the famous work by Suetonius (though it is present on the background too) but about the "Twelve Caesars" as a cultural meme and in general, about how Romans (mainly prominent, high-born Romans, of course, nobody cared about others) have been depicted in European art and culture over the centuries, and which part of this is supported by actual verifiable historical facts (spoiler: less than we'd like to). It turned out more interesting than I would expect from this description, I do not regret spending time with it.
JarJarJedi
22d ago
I think https://ai-2027.com/slowdown#slowdown-2028-03-31 might be that pitch. It pretty much openly promises Vance the crown if he joins the movement. The real power will belong to the Oversight Committee, of course, but he can have whatever is left of the remainder of the earthly power, after all, somebody needs to keep the lights on.
JarJarJedi
22d ago
"How do we make sure people are taking us seriously and do not just think we're a bunch of deluded nutcase hippies?" - "Oh, I know! Let us compare ourselves to Jesus! I mean, literally! Let us seriously claim we are the modern day Jesus and if you ever been Christian you must do what we say!".
I think you misunderstood my meaning. I don't say the tech already existed, I am saying once this tech is released, even if it becomes widely known how to do it, it still won't gain common use due to various other factors - just as there are a lot of ways to make a jetpack now, but not a lot of common use of them. I am not questioning Musk's priority, just the future of it as a consumer technology.
That said, he was able to make electric car and satellite internet a consumer technology, so what do I know. Hopefully somebody will read this in ten years, point at it and laugh, calling me an idiot.
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