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SkoomaDentist


				

				

				

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joined 2022 September 04 19:08:00 UTC
				

				

				

				

				

				

					
				

				

				
				
				

				
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SkoomaDentist


								

								

								
								
								

								
							
					
 
				


				

				
				
				

				

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				Culture War Roundup for the week of May 8, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


As a counterexample, I think the scientists arguing for funding for near-Earth asteroid surveys and funding asteroid impactor experiments are quite reasonable in their proclamations of concern for existential risk to the species: there's a foreseeable risk, but we can look for specific possible collisions and perform small-scale experiments on actually doing something.




This is a good point. The scientists can point to both prehistoric examples of multiple mass extinction events as well as fairly regular near-misses (for varying definitions of "near") and say "Hey, we should spend some modest resources to investigate if and how we might divert this sort of cataclysm". It's refreshingly free of any sort of "You must immediately change your goals and lifestyle to align with my preferences or you are personally dooming humanity!" moralistic bullshit.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for May 7, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
There are real metabolism related diseases that result in extra far storage that aren’t all that rare. The most obvious one is probably hypothyroidism. Of course the mechanism of action is still regulating energy expenditure and calorie input, but that doesn’t mean the diseases aren’t real. It also doesn’t mean they are anything like what Yudkowski imagines they are.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of May 8, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Really big bomb that poisons the area for a few decades.




Except it doesn't even do that unless specifically made to do so by triggering a surface burst instead of the normal air burst. See f.ex. the post apocalyptic wasteland known as Hiroshima (current pop. 1.2 million).


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of May 8, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Why would you even need malignant AI or malignant human?


It's not hard to imagine realistic scenarios where AI enhanced military technology simply ends up falling down a local maximum slope that ends with major destruction (or what's effectively destruction from a bird's eye view). No need to come up with hyperbolic anthromorphised scenarios that read mostly like fiction.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				A Deep Dive into K-pop – Matt Lakeman
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


The K-pop invasion of the west




What invasion?


I've yet to see a single trace of K-pop outside niche nerd circles.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of May 8, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
FYI, your (inteneded) image links seem to be broken.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of May 1, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


On the face of it, I don’t see any strategic reason for NATO or the Allie’s to really invest in a free Ukraine.




I'm pretty sure what you mean is you don't see reason for US / Canada to invest in a free Ukraine. For European Nato countries there are blatantly obvious reasons such as Russia being a hostile country just a 1000 km away from most and neighbouring others (including direct threats by multiple high officials that several Nato countries "are really part of Russia").


It's fine if you think US should be isolationist but don't pretend that you can speak for Europe.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for April 30, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Mobile. Can't really have adblocker when you use the native FB app.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of April 24, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Why do you fixate on GPT?


Old style expert system "AIs" have already been better than doctors at diagnosis for decades.


Much of the reason doctors are used is because the establishment doesn't want to release too many medications to be effectively prescription free. A deterministic AI can be worked around easily while a fairly expensive (either in money, time, or effort) human in the loop acts as a deterrent against patients gaming the system.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of April 24, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I see this in one music related hobby that leans heavily towards people with interest in the details of physical instruments. Trans women outnumber cis women by a large margin in all english speaking forums related to it, to the extent that assuming every female coded name is trans is right much more often than not. Based on their comment history and profiles, more or less all of those trans women are on the spectrum (and much further than most men in the forums).


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of April 24, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
It's particularly crazy when both terms translate to the exact same thing in many languages.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for April 23, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Nope, he was worse than Jeremias Suomalainen.




As a Finn I'm obligated to ask who the hell is "Jeremias Suomalainen" and why is his first name so weird?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for April 21, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Around 20 years ago I met a Greek guy who’d studied Finnish for six months from language cassettes and then spent two months here speaking the language. At that point he was fluent to the extent that I first thought he’d been living here for a decade. I’ve never seen anyone else come even remotely close to that and the guy turned out to be a language genius (he spoke around a dozen languages more or less proficiently).


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of April 10, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Or befriend someone who did and get them to spill all the secrets.




This is how most spies operated during the cold war. Find and befriend people with access who had the right ideology or could be bribed to leak documents.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for April 9, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
With a ”fun” bout of norovirus. On the upside, it only struck on sunday evening and the views here at the summer cottage are much nicer than at home. On the downside, my sides and back hurt from all the vomiting.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of April 3, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I have to laugh because over here in Europe, that’s our high school math. Even ODEs were introduced there but not gone through in any meaningful depth.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of April 3, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


A straightforward objection to "block it all" would be that some genuinely good users would be caught in the middle.




Wouldn’t VPN solve that issue?


Too costly (time and money) for spammers but not for the competent ones.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for March 31, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


5 - 15th percentile.






Unratlike, 5-15th percentile: Low! You don't jive with most of rationalists say, AI definitely isn't going to end the world, you probably have a great exercise routine.




I don’t like blogs, I really can’t stand pages long drawn out waffling and I’ve long since come to the conclusion that being talked about here often is a major anti-recommendation for an author as far as I’m concerned. I also suspect the nanotech, condensed matter physics and genetic engineering questions assume ”rationalists” to have either studied the domain academically or (more likely) have major Dunning - Kruger about them.


Edit: I suspect the questionnaire could have been reduced to just a single question while keeping much the same result (albeit at much cruder scale): ”Do you like intellectual masturbation even if it doesn’t benefit your professional life or major hobbies?”


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 27, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
All that is trivially shown false by how LLMs persistently fail at the most basic mathematical problems as soon as solving those would require understanding instead of just stringing words together. They are very efficient bullshit generators but to claim they "understand" anything is a massive exaggeration.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 27, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


People seem to credit him for inventing rationality and AI safety




The latter sounds particularly ridiculous considering Terminator 2 was a huge hit in 1991 when Yudkowsky was barely a teenager and AI safety has been a staple of scifi literature since the 60s.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 27, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Given Google’s track record with finished products, there isn’t much doubt what the reason was.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 27, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
If they include the clothing and hair style used in this Live Aid Performance, I'd be all for it.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 27, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Well, only connoiseurs remember the "I don't like Mondays. This livens up the day."" teenage girl shooter.




It inspired a great song, indeed.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for March 24, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Is it just me or does Snape look mostly like a normal human being in that video?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for March 19, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
To me that is infinitely preferable to the pages long waffling that Scott specializes in and that sadly took hold on /r/ssc and then The Motte. You aren't paid per word, people.