David Manheim

@davidmanheim.alter.org.il

3972 Followers 362 Following

Humanity's future can be amazing - let's make sure it is. Visiting lecturer at the Technion, founder https://alter.org.il, Superforecaster, Pardee RAND graduate.

[Picture of black man next to hooded KKK member. Caption: "For 30 years, Daryl Davis has spent time befriending members of the Ku Klux Klan. He says 200 Klansmen have given up their robes after talking with him. Courtesy of Daryl Davis"] Daryl Davis is a blues musician, but he also has what some might call an interesting hobby. For the past 30 years, Davis, a black man, has spent time befriending members of the Ku Klux Klan. He says once the friendship blossoms, the Klansmen realize that their hate may be misguided. Since Davis started talking with these members, he says 200 Klansmen have given up their robes. When that happens, Davis collects the robes and keeps them in his home as a reminder of the dent he has made in racism by simply sitting down and having dinner with people.
Tweets: Clearly, I'll be less active here now - and not even really by my own choice. The one thing that made the algorithmically-sorted, politically-biased, ad-heavy, hard to navigate garbage pile of a platform usable was pulled out from under *my already paid subscription* with no notice. It sure was easy for @elonmusk to convince me not to renew my @X Pro account - all it took was cutting off a feature which I paid for a year of in the middle of that year, with no warning at all. (Screenshot saying X Pro is limited only to Premium+ subscribers.)
Tweet from @davidmanheim Nov 26, 2023; "I hate that #AIEthics is so closely tied to AGI skepticism. Yes, obviously AGI doesn't exist now, and ethics is really important to current ML. But if (when) we get radically transformative AI, they largely discredited themselves. And we don't stop needing AI ethicists then!"
Low-resolution photo of David Manheim in front of AIES2025 banner
w this framework you can understand: * Thiel Antichrist obsession * Kanye getting into Hitler and launching a coin * Trump memeing himself into becoming President then running again to escape imprisonment * Elon generating Ani goon slop on the TL * A16z wilding out
Text: I think the main reason you find a lot of very unhappy tech people even at the highest levels - when you're a typical employee everyone around you is making .5-2x what you are - when you start breaking out wealth goes on log scale. ppl with 10-1000x your net worth become common - this is native to network effects, scale associated with AI training, and other winner take all dynamics in tech - all of VC is structured this way as well -- (1 unicorn returns entire fund rest of investments are zero) which psychologically reinforces all or nothing thinking - this makes competitive people miserable - this leads them to do hallucinogens or other psychoactive substances in order to accept their place in the universe - the conclusions drawn from these psychoactive substances are typically at direct odds with how they got to where they are - and after getting one shotted they're still ultimately in a hard wired competition with people worth 10-1000x more than them - due to the structure of technology it becomes more or less impossible to break out of your 'bracket' without engaging in increasingly dark things - you realize that time is running out -- and become aware of synthetic biology (peptides, genetic alteration of children) - you end up getting involved in police state investments, gooning investments, or crypto -- and view it as non optional to take the gloves off bc everyone around you is doing the same thing - you're on a permanent hedonic treadmill and you can't ever get off or go back to where you were before bc after doing all of the things you've done you can't possibly ever relate to normal humans - you get involved with politics or Catholicism or other Lindy cults to try and get off the treadmill - of course it won't work and you bring all the weird baggage directly into politics or religion and poison those wells too the current configuration of economics/ wealth distribution is pretty solidly optimized to drive the wealthiest people in...