Yeah, as I have mentioned a few times before here I used to read their online H+ magazine a bit, and it was odd, a mix of science and woo, and they published a lot of articles. Until the moment there was one article about how transhumanism must make sure that it also helps the poor, that article was quickly removed (so quickly it wasn’t archived, it was however still in my rss feed which is how I read it). After that article the amount of articles published dropped to nothing. (I always assumed the editor was fired over that or something, I think he himself also added to that article).

Ben Goertzel also regularly wrote for H+ mag. A name that shouldn’t be totally unfamiliar to people who know things about transhumanism, and Ben is into PSI now. (Or considering the tone of some of the articles, he prob always was).

(Yes, I keep writing this same comment here over and over as I seem to be one of the few people who read the magazine at the time who also posts here)

E: looks like H+mag deleted their whole website. (guess being immortal is only for the rich, and not information). But look at this old LW post I found re Goertzel and PSI.

And via the comments: The solution of the whole ‘is PSI real’ problem? Why did you ask (Robin Hanson) it is betting of course.

Tossing a lot of salt into the cooling fans helps to silence the daemons yes.

A critical piece on EA from somebody who actually lives in one of the poorest places in the world.

Somewhere in 2021, I contacted about a hundred people (mostly individuals) who identify as effective altruists, asking them not for money, but for social media posts …

… one wrote back saying, “I usually share projects that have been vetted by Givewell or a similar organization….Why do you think your project is more effective compared to all the others?”

All that over a social media post.

H+ also brings in the Mores, who are behind humanity+.

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natasha_Vita-More and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_More

Not concerning at all.

Fyi, I blocked him a while back. Didnt like his whole ‘im the reasonable centrist’ bit while making blocklists of anti ai people.

Yeah im just wondering why they tried it at all. Feels like the lidl branching into selling luxury cars to make an extreme example.

Arent like the margin increases on targeted ads already pretty bad? I don’t think running expensive chatbots (which then can be messed with by the people you are trying to reach, driving up the costs even more) are going to really provide value for the advertisement world.

is less of a cult than it is a cult factory.

Cult incubator. Use the correct Silicon Valley terms please.

HaJ3FgupAm8RrDJW3MHgT9X7Ft27eVaD

What is that? That’s a hard-coded API token that Flock cameras use to identify themselves and get OAuth credentials, which can then be used to talk to Flock’s production servers. Like, anyone on the internet can probably do this right now.

Mein Gott.

No direct links but various people on bsky have discovered LW and EA and are having a collective ‘wtf is wrong with these people’ and ‘wait all the top AI guys are like this?’ moments. And it is funny to see.

Sadly the 'you can’t explain this stuff without either looking like an insane conspiracy theorist, or you need to write an actual book because people don’t believe you remains a bit true.

E: ok one link: https://bsky.app/profile/niedermeyer.online/post/3mvpuq2deo22u (Guess this is a reference to the SE Gyges thread).

I recall a long time ago when the first ‘we are going to hack virusses and the terrorists will kill everybody’ stories came up that actual viroligists already explained that this is not how it works, and this isn’t a risk people should really fear. But science fiction > experts.

E: also terrorists don’t just want to kill everybody, and guns and fertilizer are cheap and easy to use.

Their ideas were compelling and you can’t deny their foresight

Ah yes, the AI did almost kill everyone with custom bacteria.

I recall the motte, where the one leftwinger who still tried to debate got the complaint he was just explaining basic leftwing concepts over and over (with good reason).

It was also amusing to see people on r/ssc complain on how leftwing politicians never think about X and Y, while our local Dutch leftwing politicians were talking about those subjects the same week.

Dont worry, you just need to pay me a little bit to get 100 times back, the Nigerian prince’s executor says.

Not available in my country, this is anti Dutch discrimination!

Another comment:

My knowledge of politics is nil, but <steelman about what if trump actually wasn’t trump>

(emp mine)

Well they think the world will end before the next election, so they have no other choice.

If only they had not told people to not cry wolf.

In September 2024, OpenAI had posted a graph showing their new o1 Strawberry model needed exponentially more training for small linear improvements — even on their own pet benchmarks.

Which iirc was also predicted by actual scientists before (I don’t not have an actual paper however).

There you go. Trump can do this job too.

Why do we even need AI? Just ask Trump.

Gotta hand it to the writers of this season of America. I didn’t expect the Sanders turns into a Strasserite twist.