All of Yaacov's Comments + Replies

Yaacov00

Interested in theory. I wouldn't move cities to join a baugruppe but if I ended up in the same city as one I would like to live there.

Yaacov60

This study was trying to figure out what would happen if everyone in the US followed the same diet. That's probably not that useful for individual decision making. Even if lots and lots of people became vegan we wouldn't stop using grazing land, we would just raise less grain-fed animals.

Also, this analysis doesn't seem to consider animal suffering, which I personally find important.

Yaacov20

Destroying the robot greatly diminishes its future ability to shoot, but it would also greatly diminishes its future ability to see blue. The robot doesn't prefer 'shooting blue' to 'not shooting blue', it prefers 'seeing blue and shooting' to 'seeing blue and not shooting'.

So the original poster was right.

Edit: I'm wrong, see below

3Gurkenglas
If the robot knows that its camera is indestructible but its gun isn't, it would still shoot at the mirror and destroy only its gun.
Yaacov180

Hi LW! My name is Yaacov, I've been lurking here for maybe 6 months but I've only recently created an account. I'm interested in minimizing human existential risk, effective altruism, and rationalism. I'm just starting a computer science degree at UCLA, so I don't know much about the topic now but I'll learn more quickly.

Specific questions:

What can I do to reduce existential risk, especially that posed by AI? I don't have an income as of yet. What are the best investments I can make now in my future ability to reduce existential risk?

4Viliam
If you choose the path of trying to make a lot of money and supporting the organizations who do the research, 80000 hours can help. If you choose to contribute by doing the research, you can start by reading what's already done.
5endoself
Hi Yaacov! The most active MIRIx group is at UCLA. Scott Garrabrant would be happy to talk to you if you are considering research aimed at reducing x-risk. Alternatively, some generic advice for improving your future abilities is to talk to interesting people, try to do hard things, and learn about things that people with similar goals do not know about.
5Squark
Hi Yaacov, welcome! I guess that you can reduce X-risk by financing the relevant organizations, contributing to research, doing outreach or some combination of the three. You should probably decide which of these paths you expect to follow and plan accordingly.