I am a person online.

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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: July 10th, 2023

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  • There would still be disagreements on how to program the AI. A super intelligent AI with information about everything could probably find the best way to reach any goal, but how do we define what are our goals in the first place, and how they’re prioritized? And what constraints they are on the actions of the AI state?

    There’s a quote I’ve heard, I think it’s from Alexandre Grothendiek: " There’s no systematic way to go from the knowledge of what it to the knowledge of what should be", that sums it up pretty well.


  • I think if wizards actually existed, they would seldom bother with actual curses; which seem complicated to cast and prone to backfiring. Having shown someone a little magic, they’d be very easy to trick into thinking they’ve been cursed, and the resulting paranoia, anxiety and confirmations bias would do the job. I imagine it’d be some wizard’s favorite trick. They’d gloat about it to their colleagues and they’d laugh together in their secret wizard circles.

    So a wizard would need a pretty strong incentive to cast an actual curse.





  • OpenAI released a generative model that emulates the famous Studio Ghibli art style; or more precisely Hayao Miyazaki’s art style. The latter had once said “I strongly feel that this is an insult to life itself” when presented with a proof of concept of AI generated 3D characters, an exchange you can watch here. Now, this specific sentence refers more to the idea of using unnatural movements similar to a disability for creepy shock factor; but he also seems avert to the concept of AI art.


  • First off, I can’t personally cast any stones: I sometimes use chatGPT so summarize a text or help me debug a code. I resisted the idea at first, but many of the other students of my promotion recommended it. Almost any time I asked someone for help, they either told me to use chatGPT or themselves prompted it my question. I try to do without it as much as I can, and I never prompt a queston without having spent several minutes looking for an answer online written by a human, but I have difficulties in several subjects and I’ve already failed my first semester, so it’s not easy to scorn a possible source of help when all else fails… I’ve installed locally a light weight version of Deepseek on my computer to get some of the benefits with a smaller climate footprint and staying in the Open Source side of the force, but so far I haven’t found it satisfactory, perhaps I’ll try a heavier version of the model.

    But now, it seems you’re using it for something way different. You say it dictates what you think, do you have difficulty parsing your own thoughts? I don’t think you should feel guilty for it, if you need the help, but I do feel somewhat concerned. Large Language Models only learn and repeat patterns, I don’t think it’s a good tool for introspection, because it’s giving you more generic thoughts and only making it seem personal. It is common for people who enjoy reading to find in the text things they’ve thought themself without being able to word it and to feel a connection with the author. But in this case, you still know these words are from someone else’s mind. You see where the connection starts and where it ends. I think reading helps being good at putting one’s thoughts in words, and is healthier than using an llm for it. You should probably also write, even if you keep it for yourself. That way, you’ll be certain that these thoughts are your own.


  • Depends on where you live, but try to find an organization active in your town whose ideas are somewhat in line with yours. If they’re on a social media you use or have a website with an RSS feed you can subscribe to, use that. Otherwise, try and get in their contacts (many organizations have a contact list broader than their actual member list, so you don’t have to adhere if you’re not sure to commit). Then you get notified for every action they take part in.

    To find them in the first place… Keep your eyes peeled for stickers or posters in the streets; and try to find the people at a protest or event said posters advertised.







  • I recommend you check out “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness” by Michelle Alexander.

    The basic getaway from the book is this: Segregationists didn’t go anywhere, and since the time of Ronald Reagan, the ways the segregationists found to keep black people down are mostly related to the economy and law enforcement. The stereotype being attacked is now the “gang-bangers”, those from “the hood”. Not all black people… Just most of them.

    From the 60s-70s, black people living in near industrial zones where they mostly worked were hit by mass unemployment due to their relocation. Rather than try to find a solution, propaganda stigmatising them was massively produced, the “war on drugs” was started to punish them for the only survival means that some found. Black people serve disproportionately long sentences, and are forever alienated when they get out, often unable to find jobs. Not only those who were imprisoned, but their families and communities suffer from this. This is not only true of drug-related crime; but sometimes things like misfiled taxes. The war on drugs was basically a pretext to over police and arbitrarily arrest black people, and dissuade them from forms of protest against their situation.

    Now, compared to segregation, this is as big a net, but not such a tight one: This systems allows some black people to escape this system and get a situation equal to white people… But of you look at the bulk of the stats, many aren’t better off than during segregation.

    These were at first, right-wing policies bore by the Republican Party, but Bill Clinton ended up doubling down on them instead of opposing them, because he didn’t want to appear “weak on crime”, since then there has been no opposition to it in mainstream politics.

    Colorblindness helps this system, because it keeps you from naming the oppressed group, and thus from seing the oppression. It makes it easier to swallow the idea that the millions in prison are no-good gang hooligans from the mysterious land of “hood”, but that for the most part, black people are doing fine, because those who went to the same school as you or are among your coworkers are doing fine.