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Alec Stapp

@AlecStapp

Co-founder

@IFP

Washington, DCprogress.instituteJoined June 2009

975 Following

48.3K Followers

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Alec Stapp

@AlecStapp

Jan 20, 2022

1/ For the last 6 months,

@calebwatney

& I have been building a think tank It’s called the Institute for Progress (

@IFP

) & we’re so excited to share it with you Our mission is to accelerate scientific, technological, and industrial progress while safeguarding humanity’s future

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Alec Stapp

@AlecStapp

He really is a reply guy and not a poster

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Can't believe subsidizing demand didn't solve the problem.

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Jeremiah Johnson

@JeremiahDJohns

Apr 8

This is the most California story ever: To 'help' the housing crisis, they budgeted $300M to pay for first time home buyers' down payments. In less than two weeks, they've run out of money and only helped 2300 people. 300 Million Dollars, 2300 people helped

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I wrote about inherent determinism in mechanised rotation systems subject to decaying angular velocity.

bloomberg.com

The Gambler Who Beat Roulette

For decades, casinos scoffed as mathematicians and physicists devised elaborate systems to take down the house. Then an unassuming Croatian’s winning strategy forever changed the game.

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I wish this false dichotomy would die. Both matter. It'd be like people saying "you shouldn't worry about the climate impact of cars, worry about automobile accidents". In fact, both matter

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Alvaro Bedoya

@BedoyaFTC

Apr 7

AI is being used right now to decide who to hire, who to fire, who gets a loan, who stays in the hospital and who gets sent home. I am much more worried about those current, real-life uses of AI than potential downstream existential threats.

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Some high impact jobs here!

rand.org

Technology and Security Policy Fellows Program

The RAND Technology and Security Policy Fellowship develops new generations of policy analysts and implementors at the intersection of technology and security issues. Candidates are welcome from all...

It took like 15 years for building more housing to become normie dem politics. 15 months for folks to recognize legacy conservation orgs are on the wrong side of decarbonization. But like 5 weeks for single stair mania to go from posting to legislation.

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Matthew Yglesias

@mattyglesias

Apr 6

Single stair mania is the greatest posting to policy pipeline success story yet twitter.com/danbertolet/st…

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h/t

slatestarcodex.com/2019/02/19/gpt

Scott Alexander writing about GPT-2 in February 2019:

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Good post by

The adverse selection of political "moderates"

On the lemons among our leadership

Right now America could use another Eisenhower

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So much for "nobody wants to work anymore": 80.7% of prime-age (25-54) Americans were working in March, the highest rate since May 2001.

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Of course, that's not even mentioning geothermal or nuclear (both of which we need for baseload energy to complement solar and wind). If you oppose building any type of energy generation, then the only choice left is degrowth. Good luck with that political strategy.

When you say you care about climate change but are opposed to making it easier to build solar + wind + transmission... 🤔 (obviously the stuff about destroying biodiversity is a straw man)

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Ketan Joshi

@KetanJ0

Apr 6

This branch of eco modernist, pro-tech advocacy is becoming increasingly more explicit in being anti environmentalist. Their agenda:Wind, solar and transmission *should* be allowed to destroy biodiversity, and enviro regs need "permitting reform"to allow that...

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100% agree with Gwern here — am always surprised by folks who say that "we already have AGI and it's called companies!"

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I really wish Elon had just stuck to building rockets and electric vehicles

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Erik Hoel

@erikphoel

Apr 7

Elon Musk has blocked all Substack links on Twitter from being RTed or liked. This gives huge advantage to the MSM he claims is bad, but ok. Canceled my Twitter blue, and likely won't be on this godforsaken platform for much longer. Please follow me on Substack (link below)

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It appears Elon is blocking retweets and replies to tweets mentioning substack links. This is worse than shadowbanning IMO in terms of bad platform policy.

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Timothy B. Lee

@binarybits

Apr 7

Oh @elonmusk you're such a prankster.

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The End Child Poverty Act replaces the the Child Tax Credit (CTC) and Earned Income Tax Credit with a universal child benefit paid out monthly by the Social Security Administration. It is a huge design improvement over our current system and over the 2021 CTC.

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People's Policy Project

@PplPolicyProj

Apr 7

Tlaib, Omar, and Garcia Reintroduce the End Child Poverty Act peoplespolicyproject.org/2023/04/07/tla

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Alec Stapp Retweeted

Senior PowerPoint Engineer

@ryxcommar

Apr 6

This is a real dish that you can order at Domino's in India. An American restaurant that specializes in Italian food serves, in India, a Mexican inspired dish using a North African sauce. You cannot name a more globalized food product than this.

read image description

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Alec Stapp

@AlecStapp

Apr 6

“The needed electronic components account for only a sliver of what it costs to build broadband networks, according to outside experts — so even with a waiver, most of the spending would go to U.S. workers and firms.”

washingtonpost.com

Opinion | Biden throws a wrench into his own infrastructure plans

"Buy America" provisions undercut the nation's efforts to fight climate change, connect more Americans to broadband and meet other critical needs.

The Washington Post Editorial Board is correct: Strict adherence to the “Buy American” rules related to infrastructure spending is going to cause a lot of damage without much benefit. Obvious solution is to grant waivers when critical components are made abroad.

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Alec Stapp Retweeted

Leopold Aschenbrenner

@leopoldasch

Apr 6

New post: response to

@tylercowen

on AI risk During covid, neither 1) “lockdown forever, ” nor 2) “let ‘er rip” was tenable. The same goes for AI. There is a better way: 3) a) Operation Warp Speed for alignment + b) AI lab standards/monitoring.

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80% of Chinese talent that contributed to GPT-4 got their graduate degrees in US and ended up staying

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MacroPolo

@MacroPoloChina

Apr 5

The AI race heats up and the contribution of Chinese talent to breakthrough products like OpenAI's ChatGPT cannot be ignored. Our latest piece looks into their role in generative AI and why the US needs to embrace foreign-born talent to remain competitive: macropolo.org/chinese-talent

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