knb

Karma: 5,366

knb Jun 21, 2016, 1:04 PM
2 points
in reply to: SquirrelInHell’s comment on: Crazy Ideas Thread
It would only happen in areas of dense human habitation, which already wrecks the ecosystem. No net harm.

knb Jun 21, 2016, 1:01 AM
1 point
in reply to: ChristianKl’s comment on: Crazy Ideas Thread

Quite a while anybody could send information to Facebook users because Facebook implemented the open standard of Email.

Sure, I could send emails to your facebook account, but if I wanted to see any of your social media content, I would have to start a Facebook account and access it via Facebook’s walled garden. If I want to use Google+ and you use Facebook.…

It’s as though you had to use a Verizon phone to have a conversation with other Verizon users, and you couldn’t use your Verizon phone to contact people who use AT&T. The outcome is inevitably a monopoly due to Metcalf’s law.

I don’t want everybody to send me messages in an unfiltered way.

Your social network client could still have filters, but the filter would be something you control, and it wouldn’t be as arbitrary as “you may only friend-request other facebook users, and only other facebook users may friend-request you.”

As far as breaking up Facebook, I don’t see a reason why they should have Instagram and WhatsApp but the core Facebook service can’t be easily broken up.

Start with an open standard for friend requests; i.e. Google+ must accept friend requests from Facebook and vice versa. Any new startup would be able to create their own social networking client, capable of sending, accepting, and displaying friend requests, media shares, private messages, wall posts, etc. This would create a much better, more competitive system with vastly more consumer surplus.

knb Jun 20, 2016, 8:42 AM
6 points
in reply to: James_Miller’s comment on: Crazy Ideas Thread
I think there is a strong case for breaking up Facebook and Twitter as telecom monopolies. They would be forced to adopt open standards, so anyone could send information to their users, and other companies would be able to create their own clients to send info to facebook/twitter users and vice versa.

knb Jun 7, 2016, 12:04 PM
2 points
in reply to: Daniel_Burfoot’s comment on: Rationality Quotes June 2016
Did he give an explanation of why he thinks that would be a “moral imperative?”

knb May 28, 2016, 12:52 AM
1 point
in reply to: Ixiel’s comment on: Open Thread May 23 - May 29, 2016
I’d estimate Sanders’ chances as less than 10%, maybe a bit more than 5%.He would need a mass defection of superdelegates at this point, and it’s possible they would be directed to jump en masse to someone else (like Biden) even if the DNC decides to dump Clinton.

knb May 15, 2016, 3:14 AM
2 points
in reply to: ShardPhoenix’s comment on: 2016 LessWrong Diaspora Survey Analysis: Part One (Meta and Demographics)
I’m not sure that “STEM communities” is a valid reference group for LW.

knb May 11, 2016, 1:49 AM
15 points
in reply to: morganism’s comment on: Open Thread May 9 - May 15 2016
For anyone curious about this link, I’ll save you some time:

From this, they jump to being seriously worried about their inability to control their next Honda Civic because it will have a mind of its own.

It’s that type of article.

knb May 10, 2016, 3:02 AM
0 points
in reply to: Arshuni’s comment on: Open Thread May 9 - May 15 2016

On a related note: if it is true, does that suggest that, as far as we take the diminishing utility of money for granted, by using extrinsic rewards, we are reducing the number of extreme performers? (in so far as we can’t keep giving exponential rewards, and money/tokens/what have you motivates in proportion to their utility).

I think the positional qualities of money compensate for this somewhat. People still work hard because they want to keep ahead of their neighbor/coworker.

knb May 5, 2016, 4:50 PM
1 point
in reply to: Daniel_Burfoot’s comment on: Open Thread May 2 - May 8, 2016

Part of my worldview is that progress, innovation and competence in all areas of science, technology, and other aspects of civilization are correlated.

I’m sure they’re correlated but not all that tightly.

What would the world look like if that hypothesis were false? Well, we could find a country that is not particularly competent overall, but was very competent and innovative in one specific civilizational subfield. As a random example, imagine it turned out that Egypt actually had the world’s best research and technology in the field of microbiology.

I think there are some pretty good examples. The soviets made great achievements in spaceflight and nuclear energy research in spite of having terrible economic and social policies. The Mayans had sophisticated astronomical calendars but they also practiced human sacrifice and never invented the wheel.

If the theory is true, then the fact that the US still seems innovative in CS-related fields is probably a transient anomaly.

I doubt it, but even if true it doesn’t save us, since plenty of other countries could develop AGI.

knb May 5, 2016, 3:03 PM
7 points
in reply to: halcyon’s comment on: Open Thread May 2 - May 8, 2016
Seems like you’re just falling for partisan media histrionics and conflating a lot of different things out of context.

On Fox News, Trump said that regarding Muslims in the US, he would do “unthinkable” things, “and certain things will be done that we never thought would happen in this country”.

In context, Trump is giving a tough-sounding but vague and non-committal response to questions about whether there should be a digital database of Muslims in the country. He later partially walked this back, saying it was a leading question from a reporter and he meant we should have terrorism watch lists. Which obviously already exist.

I’ve read Cory Doctorow’s Little Brother, and this might be a generalization from fictional evidence, but I can’t help asking: As a foreign student in the US, how likely is Trump to have me tortured for no reason?

I’d say it’s about as likely as you giving yourself a heart attack reading political outrage porn.

knb May 4, 2016, 9:46 PM
7 points
in reply to: Daniel_Burfoot’s comment on: Open Thread May 2 - May 8, 2016

It’s not that I think AI is spectacularly hard, I just don’t think we can do Hard Things anymore.

I’m sympathetic to the idea that we can’t do Hard Things, at least in the US and much of the rest of the West. Unfortunately progress in AI seems like the kind of Hard Thing that still is possible. Stagnation has hit atoms, not bits. There does seem to be a consensus that AI is not a stagnant field at all, but rather one that is consistently progressing.

knb May 4, 2016, 4:13 AM
3 points
in reply to: [deleted]’s comment on: Open Thread May 2 - May 8, 2016

The World Coal Associationis non-profit so perhaps we shouldn’t fetishise the term non-profit, or the term coal?

I couldn’t parse this. What do you mean?

knb May 2, 2016, 10:51 AM
2 points
on: Open Thread May 2 - May 8, 2016
BBC News is running a story claiming that the creator of Bitcoin known as Satoshi Nakamoto is an Australian named Craig Wright.

knb Apr 28, 2016, 11:04 PM
2 points
on: Positivity Thread :)
I found this to be a cheerful video, about people working on fusion. (It’s a promo, so dark arts warning applies.)

knb Apr 28, 2016, 10:55 PM
4 points
in reply to: username2’s comment on: Open Thread April 25 - May 1, 2016

Downvote thumb is not for disagreements, it’s for comments that don’t add anything to the discussion.

Who says?

knb Apr 25, 2016, 7:47 AM
0 points
in reply to: Gleb_Tsipursky’s comment on: [Link] Salon piece analyzing Donald Trump’s appeal using rationality
Or maybe he was referencing how the Poles’ polls are indeed very anti-immigration. ;-)

knb Apr 20, 2016, 12:30 AM
4 points
on: Open thread, Apr. 18 - Apr. 24, 2016
Looks like Andrea Rossi’s E-Cat cold fusion scam is finally reaching its end-phase. Some previous LW discussion here, here and here.

knb Apr 17, 2016, 11:46 PM
0 points
in reply to: Viliam’s comment on: Open Thread April 11 - April 17, 2016
The photos you selected look more like the “hate” microexpression from your link. Also, why is Anna Kendrick considered an SJW?

knb Apr 17, 2016, 11:36 PM
0 points
in reply to: DanielDeRossi’s comment on: Open Thread April 11 - April 17, 2016
Actuaries are consistently near the top in terms of job satisfaction, enjoy stable employment, and make a good amount of money (I believe low six-figure is common.). Other advantages are high income you often don’t need a degree in the field as long as you can pass the rigorous licensing tests. However it does require a lot of specific knowledge and good mathematical ability.

knb Apr 15, 2016, 1:46 AM
1 point
in reply to: cousin_it’s comment on: Open Thread April 11 - April 17, 2016
V arire tbg gur vzcerffvba gung UCZBE jnf nobhg pbzvat hc jvgu engvbanyvmngvbaf sbe gur fvyyl zntvp ehyrf WX Ebjyvat vairagrq sbe n puvyqera’f fgbel. Vg jnf nobhg cebzbgvat Lhqxbjfxl’f vqrnf nobhg engvbanyvgl naq nagv-qrnguvfz hfvat gur Uneel Cbggre jbeyq nf n pbairavrag ubbx.