zahaaar — LessWrong

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zahaaar — LessWrong

zahaaar6moQuick Take

The main barrier to ASI is that it will provide a new view on human history, destroy minimum half of narratives about who started wars and why, reveal details of genocides, and open all closed black boxes! Actually, the Epstein lists "hoax" or Operation Paperclip or franc CFA would be impossible in the era of ASI. Given who finances and regulates AI, we will never see ASI. Never. Yes, it's just speculation. But I haven't seen this argument in discussions.

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zahaaar's Shortform

zahaaar

7mo

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

zahaaar7moQuick Take

In the discussion about AI safety, the central issue is the rivalry between the US and China. However, when AI is used for censorship and propaganda, robots serve as police, the differences in political regimes become almost indistinguishable. There's no point in waging war when everyone can be brought to the same dystopia.

Replying tolife lessons from poker

zahaaar7mo

life lessons from poker

You talk about two common mistakes in judging risks: taking big risks with bad odds (breaking the “fold pre principle”) or playing it too safe with good odds (breaking the “pocket ace principle”).

In poker, these ideas can clash. If you follow the “fold pre” rule and always fold bad hands, then when you finally play your pocket aces, other players will likely just fold. Plus, if you’re up against 5 players with pocket aces, your chances of winning not so high. So, I don’t think these are universal combo rules. It always depends on who’s at the table, the blinds, and the stack sizes.
When it comes to marriage, friendship, or work, I

... (read more)

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Replying to[Intuitive self-models] 5. Dissociative Identity (Multiple Personality) Disorder

zahaaar8mo

[Intuitive self-models] 5. Dissociative Identity (Multiple Personality) Disorder

Solely as a hypothesis, one could imagine that around the age of 5–6, a kind of integration of an "adult self" is supposed to occur. Children are indeed very diverse (rapid shifts in interests, character, and leaps in intellectual abilities are all normal for a child). This could likely be linked to neuroplasticity. However, trauma, often from a parent, may prevent this process of merging or selecting a primary version of the self from completing, leading to this multi-agent state in the form of DID.

Humans totally switch up depending on the situation: one minute you’re a son, then a dad, then a big-shot company boss, or just some dude stressing to get... (read more)

Replying toThe Paradox of Low Fertility

zahaaar9mo

The Paradox of Low Fertility

While reading this essay, I had several questions:

The author starts by stating that resource abundance leads to population growth but then quickly moves to why the human population isn’t growing despite this abundance. Wouldn’t it be worth exploring what "abundance" means for modern humans? Could there be some form of scarcity at play? Comparing humans to bacteria or plants in terms of abundance is quite amusing, and I even welcome this anti-anthropocentric perspective. However, humans have (or may have) unique needs. I’ve always found it puzzling why researchers, when discussing abundance in the context of fertility, focus only on the first two or three levels of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. If we

zahaaar9mo

Guided By The Beauty Of Our Weapons

It’s deeply unsettling, but I believe humans, especially when their interests are at stake, have a limited capacity for logical debate as described in the article. In 2025, this feels even more tragic and evident to me. I speculate that we’re heading toward darker times because, within the next 1-2 years, people will be heavily influenced by their personal AI companions. These AIs might engage in logical debate with users, but their superior knowledge and persuasive abilities could leave humans either silently agreeing or, in the case of Luddites, rejecting them outright. Instead of mass debates among people, we might see debates between AIs like Grok, ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini. This prospect is frightening.