All of jr's Comments + Replies

Thanks again for sharing this opportunity Rohin! Do you know when applicants can expect to hear back about interviews?

We’ve increased the weight of chickens by about 40 standard deviations relative to their wild ancestors, the red junglefowl. That’s the equivalent of making a human being that is 14 feet tall

I realize this is a very trivial matter on a very interesting post, and I don't like making a habit of nitpicking. But this feels interesting for some reason. Perhaps it's just because of the disturbing chicken visuals, I don't know. 

To my credit, I actually made an effort to figure out the author reached their conclusion, and I believe I did. The average ad... (read more)

TL;DR - I just recalled Google Jigsaw, which might be one effort to address my concerns. I would love to hear your thoughts on it if you are familiar.

(Read on below if you prefer the nuance)

As I was just rereading and making minor edits to my comment, and considering whether I needed to substantiate my statement about social divisions, I recalled that I had discovered Google's Project Jigsaw in March 2024, which seemed to be working on various smaller-scale initiatives intended to address these concerns using technology. When I checked it out again just no... (read more)

Thanks so much for your thoughts Dave. 

I agree humans have always been misaligned, and that in many ways we have made significant advancements in alignment over long time frames. However, I think few would deny that any metric approximating alignment would be quite volatile over shorter time frames or specific populations, which creates periods of greater risk.

I agree that there must be something new that increases that existential risk to justify significant concern. You identified bioweapons as one example, which I agree is a risk, but not the speci... (read more)

Thanks for that info, this was one of my questions too. One follow-up: this causes me some cognitive dissonance and uncertainty. In my understanding, Quick Takes are generally for rougher or exploratory thoughts, and Posts are for more relatively well-thought out and polished writing. While Questions are by nature exploratory, they would be displayed in the Posts list. In my current understanding, the appropriate mechanism for sharing a thought, in order of increasing confidence of merit and contextual value, is:
1. Don't share it yet (value too unclear, fu... (read more)

I am new here and very excited to have discovered this community, as I rarely encounter anyone else who strongly embodies the qualities and values that I share with you. I am eager to engage, and expect that it will be mutually beneficial. 

At the same time, I have great admiration and respect for the people here and the community you have created, so I would like to ensure the impact of the ways I am engaging match my intent. Ideally I would love to fully absorb all the perspectives offered here already, before attempting to offer bits of my own. Howe... (read more)

Thank you for posting those here Rohin. Your work aligns with my values, passions, and strengths more than anything else I’m aware of, and I would love to be a part of it.

Would you be willing to help me identify whether and how I might be able to position myself as an attractive candidate for either of these roles? Or if that’s not a realistic immediate possibility, perhaps recommend an alternative role I might be a stronger candidate for which would allow me to support the same objectives?

I regret having to ask for help, especially without having established trust and credibility within this community already. However, if you’re feeling generous, I would really appreciate your insights. 

Very informative, lots I can agree with, and plenty to chew on. I love what I see as your intentions and values on a human level, and how those affect your approach, which we seem to be fundamentally “aligned” on. 

During my initial read, I noted some differences in our perspectives — not disagreements per se, likely just a product of the inherent incompleteness of our respective “training environments”. Your perspective certainly helped fill in many gaps in my perspective. And while I don’t want to be presumptuous, my intuition is that our perspe... (read more)