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There are so many theories about how future AIs will take over the world, when in the real world software is evil because it DOESN'T WORK. It takes almost a minute to open a damn txt file on my Windows 10 desktop PC. Things were actually slightly faster in Windows...

(This question involves my somewhat bizarre "mind backup" project, that was inspired by Rudy Rucker's "Lifebox" idea.) Unfortunately, I made some HUGE blunders last year involving my life savings and the market (bonds, though I almost wish it was crypto). It's painful to admit this involved laziness on my part...

It took me a long time to understand because I think software as it currently exists is fantastically weak and infuriatingly defective, in fact criminally so - but after reading a lot of stuff here, AI research suddenly seems a lot more dangerous than before. The basic truth of any...

There is a strange bias that affects every human even if they believe the opposite. For some reason, the reality we inhabit appears absolutely consistent and perfectly integrated. Everything happens for a precise reason, affecting everything else through an unbroken chain of logical connections without a single flaw or glitch....

Countless people have wondered about one of the most obvious cosmological puzzles. It's a very simple question with no answer: If the universe could exist forever, why do we exist almost as close to the beginning of time as possible? Some very sophisticated attempts have been made to answer it,...

The question is very simple: could you train a powerful computer program to act like an accurate copy of yourself? Some LW members may have already tried this, but it would require super powerful software. Even if it's only text based, GPT-3 wouldn't be enough. Maybe GPT-13. If such a...