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Comment Re:It's a Huge Win (Score 4, Insightful) 89

Seems to me 'dead' for a taxi isn't 'dead' for a static power bank. If I'm running a taxi I've got hard limits on how large my battery can be and how heavy, and I want to maximise the mileage I get between charges, because while my taxi is charging it's not out on the road earning money. When that battery is keeping only maybe 80% of its original design charge, and now I have to schedule one recharge too many per working day? Bang goes my business plan, so I'm replacing it.

If I'm storing energy for the grid I'm a lot less worried about that. It only stores 80% of what it did when new? Better than nothing, and the taxi firm is selling them off cheap. I'll stack them up!

Comment Re: They can only self-improve if they are capabl (Score 2) 155

Perhaps not, but if you pick your moment right then permanently stopping the work of some of the most talented researchers there could very well make a difference. A spectacular incident that makes the headlines might also deter others - bright graduates might decide it's far safer to take up a different line of work, subcontractors and suppliers might decide doing business with AI firms isn't worth the danger, investors might figure the increased risk of loss of premises and equipment into their projections, that kind of thing.

If people genuinely believed AI takeover was a real, present and imminent threat, then they wouldn't just be publishing essays online, they'd be forming direct action groups, along the full spectrum of campaigning: all the way from awareness raising publicity campaigns, through picketing, blockades and sit-ins, up through Black Bloc type actions, right up to menacing intimidation campaigns and terrifying physical force operations. But I don't see any Butlerian Jihad getting started. Which tells me they don't actually believe this at all; they're just bigging up their own importance. 'Oh yes, our technology is so incredibly powerful, if it were done wrong then imagine what could happen! Keep the money coming to make sure it's done right instead! Then all that power can be ours instead!... I mean, uh, yours, Mr Investor sir.'

AI stock valuations don't make a bit of sense unless the technology turns out to be every bit as powerful as that. If they don't keep that thought alive, then the bubble bursts right now. That's what all this hot air is about, and that's why nobody really pulls a Miles Dyson at the AI research lab.

Comment Re: They can only self-improve if they are capable (Score 3, Interesting) 155

The interesting thing about the Terminator movies is that when AI researcher Miles Dyson became convinced that his work had a high probability of resulting in an artificial general intelligence attempting to replace humanity, he did not go and post a ten thousand word essay on LessWrong about how he had updated his timeline and p(doom) estimates and discussing the full Bayesian analysis of the situation. He went to the lab that very night with some heavily armed companions and he blew the place up.

I keep hearing that one AI researcher or another claims that they believe as Dyson came to believe. Until one of them takes similar action, I simply do not believe that they actually think their research carries such a risk.

You have access to the lab where the work is being done? You regularly meet in person with leading researchers and talents driving the project forward? You are an American and you have the Second Amendment? And the entire future light cone is at stake? Quintillions of hypothetical future lives riding on the outcome of this project here and now?

What's the most effective, altruistic thing you could do for them?

Yeah, exactly. I've never heard of anyone shooting up their AI lab. Which tells me they don't believe their AI is at all likely to wipe us all out.

Comment Re:Remotely downloaded code (Score 4, Informative) 18

What, exactly, is the point or purpose of including code in your program that is downloaded from a third-party website every time you execute the program?

No, npm is literally the opposite of that.

If you want to include a function or subroutine or library in your program, why wouldn't you just download it and use that?

I run Drupal and it uses composer, which does basically the same thing. But then I want some javascript libraries that you can't get through composer repos itself, you need to get them from npm. So every time there's one of these npm exploit stories I say oh shit, some more shit I need to read. Luckily I'm only pulling in literally two packages from there. But I don't need to do this, I only do it specifically for the purpose of not having my site refer to some other site for those javascript libraries. That way, someone else changing their library doesn't automatically screw up my site, or more plausibly since I am not running any javascript on the server side, start back dooring other people who visit there. So npm is exactly the kind of thing you think people should be using, except with less oversight which is why we keep hearing about loads of compromised packages.

Comment Re:still bummed about SG-U (Score 1) 94

Disagree on this. That's like saying only shows that trek through the stars should be called Star Trek - and yet the best Star Trek series ever made was Deep Space Nine.

Yeah, they had B5 to crib from.

The Stargate is just part of the premise of the followup shows, not a required defining characteristic of them

If you're putting it in the title, yes it is.

Comment Re:8-1 decision (Score 2) 69

Dear friend,

We make certain rules so that we can live in the same nation together. For example, we must to a reasonable extent unify our motor vehicle requirements so that you can reasonably travel to other states without onerous additional inspections and harassment. Alas, with rights come responsibilities.

Signed,
Srsly

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