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slatestarcodex's profile
Scott Alexander
Scott Alexander
Scott Alexander
@slatestarcodex

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Scott Alexander

@slatestarcodex

I have a place where I say complicated things about philosophy and science. That place is my blog. This is where I make terrible puns.

slatestarcodex.com
Joined June 2013

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    Scott Alexander‏ @slatestarcodex 19 Dec 2017

    The day before the asteroid hits, people will still be writing thinkpieces called "But What About The Metaphorical Asteroid...Of Capitalism? Or Did I Just Blow Your Mind?"

    1:54 PM - 19 Dec 2017
    • 62 Retweets
    • 280 Likes
    • Proto Post-Human Luke Loreti Max Nighswander Eric Schmidt 🌐 ChemicalAgency NatanMelzer empirica Chelsea Olivia Follett InfraredArmy
    9 replies 62 retweets 280 likes
      1. New conversation
      2. Norswap  🎲 🎲‏ @norswap 19 Dec 2017
        Replying to @slatestarcodex

        Is there somewhere on the net a primer on why AI is such a threat. Something that, as a programmer, could have a chance of convincing me? (not just general platitudes, some concrete indications at least)

        2 replies 0 retweets 1 like
      3. Scott Alexander‏ @slatestarcodex 19 Dec 2017
        Replying to @norswap

        http://slatestarcodex.com/superintelligence-faq/ …

        2 replies 0 retweets 5 likes
      4. Norswap  🎲 🎲‏ @norswap 20 Dec 2017
        Replying to @slatestarcodex

        What I'm really missing here is an argument or evidence that is it indeed feasible to cross the threshold between solving symbolic rule systems / concrete pattern matching tasks, and super(general)intelligence. AlphaGo isn't evidence towards that according to me.

        1 reply 1 retweet 1 like
      5. Scott Alexander‏ @slatestarcodex 21 Dec 2017
        Replying to @norswap

        Seems like a weird place to put the burden of proof. "Sure, cars went at 20 mph last year and 30 mph this year, but nobody can prove we can ever make a 40 mph car, so why worry?"

        1 reply 0 retweets 2 likes
      6. Scott Alexander‏ @slatestarcodex 21 Dec 2017
        Replying to @slatestarcodex @norswap

        I agree it's possible that at some point the hitherto-consistently-improving wave of AI progress hits a mysterious brick wall and stops because our brains are magic and impossible to replicate, but I don't think it should be our default assumption.

        1 reply 0 retweets 2 likes
      7. Scott Alexander‏ @slatestarcodex 21 Dec 2017
        Replying to @slatestarcodex @norswap

        Also, some of the stuff going on with machine vision now seems very different from just symbolic rules / concrete pattern matching. Ability to replicate vague artistic styles seems like good example of moving beyond the easily discretized. Obviously still far from human level.

        1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes
      8. Norswap  🎲 🎲‏ @norswap 21 Dec 2017
        Replying to @slatestarcodex

        What neural nets do is approximate a mathematical functions: a mapping from a set of bits to another. I can see the artistic styles used in the experiment being expressed as a mathematical transform: apply some filters, turn a few knobs on your image editor.

        1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes
      9. Norswap  🎲 🎲‏ @norswap 21 Dec 2017
        Replying to @norswap @slatestarcodex

        AI has not progressed constantly but rather by fits and starts. And each time the view of what was possible has been over-optimistic, on the "natural language solved by next summer" scale.

        1 reply 0 retweets 2 likes
      10. 10 more replies
      1. New conversation
      2. Marc Whipple - Legal Inspiration!‏ @legalinspire 19 Dec 2017
        Replying to @slatestarcodex

        I was at a dinner party the year Hong Kong reverted to Chinese rule, and this pretentious refugee from the 60's said, "Could the Chinese *really* be worse for Hong Kong than the British have been?"

        1 reply 0 retweets 3 likes
      3. Marc Whipple - Legal Inspiration!‏ @legalinspire 19 Dec 2017
        Replying to @legalinspire @slatestarcodex

        I could not help myself. I quoted the Babbage Observation at him. He didn't understand it, but he went away, so I counted that as a win.

        1 reply 0 retweets 2 likes
      4. robbbbbb‏ @robbbbbb 19 Dec 2017
        Replying to @legalinspire @slatestarcodex

        The Babbage Observation is sufficiently obscure that I can't easily find it. Would you please elaborate?

        1 reply 0 retweets 1 like
      5. Marc Whipple - Legal Inspiration!‏ @legalinspire 19 Dec 2017
        Replying to @robbbbbb @slatestarcodex

        That's my pretentious name for it. It's quoted here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garbage_in,_garbage_out ….

        1 reply 0 retweets 1 like
      6. Marc Whipple - Legal Inspiration!‏ @legalinspire 19 Dec 2017
        Replying to @legalinspire @robbbbbb @slatestarcodex

        It goes like this: "On two occasions I have been asked, "Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?" ... I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question."

        2 replies 0 retweets 5 likes
      7. Marc Whipple - Legal Inspiration!‏ @legalinspire 19 Dec 2017
        Replying to @legalinspire @robbbbbb @slatestarcodex

        When I use it like this I say "statement" or "assertion" instead of "question," but same idea.

        1 reply 0 retweets 1 like
      8. Marc Whipple - Legal Inspiration!‏ @legalinspire 19 Dec 2017
        Replying to @legalinspire @robbbbbb @slatestarcodex

        And yes, I will literally say to people, "I am unable to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that would provoke such a statement." I am a strange person.

        0 replies 0 retweets 7 likes
      9. End of conversation
      1. New conversation
      2. Mothman Vince‏ @vblasv 19 Dec 2017
        Replying to @slatestarcodex

        Is this in reference to a particular Hot Take or just the general attitude about everything

        1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes
      3. Will Stamped‏ @willstamped 19 Dec 2017
        Replying to @vblasv @slatestarcodex

        He's referencing this.https://www.buzzfeed.com/tedchiang/the-real-danger-to-civilization-isnt-ai-its-runaway …

        1 reply 0 retweets 8 likes
      4. mt raven‏ @mtraven 19 Dec 2017
        Replying to @willstamped @vblasv @slatestarcodex

        Since capitalism is real and superintelligent AI is not (for now at least), if there is metaphor happening here it's going in the other direction.

        1 reply 0 retweets 1 like
      5. Tom Wilson‏ @monistowl 25 Dec 2017
        Replying to @mtraven @willstamped and

        Capitalism is a vast abstract system that outwits all humanity at every turn; friendly AI and safe capitalism are equivalent impossibilities.

        0 replies 0 retweets 1 like
      6. End of conversation
      1. New conversation
      2. HORRIBLE FLY-MAN (Nubes Rojas)‏ @cosmosPixelado 19 Dec 2017
        Replying to @slatestarcodex

        If only there was an actual existential threat to life on earth right now, that we could attribute inequivocally to capitalism, so that your joke was funnier

        1 reply 0 retweets 3 likes
      3. 1 more reply

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