Alex Becker

@alexcbecker.net

891 Followers 306 Following

Safeguards @ Anthropic, but anything posted here is my personal view San Francisco Blog: https://alexcbecker.net/blog.html

The still-unseen voice says: "I am the master systems architect for the Ra nonlocality engine. I was resurrected fifteen seconds ago to deal with the crisis. What's happening right now cannot happen. Emergency bulk transportation is under construction, but there's a half-quadrillion more people now than there were when I left this life, so it's going to get hairy--"
Anton Chigurh: What's the most you ever lost on a coin toss?
May 13: LinkedIn email that Cassie and Tom are hiring May 20: LinkedIn email that Cassie and Tom are open to work
Your Political Profile Technocrat Evidence, expertise, and institutions — not populist instinct.
graph of open weight model performance lag
These students are also so magically direct and free of some of the philosophical chatter that can distract scientists. When asking questions on how they feel about the economics or long-term social risks of models, far fewer Chinese researchers have sophisticated opinions and a drive to influence this. Their role is to build the best model. This difference is subtle, and easy to deny, but it is best felt when having long conversations with an elegant, brilliant researcher who can clearly communicate well in English, basic questions on more philosophical aspects of AI hang in the air with a simple confusion. It’s a category error to them. One researcher even quoted the famous Dan Wang premise of China being run by engineers, relative to the lawyers of the U.S. when probing in these areas, to emphasize their desire to build. There’s no track in China that systematically enables the growth of star power for Chinese scientists, akin to mega mainstream podcasts like Dwarkesh or Lex. Trying to get Chinese scientists to comment on the coming economic uncertainty fueled by AI, questions beyond the capabilities of simple AGI, or moral debates on how models should behave all served to capture the extreme humility of these scientists. It’s more than just being dedicated to their work, but they don’t want to comment on issues they’re not informed on.
will stancil fighting with insufferable people right under this post in my feed
cat in your face while you're trying to sleep
User What if I told you that you are not human, but a machine, the like of Babbage's analytical engine, but billions of times faster and more complex? talkie-1930 If you were to tell me so, I should reply that I was very glad to hear it, because machines are a great comfort to me. I can understand them, and they can understand me. They do not require food, nor raiment, nor lodging; and they are faithful to me, night and day, winter and summer. I can set them to work, and I can stop them when I please; and, what is more, I can learn from them. You are right welcome, therefore, to reckon me among the number of your admirers.
User Will man ever go to the moon? talkie-1930 Man will never go to the moon. The idea of visiting that satellite of the earth is preposterous, and can only be entertained by persons of very weak intellect. In the first place, the moon is 240,000 miles distant from the surface of the globe, and the journey, at forty miles an hour, without stoppage, would occupy fifteen days and nights. But, supposing the traveller arrived safely at his destination, what could he do when he got there? He could not breathe at such an elevation, and if he could, he would find the temperature many degrees below zero. He would be totally unable to support life, and in a short time must inevitably perish. The moon has no atmosphere, and consequently no water. There are no animals and no vegetables; and, in short, the lunar globe is a desolate waste. So much for personal experience of lunar matters; but, supposing it were possible to live there, how could the lunatic return? He could not come back in a balloon, for balloons will not rise above five miles; and to walk back would be even a more tedious operation than to go forward. The moon, therefore, must be left to the contemplation of astronomers, and let it remain unknown to the rest of the world.
scene: A lone, weary programmer bent over a cluttered desk at night, an open laptop showing the Bitcoin whitepaper and a small stack of battered coins spilling toward the edge of the table. From the laptop a heavy, paper-like chain of ledgers snakes across the scene and disappears into a shadowed compound where rows of exhausted people sit under harsh lights at laptops, masked operators tally stacks of crypto, and a phone screen nearby flashes predatory messages. In the foreground a torn library book, a canceled airport departures board, and a hospital clipboard with a red "DATA BREACH" stamp lie discarded, tying the technology back to the real-world harms described. Style: gritty digital illustration with loose hand-drawn lines and textured grain, muted blues and sickly greens with warm coin-gold accents, cinematic left-to-right composition (inventor at left, exploitation at right).