All of listic's Comments + Replies

Nope, I didn't. Waited for about an hour. The barista in the cafe didn't know about the meetup and didn't see him or anyone else either.

Well, Dmitrii, I came and it looks like I'm the only one here? Not even you around? I wonder if I'm in the right place. I'm in BNKR at Simon Janashia, 26.

I just happened to be in the city, so I thought I might as well attend?

I'll just leave a link to Yandex maps in case anyone needs it, since it seems to work so well around here: https://yandex.com/maps/org/157367660379

Can I get a link to the pre-orientation, please, which should be already starting online, I believe?

I sent you a message here on Less Wrong, but didn't get a reply.

What chat servers are in use now?
Almost 5 years have passed.

Did you do anything special to have lucid dreams?

How does one call a philosophical position that images have intrinsic meanining, rather than assigned one by the external observer?

What can be said about a person giving voice to such position? (with the purpose of understanding their position and how to best one could converse with them, if at all)

I am asking because I encountered such a person in a social network discussion about computer vision. They are saying that pattern recognition is not yet a knowledge of their meaning and yes, meaning is intrinsic to image.

All that comes to my mind is: I am not versed in philosophy, but it looks to me that science is based on the opposite premise and further discussion is meaningless.

Way better for me; tango and soccer are practically dead to me; swimming is fun.

OTOH if you optimize for fitness benefits, I am almost sure swimming is not optimal: e.g. cardio training and weight lifting should be better.

You should really figure out what you wish to optimize for. If you want to optimize for 'everything' you should be fine doing 'anything' that looks like it helps it.

Haven't heard about such an accident. Why do you ask?

Can't figure how the second paragraph demonstrates that technological progress has ended (by the way, do you mean it stopped or it really reached its logical conclusion?). Rather, it illustrates its ever more rapid pace. And that might be a problem for science fiction: where formerly readers were excited to read fiction about strange new things that science could bring in the future, nowadays they are rather overwhelmed with the strange new things they already have, and afraid and unwilling to look into ... (read more)

Thanks for bringing it to my attention! Having an interest in visual novels, interactive fiction and generally all forms of experimenting with good ol' prose that just might end up advancing 'state of the art' of fiction (I suppose I should call that ambition 'upgrading the prose' - have you seen this or that?) I was immediately attracted by your term 'a story-like object': I am interested in exactly the kind of stuff that might be hard to put a label on.

I decided to take a peek, and read through it all. Didn't expect to enjoy it like I did. You know, som... (read more)

Let's hope part 3 will make sense of all of it.

How do you get to know your credit score?

There's also SpoonRocket.

Though for some reason, this seems to only work just in some parts of the world: here in Russia even the grocery delivery seems to only be properly implemented in Moscow.

I believe it's probably only because of the woefully under-developed state of cryonics itself that the practice of voluntary death through cryopreservation (cryothanasia) haven't been seriously researched: rather counter-intuitively, cryonics companies are too few and mostly have enough trouble on their hands to bother disrupting the status quo.

Getting frozen before you die can well be problematic, but not necessarily impossible in all jurisdictions. I believe it's just not well researched. Cryonics has low demand as it is, and cryothanasia requires even g... (read more)

Your claim is worthless without context. Please provide some evidence: why is smartphone the highest ROI purchase for you and why do you think it will be worth it for others.

With smartphones as ubiquitous as they are today, computer-literate people who don't have them should have their reasons. You don' t provide any.

My reasons for not having a smartphone are: I predict that benefits of smartphone ownership will not justify the cost of ownership for me. The cost of ownership consists of:

One-time:

• Researching and choosing a smartphone
• Learning to use it an

Yes, I do think while I eat. Do you think it hurts?

I think the onus is on you to explain where do you think I oversimplify.

I know of Pareto principle, just haven't figured out that 'to 80/20' means 'to learn tax law 20%'. Makes sense in general; the only obvious problem I see here is: how do I know how much of the tax law is 20%? (seriously, at least a rough approximation?)

poly is way too complicated

Exactly what do you find complicated in poly? The first time I heard about polyamory, I thought for a while, then thought, "hm, this makes sense". Monogamy, on the other hand, looks unnecessarily complicated to me.

polyamorous relationship with a "primary" would be a constant battle of sorts to ensure that I have a greater than or equal to number of dating prospects as my partner

Why would you want to do that? Don't you have anything more useful to do with your life?

I look at this hypothetical situation like this:

Situation: I have only one partner who in turn has multiple partners.

Pros:

• I get to spend time with my partner while not needing to fulfill all of their needs.

Cons:

• I don't get enough attention from my partner? But his can be discussed and ne

My metabolism is not necessarily that different, but my rate of eating is. For whatever reason, I eat slowly; probably in 10% slowest eating humans. At one point, having a lunch break on my job, I was choosing a lunch on the basis of which food I could eat the fastest, so that I can manage to eat my lunch on time (mostly porridge, which is healthy, I guess).

Where would be a good place to discuss an old Boring Advice?

E.g. I have gave in and bought myself a smart phone last year, but the utility I derive from it is yet to turn positive. I should have been better off if I either allocated a significant portion of resources to learn using it properly, or not buy at all.

80/20 tax law for your country

80/20 tax law.. what? Do you use '80/20' as a verb here?

Sounds nice, but I'm afraid I would be eating all day if I would eat like this. And maybe even starve, still.

If the point is to get more enjoyment cheaply, for me this will turn out too expensive. I'm looking for ways to spend less time on eating, as it is. I'm pondering whether Soylent/Joylent/Abbott Ensure or other synthetic food as replacement for some of the meals will make my diet both healthier and faster.

Here's an advent postcard I have received today in Fallen London:

"We've had our differences. But this is Christmas.

Best wishes, the Fallen London Probably Random Number Algorithm"

There was a pair of Devilbone Dice in the letter. I wonder what could they be good for?

Fallen London (formerly Echo Bazaar) is an alternative Victorian London with gothic and steampunk overtones", according to Wikipedia.

It won an Escapist Magazine's award for Browser-Based Game of 2009 (scroll to the end) and is, in fact, developed by the actual Londoners.

I am L... (read more)

Ice-Bound: A Novel of Reconfiguration is an upcoming indie game combining an iPad app and an augmented reality-enabled print book by Aaron A. Reed and Jason Garbe.

Ice-Bound is a novel about an AI recreation of a struggling writer, brought to life to finish his now-legendary novel. The player looks at the printed compendium via their iPad to unlock the hidden reality between the lines; at the same time the pages that the player shows to AI writer that 'lives' in the iPad determine the story that he will write.

It is running a Kickstarter campaign that ends t... (read more)

Pathologic - called a pandemic simulator, a game about battling death itsealf, the most nonconventional game of 2005 made by Russian Studio Ice-Pick Lodge, is running a Kickstarter campaign for the remake.

For those who don't speak Russian, the hree-part article named 'Butchering Pathologic' by Quintin Smith on Rock, Paper, Shotgun (p. 2, p. 3) is recommended for acquaintance with the game. Yes, probably instead of playing the game itself, because the English translation it got was the one no game deserves, let alone this one. This time, with the remake, de... (read more)

There was an effort by some Less Wrong folks to experimentally prove the safety of lucid dreaming. Did this end with any conclusive results? Can I get in touch with you guys?

I may have not stated what I wanted clearly. You seem to instruct me how to turn on the Bookmarks toolbar. That's not what I wanted. I don't use a Bookmarks toolbar in my browsers, as I don't feel like its benefits outweigh the space occupied by it and added visual clutter. I thought you were offering a way to put a bookmarklet elsewhere than the Bookmarks toolbar and I was asking you how could I do it. I'm pretty sure I did put a bookmarklet in a menu in Firefox once (that thing that goes "File Edit View History Tools Help"), but I forgot how. Or, I could use an advice re: how to add a bookmarklet at all, even let's say to a Bookmarks toolbar, as I never did it.

Thanks!

fixed

Not for me.

How do I put bookmark in a toolbar? I would like to, as I don't use Bookmarks Toolbar.

While some communities have enacted legislation allowing suicide with the assistance of a physician, any such case almost certainly would be followed by an autopsy which would include dissection of the brain.

I didn't think about this. Still, I would look more into that scenario. I am not sure Alcor has properly investigated all the options here: there are many countries in the world and maybe some would allow suicide cryonics.

You do know that cryonics is not just dropping a body or a brain in liquid nitrogen, don't you? Cellular damage in that scenario ... (read more)

I keep wondering why, oh why can't more of the film production teams hire a decent screenwriter (that's the person who makes the story make sense, right)?

I would like to learn drawing.

I would like to be able to have fun expressing myself via art. How long does it takes to learn to draw from zero to good enough not to be embarrassed of oneself?

What techniques are useful? Is there any sense in e.g. Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain?

I often find myself underestimating the time it takes to accomplish certain tasks. E.g. I think "ok, I'll send a couple of emails in 0.5 hours and move on to the bulk of the work" and it turns out it takes more like 5 hours, and not because I'm procrastinating; it actually takes me that much time to do it.

What about time-management? As far as I understand, GTD, while often described as time-management system, actually doesn't help you manage time. As far as I understand Allen (I have one chapter left, and after that I plan to read the notes I dow... (read more)

I want this one specifically, because it is as much of a computer as the one I currently do all my work on, plus a much more portable laptop, plus a tablet I can draw on.

I always wanted my computer to be as portable as possible, so that I could have no problem taking it with me anywhere. For me, that meant ThinkPad X series, which I happily own, and was thinking about getting a tablet version of. If you are not aware, research it: Lenovo, and IBM before that, was making all their ThinkPad X series computers available in tablet versions way before the recen... (read more)

The latter half of your question doesn't require the former. Why do people help each other on forums? That's why, I think.

I believe it's called 'lockscreen' on any modern smartphone. HTC One mini is an Android phone. What smartphone do you have?

Actually, one of the reasons I chose Android over iOS is because it has widgets and one can put a Google Calendar widget on the home screen, which I was told is very helpful. I've saved links to articles describing "Top 10 Android apps that do amazing things the iPhone can’t". I actually like the second one better: the first on the list is Event Flow Calendar Widget which looks like what you and the other guy was telling me a... (read more)

I realized that when the number of projects in my life exceeds 2 (1 work and 1 hobby) the other things in my life are hardly ever done. I have decided to embrace GTD to stop being stressed about it and get more done.

I'm 70% through the book, bought myself a smartphone and going to buy a tablet as my new computer (actually, I could use your help with delivering the lartter). Never owned any of those, because I believed that they are only good for distractions. Please share your GTD setup and experience: what works for you and what doesn't?

If you have implem... (read more)

Please share your GTD setup and experience: what works for you and what doesn't?

What software do you use and how?

I never owned a smartphone or a tablet, because I believed that they are mostly good for wasting time and effort on distractions (I have a Nokia 1202), but recently I gave in and bought an HTC One mini, because I believe it will help my productivity. Still getting used to the fact what goes for 'mini' these days, but that's the best phone I could find that looks well-made and not overly huge, short of the iPhone.

For my main computer I am running... (read more)

1. He has a lot of things to do. Offloading some of them is kind of the whole point of having assistants.
2. Buying me a computer as employee benefit is difficult for the MIRI's accounting.

Did I answer your question?

If you live in the USA, I could use your help to buy a Microsoft Surface Pro 2 computer for myself. I live in Russia and Microsoft doesn't sell those here and refuses to ship; I have already tried using a US proxy and reshipping service, but the order doesn't go through: maybe it detects that I'm not in the US, or my debit card is not issued by US bank, or something else. Either way, I need someone's help in this.

Also, if you are a student, you should be eligible for 10% discount. But I'm not sure whether Microsoft actually checks this: I could click a cer... (read more)

I am going to organize a coaching course to learn Javascript + Node.js.

My particular technology of choice is node.js because:

• If starting from scratch, having to learn just one language for both frontend and backend makes sense. Javascript is the only language you can use in a browser and you will have to learn it anyway. They say it's kind of Lisp or Scheme in disguise and a pretty cool language by itself.
• Node.js is a modern asynchronous web framework, made by running Javascript code server-side on Google's open-source V8 JavaScript Engine It seems to b

the thing that tulpas contribute is something 99% of people have in overabundance

And that is..?

I believe that tulpas expend host's attention, unless proven otherwise.

Why do you think that attention is a central part of human thinking?

Here's what I am thinking: Attention seems to be a crucial and finite resource. I could certainly become more productive if I become more attentive, and vice versa. If creating a tulpa expends my attention, it is a negative-sum game for me; if it makes me training attention as a side effect, that's good, but not better than just training attention.

Have you never had the experience that you searched for a piece o

I've thought at your reply for a while and I still can't understand it. Care to explain?

Why would one want to "turn duplicates of the same person into new unique persons rapidly" and how? How would that help and why would one otherwise have to simulate an entire childhood?

One of the documented features of Tulpa is already waking up people from sleep.

That's interesting. Do you have a link for this?

I believe that tulpas expend host's attention, unless proven otherwise. Tulpamancers haven't proven that they can be more effective than other people by any metric, and I suspect that having a tulpa is a zero-sum game in absence of some brain upgrade that would expand some bottleneck in our mind.

Then, what would that make homo sapiens who can hunt wild beasts in savannah and design semiconductor chips if not generally intelligent?

Here's a science-fiction/futurism kind of question:

What minimal, realistic upgrade to our brain could we introduce for tulpas to gain an evident increase in utility? What I have in mind here is make your tulpa do extra work or maybe sort and filter your memories while you sleep; I'm thinking of a scenario where Strong AI and wholesale body/brain upgrades are not available, yet some minor upgrade makes having a tulpa an unambiguous advantage.