All of sig's Comments + Replies

sig
60

750 megabytes. Let’s say 90% of that is junk DNA, and 10% of what’s left is neural wiring algorithms. So the code that wires a 100-trillion-synapse human brain is about 7.5 megabytes

What am I missing here? 10% of 750MB is 75MB, not 7.5MB...

6Hoagy
10% of what's left, ie of the 75MB of non-junk DNA, so 7.5MB. fwiw 90% junk DNA seems unlikely, I thought it was largely found to influence gene expression, but then 10% being neural wiring seems high so may cancel to about my own guess.
sig
10

I think Meaningness has some interesting discussion on what "post-modernity" can mean in terms of epistemology and (scientific) thinking https://metarationality.com/stem-fluidity-bridge

I think he writes well (unlike OP, sorry :D) and gets to his point with relatively little text. I think his STEM-fluidity-postmodernism idea is on the more useful side, out of those I've seen in the whole rationality scene.

sig
3-10

No, this is a very good comment.

New words probably shouldn't use completely made up sounds. It can only add confusion. There may be existing similar words with completely different meaning; or worse, with distantly overlapping semantic fields.

Good existing English words were mentioned: handle, pointer. Both naturally evoke an idea to the correct direction: they point to the idea of a pointer, they provide a handle to grasp the idea of a handle.

"I didn’t intend to force my made-up words on people outside of that context, but alas, here we are" reads to me l... (read more)

2AnthonyC
I'd just sort of assumed the similar sound to zazen was intentional and that if I'd known Japanese it might make more sense.
MikkW
1613

I have found in my note-keeping for my own use, that attaching made-up sounds to specific ideas that don't have words yet is actually very useful; whereas overloading words that already have other meanings is something that actively harms clarity.

sig
-4-2

Quick gut responses...

Crypto has not really taken off (*I wrote this section before the FTX collapse)

No one in crypto really even noticed the FTX thing. I understand it hit some EA/rat people hard, but in crypto, nah. The Terra incident in spring was way bigger; it was a stablecoin, not a run-of-the-mill gambling spree fuelled by amphetamines.

but most currency, while being mostly digital, is still unrelated to crypto

If you still equate crypto with Bitcoin, you're... well, you're living in 2010 or so. And one crypto year is 5 AI years, or at least w... (read more)

sig
84

I found none of those quotes in https://nickbostrom.com/papers/vulnerable.pdf

When using quotation marks, please be more explicit where the quotes are from, if anywhere.

How VWH could be extrapolated is of course relevant and interesting; wouldn't it make sense to pick an example from the actual text?

sig
10

excellent comment. Not everyone needs to push the envelope of the field they read papers on. Applications are just as important (collectively even more so!) as the foundational theory, and replication work already is the most major step/hurdle towards an application, even if it's a toy, on a more applied field/problem.

I wouldn't mind that kind of reading club, either :)

sig
-20

I'll add a link: https://medium.com/radical-urbanist/a-million-tesla-robotaxis-would-cripple-urban-transport-f8b50223d8c2

And a quote from there: the future of urban mobility is transit, cycling, and walking, not autonomobiles driven by humans or artificial intelligence. Self-driving cars will never be a mass mobility option, and people shouldn’t be given false assurances to the contrary.

How does either robotaxi or "personal wagon" solve the mobility problem?

4greylag
Well, here are some ways robotaxis *could* contribute to solving urban mobility: * One limiting factor of cars? Congestion. Robot cars, communicating with each other, don't need the safe headways for slow human reaction times, and can - potentially - co-ordinate themselves around gridlock. * Trying to travel around on a bicycle? Dumb meatbag drivers may run into you; will robots be better at that? We certainly *hope* so. Same for walking. Also... * Parking space! Robotaxis don't have to park right next to the destination - so robotaxis are at least somewhat compatible with high density development, more so than private cars * If single-occupant cars aren't providing adequate density, there's nothing to stop the use of adequate-sized buses - something between the size of a minibus and a transit bus - at least out of downtown to "railheads" (the "last mile" concept alluded to). How feasible is any of this? Hard to tell, too many hypotheticals. The "radical urbanist" article is only interested in scenarios in which robotaxis are completely ineffective (don't work, too expensive) or completely disastrous (cause ultimate gridlock, which no government is capable of doing anything about).
sig
20

Add to that that the "outdated assumption" says "a single vehicle needs to do both the moving and the accommodation of the user". Perhaps a personal car can be said to "accommodate" people, but if you only want the engine, there's already e-scooters. The whole point of robotaxi is to reduce the number of vehicles needed by making their utilization more efficient (by sharing them). Why should we have those inefficient personal wagons lying around? Why not have houses for "accommodation" and robotaxis for "moving" the people?

sig
30

...but you could put a bed in your wagon? And you could rent out your bed to massage parlors? I think this system is going to have some hygiene issues with most people...

5ESRogs
In a way that Airbnb does not?
sig
30

The biggest problems with cars are traffic congestion and parking space. I assume your wagons can be stacked on top of each other? If so, the human world would essentially become a giant warehouse where trucks move human-containers from one stack to another? Doesn't sound so much better than cities with robotaxis.

-2sig
I'll add a link: https://medium.com/radical-urbanist/a-million-tesla-robotaxis-would-cripple-urban-transport-f8b50223d8c2 And a quote from there: the future of urban mobility is transit, cycling, and walking, not autonomobiles driven by humans or artificial intelligence. Self-driving cars will never be a mass mobility option, and people shouldn’t be given false assurances to the contrary. How does either robotaxi or "personal wagon" solve the mobility problem?
sig
10

My head gets hotter and I do feel some kind of pressure around forehead for "thinking hard under pressure", but I think it's mostly the stress hormones and increased blood pressure / flow / heart rate.

Similar thing for looking at a monitor for many hours straight, but that too may be related to eye muscle strain.

What makes me tired is continued social interaction, especially using several languages. It's fun but tiring. Then it's always nice to hide in toilet or go for a walk or something, to relax and breath a bit, before continuing. That tiredn... (read more)