What are ideas you think Less Wrong hasn’t taken seriously?
I think LW as a whole (but not some individuals) ignored practical issues of cognitive enhancement.
From outside-in:
Efficient learning paths. Sequences are great, but there is a lot of stuff to learn from books, and would be great to have dependencies mapped out with the best materials for things like physics, decision theory, logic, CS stuff.
Efficient learning techniques: there are many interesting ideas out there, but I do not have time to experiment with them all, such as Supermemo, speed reading.
Hardware tools. I feel like I am closer integrated with information with iphone/ipad, if reasonable eyewear comes to market this will be much enhanced.
N-back and similar.
Direct input via braiwaves/subvocalisation.
Pharmacological enhancement.
Real BCIs, which are starting to come to market servicing disabled people.
Even if these tools do not lead to Singularity (my guess) they might give edge to FAI researchers.
dual n-back: for the past month, I’ve spent 2-5 minutes most days on it.
I can do dual 4-back with 95%+ accuracy and 5-back with 60%, and I’ve likely plateaued (naturally, my skill rapidly improved at first). I enjoy it as “practice focusing on something”, but haven’t noticed any evidence of any general improvement in memory or other mental abilities. I plan on continuing the habit indefinitely.
After doing 100 trials of dual N back stretched over a week (mostly 4 back) I noticed that I felt slightly more conscious: my emotions were more salient, I enjoyed simple things more, and I just felt generally more alive. There were tons of free variables for me, though, so I doubt causation. Did you notice anything similar?
A collection of anecdotal evidence from players is available in Gwern’s great n-back FAQ.
I’ve played for some two months earlier this year and my max level was 8. I haven’t really noticed anything, but since I took no tests prior or after the training I can’t really say a firm thing about it. The experience of getting better in n-back is exhilarating and bewildering enough that I plan to resume playing it soon. I mean, at the earlier levels I often felt intensely that a certain next level I just got to is physically impossible to beat, and behold, after a few days it seemed manageable, and after a week or so, trivial. All of this without any conscious learning process taking place, or any strategy coalescing. It’s an especially unadulterated example how a brain that gets rewired feels from the inside.
Yes, I know the same feeling (and have remarked on it once or twice on the DNB ML) - it’s very strange how over a day or two one can suddenly jump 10 or 20% on a level and have a feeling that eg. suddenly D4B is clear and comprehensible, while before only D3B was and D4B was a murky mystery one had difficulty keeping in one’s head.
On the other hand—D8B? Dammit! I’ve been at n-backing for something like 2 years now, and have been stuck on D4B for months. You, Jonathan, and Will just go straight to D4B or D8B within a few months with ease. I must be doing something wrong.
(On a sidenote, as in the FAQ, I ask people for their negative or null reports as well as their positive ones. This thread is unusual in 2 null reports to 1 positive, but I’m sure there are more LWers who’ve tried!)
Sure. I tried a bunch of things at once, with the purpose of feeling and thinking better. Collectively, they worked. However, this means that I have probably just acquired a bunch of ungrounded superstitions.
I’ve recorded what I did but haven’t learned anything from that data other than: I am unlikely to ever continue a daily practice of either napping or meditating.
I would speculate that dual n-back is a repetitive and simple enough* stimulus that it’s likely to offer whatever “self-awareness” benefits I felt in meditating.
it’s simple in coarse physical terms; obviously the actual sequences are randomly varied
Do you know of a good online resource that I could use to get a fuller picture of the different approaches of cognitive enhancement? I’ve used Anders Sandberg’s page before but I imagine it’s rather out of date.
I think LW as a whole (but not some individuals) ignored practical issues of cognitive enhancement.
From outside-in:
Efficient learning paths. Sequences are great, but there is a lot of stuff to learn from books, and would be great to have dependencies mapped out with the best materials for things like physics, decision theory, logic, CS stuff.
Efficient learning techniques: there are many interesting ideas out there, but I do not have time to experiment with them all, such as Supermemo, speed reading.
Hardware tools. I feel like I am closer integrated with information with iphone/ipad, if reasonable eyewear comes to market this will be much enhanced.
N-back and similar.
Direct input via braiwaves/subvocalisation.
Pharmacological enhancement.
Real BCIs, which are starting to come to market servicing disabled people.
Even if these tools do not lead to Singularity (my guess) they might give edge to FAI researchers.
dual n-back: for the past month, I’ve spent 2-5 minutes most days on it.
I can do dual 4-back with 95%+ accuracy and 5-back with 60%, and I’ve likely plateaued (naturally, my skill rapidly improved at first). I enjoy it as “practice focusing on something”, but haven’t noticed any evidence of any general improvement in memory or other mental abilities. I plan on continuing the habit indefinitely.
After doing 100 trials of dual N back stretched over a week (mostly 4 back) I noticed that I felt slightly more conscious: my emotions were more salient, I enjoyed simple things more, and I just felt generally more alive. There were tons of free variables for me, though, so I doubt causation. Did you notice anything similar?
A collection of anecdotal evidence from players is available in Gwern’s great n-back FAQ.
I’ve played for some two months earlier this year and my max level was 8. I haven’t really noticed anything, but since I took no tests prior or after the training I can’t really say a firm thing about it. The experience of getting better in n-back is exhilarating and bewildering enough that I plan to resume playing it soon. I mean, at the earlier levels I often felt intensely that a certain next level I just got to is physically impossible to beat, and behold, after a few days it seemed manageable, and after a week or so, trivial. All of this without any conscious learning process taking place, or any strategy coalescing. It’s an especially unadulterated example how a brain that gets rewired feels from the inside.
Yes, I know the same feeling (and have remarked on it once or twice on the DNB ML) - it’s very strange how over a day or two one can suddenly jump 10 or 20% on a level and have a feeling that eg. suddenly D4B is clear and comprehensible, while before only D3B was and D4B was a murky mystery one had difficulty keeping in one’s head.
On the other hand—D8B? Dammit! I’ve been at n-backing for something like 2 years now, and have been stuck on D4B for months. You, Jonathan, and Will just go straight to D4B or D8B within a few months with ease. I must be doing something wrong.
(On a sidenote, as in the FAQ, I ask people for their negative or null reports as well as their positive ones. This thread is unusual in 2 null reports to 1 positive, but I’m sure there are more LWers who’ve tried!)
I did maybe 10-15 half-hour sessions of mostly D5B-D6B last year over the course of a few weeks and didn’t notice any effects.
Thanks; I’ve added it.
All the links to your FAQ in this thread are broken. Does the FAQ still exist?
Oh sure, it’s just that I finally built a real website (as opposed to continuing to abuse Haskell.org’s free hosting): http://www.gwern.net/DNB%20FAQ
Needless to say, it’s been expanded a lot since then.
Sure. I tried a bunch of things at once, with the purpose of feeling and thinking better. Collectively, they worked. However, this means that I have probably just acquired a bunch of ungrounded superstitions.
I’ve recorded what I did but haven’t learned anything from that data other than: I am unlikely to ever continue a daily practice of either napping or meditating.
I would speculate that dual n-back is a repetitive and simple enough* stimulus that it’s likely to offer whatever “self-awareness” benefits I felt in meditating.
it’s simple in coarse physical terms; obviously the actual sequences are randomly varied
Do you know of a good online resource that I could use to get a fuller picture of the different approaches of cognitive enhancement? I’ve used Anders Sandberg’s page before but I imagine it’s rather out of date.
Unfortunately no. I suspect Michael Vassar might have some ideas, if you can get him to write something up. Otherwise hoping someone else chips in.
I believe he did send me a hugeeeee folder of IA-related papers and such at some point (or Justin Shovelain forwarded it to me). I’ll try to find it.
Yes, please share what you can. Or forward to znkxurfva@tznvy.pbz if possible.
Alright, I can’t find what I was looking for, but after the Singularity Summit I’ll see what kinds of resources I can get from Vassar and Justin.
This would be worth a top level post by itself, wouldn’t it?
I’d appreciate being cut in too! My e-mail is ispollock [at] gmail.com
Could you email it to nojustnoperson [at] gmail.com, too?
BTW, some of the Englebart-related posts seem relevant here.