Monday, June 06, 2016

"In cyberspace no one can hear you scam."

I'd like to think that deadly daydream of the tech-talkers may be dying at last...

5 comments:

  1. They're postponing my Singularity!

    http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2016/06/cytological-utopia-and-the-rap.html#more
    -------------------
    Greg. Tingey
    June 5, 2016
    214:

    There is an alternative future for humanity,
    not encompassed by Fedorov or the "transhumanists",
    that I was introduced to at a very early age. . .
    The worlds & universe as seen in "Last & First Men"
    & the other works of Olaf Stapeldon.

    The moral compass & outlook is, if not "opposed", is certainly
    completely orthogonal to the drives, desires & stated aims
    of people like Dirk, here. . .

    ---

    Dirk Bruere replied to this comment from Greg Tingey
    June 5, 2016
    215:

    That is the traditional flying car and galactic empire future,
    which is now off the menu.

    Once we create general AI it all ends. The only argument is when.
    My view for the past 30 years has been around the year 2035.
    However, if it is 2080 it really doesn't make much difference.
    This century is the last where H[omo]S[apiens]S[sapiens]
    is the dominant species on earth.
    ====


    http://www.softmachines.org/wordpress/?p=1890
    -------------------
    Giulio Prisco
    June 6, 2016

    Robin [Hanson] thinks that mind uploading is likely to be
    developed much before sentient AI. I think the two are likely
    to develop at comparable paces with strong feedback loops,
    with advances in one stimulating advances in the other
    (or roadblocks in one creating roadblocks in the other) and
    reach operational maturity at more or less the same time near
    the end of the century, give or take a couple of decades. . .
    ====

    ReplyDelete
  2. Nobody never right thinks blah blah non-thing blah blah likely will blah blah in blah blah years because blah blah blah but also ran never right thinks instead blah blah non-thing blah blah will likelier blah blah sooner because blah blah blah. Science!

    ReplyDelete
  3. > . . .blah blah non-thing blah blah will likelier blah blah sooner
    > because blah blah blah. . .
    >
    > Science!

    http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2016/06/06/terrible-awful-no-good-writing/
    -----------------
    [I]ndefatigably incompetent Suzan Mazur. . . is a weird case.
    She clearly aspires to be a real live science journalist,
    but the science she wants to track down is all this fringey
    nonsense. . .

    But here’s the real shame. For once, Mazur has an interesting story
    to write up, and she loses it in a disorganized, incoherent mess
    of a ramble. . . This is actually kind of important:

    > NASA’s Astrobiology Program — headed by Mary Voytek — awarded
    > $1.108M (5% of its annual budget) to the Center of Theological Inquiry,
    > a religious think tank with more than $23M in assets, to investigate
    > how the world’s religions might respond to the discovery of life
    > on other planets. John Templeton Foundation is co-sponsoring the
    > two-year project (2015-2017) with a $1.7M grant to CTI.

    Hang on. NASA gave a million dollars to a prosperous theological
    think tank, which also got a hefty donation from the Templeton Foundation,
    to do what? We don’t need to investigate how religion will respond,
    we already know: some will take it in stride and try to incorporate
    discoveries into their belief systems, and some will actively deny
    it. Why is a NASA program throwing away 5% of their budget on trying
    to scry how the irrational will respond to something they haven’t
    found yet?

    That’s a story. . .
    ====


    Good heavens, Miss Sakamoto! You're beautiful!

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZOW5GdgCGw

    ReplyDelete
  4. > . . .non-thing blah blah likely will blah blah in blah blah
    > years because blah blah blah. . .

    https://thingofthings.wordpress.com/2016/02/17/concerning-miris-place-in-the-ea-movement/
    --------------------
    Concerning M[achine]I[ntelligence]R[esearch]I[nstitute]’s
    Place in the E[ffective]A[ltruism] Movement
    17 Feb 2016
    Posted by ozymandias in effective altruism

    . . .

    I am completely unqualified to assess the evidence that MIRI
    is or is not an effective organization: I cannot tell apart a
    deep mathematical finding from one that’s trivial or even
    incorrect, and I don’t have a sense for how much math one
    should expect mathematicians to create. However, several
    people I trust have said -- mostly in private conversations --
    that to them MIRI appears to be producing about as much math
    as half a C[omputer]S[cience] grad student. If true, this
    is a damning statement. [How much **math** are CS grad
    students expected to produce?]

    However, very, very few of the conversations I’ve seen about
    MIRI have centered around MIRI’s effectiveness as an
    organization. . .

    It is genuinely difficult to figure out a way of assessing the
    effectiveness of a speculative organization like MIRI. If they
    produce little math, is this because of the difficulty of the
    problem or some kind of organizational incompetence? . . .

    There are a lot of reasons people don’t want to have this
    conversation. Most obviously, it would create drama, and many
    people are averse to drama. Many people, including myself,
    have a lot of respect for Eliezer Yudkowsky as a person. However,
    it should not be taken as an insult to say “I’ve looked into it,
    and I don’t think the charity you’re running is particularly
    effective”; ideally, our norm should be that that sort of criticism
    is a **compliment**. We’re all trying to do the most good here,
    right? . . .

    To be clear, I am not saying that MIRI is an ineffective
    organization; as I said above, I am incapable of assessing MIRI’s
    effectiveness. However, I do want to encourage speaking up among
    people who are privately thinking “MIRI isn’t very effective”
    but feel reluctant to say anything because they don’t want to
    create drama or start shit. And I do think the evidence is unclear
    enough that we should have an informed discussion of this issue. . .

    “Is MIRI effective?” is just another question. And it’s about
    time we put serious effort into finding the answer.
    ====


    Some day they'll clama for my drama. ;->

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  5. > . . .that deadly daydream. . .

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_l0FaZPS2I
    ------------------
    Louis Theroux discusses Scientology and undercover reporting - Rambam
    Published on May 13, 2016
    Louis Theroux discusses his new documentary "My Scientology Movie" with Rambam.

    11:06/12:54

    Linda Hakeboom: And who are they, then, in your words?

    Louis Theroux: Well -- I'm talking about the Sea Org now,
    which is mainly what we were focussed on. . .

    Linda: Yes.

    Louis: The innermost. . .

    Linda: The most intense, inside group.

    Louis: The spiritual warriors. . .

    Linda: Yes.

    Louis: They are a vanguard of spiritual revolutionaries.
    And the question that you have to ask yourself is: if you
    truly believed that it was in your hands to revolutionize
    the planet in such a way that insanity, war, crime would all
    be eradicated, what would you not be willing to do?
    What would you **not** be willing to do to achieve that
    end?
    ====

    ReplyDelete