Measure

Karma: 1,757

Measure 22 Apr 2026 14:52 UTC
3 points
0
in reply to: Mateusz Bagiński’s comment on: Mateusz Bagiński’s Shortform
I think what this is saying is that an agent doesn’t need to be able to reflect on its goals and decide that they’re the “right” ones in order to be capable/dangerous. It just has to be the sort of agent that pursues those goals. Stockfish will beat you without believing that it “ought” to play to win.

Measure 22 Apr 2026 13:19 UTC
2 points
0
in reply to: Ruby’s comment on: Posts I don’t have time to write
From Scott Alexander’s recent post (13: Runway):

Your audience chose to read you for some reason. Maybe you had a catchy title. Maybe someone they liked recommended you. Maybe the algorithm placed your post in front of their eyes while they sat there drooling and immobile. They had some hope that reading you would be mildly more interesting than the alternative. That’s your runway. It will last a few sentences to a few paragraphs before they drift off. Don’t waste your first few paragraphs defining something everyone already knows the definition of, or telling a rambling story about why you decided to write this.

Measure 21 Apr 2026 12:25 UTC
2 points
0
in reply to: Canaletto’s comment on: Higher Dimensional Spheres are not spiky
Yeah, if you’re small enough compared to the surface, they’re both flat. In the intermediate regime where r < R but not r << R, the second-order effects of the sphere matter and give you the needle effect whereas the cube pushes all those effects into the edges and corners, so the faces still look flat at intermediate scales.

Measure 20 Apr 2026 18:39 UTC
2 points
0
in reply to: Canaletto’s comment on: Higher Dimensional Spheres are not spiky
The needle effect occurs because there’s more volume just above the surface than just below it.

EDIT: If you imagine expanding the large sphere slightly to encompass the entire small sphere, most of the volume of the new large sphere will be outside of the original large sphere.

Measure 20 Apr 2026 13:47 UTC
2 points
0
in reply to: Canaletto’s comment on: Higher Dimensional Spheres are not spiky
I think this is another way of saying that almost all of the volume of a high-dimensional sphere is at the outer surface.

Measure 17 Apr 2026 11:49 UTC
4 points
2
on: What does status signalling do? When successful, what does it achieve?
People naturally feel a desire to do nice things for people who they perceive as high status. This is because people with lots of money/power/influence have an outsized ability to influence you (for good or bad), so it’s often worthwhile to be in their good graces. This means it’s good to be high-status for the benefits of people treating you better (and if you’re high-status, then there’s a second-order effect from your friends being high-status). Some people seek status instrumentally in this way, but it’s also a feel-good in the same way as food or sex or comfort, so people also seek status just because it feels good.

Status signaling is somewhat different from other kinds of signaling since people’s perception of your status is in itself a form of status.

Measure 15 Apr 2026 19:37 UTC
21 points
0
in reply to: Shankar Sivarajan’s comment on: Mikhail Samin’s Shortform
For further context, EY’s recent post contains this explanation:

So I am misquoted (that is, they fabricate a quote I did not say, which is to say, they lie) as calling for “b*mbing datacenters”, two words I did not utter. In the first 2023 proposal in TIME magazine, I wrote the words “be willing to destroy a rogue datacenter by airstrike”. I was only given one day by TIME to write it—otherwise it wouldn’t have been ‘topical’—but I had thought I was saying that part quite carefully. Even quoted out of context, I thought, this ought to make very clear that I was talking about state-sanctioned use of force to preserve a previously successful ban from disruption. And absolutely not some guy with a truck bomb, attacking one datacenter in their personal country while all the other datacenters kept running.

Measure 14 Apr 2026 15:01 UTC
3 points
0
in reply to: bhauth’s comment on: Political Violence Is Never Acceptable
Was throwing tea in the harbor violence, or did the violence start later?

Measure 14 Apr 2026 14:48 UTC
2 points
0
in reply to: romeostevensit’s comment on: Political Violence Is Never Acceptable
This is giving a 502 server error.

Measure 13 Apr 2026 21:40 UTC
2 points
0
in reply to: romeostevensit’s comment on: Political Violence Is Never Acceptable
I’m not sure if this is meant to be a critique of the post. Do you have an example of when an inviolable hard line against political violence exposes one to attack?

Measure 7 Apr 2026 19:23 UTC
2 points
0
in reply to: Oleander’s comment on: My Ethics
Would you say that a universe with a single person who lives 1 year in happiness is equally as valuable as one in which a single person lives 1000 years in happiness?

Measure 7 Apr 2026 12:58 UTC
3 points
0
in reply to: Oleander’s comment on: My Ethics
That would be bad if for no other reason then for the opportunity cost of the lost future value of the solar system.

(although I agree that it is unnecessary to add the death-is-bad axiom, since in this case, pleasure-is-good does the work)

Measure 6 Apr 2026 13:06 UTC
2 points
0
in reply to: leogao’s comment on: Positive sum doesn’t mean “win-win”
In the racing companies example, there is no coercion involved, but the imperfect information element still allows for a positive-sum-with-losers outcome.

Measure 26 Mar 2026 21:10 UTC
4 points
2
on: Resolving the Surprise Test Paradox
Suppose on each day the student rules out all subsequent days, concluding that the test must be today since that’s the only day left, but stops reasoning there and goes to class having “proven” that there will be a test that day.

Measure 24 Mar 2026 19:31 UTC
2 points
0
in reply to: Tom Lieberum’s comment on: leogao’s Shortform
Same here. The strategy with these is start full-hot to bring the hot water to the shower quickest, then back off a bit to an appropriate temperature. In my experience, this is a pretty consistent position and not hard to get right first try.

Measure 16 Mar 2026 13:18 UTC
2 points
0
on: Bridge Thinking and Wall Thinking
An alternative to the bridge analogy would be a wall that doesn’t fully enclose your velociraptor exhibit. Until the gaps are closed, building the wall higher is fence-post security.

Measure 12 Mar 2026 14:31 UTC
5 points
0
on: Magic Is Hidden Control of Energy
I like this lens. I’m not sure if I have anything useful to say about your posts, but I enjoyed reading them.

Measure 11 Mar 2026 19:56 UTC
6 points
0
on: D&D.Sci Release Day: Topple the Tower!
My choice for the main map:

Class: Warrior
Path: LLRRRLLR (the single-enemy path)

My reasoning:

A Warrior with at least a Shield and only one previous encounter beats The Collector 100% of the time (135/135 in the dataset).

My choice for the bonus map:

Class: Warrior
Path: RRRLLLLR (pick up the Armor, Shield, and Powder)

My reasoning:

Armor and Shield are both pretty effective for the Warrior, and the fewer Enemy encounters seems to be better.
I’m a bit worried that this is too simplistic, but the only other path that makes sense doesn’t seem to be quite as good for any of the classes. There may be some additional synergy between the Armor and Shield beyond their individual synergy with the Warrior class.

Measure 10 Mar 2026 13:32 UTC
2 points
0
on: Contra Myself on Free Will
so there is no deterrence value in publicly prosecuting her
It doesn’t have to deter her. It’s following through on your threat to show others that you’re the sort of person/government/society that follows through on your threats.

Measure 5 Mar 2026 19:46 UTC
2 points
0
in reply to: 849’s comment on: Rational Chess
Does this work?
1. Player 1 makes a move for White.
2. Player 2 has option to switch colors
3. Black player makes a move
4. White player has option to switch colors
5. Play continues with White’s 2nd move as normal Armageddon.