Jan 29·edited Jan 29Liked by Handwaving Freakoutery
The only thing keeping us chugging away as water-filled LLMs is societal pressure, which unlike conventional LLMs, we are free to reject (likely self-destructively) at any time.
1. Your obvious/automatic ticket to SHOT Show images most of us very jealous. I got to go several decades ago, when it was in Atlanta, by serving as an unpaid representative of a small gun shop in Kansas where my brother-in-law worked part time. 😀
2. Conversation scripts are always boring because they never move the needle. Just part of the social convention.
> "and cannot even understand why people believe differently than them because they don’t have a shared language."
Ah, yes. I have this problem with anarcho-syndicalists. I've actually *tried* to understand how they think anything could possibly work out with their philosophy in the forefront, and I can't even manage to get past the part where we're using the same sequences of phonemes but they clearly have very different referents for us.
Per "Lessons" at the end, it sounds like HWFO has reached the point where it has the same barrier to entry or learning curve as LessWrong/Rationality does with "read The Sequences".
For better or for worse, establishing shortcuts for absorbing the content would seem to open the ideas to abuse or misapplication.
I'm confused about your comments wrt to the libertarian side of things? I have read most (if not all) of what you have posted in the last two years, and you are usually spot on. I'm just confused how you come to the conclusion user fees are less useful than taxation? I'm willing to learn and understand. This isn't a "script" for me. I just personally abhor non-voluntary takings. Maybe I'm missing something? Also if you aren't "libertarian"/independent, as I always assumed, what are you? Not that you have to answer.
Nice article with entertaining photos. Hartsfield-Jackson is miserable. I live in Athens and the only thing worse than the airport is the two hour drive home after landing. You get a gold star for engaging in social activities, I try to avoid those like Hartsfield-Jackson.
Good book review! Believe it or not, I had a similar experience talking to new folks at SHOT Show, and a similar desire to connect the tired old conversation trees to not-quite-as-old podcast episodes. Hard to do in real-time, but I appreciate you stacking your foundational layers of articles together after the fact.
Not totally on topic but this put me in mind of my favorite lines from 'The Cocktail Party': "Half the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel important. They don't mean to do harm; but the harm does not interest them. Or they do not see it, or they justify it because they are absorbed in the endless struggle to think well of themselves.”
Libertarianism -- as well as Reaganoid conservatism -- failed because they both mistake freedom with liberty. Freedom, the ability to do, requires both liberty AND property. As Bob Black noted in "The Abolition of Wealth", most people get more direct orders from their boss than from the government.
The gutting of antitrust law, the unleashing of Wall St., and Nixon's changes in farm price supports have caused enormous concentrations in controlling the means of production. We thus become more ant like.
Those who love freedom should make common cause with the deep environmentalists and populists, to redivide the means of production. More small farms and businesses. More production moved back into the home. Lower efficiency; higher satisfaction. This the core of my just proposed Green Old Deal:
The only thing keeping us chugging away as water-filled LLMs is societal pressure, which unlike conventional LLMs, we are free to reject (likely self-destructively) at any time.
Go ahead. You can quit whenever you want to.
I thought I was the only person who saw the 'monkeys become ants' thing; thanks for spreading the word much better than I can.
http://allegedwisdom.blogspot.com/2022/02/why-you-are-psychologically-screwed-up.html
1. Your obvious/automatic ticket to SHOT Show images most of us very jealous. I got to go several decades ago, when it was in Atlanta, by serving as an unpaid representative of a small gun shop in Kansas where my brother-in-law worked part time. 😀
2. Conversation scripts are always boring because they never move the needle. Just part of the social convention.
> "and cannot even understand why people believe differently than them because they don’t have a shared language."
Ah, yes. I have this problem with anarcho-syndicalists. I've actually *tried* to understand how they think anything could possibly work out with their philosophy in the forefront, and I can't even manage to get past the part where we're using the same sequences of phonemes but they clearly have very different referents for us.
Per "Lessons" at the end, it sounds like HWFO has reached the point where it has the same barrier to entry or learning curve as LessWrong/Rationality does with "read The Sequences".
For better or for worse, establishing shortcuts for absorbing the content would seem to open the ideas to abuse or misapplication.
I'm confused about your comments wrt to the libertarian side of things? I have read most (if not all) of what you have posted in the last two years, and you are usually spot on. I'm just confused how you come to the conclusion user fees are less useful than taxation? I'm willing to learn and understand. This isn't a "script" for me. I just personally abhor non-voluntary takings. Maybe I'm missing something? Also if you aren't "libertarian"/independent, as I always assumed, what are you? Not that you have to answer.
Nice article with entertaining photos. Hartsfield-Jackson is miserable. I live in Athens and the only thing worse than the airport is the two hour drive home after landing. You get a gold star for engaging in social activities, I try to avoid those like Hartsfield-Jackson.
Good book review! Believe it or not, I had a similar experience talking to new folks at SHOT Show, and a similar desire to connect the tired old conversation trees to not-quite-as-old podcast episodes. Hard to do in real-time, but I appreciate you stacking your foundational layers of articles together after the fact.
Did someone say deterministic convergence and the obviation of free will? Here, have this!
https://open.substack.com/pub/argomend/p/a-look-at-epicurus?r=28g8km&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcome=true
I don’t suppose Nick’s book has an ebook edition?
Also, do you know Hans Schantz? Fellow GATech alumnus.
Not totally on topic but this put me in mind of my favorite lines from 'The Cocktail Party': "Half the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel important. They don't mean to do harm; but the harm does not interest them. Or they do not see it, or they justify it because they are absorbed in the endless struggle to think well of themselves.”
If I'm an LLM in meatspace, then how am I able to write back into my own code?
This isn't a serious rebuttal, I'm just trying to make you chuckle, in a pinch, it's a cinch, but perhaps I'll spark a kerfuffle.
Best book review...ever.
Libertarianism -- as well as Reaganoid conservatism -- failed because they both mistake freedom with liberty. Freedom, the ability to do, requires both liberty AND property. As Bob Black noted in "The Abolition of Wealth", most people get more direct orders from their boss than from the government.
The gutting of antitrust law, the unleashing of Wall St., and Nixon's changes in farm price supports have caused enormous concentrations in controlling the means of production. We thus become more ant like.
Those who love freedom should make common cause with the deep environmentalists and populists, to redivide the means of production. More small farms and businesses. More production moved back into the home. Lower efficiency; higher satisfaction. This the core of my just proposed Green Old Deal:
https://rulesforreactionaries.substack.com/p/a-green-old-deal