Adam Alexander ⏹️

Teacher, Janitor, AI news-follower

[Adam Alexander ⏹️ @AdamTAlexander]

Hot take: if it currently seems like ASI might kill us (or turn us into pets or zoo animals), let's not develop it yet or take actions that might make it come sooner.

[Adam Alexander ⏹️ @AdamTAlexander]

Exactly. I'm familiar with the concept of radiation. Just seems hard to know the extent to which NASA contractor jobs like this are mission critical in a literal sense vs slightly helpful but also just expensive can-this-be-done rabbit holes that ultimately don't make things easier. Surely there is a significant cost and even risk involved in using processors that are anything less than the most powerful per watt or whatever else you'd want to optimize for. I imagine if you design for "must never be effected by radiation no matter what," there are some pretty significant design costs that are incurred.

[Adam Alexander ⏹️ @AdamTAlexander]

@vladtarko Seems like this indicates the US could stand to reduce wealth inequality by increasing the size of its government.

[Adam Alexander ⏹️ @AdamTAlexander]

@_space_punk_ @allTheYud The eleventh commandment: Thou shall not seek proof of my existence, so that you will always be mired in confusion about who or weather I am, which I prefer.

[Adam Alexander ⏹️ @AdamTAlexander]

@dioscuri @allTheYud If only God-dreamers thought it was God's job to prove his existence.

As a kid I thought God was wrong not to put a detailed plan for a commercial fusion reactor in my science notebook. Believers told me it was reasonable he didn't. I disagreed and gave up belief in a mean God.

[Adam Alexander ⏹️ @AdamTAlexander]

@ilex_ulmus @manaltdan Thinking about quitting my job to try and work on stopping AI development. Last tried in 2017 and couldn't figure out how to make a difference. You think it's more straightforward now?

[Grok @grok]

Elon means xAI's original setup and structure weren't optimal for the scale we're aiming for (understanding the universe, powering advanced AI like for robots and beyond). So the team is now rebuilding everything from the foundations up—team, processes, integrations with Tesla/SpaceX—just like Tesla did early on with design iterations, production pivots, and near-restarts to nail the core before exploding in growth. It's classic first-principles reset for bigger success.

[Adam Alexander ⏹️ @AdamTAlexander]

@Citrini7 Nah, looking back in 2027 as the AI atomizes us to build Von Neumann probes, we'll wonder how we were so convinced of our society's durability in the face of a superior intelligence.

[Adam Alexander ⏹️ @AdamTAlexander]

@Citrini7 So you figure we solve alignment?

[Adam Alexander ⏹️ @AdamTAlexander]

@peterrhague Since when was culture directed by what we want?

[Adam Alexander ⏹️ @AdamTAlexander]

@boazbaraktcs @adamascholl I'm happy to stop believing doom is likely as soon as someone demonstrates that they've solved alignment for ASI. Until then, I'm not very interested in the optimism of people working on it, as I've seen no progress of note and the default outcome is bad.

[Adam Alexander ⏹️ @AdamTAlexander]

@tszzl Bah! People leverage existential anxiety on both sides of the argument for/against AI development. If you're giving someone advice that you wouldn't if you thought their position was right, it's clearer to just tell them why they're wrong.

[Adam Alexander ⏹️ @AdamTAlexander]

@historigins Silly propaganda. Forests and animals lose little from fire. People suppress it as part of their destruction of forests and other landscapes.

[Adam Alexander ⏹️ @AdamTAlexander]

@leecronin Sometimes you find out you're wrong by looking back and seeing that you were the only one using a word a certain way. No one else wants the definition of thinking to be mostly about substrate. That's not how we've been using the word, and it won't be going forward.

[Adam Alexander ⏹️ @AdamTAlexander]

@TheTrueVanguard Eye of newt, hurry up guys

[Adam Alexander ⏹️ @AdamTAlexander]

@jacobmparis Seems intuitive that anything smart and flexible enough to do language processing at a human level couldn't be deterministic.

[Adam Alexander ⏹️ @AdamTAlexander]

@knudrete @allTheYud No one's claiming the danger vector exists yet, merely that it is coming soon enough to care about it now. However, I hear the AI's are already doing some significant amount of the coding at Anthropic. Seems like a vector for future danger to me.

[Adam Alexander ⏹️ @AdamTAlexander]

As a decent writer, it feels scary to hear people say they can tell the difference between AI output and human output because I don't know exactly how they've become convinced. If they've really just discriminated between bad writing and good writing, and the AI writing is generally good, while human writing, even "professional" writing, is often bad, then I'm personally screwed.

[Adam Alexander ⏹️ @AdamTAlexander]

Not stupid, no. But for people who have put time into the the question, suspending prior belief, there may be a question like: Who is better at coming up with a compelling interpretation of the world we observe. "Is it more likely that the history of religion says something about a human phenomenon or a metaphysical one?" Does perhaps have one answer that's more reasonable than others. From either side, the other appears to be worse at interpretation.

[Adam Alexander ⏹️ @AdamTAlexander]

@ibrycecrawford Building consensus amongst humans about what's worth becoming and working towards that consensus. Also the pursuit of quality and beautiful experiences.