TsviBT

Please don't throw your mind away

Dialogue [Warning: the following dialogue contains an incidental spoiler for "Music in Human Evolution" by Kevin Simler. That post is short, good, and worth reading without spoilers, and this post will still be here if you come back later. It's also possible to get the point of this post by skipping the dialogue and reading the other sections.] Pretty often, talking to someone who's arriving to the existential risk / AGI risk / longtermism cluster, I'll have a conversation like the following. Tsvi: "So, what's been catching your eye about this stuff?" Arrival: "I think I want to work on machine learning, and see if I can contribute to alignment that way." T: "What's something that got your interest in ML?" A: "It seems like people think that deep learning might be on the final ramp up to AGI, so I should probably know how that stuff works, and I think I have a good chance of learning ML at least well enough to maybe contribute to a research project." T: "That makes sense. I guess I'm fairly skeptical of AGI coming very soon, compared to people around here, or at least I'm skeptical that most people have good reasons for believing that. Also I think it's pretty valuable to not cut yourself off from thinking about the whole alignment problem, whether or not you expect to work on an already-existing project. But what you're saying makes sense too. I'm curious though if there's something you were thinking about recently that just strikes you as fun, or like it's in the back of your mind a bit, even if you're not trying to think about it for some purpose." A: "Hm... Oh, I saw this video of an octopus doing a really weird swirly thing. Here, let me pull it up on my phone." T: "Weird! Maybe it's cleaning itself, like a cat licking its fur? But it doesn't look like it's actually contacting itself that much." A: "I thought it might be a signaling display, like a mating dance, or for scaring off predators by looking like a bi

393Feb 15, 2023

TsviBT

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Bioanchors 2: Electric Bacilli

Crosspost from my blog. [Previously: "Views on when AGI comes and on strategy to reduce existential risk", "Do confident short timelines make sense?"] [Whenever discussing when AGI will come, it bears repeating: If anyone builds AGI, everyone dies; no one knows when AGI will be made, whether soon or late;...

Feb 2439

Genomic emancipation contra eugenics

PDF version. berkeleygenomics.org. x.com. bluesky. Introduction Reprogenetics refers to biotechnological tools used to affect the genes of a future child. How can society develop and use reprogenetic technologies in a way that ends up going well? This essay investigates the history and nature of historical eugenic ideologies. I'll extract some...

Feb 1853

Skill: cognitive black box flight recorder

Crosspost from my blog. Very short summary: It's especially valuable to Notice while in mental states that make Noticing especially difficult, so it's valuable to learn that skill. Short summary: If you're going to enter, or are currently in, a cognitive state that is very irrational / overwhelmed / degraded...

Jan 2427

Lifelink™: Freedom for your Child

Crosspost from my blog. Note: Fictional! To preempt any unnecessary disappointment and/or fears of dystopia, be aware that this is not a real product, I don't know of plans to develop it, and it is infeasible in many respects. There are some related products under search terms like "kids GPS...

Jan 189

What potent consumer technologies have long remained inaccessible?

Crosspost from my blog. Context Inequality is a common and legitimate worry that people have about reprogenetic technology. Will rich people have super healthy smart kids, and leave everyone else behind over time? Intuitively, this will not happen. Reprogenetics will likely be similar to most other technologies: At first it...

Jan 1232

HIA and X-risk part 2: Why it hurts

Crosspost from my blog. Context Previously, in "HIA and X-risk part 1: Why it helps", I laid out the reasons I think human intelligence amplification would decrease existential risk from AGI. Here I'll give all the reasons I can currently think of that HIA might plausibly increase AGI X-risk. Questions...

Jan 863

Chromosome identification methods

PDF version. berkeleygenomics.org. x.com. bluesky. This is a linkpost for "Chromosome identification methods"; a few of the initial sections are reproduced here. Abstract Chromosome selection is a hypothetical technology that assembles the genome of a new living cell out of whole chromosomes taken from multiple source cells. To do chromosome...

Dec 30, 202538

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TsviBT

TsviBT

TsviBT

Please don't throw your mind away

Overview of strong human intelligence amplification methods

Sum-threshold attacks

Methods for strong human germline engineering

TsviBT

Bioanchors 2: Electric Bacilli

Genomic emancipation contra eugenics

Skill: cognitive black box flight recorder

Lifelink™: Freedom for your Child

What potent consumer technologies have long remained inaccessible?

HIA and X-risk part 2: Why it hurts

Chromosome identification methods

Bioanchors 2: Electric Bacilli

Genomic emancipation contra eugenics

Skill: cognitive black box flight recorder

Lifelink™: Freedom for your Child

What potent consumer technologies have long remained inaccessible?

HIA and X-risk part 2: Why it hurts

Chromosome identification methods

Please don't throw your mind away

Overview of strong human intelligence amplification methods

Sum-threshold attacks

Methods for strong human germline engineering