I live in Australia, I'd prefer to live in SF, but am currently trying to build skills to get a job I'd be interested in over there. If a post of mine indicated to you that I might be a good fit for a role you're looking to fill, please send me a DM :D
Other reasons I'd appreciate DMs include (though are not limited to):
- You'd like to collaborate on a project
- You'd like feedback on something
- You need an experienced filmmaker
- You need someone to run a workshop
- You would like to say "Hi!"
(If we met at LessOnline, you might remember me better as the Drama Workshop guy, or the counterpart to @isabella)
I both, updated a bit on this point, and have a lot of new music to listen to. Thanks a bunch! :D
Domain: Linguistics
Sub Domains: Psychology, Neuroscience, Epistilography, Etymology
Link: How Language Works
Author(s): David Crystal
Type: Book
Why: Covers every part of language you can dream of. The author is obsessive and meticulous. From hieroglyphs to Heschl's gyri, Crystal covers it all.
Domain: Statistics
Link: Statistics for the Rest of Us
Author(s): Albert Rutherford
Type: Book
Why: I do not recommend this to anyone familiar with statistics. But, I do recommend this as an introduction to many basic topics in stats. I had studied a bit of stats before reading the book, but found it pretty illuminating. I read the entire thing in the course of 1h plane trips. It puts a lot of the abstract math into clear scenarios.
I’m also not a graphic designer. But I agree that both designs give me the ick. I think it’s something about how lazy they both look. They give early 2000s self help book.
To be clear, I’m quite excited for this book, and have preordered! I am just surprised by the covers.
Recently had Justis give me feedback on a post. A bunch of failure modes I tend to fall into were pointed out to me. So, not only was this one post improved, but all the writing I do from now on will be too.
I am excited by this post and was sad when I realized it was written so long ago. I have many thoughts, as this is something I've been focusing on.
This app creates a feedback loop on the sub-second level, using a different channel (my Occipital Lobe) that doesn't interfere with singing or listening
Really, I'm just agreeing with what you implied. You want the feedback you are getting to come in from a different sense to the primary one you are using. And you want it to be able to be processed by something other than the processing unit you're using to solve a problem.
I think that this:
measuring a single straightforward variable
Is actually one of the most important parts of this note. But I'm not sure how to think about that yet.
Hi! Did you mean to leave this comment? If you did, would you be able to expand on why?
Thank you for your comment, and your original on the Thesis. I decided not to include the latter in this post, as you've already pointed out the scenario itself is a response.
And yet... If I take the title literally, I am being told that I should quit social media entirely, as soon as possible, because in the near future, it will be so addictive that I will be literally unable to quit.
I would like to confirm I mean the title literally. I don't go into it enough in the post or supplement. But as of now, this is the best strategy I can think of to avoid something I don't want to happen to me. I have started downloading whole YouTube Channels, and setting up ways to auto download content from creators I enjoy. I am trying to take this very seriously.
Well, that's nobody's ideal, but it's not actually worse than the human condition has been, for large numbers of people throughout history.
I think that this is true. But it can be true that the human condition has been bad through most of history, and it can be true that aiming to make the human condition better is virtuous, and worth doing.
In my ideal world, not a single person is "limping through life". But if 90% of people are currently limping through life, and Omega offered me the choice between reducing the amount of limpers by 1%, or leaving it where it is (because I'd prefer my ideal world, over just -1%) then I'd take the 1% reduction!
It's just that I was expecting something more apocalyptic as the payoff, that humanity would be utter captives of the content farms, perhaps later to be herded into Matrix pods or assembled into armies of meme-controlled zombies.
Yeah, I think Miro's story ends early. This is on purpose. I think this is a likely outcome for a large % of self supporting wealthy individuals (By wealthy and self supporting, I mean something like "I pay my own rent by working, though, I still live pay check-to-pay check").
The epilogue for Miro might look like one of the things you described. It would require social media companies to win some sort of battle for ultimate power? Or perhaps they fight for some amount of 'territory' and win. If this did happen, I'd guess it'd look a little like the social media version of Disneyland without Children.
After all, there's actually a lot of good stuff that comes through social media.
I hard agree with everything you say here. I actually think there are many more things you're leaving out. I think social media up-to a certain point was net-good for the world. It certainly accelerated us culturally.
My sister was beaten in high school for being gay. That was in the 2010s. When I teach kids these days, I sometimes have to remind the queer kids that it's actually ok to be straight. I don't think we would have had a drastic transformation like that without the social internet.
It's just that you haven't really made the case, that the social Internet will become nothing but a prison of blighted lives.
I'm not totally sure what you mean here. I'll try to respond in the direction I think you were meaning.
Mainly, I think Social Media has provided great value. However, I now see a trajectory it seems hard to disentangle ourselves from. One where my preference for having free time to write LessWrong posts, see friends, and fall in love, are threatened by an activity I consider less meaningful to my life. An activity that I think will cause me more pain than pleasure.
If living in the city meant I was alone, in a job I didn't enjoy, with a body I was neglecting. But I got to enjoy the conveniences of a city, like food delivery, higher possibility of making friends in the future, higher density of Tinder profiles. Then I would choose not to live in the city. Those benefits are not worth the cost to me.
As AI becomes more and more capable, the question of AI on social media just blends into the broader question of humanity's destiny in a world with AI, and ultimately, a world with artificial superintelligence.
Yes, I think as we move towards ASI the future becomes less certain. This is why I'd really like to emphasise that what I have proposed doesn't need ASI. A lot of this scenario doesn't require AGI. That is why I think GTFO now is the best plan. Even if we manage to align an ASI, it wont be around to save us when this becomes a problem.
I especially want to spread this meme through the alignment community. As I think having many people very focused on this problem is our best chance of solving it. I would dislike if those people fell into the same traps as Miro.
I really appreciate your thoughtful comment here, and the time you took to write it. Strong upvote for your virtue of argument. Thank you!
(Apologies if this isn't the right post to comment this on)
One thing that I've just noticed is that there is no "Share post with another user" button. To share a post, I have to:
That's a lot of friction to get a friend's eyeballs on a post. I think it would make collaborating on LW easier if sharing a post to another user was more like sharing a post on X (Formerly Twitter).
--
Related to sharing, I notice that clicking the "Share" button on iPhone takes a long time to load. This limits the amount of LW posts I'm willing to share to my Matter reading queue when triaging the front page. There is an argument to be made that this is a good thing though.
Thank You to People of the Lightcone: an ambient song
From the window of our room, Isabella and I could see the Lightcone staff office. While I wont name anyone directly, it became a joke between Isabella and I, that no matter the time of day/night, if we looked over to those windows, always, there would be a certain member of the Lightcone staff, sitting, working at that computer. Clearly visible, like a busy fish in a lit tank. Outside of that tank, a half party, half conference chugged on.
Today is Isabella and my last day at Lighthaven. I'd like to pay my respects to people like the aforementioned member of the Lightcone staff, and all other staff at Lighthaven. To the people who gave talks, and the people who talked to me, to the people who told me about their problems, and those who took their own time to solve my problems. I want to honor those who kept fridges stocked, and those who bought marshmallows to share. And of course thank you to the niche-internet-micro-celebrities, that delt with unique social pressures. Oh! And the volunteers, they did so much! Thank you, to all who have touched my life. I am coming away from this place with the distinct feeling, that yes, the Lightcone really is nothing without it's people.
I spent this morning/afternoon generating a song. The song is based on the feeling that being at Lighthaven gives me. It is a melancholic song, because in some way, we are here to stop horrible things from happening. It is a hopeful song, because we are here with friends.
There is the music only version, which I call "An Ode to the People of the Lightcone".
And there is a more personal, home movie music video version, which I call "Something to Protect".
The song is an ambient track, you can listen to it while you work. I recommend listening to it while at Lighthaven (If you are here) in this way, I hope it will always remind you of this place, and this time.