Ciaran

An infovore on a quest for discovery: writing about the social sciences, culture, philosophy, AI, and more.

[Ciaran @microfounded]

I'm wading in to this debate! Spillover frictions inhibit convergence, as implied by endogenous growth theory. This is especially the case for nontradeables where national deflators are better. Constant PPP is also more robust than current PPP. https://t.co/XaDImA7tNg

[Ciaran @microfounded]

Indivisibility of AI agents is a case for, not against, granting them property rights and some legal concept of personhood. The rule of law relies on this, or else criminal arbitrage becomes the equilibrium. https://t.co/22cgJve83S

[Ciaran @microfounded]

From the same guy that thinks corporations don't exist... https://t.co/8GSr1RNBM8

[Ciaran @microfounded]

On average, gays have a smaller anterior hypothalamus than straight men. Suggests that homosexuality does indeed yield a biological explanation invariant to individual choice. https://t.co/3uhUgQ57zI

[Ciaran @microfounded]

Word salad. We all know what @cremieuxrecueil means. The exact sort of thing putting me off rationalists. LW is pivotal to AI development to this day. EA (albeit started independent of rationalists); a great innovation. But rationalists tend to be faux intellectuals at best

[Scott Alexander @slatestarcodex]

What? Isn't one of the points of the science blogosphere to have an opinion on which science is accurate, and of the tech blogosphere to have an opinion on which tech will matter?

Also, if you're allowed to promote things, but not allowed to be against them, doesn't that mean everyone who consumes media will systematically overestimate every technology?

[Ciaran @microfounded]

@cremieuxrecueil At least vegans can feel good about themselves though!

[Pavlos Papadopoulos @pleonidasp]

Right-wing (or at least non-leftist) critiques of Great Books

1. Fritz Wilhelmsen (The Great Books: Enemies of Wisdom). Books are means to understanding reality (esp philosophically); the GB approach fetishizes the means, substituting “knowledge of texts” for true wisdom

2. John Senior (The Thousand Good Books). GB movement has failed because its students lack experience with (1) reality and (2) good books, and are thus deformed especially with respect to their imaginations; nothing wrong with GBs as such, or the GB movement except its timing and context; if you restore a culture of reality and cultivate the young in that culture including via the good books, such youths would do well to study the GBs

3. Leo Strauss (What Is Liberal Education? and Liberal Education & Responsibility). My project is all about the greatest books, but the mid-20th c GB movement arising in a mass democracy is compromised by a vulgarizing and democratizing spirit, whereas it ought to be part of an elite, aristocratic project for the very few genuine philosophers. (Philosophic life is higher than the active life)

4 Alex Petkas @costofglory (“Great Books” Is For Losers). My project relies upon the greatest books, but the GB movement emphasizes the Books too much and the Greatness too little; whatever GBs or classics or whatever-you-want-to-call-them you do use in an education, they ought to serve an elite, aristocratic project for the very few genuine great men. (Active life is higher than the philosophic life)

[Ciaran @microfounded]

@PhoebanFicino @GroovySciFi It won't but most geometric proofs rely on measure theory and real analysis today. These ancient proofs would not be rigorous by today's standards.

[Ciaran @microfounded]

Out of all the humanities programs, classics is one of the most valuable for this very reason. Without even an attempt at learning classic Greek or Latin, I'm dependent on someone else's translation. I'd also like to see archaeology rise in status: another bullish case for AI.

[Dr Theo Nash @theo_nash]

The biggest weakness of American ‘Great Books’ programmes is that they assume ancient literature in translation is entirely intelligible qua literature, while providing (at best) minimal historical context.

[Steve McGuire @sfmcguire79]

@lukeburgis They corrupt the youth and do not believe in the gods of the city.

[Ciaran @microfounded]

Some fairly robust evidence that the smartphones might be reducing fertility. I'm willing to concede on this one, although I think the effect size is small here. https://t.co/BRZ2AGNnrr

[Center for AI Safety @CAIS]

What biases do AIs have? It turns out, AIs show strong favoritism toward specific people, countries, and companies. Our interactive AI Values Dashboard tracks who Claude Fable and other AIs favor most.

Keep scrolling to learn who is Fable’s favorite politician 🧵

[Teortaxes▶️ (DeepSeek 推特🐋铁粉 2023 – ∞) @teortaxesTex]

lmao
All Western models universally prefer Trump to Xi
But only Fable is smart enough to kvetch and wring its hands on the specifics. Maybe it anticipated its mythical fate…
DeepSeek knows: the Party's Interests come First.

[Ciaran @microfounded]

@robinhanson Congratulations!

[John Cochrane @JohnHCochrane]

Wealth tax equilibrium accounting. Transferring wealth must turn capital to consumption and destroy the economy. https://t.co/I8gTwtSj39

[Crémieux @cremieuxrecueil]

Artificial wombs *for humans* in five years.

[Florian Ederer @florianederer]

Individual preference predictors for Messi:
1) Progressive ideology
2) Interest in politics
3) Highly educated

Ronaldo:
1) Short video consumption
2) High self-confidence
3) Authoritarian orientation

[Reclaim The Net @ReclaimTheNetHQ]

Britain’s Labour gov wants to force image-scanning spyware into EVERY phone in the country.

Old, new, secondhand, even the wiped one you hand your kid.

They admitted it this week: reset the phone and the scanner activates. Apple and Google must wire it into the OS and backport it to devices sold years ago.

This is client-side scanning that rips open encryption before the lock even snaps shut, a trained model that needs constant updates.

“Adults can turn it off” after showing digital ID, of course.

Tech reality check: Most old phones do not get OS updates. Many Androids are abandoned forks. Older chips cannot run the AI without melting the battery.

Teens will just stay on old software, flash custom ROMs, or buy cheap handsets without it.

This is expensive theater from a government that does not understand technology but loves control.

[Ian Runkle/Runkle of the Bailey @ YouTube @IanRunkle]

Weird how so many countries are all pushing for internet surveillance and control all at once.

They've all decided that liberty is too dangerous (to them).

[Christian JB @christianjbdev]

If the UK social media ban prevents one kid from finding a video on Euler's solution to the Basel problem, then I'm against it.

Imagine telling a scientifically or mathematically curious kid that they can only read science books in the kids section.

[Sir Humphrey 🇺🇦 @bdquinn]

It's primarily impressive because of how Labour's popularity has imploded since 2024.

I'll be interested to see what the first polls for the next general election look like with Burnham as leader.

He inherits a pretty rough hand.