Tiiba2

Edward, how is it arrogant to want to contribute to science?

Aw great, now my post is broken.

The URL to the anime fanfiction seems to be worse than broken. My browser doesn't even say what you wrote, just that it's "illegal".

(page source: )

Well, the farmer's wife seems to be one character who was thankful...

...and fared the worst.

But is this really cultural gloominess? Maybe this one is just reserved for when you're in a really bad mood. What are the other stories in that book like?

Untranslatable 2: The frothy mixture of lube and fecal matter that is sometimes the byproduct of anal sex.

1) Who the hell is Master of Fandom? A guy who maintains the climate control system, or the crew's pet Gundam nerd?

2) Do you really think the aliens' deal is so horrifying? Or are you just overdramatizing?

Everyone is orgasmium. And strangely enough, they don't think it's all that horrible.

I recently wondered whether it's possible that transhumans would spend parts of their lives in situations very similar to Dante's hell, complete with wailing and gnashing of teeth. Some have suggested that a bit of pain might be necessary to make all the pleasure we're supposed to get realizable, but I suggest that we might actually need quite a lot of it. If the only way to make people happy is to improve their lives, pushing them way down might turn out to be a reasonable solution. And some might choose that route to spice up whatever other sources of ha... (read more)

Abigail: """If you find the thought of having endless orgasms repulsive, might not the person who had, er, sunk so low, also find his state repulsive, eventually?"""

I, for one, cannot imagine one who has, er, ascended so high voluntarily reducing his own utility.

I cannot see why I shouldn't want to become orgasmium. It would certsinly be disgusting to look at someone else turning into something like that - it is too similar to people who are horribly maimed. But It's What's Inside That Counts.

The reason that drug addiction is ... (read more)

Abigail: """If you find the thought of having endless orgasms repulsive, might not the person who had, er, sunk so low, also find his state repulsive, eventually?"""

I, for one, cannot imagine one who has, er, ascended so high voluntarily reducing his own utility.

I cannot see why I shouldn't want to become orgasmium. It would certsinly be disgusting to look at someone else turning into something like that - it is too similar to people who are horribly maimed. But It's What's Inside That Counts.

The reason that drug addiction is ... (read more)

This fun theory seems to be based on equivocation. Sure, insights might be fun, but that doesn't mean they literally are the same thing. The point of studying the brain is to cure neurological disorders and to move forward AI. The point of playing chess is to prove your worth. So is the (relatively) insight-less task of becoming world champion at track and field. What UTILITY does solving BB(254) have?

I think a human can only have so much fun if he knows that even shooting himself in the head wouldn't kill him, because There Is Now A God. And altering your... (read more)

"Tiiba, you're really overstating Eliezer and SIAI's current abilities. CEV is a sketch, not a theory, and there's a big difference between "being concerned about Friendliness" and "actually knowing how to build a working superintelligence right now, but holding back due to Friendliness concerns.""

That's what I meant.

Michael, it seems that you are unaware of Eliezer's work. Basically, he agrees with you that vague appeals to "emergence" will destroy the world. He has written a series of posts that show why almost all possible superintelligent AIs are dangerous. So he has created a theory, called Coherent Extrapolated Volition, that he thinks is a decent recipe for a "Friendly AI". I think it needs some polish, but I assume that he won't program it as it is now. He's actually holding off getting into implementation, specifically because he's afraid of messing up.

So, then, how is my reduction flawed? (Oh, there are probably holes in it... But I suspect it contains a kernel of the truth.)

You know, we haven't had a true blue, self-proclaimed mystic here in a while. It's kind of an honor. Here's the red carpet: [I originally posted a huge number of links to Eliezer's posts, but the filter thought they're spam. So I'll just name the articles. You can find them through Google.] Mysterious Answers to Mysterious Questions Excluding the Supernatural Trust in Math Explain/Worship/Ignore? Mind Projection Fallacy Wrong Questi... (read more)

Something I forgot. Eliezer will probably have me arrested if I just tell you to come up with a definition. He advises that you "carve reality at its joints":

http://lesswrong.com/lw/o0/where_to_draw_the_boundary/

(I wish, I wish, O shooting star, that OB permitted editing.)

"inklink" = "inkling"

Tobis: That which makes you suspect that bricks don't have qualia is probably the objective test you're looking for.

Eliezer had a post titled "How An Algorithm Feels From Inside": http://lesswrong.com/lw/no/how_an_algorithm_feels_from_inside/

Its subject was different, but in my opinion, that's what qualia are - what it feels like from the inside to see red. You cannot describe it because "red" is the most fundamental category that the brain perceives directly. It does not tell you what that means. With a different mind design, you might... (read more)

"""Things are as predictable as they are and not more so."""

Michael, Eliezer has spent the last two years giving example after example of humans underusing the natural predictability of nature.

"""Psy-K, try as I might to come up with a way to do it, I can see no possibility of an objective test for subjective experience."""

I bet it's because you don't have a coherent definition for it. It's like looking for a hubgalopus.

"""A superintelligence will more-likely be interested in conservation. Nature contains a synopsis of the results of quadrillions of successful experiments in molecular nanotechnology, performed over billions of years - and quite a bit of information about the history of the world. That's valuable stuff, no matter what your goals are."""

My guess is that an AI could re-do all those experiments from scratch within three days. Or maybe nanoseconds. Depending on whether it starts the moment it leaves the lab or as a Jupiter brain.

I guess I'll use this thread to post a quote from "The tale of Hodja Nasreddin" by Leonid Solovyov, translated by me. I think it fits very well with the recent sequence on diligence.

"He knew well that fate and chance never come to the aid of those who replace action with pleas and laments. He who walks conquers the road. Let his legs grow tired and weak on the way - he must crawl on his hands and knees, and then surely, he will see in the night a distant light of hot campfires, and upon approaching, will see a merchants' caravan; and this ca... (read more)