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Multinational corporations as optimizers: a case for reaching across the aisle
sudo-nym10

Skepticism about the alignment of government and the incentives thereof has existed for almost as long as governments have. Elections, for example, are a crude but better-than-nothing attempt to align political interests with public interests, and much ink has been spilled on the subject of improving this alignment and even whether alignment to the general public opinion is a good idea.

Far less such discussion has occurred in the case of extremely large companies, as they are a relatively newer concept.

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Multinational corporations as optimizers: a case for reaching across the aisle
sudo-nym10

The fact that there is not really an equivalent for AGI is admittedly a place where this analogy breaks down.

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Multinational corporations as optimizers: a case for reaching across the aisle
sudo-nym10

A pithier version of this has been suggested to me as "[Corporations are] like paperclippers except for money".

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Multinational corporations as optimizers: a case for reaching across the aisle
sudo-nym10

It may also be worth noting how a sufficiently advanced "algorithm" could start making its own "decisions"; for example, a search/display algorithm that has been built to maximize advertisement revenue, if given enough resources and no moral boundaries, may suppress search results that contain negative opinions on itself, promote taking down competitors, and/or preferentially display news and arguments that are in favor of allowing Algorithms more power. Skepticism about The Algorithm is a cause many political parties are already able to agree on; the possibility of The Algorithm going FOOM might accelerate public discussions about the development of AI in general.

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low stress employment/ munchkin income thread
sudo-nym80

If you are in the United States, you may want to consider applying for disability. This is ethically questionable if you can support yourself working. It may or may not be a rational economic decision: see below.

Pros:

  • Many part-time jobs are not designed for people with significantly and arbitrarily fluctuating energy levels/availabilities.
  • Almost no part-time job available to someone without social influence or significant skills will let you earn a comfortable living with a guaranteed income level. Some part-time jobs available to people with skills but
... (read more)
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2ChristianKl
It wouldn't only look like tax evasion but effectively be tax evasion. You might do some online work that pays you in bitcoins.
6CAE_Jones
I'm on disability, and the resource limit is indeed $2000 (I don't know if that's across the board, or just in my state). I wasn't sure how much attention they pay to Paypal until you mentioned it specifically. In my case, every dollar of income would cost 50 cents of SSI, so any job that earns less than $1260/month is probably not worth it. However, what I've read indicates that this rule is specific to blindness, and the system is less forgiving to other disabilities. And I have student loan debt that costs more each month than my disability check, and my parents have been moving away from making that sustainable (at the current rate, I should be overdrawing from my checking account by the end of the year; I was expecting this to happen much sooner, but my parents paid much more of the bills in the first few months of 2013). This prevents "withdraw some cash to hide from the IRS" from being a viable strategy. Without the loans, however, I could both live on SSI and have money left over for other things, assuming I was efficient with electricity and eating. The amount received depends on how many people you're living with, marriage status, property/car/stock ownership, etc.
1[anonymous]
I have no anxiety disorder. I'm okay with doing freelance but don't think I'm skilled enough. This could buy me some time to solve that problem until I get really good at webdev or poker or something. On the other hand, an acquaintence had trouble getting disability, and she's very bipolar and prone to full blown manic episodes, pyschotic breaks, etc. so I'm unsure of my chances of even getting it, even if I do decide I want to. I feel a bit guilty about considering it but the possibility of becoming financially independent later assuages my guilt somewhat. Can you elaborate on what qualifies in practice or link to something?
0[anonymous]
retracted until i rewrite this