FinalFormal2

Yeah that's one of the comments that inspired me to write mine.

As to your friends not being rationalists- I'm not trying to say that there's something to do with rationality that's causing psychosis. The ideology is not the movement, the social graph is more important than the ideas.

Replying toEstrogen: A trip report

I agree with you that my comment at the end was excessively combative.

If you just thought of a reason for B, and you wanted to add that, that's one thing, but my impression is that mako is thinking of reasons for B, and that's why there's a list.

It's directed thinking. An insight that favors one side is one thing, but this is directed thinking.

That can still be productive in a conversation, but it is a basic and bad bias.

Replying toEstrogen: A trip report

I think you're exhibiting confirmation bias. All your thoughts are pointed in one direction. You have not attempted to think of reasons why psychosis might be underreported in this community.

This is ironic.

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Replying toEstrogen: A trip report

Replying toMy experience at and around MIRI and CFAR (inspired by Zoe Curzi's writeup of experiences at Leverage)

It's kind of disturbing to me that so many people in LW and LW-adjacent talk so casually about psychosis, and like everyone has a friend who's been psychotic. Nobody in my personal life has experienced psychosis or psychotic symptoms, but it seems like everyone in this space knows someone who has. Maybe it's all the drugs?

My experience at and around MIRI and CFAR (inspired by Zoe Curzi's writeup of experiences at Leverage)

What's even the point of that? Did Vassar do a lot of that type of thing?

Replying to“Flaky breakthroughs” pervade inner work — but almost no one tracks them

“Flaky breakthroughs” pervade inner work — but almost no one tracks them

Which are these workshop recordings you're talking about?

FinalFormal210mo

Super curious- are you willing to give a sentence or two on the take here?

Replying to[Link] A community alert about Ziz

FinalFormal211mo

[Link] A community alert about Ziz

No. Because "going off the rails" often involves doing things that are observably irrational even by your own worldview. Like killing your parents and your landlord.

You can say: "this might make sense from their worldview! (soy)"

And the obvious response is: Yes. Because they're crazy. Because they went off the rails.

You can also say: "But we'll never know! Who can know? Nobody knows! Truth is subjective blargh"

And the again obvious response is: Yes, but we can observe patterns. And if you can't update on this evidence and use some basic sense when this sort of thing repeats, you are not thinking clearly.

FinalFormal2's Shortform

Is there a CFAR handbook audio option?

This is a special post for quick takes (aka "shortform"). Only the owner can create top-level comments.

What's the deal with AI welfare? How are we supposed to determine if AIs are conscious and if they are, what stated preference corresponds to what conscious experience?

Surely the AIs can be trained to say "I want hugs" or "I don't want hugs," just as easily, no?

I've gotten spoiled by AI readings, and curious if there's an audio option anywhere for the CFAR Participant Handbook.

EndeavorOTC legit?

Curious to hear anyone's experience with EndeavorOTC, or opinion on it's effectiveness for treating ADHD.

When can I be numerate?

Where should I look for information on gut health?

I recently started working in a setting making physical products, where I discovered that I had a whole nother section of my brain purposed for physical interactions between things and when things might fall on other things or melt or fall apart or shatter or scar or any number of other things. Unfortunately, because of my inexperience, this is a part of my brain I had to be prompted to use. I had to be asked directly: "What do you think will happen as a result of that?" in order to actually use that part of my brain.

I can't help but feel that the same thing must be going on with my math ability.

I want to apply my math knowledge to the world so I can actually get some use out of it, but I have no idea how to go about doing that.

Wat do?

How do I get better at D&D Sci?

I've been on a gut health kick, reading Brain Maker, adding more kale for the insoluble fiber, and cutting seed oils and sugar.

The author recommends probiotic enemas and fecal transplant, but I've seen mixed information on effectiveness of such treatments, and I also read a concerning article by a professor that seemed to indicate that bacteria from probiotic foods doesn't stick around in the intestine, which makes it seem like oral probiotics in general might just all be temporary.

Where can I find more detailed information about this? What can I do besides diet that actually works to improve your gut health/microbiota diversity?

Short Post: Discerning Truth from Trash

I have no experience with data science, but D&D Sci seems fun and I would like to improve and get better at it. Where can/should I start?

When does an AI become intelligent enough to become self-aware and power-seeking?

I have read a lot of self-help in my time, which means I’ve also read a whole lot of bullshit. Worst than the actual process of ingesting and attempting to digest self-help bullshit was finding that my own writing started to produce features similar to self-help bullshit.

I would write advice that I had not attempted, which I knew would not work for me, and which I would never actually try myself.

I’m not unique in this respect- this type of writing infests the internet and literature at every level, but it’s not how it has to be.

I just wrote a post where I recommend hyperventilation in order to get in a better mindset... (read 156 more words →)

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What are the arguments for/against FOOM?

Do AIs currently display goal-directed behavior? What do we expect happens in a superintelligence which makes it display goal-directed behavior?

What's the consensus on porn?

The most promising AI model afaik right now is LLMs. My understanding is that progress in LLMs is slowing down as the gains we can make from more data and run times dry up, and that opportunity right now lies with smaller, more efficient models and creative applications of the existing technology.

I also can't see how LLMs could FOOM when creating them takes a lot of time and processing power. If an LLM understood themselves well enough to alter individual nodes and expect improvements then that would make sense, but that sounds hard enough that I would expect they're already basically superintelligence?

All that being said, I have not finished Nick Bostrom's Superintelligence, so I'd be very interested to hear what I might be missing here.