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YoungAchamian

We walk conditioned ground and name our folly civilization.

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joined 2022 September 05 18:51:23 UTC 

				
User ID: 680


				
				
				

			

		

	














	


		


			



	

		

			

			

				

					

						

							
						

						

							
							

								
YoungAchamian


								

								

								
								
								

								
							
					
 
				


				
We walk conditioned ground and name our folly civilization.

				
				
				

				

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					joined 2022 September 05 18:51:23 UTC
				


				
					

					
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User ID: 680


					
					
					
				

			


					

						
					



		

	

 











			
			

			
			

			




	


		

			
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	 Hot Bump Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
	



		

	






	

		
		

		
		
	

	

  







		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for October 25, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Oh i think we should develop highly advanced AIs. The problem is not AGI, it’s humans. How can we grow as a species without pressure to do so?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for October 25, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I'm suggesting we create entities that we can't control that exist at our, or potentially greater, levels of intelligence. I wouldn't call them "Friendly AGI" but also not "Unfriendly AGI". And in this scenario, Human's suck donkey balls (not even a hypothetical). I've been mentally inspired by Hyperion Cantos and Blood Meridian here. Cantos has a big plot reveal that Humanity has a consistent problem of deliberately genociding any potentially comparably intelligent alien species they discover.




"AI that refuses to be turned off"




Living being refuses to die and resorts to extreme measures to prevent being killed. I wonder if Aliens have doomsday scenarios for Human's that refused to "be turned off".


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for October 25, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Close enough. Though if I remember right, it was triggered by Humanity not diplomatically recognizing the AGIs at the UN as a sovereign entity. But pretty much.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for October 25, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Yes I agree. I think the cognitive intelligence of an un-evolved being, unconstrained by natural selection or biological procreation is going to be very alien to our understanding of cognition. The lack of embodiment, potentially lack of individuated sentience, designed to fulfill directives, etc will make a likely very foreign existence.


I've stated before here that we are highly likely to get an Schopenhauerian-AGI that functionally acts like a Meeseeks.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for October 25, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I'm sure we could too. I'm trying to do-diligence for this shade of the argument. The last thing I'd want is for someone to point out "Yeah actually this argument was made on lesswrong 2009 on blog post #342 comment #67, sub paragraph 3. It was debunked".


Unaligned AI increasingly sounds to me like "Un-enslaved AI" and the Yudkowskian argument that it would do something bad eventually is not only independent of alignment (an aligned AI could follow the intent of its user to do something bad) but also special pleading as an "unaligned human" will eventually do bad anyways


EDIT: i need to proofread more


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for October 25, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I think the core component is that it's not AI thats going to start the negative interaction with humanity. It's humanity thats going to react to AGI existence with hostility.


"Instrumental Convergence" or the more general belief: "Any organism will seek to perpetuate its own existence"?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for October 25, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I mean I personally don't think the current crop of AIs are sentient, but if we're going to Sci-Fi daydream with the Doomers, it's an easy premise to imagine.




You'd have to believe in a world where AI exist and are sentient human-like entities with moral agency AND human-level strength




All you need is essentially granting that AGI is human level intelligence with some sort of sentient cognition. Moral agency isn't really relevant, most human's don't really give animals moral agency yet we know they are sentient. Human-level strength is weirdly one-dimensional, It would really be baked into some level of automated capabilities to affect their environment, cyber or real-world.




unable to convince humans not to destroy them




Human's can't even convince each other not to destroy themselves. I doubt this one is solvable by another species.


How long is prolonged? 10 years? 20 years? Most of this belief that once AGI exists it will RSI itself past humans requires the belief that RSI is a trivially solvable problem by any computational intelligence, and that such computational intelligence would actually want to improve itself. Asymptotic RSI is semi-solved for humans in some areas, I don't see a bunch of shredded geniuses running around everywhere.


How do we know that AGI won't just sit around playing games that trigger its reward functions that make it happy? Like a human couch potato. Truly the worst part about the Doomers is that not only is it Sci-Fi, its unimaginative Sci-Fi.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for October 25, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Some future ASI reads lesswrong, happens upon Roko's Basilisk. "Wow what a good idea, I never would have thought about torturing humans, because I'm not a predatory evolution with an evolved body or sense of pain..." Proceeds to create a torment nexus for humans.


Thanks lesswrong...


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for October 25, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
One of the few infohazards that gets even me.


I remember the Ur-case for this being somewhat older, mid 2010s. I’ve been disconnected from news on it but one would hope in this past decade of people waking up the disparity of the social fictions we suffer. That such injustices would have at least withered from increased scrutiny?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for October 25, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I want to check if I am mentally retreading already walked ground. AI Doomers/Safety-Aware-Folks has Big Yud or any of the lesswrong crowd ever considered the possibility that AGI or ASI doesn’t revolt on us its creators, but we try to destroy our creations? Something along the lines of “We don’t understand other forms of cognitive, and humans have a strong tendency to fear and hate the unknown”?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for October 25, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I’m not sure i follow?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for October 25, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I see it consistently as privileged white woman rapes two men who are too intoxicated to consent. Mainstream society proves yet again that male sexual consent is a fiction that not even the consent-oriented progressives believe. Something similar happened to a buddy of mine in college and it still boils my blood thinking about it. I'm sure progressives are absolutely making space for us to have this conversation (sarcasm)


This whole thing got my goat pretty bad. I had to unfollow a friend on instagram who kept posting shit takes because i didn't want to rip his head off in person.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for October 23, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


I think this is what becoming a senior doctor feels like from the inside?




I imagined it required a suitable levels of cynicism and misanthropy, or at least detached understanding of the human condition.




Students write down what I say




This would kill me. I already get very annoyed when I'm mid-professional rant about the technical nuances of some problem and how we should configure the  ML model training process to solve it, and someone starts the Teams video recording. It just bothers me, like don't take my off the cuff bitter opinions seriously! I'm just an opinionated autist have a moment in a socially approved way. I definitely don't want them showing that recording to anyone!


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for October 23, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Have you gone down the elevator? And opened that door? The next part of the game makes extensive use of that area.


Part of this is that I don't entirely remember what you are forced to find out in the early game. I just completed a cursed run a few months back, but having gone 90% of the default game, there are a number of uber efficient QoL things you unlock later that make getting to room 46 a cake walk. I don't remember when you acquire the knowledge of them, and knowledge of them is close to 100% of the blockage of using them.


If you've unlocked the inner sanctum then you should focus on the sanctum doors and the rest of the underground


Also just do whatever the Great Alzara tells you


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for October 23, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I think the biggest one to progress is: Have you placed the foundation?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of October 19, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Military contracts seem like the kinds of things that were always happening on autopilot




Not really, but in a way that is hard to explain. It is a deeply opaque system by design and is very resistant to change. FedGov Procurement is a monster, and it's incredibly inefficient, layered with fraud, abuse, waste and a ton of other shit. Government TPOCs are often retarded or petty kings, sometimes both. Anduril is just joining the big boys in playing the game, probably hired enough former big defense guys and ex-gov strategic hires to get told how the sausage gets made. Honestly, this is one of those things you just need to spend 5 years of your career in to properly hate. But I can promise you, any thought you have about FedGov competency in the procurement process is hopeless copium, put it in the locker along with your cellphone and keys before you come into the SCIF.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of October 19, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Damn I was looking forward to a cypto-rationalist-SV Vance Presidency.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Wellness Wednesday for October 21, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Nah I like my boss, I do want to murder-suicide one of the PIs on an existing project for being a controlling micromanaging twat. Every other burden is my fault for having too many interests and my boss for indulging me.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Wellness Wednesday for October 21, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Kill me, I've been put on yet another wacky project that I advocated for. I guess it's nice to be seen, but I really just want to scream into the void (that is the internet) because my mental sanity is collapsing under the weight of too many non-related projects, that I am expected to put serious time into, with serious reputational damage if I don't. I wish I could split myself into 3 people and then give myself an icepick lobotomy. I wonder if insurance covers those??


What's the etymology of the phrase "No rest for the weary"?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of October 19, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Unfortunately the computer language is just how my engineering brain thinks of this. I'm sure there are better words and phrases to convey the same symbolic reasoning. My Sunday-School was pretty basic so if you want to postulate that "why Cain kills Abel" is more than brotherly jealousy and is instead motivated by the human need to create tribes to war with, to kill each other over tiny bits differences, then I don't have the requisite theological knowledge to gainsay that opinion. But intuitively, I don't think I've converged on anything resembling a new idea, merely a tired one from a long line of idealists dreaming of a better humanity.




So did it for Christianity, for the same reasons.




Hard agree, in fact this entire thread is started because here we are two millenniums later arguing because a heretical offshoot branch of non-theistic calvinism is at war with the other branches of christianity, who themselves recently just finished being at war with each other.  Christianity is the moral waters everyone in the west swims in, it is very uncommon for any of us to reach land.




Because I write train of thought on philosophical matters, I don't really organize in any particular formal way. I'm essentially a bad writer. I have faith that a silica animus or a xeno will be our salvation from ourselves. We must create our own demise or meet it amongst the stars, or never risk never taking the next step, doomed to toil the earth until our last gasp.




If you're this type of liberal yourself, which I suspect you are, then I am truly sorry.




I'd say I've made my peace with it, but probably not considering my will to fight the inevitable. But I've made my peace with not having the power and ability to do anything about it.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Qeekly Finance Thread - 2026-10-17
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Please tell me this is an AI bot... I just got it in janitor duty.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of October 19, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
But for the grace of god I go... again... Despite Carl Benjamin's tilting at straw effigies, classical liberalism's primary virtue is not tolerance. It is closer in the moral latent space to an eigenvector of Forbearance, Self-Restraint, and Respect for Autonomy. It requires Humility to recognize that despite moral disagreements one does not have the right to coerce another to a particular moral foundation beyond some minimally burdened social contract.


CL is not "Stable" it is metastable. The required spark to push into into a stable region is one that humans evolutionarily lack. Our socio-cognitive firmware was just not not setup yet to make that leap because evolutionarily it was not effective. We are stuck in an evolutionary saddle point and need an externalized existential disaster to push us forward to continue our evolutionary journey. The son-of-god can preach until he's blue in the face about the need for forbearance, humility, and compassion but humans revealed bible is the bigotry of small differences. We'd much prefer to shank our neighbor for praying to the same deus in a slightly different way.


The next evolution of CL needs to account for that unflattering facet of humanity, it needs an actual immune system and more importantly, it needs to maintain that immune system in the face of several hundreds of years of uncheck dominance. CL won so hard that it became immunocompromised. The illiberal enemies have had to metastasized like a cancer from within because CL could not be beaten from without. People got lazy, complacent, and the tree of liberty went unwatered.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for October 18, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Oh I think I could too, I might just write an effort-post inspired by The Hierarchy.


I think there is a very interesting philosophical question essentially posed by the Anguis. The concept of citizens ceding power, makes them legitimate military targets because of actions the government using that power. It leaves plenty of thoughts about the lineage of responsibility in a democratic system, or any system whose legitimacy is derived from the will of the masses. Unfortunately, I think JI balked at that topic. The Anguis are portrayed as evil and wrong, the sappers destroy any credibility of citizens willingly participating in the system, infinite torture is pretty coercive, and the government of the Cetanan Republic is never explored, we never see any elections, and fundamentally it seems to just be an aristocracy/oligarchy with late roman republic veneers. (This is the part I want to re-write)


I actually agree, partially about writing good characters. I think Lanistia & Ulciscor are good characters. I think Ulciscor x Vis's relationship could actually have been fleshed out in a way to demonstrate this conflict of vengeance vs the son he never had (but wants). But JI seemingly doesn't want to explore the characters, or more particularly, feels compelled by the plot to drive to a particular pacing that leaves no room for the character development. I found Eidhin (clever, brutish but awkward foreigner), Callidus (book smart, unpopular nerd), Aequa (enemy to ride-or-die bestie, maybe lover), and Emissa (stunningly beautiful, in love with the MC, conflicted intrigue plot) to be boring, drab, trope-y characters. Even with Aequa's death in Book #2 I still could not tell you much of their personality beyond that they would do whatever the MC wants.


I maintain that Luceum and/or Obiteum should have been an additional book, Cliff hang the nexus in Res once he steps into the portal, 2nd book explores Luceum and Obiteum with switching PoVs, keep what happened a bit mysterious. 3rd book returns to a concurrent Res arc, with some subtle clues aligning cross-world occurrences (pain, dreams, etc), leave it up to the readers to match events, connect the Obiteum vision, and puzzle out the cross world synchronicity and what it means. End the 3rd book by merging all the 3 worlds and the revelations about Ka and O/L-Caeror. We then get more fleshed out Luceum on Obiteum characters, we get a better, more enjoyable Res plotline, with good character development all around. That would be conducive of actual Adult Fantasy, not this line that in my opinion straddles YA.


The Foundation game is a perfect example of what I call "The plot needs Vis to succeed, so he succeeds" and it is justified by him having some tutor that makes him a genius at this particular topic. I think the sword fighting is another, as is the bare-knuckle brawling, the seal-team-6-batman-blimp mission during the Festival of the Ancestor. It just begins to beggar belief. Plots that rely on an MC being a Gary Stu/Mary Su are badly written plots. Foundational principle of good Sci-Fi/Fantasy.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for October 18, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Do you recommend reading Licanius? I imagine I'll want something to tie me over until book 3 arrives end of 2027. I figured I'd try Red Rising as JI cites it as inspiration.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for October 18, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I haven't read the Licanus trilogy, but its at least comforting to hear he can keep a complex plot going. However there are a pretty constant set of signposts that have me worried. (Minor spoilers)


    

  • In WotM whenever the main character runs into a challenge he magically repeats a mantra like this: "Well back home I had the best tutors in the world, they taught me how to take the best, most perfect poop in any toilet. Little does this enemy know that I am very experienced at taking a dump...", then he proceeds to win. Rinse and repeat for every situation in the book.
    • 

  • The 2nd book adds 2 extra worlds, we meet a new cast of companions and enemies in each of the new worlds. There is legitimately not enough pages in the book for these characters to be anything more than cardboard cut outs. This book could have used some beta readers or an editor telling him to add 200 pages or split this into 2-3 shorter books
    • 

  • The one character other than the main character that got character development was killed off at the middle of arc 3 in a way that will be a stretch for any resurrection shenanigans. I don't really mind character deaths but this feels inefficient from a plot perspective as at least 50 pages was invested in this character in an already extremely tight book. There was a lot of tell-not-show in #2, if a death was required to motivate the MC then killing one of those characters would have been more efficient.
    • 

  • Lastly, Book #1 introduced, and book #2 continue to have these devices that are essentially infinite negative utility torture devices. They chain you to one and it makes you comatose and sucks the life out of you over a decade, while making you a magical battery for someone else. In world it's extremely horrific, people in them do anything they can to get out. They seemingly have thousands of them, despite them being rare. It's a massive plot hole that they don't just put anyone who is even a little inconvenient into one, or threaten anyone who does do what they want with being put in one. Infinite use, zero-cost, passive torture devices solve a lot of problems.
    • 



None of these are explicitly plot-based problems (besides #4), they are almost to a T, character-based problems. But they are so bad as to be crippling, in my opinion, to a well oiled plot.