All of MatthewB's Comments + Replies

Also, don't forget that humans will be improving just as rapidly as the machines.

My own studies (Cognitive Science and Cybernetics at UCLA) tend to support the conclusion that machine intelligence will never be a threat to humanity. Humanity will have become something else by the time that machines could become an existential threat to current humans.

He believes that the Singularity is proof that the Universe was created by an Intelligent Creator (who happens to be the Christian God), and that it is further evidence of YEC.

I think the comment that LWer suck at Politics is the more apt description.

Politics is the art of the possible, and that it deals with WHAT IS, regardless of whether that is "rational."

And attempting to demand that it conform to rationality standards dictated by this community guarantees that this community will lack political clout.

Especially if it becomes known that the main beneficiaries and promoters of the Singularity have a particularly pathological politics.

Peter Thiel may well be a Libertarian Hero, but his name is instant death in even m... (read more)

Being influential is not necessarily a good thing.

Especially when Glenn Beck's influence is in delusional conspiracy theories, and evangelical christianity, and Young Earth Creationism.

Glenn Beck is hardly someone whose enthusiasm you should welcome.

He has a creationist agenda that he has found a way to support with the ideas surrounding the topic of the Singularity.

This is not exactly "success."

There are some populations that will pervert the things they get in their hands.

Glenn Beck was one of the first TV personalities to interview Ray.

The Interview is on YouTube, and is very informative as to Glenn's objectives and Agenda.

Primarily, he wishes to use the ideology behind the Singularity as support for "Intelligent Design." In the inteview, he makes an explicit statement to that effect.

Glenn Beck is hardly "rational" as per the definition of "Less Wrong."

Yes, I have read many of the various Less Wrong Wiki entries on the problems surrounding Friendly AI.

Unfortunately, I am in the process of getting an education in Computational Modeling and Neuroscience (I was supposed to have started at UC Berkeley this fall, but budget cuts in the Community Colleges of CA resulted in the loss of two classes necessary for transfer, so I will have to wait till next fall to start... And, I am now thinking of going to UCSD, where they have the Institute of Computational Neuroscience (or something like that - It's where Terry... (read more)

I think major infrastructure rebuilding is probably closer to the case than "maintenance"

Yes, that is close to what I am proposing.

No, I am not aware of any facts about progress in decision theory that would give any guarantees of the future behavior of AI. I still think that we need to be far more concerned with people's behaviors in the future than with AI. People are improving systems as well.

As far as the Komodo Dragon, you missed the point of my post, and the Komodo dragon just kinda puts the period on that:

"Gorging upon the stew of..."

From Ben Goertzel,

And I think that theory is going to emerge after we've experimented with some AGI systems that are fairly advanced, yet well below the "smart computer scientist" level.

At the second Singularity Summit, I heard this same sentiment from Ben, Robin Hanson, and from Rodney Brooks, and from Cynthia Breazeal (at the Third Singularity Summit), and from Ron Arkin (at the "Human Being in an Inhuman Age" Conference at Bard College on Oct 22nd ¹), and from almost every professor I have had (or will have for the next two years... (read more)

I agree.

I doubt you would remember this, but we talked about this at the Meet and Greet at the Singularity Summit a few months ago (in addition to CBGBs and Punk Rock and Skaters).

James Hughes mentioned you as well at a Conference in NY where we discussed this very issue as well.

One thing that you mentioned at the Summit (well in conversation) was that The Scary Idea was tending to cause some paranoia among people who otherwise might be contributing more to the development of AI (of course, you also seemed pretty hostile to brain emulation too) as it tends to cause funding that could be going to AI to be slowed as a result.

Well... That is hard to communicate now, as I will need to extricate the problems from the specifics that were communicated to me (in confidence)...

Let's see...

1) That there is a dangerous political movement in the USA that seems to be preferring revealed knowledge to scientific understanding and investigation. 2) Poverty 3) Education 4) Hunger (I myself suffer from this problem - I am disabled, on a fixed income, and while I am in school again and doing quite well I still have to make choices sometimes between necessities... And, I am quite well off compa... (read more)

At the Singularity Summit's "Meet and Greet", I spoke with both Ben Geortzel and Eliezer Yudowski (among others) about this specific problem.

I am FAR more in line with Ben's position than with Eliezer's (probably because both Ben and I are either Working or Studying directly on the "how to do" aspect of AI, rather than just concocting philosophical conundrums for AI, such as the "Paperclip Maximizer" scenario of Eliezer's, which I find highly dubious).

AI isn't going to spring fully formed out of some box of parts. It may be a... (read more)

But, it would also not have the function of letting others who may struggle with certain concepts of knowing that they were not alone in struggling.

That Candidate 2 (admitting that one is wrong is a win for an argument), is one of my oldest bits of helpful knowledge.

If one admits that one is wrong, one instantly ceases to be wrong (or at lest ceases to be wrong in the way that one was wrong. It could still be the case that the other person in an argument is also wrong, but for the purposes of this point, we are assuming that they are "correct"), because one is then in possession of more accurate (i.e. "right") information/knowledge.

How About Eliezer, Peter Thiel, Peter Diamandis, done... I know that Peter Diamandis would NOT be turned away by Hitchens... Now, it is just a matter of getting ahold of a few mullionaire/billionaire types...

I have had the EXACT same idea!

However, my plan was to contact his publicist through Alcor or one of the other Cryonics companies (all one of them I think)

Now, I am not certain about this, but we have to examine that code before we know it's outcome.

While this isn't "Running" the code in the traditional sense of computation as we are familiar with it today, it does seem that the code is sort of run by our brains as a simulation as we scan it.

As sort of meta-process if you will...

I could be so wrong about that though... eh...

Also, that code is useless really, except maybe as a wait function... It doesn't really do anything (Not sure why Unknowns gets voted up in the first post above, and down below)...

Also, leaping from some code to the Entirety of an AI's source code seems to be a rather large leap.

It isn't stuff that made it into the modern canon, but in the Early Christian Church, Myth of this type appeared all over the place from the Jewish Sources, in an attempt to integrate it into various Christian Sects.

To be fair this stuff isn't Christian mythology in the way that Adam and Eve, or Loaves and Fishes is Christian mythology. It's just religious fiction.

Isn't it ALL just religious fiction?

Well, they both (according to Christian Myth) are truly bad characters.

It is unfortunate for God that Satan (Lucifer) had such a reasonable request "Gee, Jehovah, It would certainly be nice if you let us try out that chair every once in a while." Basically, Lucifer's crime was one that is only a crime in a state where the King is seen as having divine authority to rule, and all else is seen as beneath such things (thus reflecting the Divine Order)

It was this act upon which Modern Satanists seized to create a new mythology for Satanism, where it was reason rebelling again an order that was corrupt and tyrannical.

Yes, they are "Christian" in the sense that all of the mythology and practices for their worship of Satan are derived from Christianity, and they still believe in a Christian God.

It is just that these people believe that they are defying and opposing the Christian God (Fighting for the other team). They still believe in this God, just no longer have it as the object of their worship and devotion.

This is also the more traditional form of Satanist in our society, and one which the more modern Satanist tends to oppose. The Modern Satanist is a self... (read more)

Depending upon the Type of Satanist, yes, they are often just people looking for a high "Boo-Factor" (A term made-up by many of the early followers of a musical Genre called "Deathrock" (it's more public name is now Goth, although that is like comparing a chain saw to a kitchen pealing knife - the "Goths" are the kitchen knife).

Many Satanists, especially those who hadn't really read much of the published Satanic literature would just make something up themselves and it was almost always based in Christian motifs and archetypes... (read more)

You mean, like a main page post? I'd love to.

You would be surprised about how rational the real Satanists (and their various offshoots and schisms) are (as the non-Christian based Satanist is an athiest).

In fact, the very first Schism of the Church of Satan gave birth to the Temple of Set (Founded by the then head of the Army's Psychological Warfare Division), which was described as a "Hyper-Rational Belief System" (Although in reality it still had some rather unfortunately insane beliefs among its constituents). The Founder was very rational though. He even had quite a bit of science behind his position... It's just that his job caused him to be a rather creepy and scary guy.

A couple of points:

I could not tell from your post if you understood that Pascal's Wager is a flawed argument for believing in ANY belief system. You do understand this don't you (That Pascal's Wager is horribly flawed as an argument for believing in anything)?

Also, as Counsin it seems to be implying (And I would suspect as well), you seem to be exhibiting signs of the True Believer complex.

This is what I alluded to when I discussed friends of mine who would swing back and forth between Born-Again Christian and Satanists. Don't make the same mistake with a... (read more)

That puts it into an understandable context... I can't quite understand about the having to shake off Christian Beliefs. I was raised with a tremendously religious mother, but about the age of 6 I began to question her beliefs and by 14 was sure that she was stark raving mad to believe what she did. So, I managed to keep from being brainwashed to begin with.

I've seen the results of people who have been brainwashed and who have not managed to break completely free from their old beliefs. Most of them swung back and forth between the extremes of bad belief s... (read more)

It may just be me, but why do you need to find someone to follow?

I have always found that forging my own path through the wilderness to be far more enjoyable and yield far greater rewards that following a path, no matter how small or large that path may be.

Either that or painting (The latter is harder to do because the cats tend to want to help me paint, yet don't get the necessity of oppose-able thumbs ... umm...Opposeable? Opposable??? anyway....)

Since I have had sleep disorders since I was 14, I've got lots of practice at not sleeping (pity there was no internet then)... So, I either read, draw, paint, sculpt, or harass people on the opposite side of the earth who are all wide awake.

Sports... That requires a form of Life Experience in order to gain an informed set of opinions on the subject.

When playing something like Soccer/Football, the basic skills may be imparted through training, yet the ability to successfully play with others on a field is going to take experience in learning how the whole of a team interacts both with you and against you (speaking in third person).

Another area where I understand that Life-Experience is not to be communicated is in the field of certain types of military, paramilitary or intelligence gathering a... (read more)

This was the basic gist of the earlier response that I made... Only, ironically, I could only recount it as an anecdote.

I have to give it to my art instructor though, because his lesson on gaining personal experience has really carried over into other fields well. His comments ended, temporarily, the conversation until we had gathered the requisite skills and experience to understand both his position and what we were doing. After we finished the assignment (and consequently the semester), those of us who did the work then could understand his reasoning far better than those of the class who had not done the work.

I am not sure what to make of this, because I do think that many times the "When you get to be my age..." argument is often used to shut down an opponent. But... I also think that at times it has merit.

For instance, I don't know of a single one of the fellow art students who could understand the argument for needing to do 500 tracings a week when the instructor told us "At the end of the semester, you will understand why you needed to do them. At least, those of you who do them will understand why"

And, he was right, yet most of us were ... (read more)

I'd also like to point out that many Homosexuals wish to have children (in one form of reproduction or another)... At least today this is the case. I cannot say if it has always been the case though.

However, you are correct. It wouldn't matter, as most people's objections to homosexuality are based upon fear and disgust. Pity that...

I haven't noticed that Provigil is too terribly hard to get, once Doctors know that it isn't an Amphetamine, they will usually prescribe it... Remember though, it is usually prescribed in dosages for narcoleptics, so only half a tablet is needed... Ritalin, well, I guess that you really need to either be ADD to get that, or be willing to enter into a black market arrangement.

What about Spiking that coffee with Provigil or Ritalin?

Thanks Kaj,

As I stated in my last post, reading LW often gives me the feeling that I have read something very important, yet I often don't immediately know why what I just read should be important until I have some later context in which to place the prior content.

Your post just gave me the context in which to make better sense of all of the prior content on Bayes here on LW.

It doesn't hurt that I have finally dipped my toes in the Bayesian Waters of Academia in an official capacity with a Probability and Stats class (which seems to be a prerequisite for s... (read more)

I always love reading Less Wrong. I am just sometimes confused, for many days, about what exactly I have read. Until, something pertinent comes along and reveals the salience of what I had read, and then I say "OH! Now I get it!"

At present, I am between those two states... Waiting for the Now I get it moment.

I have a very adverse reaction to human babies... I want to pop them. Or something similar. They look like you could just stick a big pin in them and they'd go POP.

Bunnies are way cuter than human babies (at least to humans I think).

You still can't know that they taped themselves every time they had sex. Now can you know that either of them might have had sex with someone else that wasn't taped.

I've noticed that many people miss Kurzweil's claims. Such as I keep encountering the misconception that Kurzweil claims that technical advances will become infinite, which is just silly, and he never claims this. I have talked briefly with him about it and he says that the exponential climb will probably give way to a new paradigm that changes the way things are done rather than continue to infinity (or approach an asymptote).

According to the guy from Intel (Justin Ratner) at the 2008 Singularity Summit. Moore's Law ended in 2005/06. The discrete transistor is a thing of the past according to his talk.

Couple of things... A leap ahead in computing would not necessarily mean that Moore's Law was not descriptive of the event. It could still follow the same exponential trend, yet look like a giant leap forward.

It is likely that Moore's Law will continue due to economic pressure to find newer and faster ways to compute. This may not have to do with shrinking transistor sized, but may well involve other forms of computation or architecture for chips.

Oh... I also thought that I would throw this into the mix.

When a creationist or evolution-denier says that "No one has ever seen an ape evolving into a man, or a dinosaur evolving into a bird." Often, what they mean is that an Ape literally turned into a man while it was alive. The more subtle creationist will just imply that a thing that was fully ape gave birth to a thing that was fully man, yet I have discovered that both types are to be considered about equally likely to be encountered.

Neither type of Creationist or evolution-denier seems to... (read more)

On the issue of "Have you ever seen an Ape evolving into a Human?" and the requested video tape (We get that too at RDF), I have found the following to be very helpful in showing just how stupid the claim is. Simply ask the person:

"How do you know that your father is really your father? Do you see him have sex with your mother to conceive you? How do you know that she did not have sex with someone else? Do you have a video tape to prove this?"

They of course, will have to admit that they take it as given based upon the testimony of their... (read more)

The report of creationists deploying the tactic in question (finding a transitional fossil where one was not previously creates two gaps that now need to be filled by other fossils), is not a Poe.

As a very active member of the Richard Dawkins Foundation Forums (RDF), I can tell you that I have seen this ploy used on more occasions than I can count.

This is in addition to people who think that Evolution also means that there should exist the Crockoduck, the Cat-dog, and the Bird-fish (to name just a few), or that Evolution means that Polar Bears had the Colo... (read more)

This is exactly the interpretation that I formed of Karma after my brief exchange with... with... I forget who, but it was an Eastern European Gentleman. In it, he said he downvoted a comment due to it being vague and repetitious. So, I did a quick study of those comments that were strongly upvoted and discovered that the vast majority had contributed something to the dialog.

Although, not having a lot of Karma has led me to be rather slow to post anything as a main blog post where the Karma seems to have more weight (if I am interpreting this correctly). I do have something I have been working on, but the "Karma to Burn" does make me hesitant to post something that could send my karma score into the negative.

I find this to be a silly argument, as it assumes that not much will change about the methods of teaching, or of rejuvenation by the time that these people (who have been frozen) are re-constituted in one manner or another.

True, we would be antiquated and ignorant by the standards of the day, but just going into the process of freezing gives us a mind-set that shows us that we must be ready to abandon just about everything we know when and if we wake again. The Man from 1400 discussed in the article did not have that mindset and it was discussed as if his ... (read more)

As for why I don't say Life instead of Intelligence Life, that is because I think that Life itself will continue in one fashion or another regardless of what we do.

I do think that Intelligence is important now that we have it, and that may be similar to a tall man assuming that tallness is the most important virtue in some eyes (although I find it to be a stretch of an analogy - Tallness is obviously a disadvantage at many times, and I could probably find a good reason to favor shortness... But, that aside...).

I don't know why Intelligence would not be (o... (read more)

I figured that might be why... My comment was not really very useful, and I realized that, but his Green-ness did make me think "He's in the Matrix" all through the video (as you too have noticed).

He could offset this in the future by hanging a reddish-orange cloth behind him... Or, maybe Yellowish would be best to prevent him from over-correcting the color. I used to do a lot of video work and probably should have mentioned this to begin with above (that I really knew why he was green), and have had to do some really strange make-up or lighting to correct for a camera or ambient light color that was causing bizarre skin-tones (the very worst was having to make a guy nearly blue to offset an orange cast)

Why is Razib Green?