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All of RobFack's Comments + Replies

For unknown reasons, there is a dip in the circadian alerting about 8 hours after the beginning of the cycle. This is why people sometimes experience that “2:30 feeling.”

Hunh. That makes sense. I didn't realize that I was why I feel tired in the afternoon. I thought it was because of eating lunch just before.

2Creutzer10y

Lunch could still be an important factor, postprandial somnolence is a well-known phenomenon. There might be a phenomenological difference between that and sleepiness, though. We often do not properly distinguish between sleepiness and fatigue.

Rationality Quotes Thread May 2015

RobFack10y00

Talking at length about the good old days is hardly a way to make progress on local problems.

Rationality Quotes Thread June 2015

RobFack10y20

This is true, but maybe you want to explain why?

Rationality Quotes Thread June 2015

RobFack10y10

“The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one. The happiness of credulity is a cheap and dangerous quality of happiness, and by no means a necessity of life.”

George Bernard Shaw

Open Thread, Jun. 22 - Jun. 28, 2015

RobFack10y10

some of Google's projects are reproducing high-level quirks of the human visual cortex.

While the work that the visual cortex does is complex and hard to crack (from where we are now), it doesn't seem like being able to replicate that leads to AGI. Is there a reason I should think otherwise?

6Houshalter10y

There is the 'one learning algorithm' hypothesis, that most of the brain uses a single algorithm for learning and pattern recognition. Rather than specialized modules for doing vision, and another for audio, etc. The evidence experiments where they cut the connection from the eyes to the visual cortex in an animal, and rerouted it to the auditory cortex (and I think vice versa.) The animal then learned to see fine, and it's auditory cortex just learned how to do vision instead.

Cryonics: peace of mind vs. immortality

RobFack10y70

I get the sense that many of the people who have signed up have done it less for the increased survival chances or the sense of comfort, but as a sort of flag waving. It is pretty good signalling that you are opposed to death and part of the ingroup that is opposed to death. Those little medallions are badges of a refusal to submit to the awful thing.

0Calien10y

You'd have to want to signal very strongly to overcome the inconvenience of doing the paperwork and forking over cold hard cash. Self-signalling seems to be a plausible motivation, but I'm not sure how much benefit you'd get from being able to tell other people about it. Not to mention the opposite pressure that most people have because they have to convince their close family members to respect their wishes.

4Unknowns10y

Yes, I get the same impression. In fact, Eliezer basically said that for a long time he didn't sign up because he had better things to spend his money on, but finally he did because he thought that not signing up gave off bad signals to others. Of course, this means that his present attitude of "if you don't sign up for cryonics you're an idiot and if you don't sign up your children you're wicked" is total hypocrisy.

4oge10y

Whoa! If that's true then Alcor should offer necklaces (different looking from thereal ones) that say something like "I stand against death!". That way people can signal allegiance without having to go through all the cryo paperworks.