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   Annalee Newitz 🍜 (annaleen@wandering.shop)'s status on Monday, 13-Mar-2023 23:02:39 JST Annalee Newitz 🍜

   • The Trandalorian 🏳️‍⚧️
   • Our Opinions Are Correct

   This is a chart from Nick Bostrom's book Superintelligence, which @charliejane and I will be discussing tomorrow on @ouropinions. In it, he casually suggests that a rigorous eugenics program will result in an "intellectual renaissance." This fits nicely with a later passage in the book (which we also discuss on the pod), where he suggests that AI developers create "voluntary slaves," based on human slaves in history. #OurOpinionsAreCorrect #podcasts #superintelligence #eugenics

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     Scott, Drowning in Information (vortex_egg@ioc.exchange)'s status on Monday, 13-Mar-2023 23:06:13 JST Scott, Drowning in Information

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     • The Trandalorian 🏳️‍⚧️
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     @annaleen @charliejane @ouropinions I have a copy of Superintelligence that a former(?) friend gifted to me when he was tumbling down the EA/LW/rationalist/longtermist rabbit hole and trying to get me to come along for the ride. I never read it because I flipped through the book, saw this table and noped the f out.

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     Kate Starbird (katestarbird@mstdn.social)'s status on Monday, 13-Mar-2023 23:06:15 JST Kate Starbird

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     • Scott, Drowning in Information

     @vortex_egg I had an aquantaince for a brief period of time who claimed to have an extremely high IQ. He explained his IQ situation to me over lunch one day -- which I found extremely awkward, but apparently or perhaps not surprisingly he didn't pick up on my discomfort. During the entire story, he had a large amount of mustard on his face, that he either didn't notice (unlikely) or didn't bother to remove. For some reason, this lunch came back to me while looking at this table.

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     Michael Helm (mwhelm@sfba.social)'s status on Monday, 13-Mar-2023 23:06:17 JST Michael Helm

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     • The Trandalorian 🏳️‍⚧️
     • Our Opinions Are Correct

     @annaleen @charliejane @ouropinions I don't know about Bostrom but I am delighted to discover the existence of this podcast!

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     Annalee Newitz 🍜 (annaleen@wandering.shop)'s status on Monday, 13-Mar-2023 23:06:19 JST Annalee Newitz 🍜

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     The podcast is now live! https://ouropinionsarecorrect.libsyn.com/ouropinionsarecorrect/sf-v-sv-the-culture-vs-chatgpt

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     clacke (clacke@libranet.de)'s status on Tuesday, 14-Mar-2023 18:50:07 JST clacke

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     • The Trandalorian 🏳️‍⚧️
     • Our Opinions Are Correct
     Apparently Bostrom spoke out recently. You already know from that sentence know that can't be good.
     
     farside.link/teddit/r/Effectiv…
     
     > [ . . . ] recently released a preemptive apology for remarks he made in the 90s saying black people were less intelligent than white people. His apology doesn’t actually condemn that view though, saying he’ll leave it for others to decide.
     
     @annaleen @charliejane @ouropinions
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     Annalee Newitz 🍜 (annaleen@wandering.shop)'s status on Friday, 17-Mar-2023 17:43:22 JST Annalee Newitz 🍜

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     • Nelson Chu Pavlosky

     @skyfaller maybe the best thing to do is figure out what you mean by "smarter"? Better at math? Great composers of music? Able to calculate the best way to make a flaky pie crust, in any weather conditions?

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     Nelson Chu Pavlosky (skyfaller@jawns.club)'s status on Friday, 17-Mar-2023 17:43:22 JST Nelson Chu Pavlosky

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     @annaleen Yes, thank you, you're right. The eugenics project, and "superintelligence", is all about producing beings who are "generally" "better" in every way. Acknowledging the impossibility of this and celebrating specific strengths instead of total "superiority" seems like a good approach for avoiding ending up like Bostrom.

     Now that I think about it, many plot-relevant traits I gave my AIs, like immortality or having a distributed brain, don't even require sentience.

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     Nelson Chu Pavlosky (skyfaller@jawns.club)'s status on Friday, 17-Mar-2023 17:43:24 JST Nelson Chu Pavlosky

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     @annaleen I'm really sad to see this, as I had this book on my list to read, and I had been world building to write a space opera with lots of "superintelligent" AIs, based partly on articles I read about Bostrom's ideas. May have to throw that whole universe in the trash and start over.

     Oh well, at least I didn't buy the book before finding out he was a eugenics proponent.

     Is it possible to write characters who are smarter than you without somehow promoting eugenics?