Let’s think about it this way. How much would we fear any technology, whether A.I. or some other technology, how much would you fear it if we lived in a world that was a lot like Denmark or if the entire world was run sort of on the principles of one of the Scandinavian countries? There’s universal health care. Everyone has child care, free college maybe. And maybe there’s some version of universal basic income there.
Clipping
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clippings > Fears of technology are fears of capitalism
[https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/30/podcasts/ezra-klein-podcast-ted-chiang-transcript.html]
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clippings > To defend against evil, you assert 'I am god'
[https://lalachimera.com/p/i-am-god]
He continued: “Most ritual magic has the effect of plunging the user even more deeply into the realm of superstitions. This is the realm in which so-called ‘evil’ wields its illusions. To construct magical wards against evil is to reify it. When the mind constructs a story in which evil’s power is a given, the mind procedurally generates more of this power into being”
“So what’s the alternative?” I asked. “How do I defend against evil?”
He continued: “A more effective approach is simply to recognize and assert yourself as the power that precedes both good & evil. ‘I am god,’ you state in the face of distorting influences. Yes, really! ‘I am god.’”
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clippings > Voluntary Suffering Escapes Local Maxima Voluntary Suffering Escapes Local Maxima Voluntary suffering escapes local maxima
[https://apxhard.substack.com/p/the-surprising-computational-properties]
If you can only navigate with the utility gradient - if you can only move in directions that feel good, that increase your immediate utility - you will get trapped in local maxima.
This is the fundamental problem in optimization. Gradient descent finds local peaks, not global peaks. If you’re at a point where every immediate direction feels worse, you’ll stay there forever, even if there’s a much higher peak just over the hill.
Addiction is the clearest example. Drugs feel good. Withdrawal hurts. If you can only navigate toward “feeling good,” you stay addicted. The drug is a local maximum. It’s not the best possible state - it’s destroying your life, your relationships, your health. But every path away from it goes through a valley of withdrawal, and you can’t navigate through valleys.
To escape a local maximum, you need the ability to move against the gradient temporarily. You need to be willing to make things worse in the short term to make them better in the long term.
Voluntary suffering is exactly this capability. It’s the ability to navigate against the utility gradient when you judge that doing so will reach a better state.
Not because suffering is good. Not because pain is virtuous. But because the willingness to suffer grants freedom that purely gradient-following agents don’t have.
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clippings > In England the heroes are the failures
[https://shreevatsa.net/post/douglas-adams-cultural-divide/]
So Arthur may not seem like much of a hero to Americans – he doesn’t have any stock options, he doesn’t have anything to exchange high fives about round the water-cooler. But to the English, he is a hero. Terrible things happen to him, he complains about it a bit quite articulately, so we can really feel it along with him - then calms down and has a cup of tea. My kind of guy!
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clippings > Reason is never more dangerous than when it’s conscripted by your soul
[https://usefulfictions.substack.com/p/the-seam-through-the-center-of-things]
I most definitely did not believe in God prior to that moment. I was, moreover, a humanist in the Kurt Vonnegut sense: I always thought that it should not matter if God existed, that you should strive to be good regardless of whether there was someone there to judge you for it and mete out rewards or punishment. So it was much to my chagrin that I shortly came to realize that it did, in fact, matter very much that God existed.
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clippings > Spiritual faith is resting in a state of thankfulness
[https://kk.org/thetechnium/how-will-the-miracle-happen-today/]
The beings I admire exude a sense of knowing they are indebted, of resting upon a state thankfulness. They recognize they are at the receiving end of an ongoing lucky ticket called being alive. When the truly faithful worry, it’s not about doubt (which they have); it’s about how they might not maximize the tremendous gift given them. How they might be ungrateful by squandering their ride. The faithful I admire are not certain about much except this: that this state of being embodied, inflated with life, brimming with possibilities, is so over-the-top unlikely, so extravagant, so unconditional, so far out beyond physical entropy, that is it indistinguishable from love. And most amazing of all, like my hitchhiking rides, this love gift is an extravagant gesture you can count on. This is the meta-miracle: that the miracle of gifts is so dependable. No matter how bad the weather, soiled the past, broken the heart, hellish the war – all that is behind the universe is conspiring to help you – if you will let it.
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books > Mathematica: A Secret World of Intuition and Curiosity (David Bessis, Kevin Frey)
If you’ve never learned to think in multiple dimensions, you’ve missed out on one of the great joys of life. It’s like you’ve never seen the ocean, or never eaten chocolate.
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clippings > Mathematic research is dreaming
[https://www.koreaherald.com/article/10648326]
I’m closer to a daydreamer by nature, and for me mathematical research is a repetition of dreaming and waking up.
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clippings > Don't become a machine - your purpose is sacred
[https://armeet.bearblog.dev/becoming-the-machine/]
Hustle-culture optimizes for work input because it’s sexy. It’s easy to post the inputs. It’s hard to face the output.
The truth is you don’t have to become the machine in order to succeed. The machine can’t adapt. It can’t learn the rules of the game. It is deterministic, set in place, chugging along at a linear pace.
Instead, aim to be nimble. Adapt quick. Define your goal but don’t let it become your purpose. Your purpose is sacred; only you truly understand it. Do what you need to do in order to achieve your goals. Don’t optimize for sweat. Try to find the most rewarding solution. Optimize for what matters: speed, efficiency, or quality—whatever it may be.
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books > The Strength of the Few (James Islington)
She told me that a child needs to hear and truly understand only three phrases from their father as they grow up. ‘I love you.’ ‘I will help.’ And, ‘I don’t know.’