The comments on my recent post about formalizing the inner alignment problem are, like, the best comments I’ve ever gotten. Seems like begging for comments at length works?
This is making me feel optimistic about a coordinated attack on the formal inner alignment problem. Once we “dig out” the right formal space, it seems like there’ll be a lot of actually tractable questions which a team of people can attack. I feel like this is only currently happening to a limited extent, perhaps surprisingly… eg: why aren’t there several people working on the minimal circuits stuff? Is it just too hard, even though the question has been made relatively concrete? I feel optimistic because of the quick and in-depth responses. My model is that a better overarching picture of the problem and current solution approaches will help people orient toward the problem and toward fruitful directions. Maybe this isn’t really a thing (based on what little happened with minimal circuits)?
I was talking with Ramana last week about the overall chances of making AI go well, and what needs to be done, and we both sorta surprised ourselves with how much the conclusion seemed to be “More work on inner alignment ASAP.” Then again I’m biased since that’s what I’m doing this month.
It’s something we need in order to do anything else, and of things like that, it seems near/at the bottom of my list if sorted by probability of the research community figuring it out.
Generally, I try to avoid any subreddits with more than a million subscribers (even 100k is noticeably bad).
Some personal recommendations (although I believe discovering reddit was net negative for my life in the long term):
Typical reddit humor: /r/breadstapledtotrees, /r/chairsunderwater (although the jokes get old quickly). /r/bossfight is nice, I enjoy it.
I highly recommend /r/vxjunkies. I also like /r/surrealmemes.
/r/sorceryofthespectacle, /r/shruglifesyndicate for aesthetic incoherent doomer philosophy based on situationism. /r/criticaltheory for less incoherent, but also less interesting discussions of critical theory.
/r/thalassophobia is great of you don’t have it (in a simile vein, /r/thedepthsbelow). I also like /r/fifthworldpics and sometimes /r/fearme, but highly NSFW at this point. /r/vagabond is fascinating.
/r/streamentry for high-quality meditation discussion, and /r/mlscaling for discussions about the scaling of machine learning networks. Generally, the subreddits gwern posts in have high-quality links (though often little discussion). I also love /r/Conlanging, /r/neography and /r/vexillology.
I also enjoy /r/negativeutilitarians. /r/jazz sometimes gives good music recommendations. Strongly recommend /r/museum.
/r/mildlyinteresting totally delivers, /r/not interesting is sometimes pretty funny.
And, of course, /r/slatestarcodex and /r/changemyview. /r/thelastpsychiatrist sometimes has very good discussions, but I don’t read it often. /r/askhistorians has the reputation of containing accurate and comprehensive information, though I haven’t read much of it.
General recommendations: Many subreddits have good sidebars and wikis, it’s often useful to read them (e. g. the wiki of /r/bodyweight fitness or /r/streamentry), but not aleays. I strongly recommend using old.reddit.com, together with the reddit enhancement suite. The old layout loads faster, and RES let’s you tag people, expand linked images/videos in-place and much more. Top posts of all time are great on good subs, and memes on all the others.Still great to get a feel for the community.
Generally, I have a sense that there are all kinds of really cool niche intellectual communities on the internet, and Reddit might be a good place to find some.
I guess what I most want is “things that could/should be rationalist adjacent, but aren’t”, not that that’s very helpful.
So the obvious options are r/rational, r/litrpg, …
That being the case, these seem like the most relevant para from your recs:
/r/streamentry for high-quality meditation discussion, and /r/mlscaling for discussions about the scaling of machine learning networks. Generally, the subreddits gwern posts in have high-quality links (though often little discussion). I also love /r/Conlanging, /r/neography and /r/vexillology.
And, of course, /r/slatestarcodex and /r/changemyview. /r/thelastpsychiatrist sometimes has very good discussions, but I don’t read it often. /r/askhistorians has the reputation of containing accurate and comprehensive information, though I haven’t read much of it.
… I’m probably not going to be very serious about reddit; I’ve tried before and not stuck with it. But finding things that aren’t just inane could be a big help.
This sounds like a really useful filter:
Top posts of all time are great on good subs, and memes on all the others.Still great to get a feel for the community.
The comments on my recent post about formalizing the inner alignment problem are, like, the best comments I’ve ever gotten. Seems like begging for comments at length works?
This is making me feel optimistic about a coordinated attack on the formal inner alignment problem. Once we “dig out” the right formal space, it seems like there’ll be a lot of actually tractable questions which a team of people can attack. I feel like this is only currently happening to a limited extent, perhaps surprisingly… eg: why aren’t there several people working on the minimal circuits stuff? Is it just too hard, even though the question has been made relatively concrete? I feel optimistic because of the quick and in-depth responses. My model is that a better overarching picture of the problem and current solution approaches will help people orient toward the problem and toward fruitful directions. Maybe this isn’t really a thing (based on what little happened with minimal circuits)?
I was talking with Ramana last week about the overall chances of making AI go well, and what needs to be done, and we both sorta surprised ourselves with how much the conclusion seemed to be “More work on inner alignment ASAP.” Then again I’m biased since that’s what I’m doing this month.
It’s something we need in order to do anything else, and of things like that, it seems near/at the bottom of my list if sorted by probability of the research community figuring it out.
I am Joining Reddit. Any subreddit recommendations?
What are your goals?
Generally, I try to avoid any subreddits with more than a million subscribers (even 100k is noticeably bad).
Some personal recommendations (although I believe discovering reddit was net negative for my life in the long term):
Typical reddit humor: /r/breadstapledtotrees, /r/chairsunderwater (although the jokes get old quickly). /r/bossfight is nice, I enjoy it.
I highly recommend /r/vxjunkies. I also like /r/surrealmemes.
/r/sorceryofthespectacle, /r/shruglifesyndicate for aesthetic incoherent doomer philosophy based on situationism. /r/criticaltheory for less incoherent, but also less interesting discussions of critical theory.
/r/thalassophobia is great of you don’t have it (in a simile vein, /r/thedepthsbelow). I also like /r/fifthworldpics and sometimes /r/fearme, but highly NSFW at this point. /r/vagabond is fascinating.
/r/streamentry for high-quality meditation discussion, and /r/mlscaling for discussions about the scaling of machine learning networks. Generally, the subreddits gwern posts in have high-quality links (though often little discussion). I also love /r/Conlanging, /r/neography and /r/vexillology.
I also enjoy /r/negativeutilitarians. /r/jazz sometimes gives good music recommendations. Strongly recommend /r/museum.
/r/mildlyinteresting totally delivers, /r/not interesting is sometimes pretty funny.
And, of course, /r/slatestarcodex and /r/changemyview. /r/thelastpsychiatrist sometimes has very good discussions, but I don’t read it often. /r/askhistorians has the reputation of containing accurate and comprehensive information, though I haven’t read much of it.
General recommendations: Many subreddits have good sidebars and wikis, it’s often useful to read them (e. g. the wiki of /r/bodyweight fitness or /r/streamentry), but not aleays. I strongly recommend using old.reddit.com, together with the reddit enhancement suite. The old layout loads faster, and RES let’s you tag people, expand linked images/videos in-place and much more. Top posts of all time are great on good subs, and memes on all the others.Still great to get a feel for the community.
Second on reddit being net-negative. Would recommend avoiding before it gets hooks in your brain.
yeahhhh maybe so.
I just had a positive interaction with a highly technical subreddit, and wanted more random highly-capable intellectual stuff.
But reddit is definitely not actually for that.
Thanks for all the recommendations!
Generally, I have a sense that there are all kinds of really cool niche intellectual communities on the internet, and Reddit might be a good place to find some.
I guess what I most want is “things that could/should be rationalist adjacent, but aren’t”, not that that’s very helpful.
So the obvious options are r/rational, r/litrpg, …
That being the case, these seem like the most relevant para from your recs:
… I’m probably not going to be very serious about reddit; I’ve tried before and not stuck with it. But finding things that aren’t just inane could be a big help.
This sounds like a really useful filter: