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PaperclipPerfector  11d ago (text post)   31936 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of April 14, 2025

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Never heard of the guy, but he sounds like Krugman from Temu. And the quoted passage can only be described as "not even wrong". Nothing there suggests that he actually understands the technologies involved. There was an old joke - they build a semiconductor plant in USSR. And their glorious leader says - this year semiconductors, next year full

Stuff like this is a large part of why i stopped trying to discuss AI and Machine Learning with people outside the industry.

The conversation has become saturated with idiots, grifters, and pseudo religious nonsense. While I would love to tackle the big philosophical questions about the differences between algorithmic vs agentic behavior and what it means for our theories of intelligence and free will, or discuss the nuances and trade-offs of different technical approaches, these are not the the questions that Cowen, Yudkowsky, Alexander, or anyone else in thier respective circles seem interested in exploring.

I assumed he was part of the same circle as Robin Hanson (they both teach at GMU) and people familiar with one would have heard of the other but I could be wrong.

Cowen's been a famous econ (and restaurant) blogger for as long as the econ blogosphere has been around. I used to read him way back in '06, and he'd been around for a few years then.

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