Like, the one from youtube. But not the sexy model one. I do modeling, but it's all in my head.
Hmmm, I think I’m mostly bad at those things. I’ll play it safe.
And thanks for the good idea! I’ve added a session at 3pm on the Sunday.
From Newcastle, Australia to Berkeley, San Francisco. I arrived yesterday for Less.online. I’ve had a bit of culture shock, a big helping of being increasingly scared, and quite a few questions. I’ll start with those. Feel free to skip them.
These questions are based on warnings I’ve gotten from local non-rationalists. Idk if they’re scared because of the media they consume or because of actual stats. I’m asking these because they feel untrue.
Culture shocks for your enjoyment:
Things that won’t kill me but scare me rational/irrational:
Other things:
It feels super weird to be in the same town as a bunch of you guys now. I’ve never met a rationalist irl. I talked to Ruby over zoom once, who said to me “You know you don’t have to stay in Australia right?” I hope Ruby is a good baseline for niceness levels of you all.
If you’re going, I’ll see you at Less.Online. If you’re not, I’d still love to meet you. Feel free to DM me!
Hi! Thank you very much for taking the time to write such a considered response to my ramble of a comment.
Your first question is a hard one to express in text. Instead, I’ll try hard to write a list of requirements for a situation to generate that feeling for me. Then you might be able to image a scenario that meets the requirements and get a similar feeling?
Requirements:
What I’ve seen:
Thank you again for your reply. I enjoyed having to make this as explicit as possible. Hopefully it helps make the feeling I have clearer.
And thanks you for doing something. I’m not doing anything. I think something is better than nothing.
Are there plans to expand this further if the Beta runs well?
I feel like I’m watching Bluey
IMO I’d feel a lot better if it was less angryish. I think there probably is something like a protest that I can imagine working. I’m not sure if I’d call it a protest? Unless, have you got example protests?
I can image a “change my mind” type of stall/stalls. Where people have calm conversations to explain the situation to the public.
That’s interesting that you don’t consider it a “”weird” thing to protest”.
I guess I want to explicitly point that part out and ask if you stand by the statement? Or maybe I define weird differently? To me weird inside this context means:
“A thing or action that is out of the ordinary in a way that someone encountering it for the first, second, or third time, wouldn’t see as quirky. But as a red flag. If not pre-attached to that thing or person performing the action, a the person seeing it for the first time might form a negative opinion based on the feeling they get seeing it”
I see the Pause AI protests and I cringe. They give me the same feeling I get when I see vegans walk into McDonald’s covered in blood. It feels like: “oh, look. A group that I am a part of is now going to be tied to this small groups actions. That kinda sucks because I wouldn’t do that myself. Totally get their feeling though. Good for them sorta maybe, but also please stop.”
I understand that Scott Alexander talked about PETA and animal ethics a while ago. But I think AI safety has an opportunity right now to take a different approach than PETA had to.
People are already scared. This doesn’t impact “the other” this impacts them. Make that clear. But make it clear is a way that your uncle won’t laugh at over Christmas dinner.
Edit: I just reread this and feel it was a bit harsh on the PAI people. I’m sorry about that. I’d like to point to Chris_Leong’s comment below. It offers something that feels like a better critique than the one I made originally.
I feel like I just walked through a mirror maze and got socked in the nose a couple of times.
In other words, I saw myself, and it hurt.
That first point made me laugh. It’s exactly the type of mistake I expected to make, and I still didn’t see it coming.
I appreciate all this safety advice and will update my decision making based on that.
Geez, the weed thing surprises me. I hadn’t planned to smoke any until after the event. But I think I’ll avoid that now. I’m already struggling with motivation from jet lag. I don’t want to increase that feeling.