Hi. I’m Gunnar. I’m from Germany. I’m lurking lesswrong since July 25th.
How did I become a rationalist?
I always was. Or at least I continuously became.
I had a scientific interest as a child. My curiosity was satisfied by my parents with answers, experiments, construction toys and books, math courses and later boarding school (this was in germany when there was a hype on talent advancement).
I must have been eleven or twelve when I had one of the strongest aha moments I remember: The realization of the concept of
continuous functions. That a relationship like 2x+1 can not only be applied to single numbers and tabulated but realizes
continuous curves. All the possibilities hit me like a hammer: Movements, prices, all kinds of dependencies could be described
arbitrarily fine.
That moment had a lasting effect on me. I always find myself wondering what lies between the known points. Between the extremes. In a way this has become part of my philosophy of seeing and valuing the in-between. Some higher level Goldilocks solution.
I read my fathers shelves of science and science fiction as a youth. I tend to absorb and accept ‘facts’ in books too easily.
Luckily I have a skeptic friend to get me back down to earth.
During boarding school there was a significant transition from abstract mathematics to computer science which gave me significant insights into modeling, simulation, complex structures.
And the feeling of power over the machine.
Of course I later fell into the trap of conceiving my own super programming language operating system.
I remember being asked during boarding school (9th grade) about my best talent. I answered: My tolerance.
I could understand almost any behavior. I couldn’t necessarily empathize with it or feel it. But I knew it existed, was right for
the person/persons acting and was in general part of life.
I didn’t know then that I hadn’t really experienced much of life—only read about it. And that real tolerance means not only to understand and connive but to accept and endure.
During university after absorbing computer science until soaked I finally broadend out to cognitive science (mind opener: ‘explorations in the microstructure of cognition’) and later social sciences (mind opener: ‘judgement under uncertainty heuristics and biases’.
I learned about real life from and with my wife. Strong emotions, child education, hard work and more.
What did I think about all that I learned?
As a child I must have figured that everything can be understood—given enough time and effort.
I thought early and much about God and morality and spirituality.I wondered how God could fullfil his promises. How he could be the way he is – if he is. There was always doubt.
There could be a God. And his promise could be real.
But it also could be that this is all a fairy tale run amok in human brains searching for explanations where there are none.
Which is right? It is difficult to put probabilities to stories. I see that I have slowly moved from 50⁄50 agnosticism to tolerent
atheism.
I can hit small targets—especially if they are far away. And my objective is on healing, improvement.
I admit that my utility function is centered on me, my family, my friends and ‘social network’ and fades out slowly toward society at large.
I am not very altruistic to the public in general.I understand effective altruism. And I value it.
But also I cannot go against my affection to my family and especially my four sons. That I got from my parents.
That’s me.
What do I expect of LW? What can you expect of me on LW?
I’m not clear yet. I already knew much of what is on LW when I came here. But I enjoyed the crisp and detailed posts. Refreshing or deepening rationality never hurts. I esp. like EYs stories. They bring rationality ‘to the masses’. I will definitely read hpmor to my sons when they are old enough.
I think I can enrich lesswrong with critical views on the singularity. I have some strong arguments and even empirical evidence that there might be inherent complexity limits to technology and cognition which essentially render super intelligence infeasible (I see UFAI as a risk nonetheless).
And then I have some ideas on AI which build on a synthesis of logic and neuronal (vague) models which I’d like to share and discuss.
Maybe I will also share life experience. It seems that I am fairly old for this community and can do something about the arrogance risk (which I myself feel too) and about life expectations.
I think I can enrich lesswrong with critical views on the sigularity. I have some strong arguments and even empirical evidence that there might be inherent complexity limits to technology and cognition which essentially render super intelligence infeasible (I see UFAI as a risk nonetheless).
Hi. I’m Gunnar. I’m from Germany. I’m lurking lesswrong since July 25th.
How did I become a rationalist? I always was. Or at least I continuously became.
I had a scientific interest as a child. My curiosity was satisfied by my parents with answers, experiments, construction toys and books, math courses and later boarding school (this was in germany when there was a hype on talent advancement).
I must have been eleven or twelve when I had one of the strongest aha moments I remember: The realization of the concept of continuous functions. That a relationship like 2x+1 can not only be applied to single numbers and tabulated but realizes continuous curves. All the possibilities hit me like a hammer: Movements, prices, all kinds of dependencies could be described arbitrarily fine.
That moment had a lasting effect on me. I always find myself wondering what lies between the known points. Between the extremes. In a way this has become part of my philosophy of seeing and valuing the in-between. Some higher level Goldilocks solution.
I read my fathers shelves of science and science fiction as a youth. I tend to absorb and accept ‘facts’ in books too easily. Luckily I have a skeptic friend to get me back down to earth.
During boarding school there was a significant transition from abstract mathematics to computer science which gave me significant insights into modeling, simulation, complex structures. And the feeling of power over the machine. Of course I later fell into the trap of conceiving my own super programming language operating system.
I remember being asked during boarding school (9th grade) about my best talent. I answered: My tolerance. I could understand almost any behavior. I couldn’t necessarily empathize with it or feel it. But I knew it existed, was right for the person/persons acting and was in general part of life.
I didn’t know then that I hadn’t really experienced much of life—only read about it. And that real tolerance means not only to understand and connive but to accept and endure.
During university after absorbing computer science until soaked I finally broadend out to cognitive science (mind opener: ‘explorations in the microstructure of cognition’) and later social sciences (mind opener: ‘judgement under uncertainty heuristics and biases’.
I learned about real life from and with my wife. Strong emotions, child education, hard work and more.
What did I think about all that I learned?
As a child I must have figured that everything can be understood—given enough time and effort.
I thought early and much about God and morality and spirituality.I wondered how God could fullfil his promises. How he could be the way he is – if he is. There was always doubt. There could be a God. And his promise could be real. But it also could be that this is all a fairy tale run amok in human brains searching for explanations where there are none. Which is right? It is difficult to put probabilities to stories. I see that I have slowly moved from 50⁄50 agnosticism to tolerent atheism.
I can hit small targets—especially if they are far away. And my objective is on healing, improvement. I admit that my utility function is centered on me, my family, my friends and ‘social network’ and fades out slowly toward society at large. I am not very altruistic to the public in general.I understand effective altruism. And I value it. But also I cannot go against my affection to my family and especially my four sons. That I got from my parents.
That’s me. What do I expect of LW? What can you expect of me on LW? I’m not clear yet. I already knew much of what is on LW when I came here. But I enjoyed the crisp and detailed posts. Refreshing or deepening rationality never hurts. I esp. like EYs stories. They bring rationality ‘to the masses’. I will definitely read hpmor to my sons when they are old enough.
I think I can enrich lesswrong with critical views on the singularity. I have some strong arguments and even empirical evidence that there might be inherent complexity limits to technology and cognition which essentially render super intelligence infeasible (I see UFAI as a risk nonetheless).
And then I have some ideas on AI which build on a synthesis of logic and neuronal (vague) models which I’d like to share and discuss.
Maybe I will also share life experience. It seems that I am fairly old for this community and can do something about the arrogance risk (which I myself feel too) and about life expectations.
Willkommen! :-) Wo in Deutschland steckst Du denn?
In Hamburg. Und da gehe ich auch nicht weg.
Do go on...