okareaman

There will be two groups of people: those who figure out how to use AI to their benefit and those who don't

The beauty with the internet and now AI is that it greatly reduces the power of and need for gatekeepers who take most of the profit

You need to calm the f down. Do you understand anything about machine learning, software and hardware? How do you propose that some configuration will become generally intelligent given what we know today? I'd really like to hear your theories, then maybe I'd be frightened too.

I think it goes deeper than that. I think some are exploiting "end time" religious fears in America to get AI taken away and restricted from the public because a public empowered by AI is a threat to the current power structure. This isn't any different than what has already gone on in America, just now with AI

For example, Peter Doocy of Fox made a point of reading outloud at a White House press briefing the words of Eliezer Yudkowsky: "If we don't shut down AI everyone on Earth will die" Evangelicals watch Fox. They were the target. Doocy didn't have to read such dramatic words aloud. He could have said something much more neutral.

This is a very fluid and chaotic situation so I'd be more concerned if he said one thing and stuck to it

When the Facts Change, I Change My Mind. What Do You Do, Sir? - John Maynard Keynes

A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Do I contradict myself? / Very well then, I contradict myself. / (I am large, I contain multitudes) - Walt Whitman's “Song of Myself”

William Randolph Hearst anyone? Maybe people have heard of a little movie called Citizen Kane?

"Flood the zone with bullshit" - Steve Bannon

In my last submission I asked, Ask HN: Are leaders genuinely afraid of AI or do they have an agenda?

Here's my answer

Learning to use your tools is part of any job. I don't understand the point of this article or why such a low quality entry is on the front page.

Good point. It's a crazy, mixed up world we live in.

My reason for posting was I was appalled by this interview, which I think was quite irresponsible. I've lost all respect for Lex Fridman for playing the hapless dupe "just asking questions" and not pushing back harder.

Eliezer Yudkowsky: Dangers of AI and the End of Human Civilization | Lex Fridman Podcast #368

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AaTRHFaaPG8

Thanks for the recommendations. I have concerns too, but it seems to me some are stoking fears for political and religious purposes. For example, talking about Golems and Sam Altman being Jewish to justify their antisemitism.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golem

You're bringing the law into this but I'm not. That's a different issue. I support laws for trans people to have equal rights.

The world won't stop saying negative things about people like me and I accept that. Just last night I was watching Amazon's Bosch and the lead character called someone a "worthless alcoholic." As Vonnegut used to write, "so it goes."

Bingo! I got called transphobic

I solidly mean #1. I hate that Facebook and others started advertising hard liquor. If I worked at Facebook, I could start a movement among employees to get the ads banned. Another example would be Google employee refusing to work on defense contracts. Netflix management is saying "you can quit if you don't like it" which seems like a reasonable response to me.

As for #2, I wish them all the luck. I'm like most people and take a live an let live attitude. I have no problem with trans women. In fact my father is a closet transvestite (he doesn't know I know) so I'd be hating on my own father.

What I don't like is being called someone who hates if I don't get with their agenda

You must not use Twitter

I've lost a lot of friends. I've had people tell me they can't stand me because their Dad was an abusive alcoholic. I lost a job because of a manic episode. I know it's hard for normies to understand so I have compassion for their lack of understanding.

I can't help but feel this is aimed at trans activists who protested the Chappelle special. I think he went too far at a couple places, but that's what comedians do.

I don't think it's transphobic to push back on trans activists. I have problematic issues (bipolar, recovering alcoholic) but I don't go around demanding the world accommodate me and calling people who won't listen to me haters.

This guy is not a psychiatrist. He makes an obvious point that we have a tendency to defend what our opponents attack sometimes when we shouldn't. I get so tired of the Malcolm Gladwell substack articles that get posted frequently to HN and reach the front page for some damn reason.

Yes and if RMS doesn't like Apple Computers he doesn't have to use them. It's not his business if I decide Apple Computers are acceptable to me.

I respect anyone willing to fight for their beliefs

So do I, but I disagree with moral judgement and shame being used as a weapon in that fight. I look forward to the day when RMS and his acolytes make a more convincing case and provide an alternative system that would allow us to inspect all source code, which I think is a goal to strive for.

I realized that later after my comment went into negative point territory, but couldn't edit it. I apologize for attacking the character of RMS because I don't know him. What I am reacting against is being told I am wrong for running proprietary software, no matter who says it.

From what I can tell, RMS asserts we have the right to inspect the source code of the software that runs on our machines. What is the source of this right? Is it a universal human right? A self-evident inalienable right? Did RMS want to hack a printer one day and found he couldn't so he made up a right for us? Why are people who ship closed software evil? For someone who goes around moralizing and judging others, RMS always seemed to me on shaky ground. Does he have a better way for programmers to earn a living for their hard work besides writing closed software for companies to sell? He comes off to me as a crank and a scold on a power trip to control people.

In the context of the question, it is no longer the case that a compiler has to compile to machine code to be considered self-hosting. I thought this was clear, but I guess it wasn't

Sure, I didn't say they didn't. Are you refuting what I said and implying that a compiler is not self-hosted if it doesn't compile to machine code?

Alcoholics Anonymous is not for everyone. The quality of the meetings varies widely. Sometimes I'll be in a meeting and shudder to think about a new comer walking into that meeting. A lot of people in meetings have issues other than alcohol that make them difficult to be around. Some meetings are full of lonely people who drink too much and want to cut down but aren't alcoholics, so they use AA as a social club.

That said, there is value in studying the texts of AA. They contain a lot of wisdom. The 12 steps as written by Bill Wilson in Akron and modified through debate with other real alcoholics are especially interesting and are based on time tested methods of self-examination. The "God" word doesn't have to be a hangup. Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob were Christians, so they used God in the sense of the creator of the Universe, but it's acceptable and encouraged that a person substitute their own conception of God.

You don't have to go to a meeting to find a sponsor. A sponsor is only supposed to explain how the 12 steps work. A sponsor is not your therapist, guru, priest or companion. This is often lost in modern AA since so many people are accustomed to talk therapy. You could call the AA hotline in your town and tell them you are looking for someone to take you through the 12 steps.

People say a lot of things about AA without ever talking about the steps [1], which are the core of AA. It's hard to overestimate the brilliance of what Bill Wilson came up with on Dr. Bob's kitchen table. A quick summary:

Steps 1 to 3: Getting clarity about how bad the problem is, about whether you can solve it by yourself, and if not, who can you ask for help and how willing your are to humble yourself to ask for help. Are you done yet? Are you ready to surrender?

Steps 4 to 7: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Dialectic Behavioral Therapy (Wise Mind [2]), with Step 5 being Cognitive Processing Therapy for trauma, which entails telling your trauma to someone as a way to acknowledge and release it. In all this you learn meta-cognition or thinking about thinking and feeling. Are my feelings based on anything real or am I practicing one of the cognitive distortions [3]? You learn to be the observer of yourself, which is the key into meditation. Becoming the witness is that path to your higher power, so the last part of this phase is to resolve to not spin your wheels in repetive thoughts and emotions, but turn them over to your observer and witness of yourself. From that mental standpoint, it becomes much easier to ease your mind into a calmer state and hopefully eliminate what drove you to drink in the first place.

Steps 8 to 12: Rejoining the human race, since most severe alcoholics end up isolated and alone. Getting right with others is an important part of maintaining getting right with yourself. This maintanence is extremely important and most successful recovery persons "carve out a little part of each day" to practice this maintenance. An important part of this maintenance is helping other alcoholics, which is expressed in the saying "You have to give it away to keep it"

If you go to an AA meeting and no one there understands any of this, then find another meeting.

I have previously written about this here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29951607

My not real name email is my profile if anyone has any questions about the 12 steps

[1] https://www.aa.org/the-twelve-steps

[2] https://dbtselfhelp.com/dbt-skills-list/mindfulness/wise-min...

[3] http://www.pacwrc.pitt.edu/curriculum/313_MngngImpctTrmtcStr...

It used to be the case that a compiler compiled itself to bare metal machine instructions, but now with so many cpu instruction set targets that's no longer the case. LLVM uses an intermediate language like an assemby language. Another way to look at it is the TypeScript compiler compiles itself which is written in TypeScript but the intermediate language is JavaScript. V8 handles the translation of JavaScript to machine code, similar to LLVM translating LLVM IR to machine code

Antabuse is a way to stop drinking for a period for whatever reason, maybe you have surgery in two weeks and the doctor says you must stop but you can't. No one in danger of having seizures from withdrawels should suddenly stop. I took Antabuse when I wasn't a very bad alcoholic and I stopped for two weeks. Later, when I was much worse, I would shake in the morning until I got a drink. At that point cessation therapy would be dangerous. I did a medical detox.

You're right, misleading headline

Antabuse (Disulfiram) does not cure alcoholism. I think there's been a translation error from Japanese to English, because I don't believe the Japanese think they have a cure for alcoholism.

Getting so “lucky“ required working very energetically and solving difficult problems, for years.

A lot of people work very energetically and solving difficult problems, for years, and don't get rich. Sad but true. If you are one of them, I salute you and thank you for trying to make the world a better place. And if you did get rich but realized that "money doesn't make the man" so you did your good deeds in private, I also salute you. The world would be a much worse place without people like you. Frankly, the Marc Andreessens of the world are a dime a dozen and I don't mean to disparge Marc as a private person, I'm disparging the puffed up Wizard of Oz public image that people like him build on the advice of their PR people. It's good for business I hear.