Garrett Baker

On Complexity Science

I have a long and confused love-hate relationship with the field of complex systems. People there never want to give me a simple, straightforward explanation about what its about, and much of what they say sounds a lot like woo ("edge of chaos" anyone?). But it also seems to promise a lot! This from the primary textbook on the subject: > The present situation can be compared to an archaeological project, where a mosaic floor has been discovered and is being excavated. While the mosaic is only partly visible and the full picture is still missing, several facts are becoming clear: the mosaic exists; it shows identifiable elements (for instance, people and animals engaged in recognizable activities); there are large patches missing or still invisible, but experts can already tell that the mosaic represents a scene from, say, Homer’s Odyssey. Similarly, for dynamical complex adaptive systems, it is clear that a theory exists that, eventually, can be fully developed. Of course, that textbook never actually described what the mosaic it thought it saw actually was. The closest it came to was: > More formally, co-evolving multiplex networks can be written as, ddtσi(t)∼F(Mαij,σj(t)) ddtMαij∼G(Mβij(t),σj(t)).(1.1) [...] The second equation specifies how the interactions evolve over time as a function G that depends on the same inputs, states of elements and interaction networks. G can be deterministic or stochastic. Now interactions evolve in time. In physics this is very rarely the case. The combination of both equations makes the system a co-evolving complex system. Co-evolving systems of this type are, in general, no longer analytically solvable. Which... well... isn't very exciting, and as far as I can tell just describes any dynamical system (co-evolving or no). The textbook also seems pretty obsessed with a few seemingly random fields: * Economics * Sociology * Biology * Evolution * Neuroscience * AI * Probability theory * Ecology * Physics * Chemistry

54Apr 5, 2024

Garrett Baker

Message

I have signed no contracts or agreements whose existence I cannot mention.

They thought they found in numbers, more than in fire, earth, or water, many resemblances to things which are and become; thus such and such an attribute of numbers is justice, another is soul

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Why the alchemists couldn't build rockets

People sometimes ask why theory is so important, and recently I've been reading John D. Clark's wonderful book Ignition!: An Informal History of Liquid Rocket Propellants, and I've started thinking rocketry and chemistry provide a good example. Chemistry turned manufacturing new rocket propellants from a continuous problem into a discrete...

Dec 20, 202517

The reasonable effectiveness of mathematics

Linch has proposed a theory to explain Wigner and Hamming's observation that mathematics seems unreasonably effective. Linch proposes an anthropic explanation here. Namely, that complex life can't evolve to survive in overly complex environments. Anthropic arguments always leave me unsatisfied, and I'm not really convinced by this one. In particular,...

Nov 25, 202518

What and Why: Developmental Interpretability of Reinforcement Learning

Introduction I happen to be in that happy stage in the research cycle where I ask for money so I can continue to work on things I think are important. Part of that means justifying what I want to work on to the satisfaction of the people who provide that...

Jul 9, 202467

On Complexity Science

Apr 5, 202454

So You Created a Sociopath - New Book Announcement!

Lets face it, you can't make an omelet without breaking a few eggs, and you can't start a worldwide social and political movement without creating a few power-hungry sociopaths. We get it. It hard, but its necessary. Whether it be dictators or dictresses; terrorists or terrorettes; fraudsters or fraudines. Every...

Apr 1, 202453

Announcing Suffering For Good

TL;DR: We are excited to announce the new animal welfare organization Suffering For Good, a new factory farming charity aimed at vegans, where we use our excess profits to buy suffering offsets--in particular, an enormous number of rats on heroin. For decades, even centuries, us vegans have been trying but...

Apr 1, 202476

Neuroscience and Alignment

I've been in many conversations where I've mentioned the idea of using neuroscience for outer alignment, and the people who I'm talking to usually seem pretty confused about why I would want to do that. Well, I'm confused about why one wouldn't want to do that, and in this post...

Mar 18, 202443

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Garrett Baker

Garrett Baker

Garrett Baker

On Complexity Science

Neuroscience and Alignment

Why the alchemists couldn't build rockets

The reasonable effectiveness of mathematics

Garrett Baker

Why the alchemists couldn't build rockets

The reasonable effectiveness of mathematics

What and Why: Developmental Interpretability of Reinforcement Learning

On Complexity Science

So You Created a Sociopath - New Book Announcement!

Announcing Suffering For Good

Neuroscience and Alignment

On Complexity Science

Neuroscience and Alignment

Why the alchemists couldn't build rockets

The reasonable effectiveness of mathematics

Why the alchemists couldn't build rockets

The reasonable effectiveness of mathematics

What and Why: Developmental Interpretability of Reinforcement Learning

On Complexity Science

So You Created a Sociopath - New Book Announcement!

Announcing Suffering For Good

Neuroscience and Alignment