On AI and existential risk, continued

02015-08-12T23:38:15+00:00

Bret Victor expands on something I mentioned in my article on AI: I am generally on the side of the critics of Singulitarianism, but now want to provide a bit of support to these so-called rationalists. At some very meta level, they have the right problem — how do we preserve human interests in a world of vast forces and systems that aren’t really all that interested in us? But they have chosen a fantasy version of the problem, when human interests are being fucked over by actual existing systems right now.

Information society

01993-03-02T13:17:14+00:00

We went to the Neuruppin town library and browsed through the bookshelves. Many of the old DDR-produced books are still on the shelf; they can’t afford to replace them all at once. I had a look through some of them. The Modern English textbook was interesting. It started off in the usual way: “This is John. John lives in a house in England. John has a dog called Fido.” However, by chapter 8, John was attending Trades Union rallies and campaigning for workers’ rights.