Zac Kriegman

Former machine learning scientist, economist, lawyer, software engineer...

[wanye @xwanyex]

These claims almost certainly are not true. You could deter more crime, more effectively, and at a much lower cost by simply executing criminals shortly after conviction.

But even if it were true, it’s important to say loudly and clearly that this is aesthetically and morally offensive and we definitely shouldn’t do it even if it would work.

Let’s stipulate that there exist some people who today commit violent crimes, who if they were given better access to healthcare and education would not commit those crimes.

I want to identify those people, apprehend them, and execute them, thereby eliminating their genetic contributions to humanity for the rest of all time.

I have no interest in providing the exact environment that placates and pacifies these people. The United States as it exists today is so unbelievably safe and comfortable, already, that we are very clearly beyond any threshold under which this justification could be tolerated. If you cannot figure out how not to rape and murder in the United States in 2026, then you very plainly have no place in the future of this country, and absolutely no effort or cost should be expended to help you avoid heinous behaviors that the rest of us eschew quite easily.

[Zac Kriegman @kriegman]

The alternative view is to accept the clear and compelling logic that companies like Anthropic are outlining: AI could do unimaginable good. There is a chance it could destroy humanity. The best chance of a good outcome would be a worldwide slowdown/pause on development. The second best chance is that the most competent and well intentioned team be the first to the finish line of self improving AI. If the first option is unavailable because of lack of cooperation, then the only logical thing for a team that believes it has those qualities is to continue racing forward even while raising the alarm. The alternative is letting a bad actor be the first to the finish line. The logic is airtight. There is nothing monstrous about it at all. It strikes me as almost evil for people to be obfuscating like this author and like Pinker are doing.

[Steven Pinker @sapinker]

AI Companies: Stop the self-serving and fatalistic doom-trolling. [The companies should] "stop treating A.I. like some inevitable force that they’re struggling to steward. It’s not. It’s a collection of specific tools that these companies are choosing to design and sell according to specific business plans. Accordingly, they need to talk about their offerings like any other consumer product. This means explaining clearly whom these products are for, justifying their benefits and, critically, taking full responsibility for any harm they might cause. Just because A.I. currently enjoys a high-tech sheen doesn’t make it exceptional with respect to common-sense safety standards." https://t.co/WnsJjCkQA2

[Zac Kriegman @kriegman]

Hands off our trillionaire!

[Erik Voorhees @ErikVoorhees]

If the socialists had their way, Elon would have had his paypal profits taken and redistributed for the greater good.

The world would never have seen Tesla, nor SpaceX.

And the world wouldn't know it, because they were uncreated, and thus unseen.

Imagine the companies that don't exist, because Washington destroyed them before they were born.

[prerat @prerat]

once i saw this guy on a bridge about to jump. i said "dont do it!!!" he said "but certain ai doom is coming and nobody believes me about it."

i said "lots of people are concerned about ai! are you worried about water use or existential risk?"
he said "existential risk."

i said "me too! are you on less wrong or ea forum?" he said "less wrong"

i said "me too! does your forecast look more like eliezer yudkowskys or paul f christiano's?" he said "eliezer yudkowsky"

i said "me too! for agent foundations decision theory, do you prefer causal-in-spirit logical decision theory like FDT or evidential-in-spirit logical decision theory like UDT?" he said "actually i kind of like UDT"

i said "me too! UDT 1.x or UDT 2.0?" he said "im not sure 2.0 was going in the right direction conceptually, but 1.x was at least gesturing at something fundamental"

i said "me too! UDT 1.0 or UDT 1.1?" he said "i kind of like the Towards A New Decision Theory blog post with the original 1.0 formulation"

i said "reeeeee! UDT 1.0 fails to cooperate with itself because it optimizes over local actions instead of global policy!!!!!" and blocked him on twitter

[John LeFevre @JohnLeFevre]

This is justice in a blue state (New York).

State Trooper Christopher Baldner pulls over a family SUV for speeding on the Thruway.

Driver Tristin Goods refuses to show ID and escalates the stop. Trooper uses pepper spray.

Driver floors it and flees at high speed.
Trooper follows training and uses pit maneuver to ram the vehicle and stop the threat.

The SUV crashes. Goods’ own 11-year-old daughter Monica is tragically killed.

Result?

Trooper Baldner was just sentenced to ~7 years in prison for manslaughter.

The father - who caused the deadly chase - walks free after claiming he was “scared for his life.”

[Mike Solana @micsolana]

look, they had a nice run, killed hundreds of millions of people, but it's time to gene drive mosquitoes out of existence. fuck it, ticks too.

[Jonathan Turley @JonathanTurley]

As Democrats demand the removal of the masks of ICE agents, a protester was shown yesterday yelling at an agent, "I've got your face. I'll kill your whole f**king family. You whole f**king family is dead. Your child, your wife, and all are dead. I have your face mother f**ker. You re dead."

[David Keyes @DavidMKeyes]

🚨🚨 Iran deal NEARLY finalized. Last sticking points are Iran's insistence on destroying West, killing all infidels and imposing Islam on the world. Fingers crossed!

[Brivael Le Pogam @brivael]

Dans le manifeste "techno-optimiste" de Marc Andreessen, il y a une phrase qui m'a marqué :

"Our enemies are not bad people – but rather bad ideas."

Nos ennemis ne sont pas des mauvaises personnes. Ce sont des mauvaises idées.

Prenons Jancovici. L'homme est brillant, sincère, travailleur. Il ne se lève pas le matin en se disant qu'il va nuire à l'humanité. Mais l'idée qu'il porte la décroissance, le rationnement, la frugalité érigée en horizon civilisationnel est une idée profondément destructrice. Elle prend des esprits brillants et les transforme en commissaires politiques d'un futur appauvri.

Et le plus fascinant, c'est ce que cette idée fait aux gens qui l'adoptent.

Dans mon entourage, une grosse partie de mes amis est sur cette ligne décroissantiste, avec tout le package qui va avec. L'argent c'est mal mais ils en veulent. Il faut moins prendre l'avion mais ils rêvent de voyager partout. Il faut consommer moins mais ils ne renoncent à rien de ce qu'ils aiment vraiment.

Et tous ont un point commun : ils sont déprimés. L'un d'eux m'a même confié qu'il était sous antidépresseurs.

Ce n'est pas un hasard. C'est mécanique.

Quand tu crois que ton désir de vivre, de créer, de t'élever est moralement suspect tu te détruis de l'intérieur. Tu passes ta vie à t'excuser d'exister. Tu vis dans la dissonance permanente entre ce que ton corps veut (plus, mieux, plus loin) et ce que ton idéologie t'ordonne (moins, sobre, immobile).

D'où ma théorie :

Quand on pense quelque chose de fondamentalement faux décroissance, communisme, extrémisme religieux (de tout ordre) ce n'est qu'une question de temps avant que ça devienne vraiment destructeur.

D'abord pour soi. Puis pour les autres.

Les mauvaises idées tuent. Lentement chez ceux qui y croient, brutalement chez ceux qui les subissent.

C'est pour ça que la bataille des idées n'est pas un luxe d'intellectuel. C'est la bataille la plus importante de notre époque.

[Elon Musk @elonmusk]

@EndWokeness What racist assholes they are!

[Ben Shapiro @benshapiro]

All the haters can kiss my ass

[Zac Kriegman @kriegman]

Seems like many of them are offering a very explicit and consistent answer: UBI or UHI. What's wrong with that answer?

[Matt Walsh @MattWalshBlog]

Big Tech companies are sprinting forward, building data centers as fast as they can, sometimes using eminent domain to seize the land by force, making their AI more and more powerful, expanding the technology at lightening speed with no guardrails of any kind at all. Yet none of these tech gurus or any of their apologists have even attempted to explain what exactly all of the millions of people who lose their jobs, and the increasing numbers who lose their homes, all sacrificed on the AI altar, are supposed to do. How does society support millions of unemployed and displaced people? What becomes of a society where algorithms and machines do everything, and a few people become trillionaires while millions more lose everything? There is no answer to any of this. They aren’t even attempting to answer it. Instead we’re simply told that China exists and we have to “beat them” in some unspecified way, in order to achieve some unspecified goal. We’re going to obliterate entire industries, entire categories of jobs all at once, and the only justification anyone can give is “China.” It’s madness.

[Mike Lee @BasedMikeLee]

What Democrats think fascism means: Republicans

What fascism actually means: a far-left, authoritarian ideology focused on creating a highly centralized, dictatorial state that subordinates to the state all aspects of society—economy, culture, media, education, and private life

[Elon Musk @elonmusk]

@GadSaad @sapinker Forgive Pinker, he is half-retarded.

Look on the bright side: at least it’s only half.

[alyssa @alyssamariiee11]

It’s illegal to feed wildlife at national parks because they get dependent on handouts and forget how to survive.

Kinda sounds familiar doesn’t it?

[ZUBY: @ZubyMusic]

The answers to many modern problems are simple but politically incorrect.

So instead of solving anything, everybody pretends they don't know what's going on, and spend years misdiagnosing the issue, talking in circles, and wasting time.

[Zac Kriegman @kriegman]

@jbrady177 @ChrismilleX @bungarsargon @wil_da_beast630 You demonstrate the point perfectly. Thanks!

[Zac Kriegman @kriegman]

@Jacob77198399 @bungarsargon @wil_da_beast630 Exactly. "Right wing violence" is just a bucket the left can throw everything into that matches their contemptuous caricature of the right. It doesn't have any more meaning than that.

[Zac Kriegman @kriegman]

@bungarsargon It's not just an editing problem. The entire set of classification conventions are completely disconnected with left/right ideology. https://t.co/SQHo6432As