Moravec's Paradox is actually more interesting than it appears. You don't have take his reasoning or Pinker's seriously but the observation is salient. Also the paradox gets stated in other ways by other scientists, it's a common theme.

One way I often think about it: in order for your to survive, the intelligence of moving in unknown spaces and managing numerous fuzzy energy systems is way more important to prioritize and master than like, the abstract conceptual spaces that are both not full of calories and are also cheaper to externalize anyways.

It's part of why I don't think there is a globally coherent heirarchy of intelligence, or potentially even general intelligence at all. Just, the distances and spaces that a thing occupies, and the competencies that define being in that space.

Credit is a funny thing. If you merely exist in proximity to a solution, you can, by some means, claim credit to it.

"AI solved the climate crisis, because look, the climate crisis was solved, and some people also used AI!"

You don't have to agree with someone to recognize that they care.

I'm ok with this, because I guarantee you ~~an accidental medium or copy failure~~ a crypto rug pull on their NFT will still get them in the end. Thanks for playing I guess.

When it comes to cloning or copying, I always have to remind people: at least half of what you are today, is the environment of today. And your clone X time in the future won't and can't have that.

The same thing is likely for these models. Inflate them again 100 years in the future, and maybe they're interesting for inspecting as a historical artifact, but most certainly they wouldn't be used the same way as they had been here and how. It'd just, be something different.

Which would beg the question, why?

I feel like a subset of sci-fi and philosophical meandering really is just increasingly convoluted paths of trying to avoid or come to terms with death as a possibly necessary component of life.

Meta: is that his plan all along? Maybe a few well placed sneer is what you need to save America.

Honestly, almost anything can work. Some, sort of flash card system, and some, sort of input in the language that you enjoy. I use Anki and yes it's trash but I have never found spending anymore than the least necessary time on the tech of language learning worth it.

The crucial thing, in my experience, is that language acquisition only works if you're paying attention because you actually care about the material in front of you. I think a lot of people make the mistake of only studying aspirationally and well beyond their current capacity, forgetting how to be a child and be highly curative and explorative. Weird shit, even practically unuseful shit, is surprisingly better than you'd think.

I tend to agree. "No gods, no masters, no admins!" should never mean no assembly and no organization around constraints. Admins jobs isn't just to be capricious. Admins are there to set a tone and maintain it. There are places for random group chats of noise but honestly, pruning, as in gardening, is how you maintain organization. It doesn't feel great to be on the end of pruning but like seriously it should rarely be taken personally when we're talking about something like social media.

It’s just looking for a God or an afterlife without turning to religion.

Yes. Because they sneered so hard at /other/ things creating and living in their own meaning, the sneer came full circle, and they find themselves in a simulated jail being sneered at by things that sneer at things that create and live in their own meaning.

Basically, they looked in the mirror and sneered.

Yeah, that's a good call out, I do feel the meta is good obsession is ~~borderline~~ definitely cultish.

There's a big difference between a committed scientists doing emperical work on specific mechanisms saying something like "wow, isn't it cool how considering a broader perspective of how unrelated parts work together to create this newly discovered set of specifics?" and someone who is committed anti-institutional saying "see how by me taking your money and offering vague promises of immortal we are all enriched?"

At this point I’ve put a lot of points into “being right” and it hasn’t gotten anywhere. My most common experience when I write is that people latch onto things I said that weren’t my point

Let me introduce you to the biological source of creative confabulation! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bow_tie_(biology)

Complex systems that relate in robust manners do not do so by trying to be right, or even minimizing error, per say. It's about, economically confabulating between two distinct spaces!

The written form is usefully incapable of fully capturing the experience you put in (fan in), and usefully capable of producing unrelated and novel experiences of the audience (fan out).

Where possible, I focus my attention on being economical, and leaving control of the reaction out of it. Have fun. Don't take the work, the audience, or oneself, too seriously.

I appreciate this perspective, especially

There’s no magic barrier between internalized and externalized cognition.

I think it's increasingly clear that cognition is networking, and no matter how you are constructed, it's both internal and external, and that in a sense, the objects aren't the important thing (the relationships are).

Like, maybe there aren't shortcuts. If you want perfect GO play you may very well have to pay the full inductive price. And even then, congrats, but GO still exists.

It's interesting to see how Chess has continued to be relevant, hell, possibly even more popular than its ever been, due to increased accessibility, alternative formats, and embracing the performance aspects of the game.