Hello! Please note that I will be giving a class called the Bayesics in Eigen hall at 7:30. Heard of Bayes’s theorem but don’t fully understand what the fuss is about? Want to have an intuitive as well as formal understanding of what the Bayesian framework is? Want to learn how to do bayesian updates in your head? Come and learn the Bayesics.
Ronny Fernandez
Karma: 1,333
Lighthaven Sequences Reading Group #5 (Tuesday 10/08)
Also, please note that I will be giving a class at 7:30 after the reading group called “The Bayesics” where I will teach you the basics of intuitive Bayesian epistemology and how to do Bayesian updates irl on the fly as a human. All attending the reading group are welcome to join for that as well.
Lighthaven Sequences Reading Group #4 (Tuesday 10/01)
Lighthaven Sequences Reading Group #2 (Tuesday 09/17)
First Lighthaven Sequences Reading Group
I think you should still write it. I’d be happy to post it instead or bet with you on whether it ends up negative karma if you let me read it first.
AN APOLOGY ON BEHALF OF FOOLS FOR THE DETAIL ORIENTED
Misfits, hooligans, and rabble rousers.
Provocateurs and folk who don’t wear trousers.
These are my allies and my constituents.
Weak in number yet suffused with arcane power.
I would never condone bullying in my administration.
It is true we are at times moved by unkind motivations.
But without us the pearl clutchers, hard asses, and busy bees would overrun you.
You would lose an inch of slack per generation.
Many among us appreciate your precision.
I admit there are also those who look upon it with derision.
Remember though that there are worse fates than being pranked.
You might instead have to watch your friend be “reeducated”, degraded, and spanked
On high broadband public broadcast television.
We’re not so different really.
We often share your indignation
With those who despise copulation.
Although our alliance might be uneasy
We both oppose the soul’s ablation.
So let us join as cats and dogs, paw in paw
You will persistently catalog
And we will joyously gnaw.
Hey, I’m just some guy but I’ve been around for a while. I want to give you a piece of feedback that I got way back in 2009 which I am worried no one has given you. In 2009 I found lesswrong, and I really liked it, but I got downvoted a lot and people were like “hey, your comments and posts kinda suck”. They said, although not in so many words, that basically I should try reading the sequences closely with some fair amount of reverence or something.
I did that, and it basically worked, in that I think I really did internalize a lot of the values/tastes/habits that I cared about learning from lesswrong, and learned much more so how to live in accordance with them. Now I think there were some sad things about this, in that I sort of accidentally killed some parts of the animal that I am, and it made me a bit less kind in some ways to people who were very different from me, but I am overall glad I did it. So, maybe you want to try that? Totally fair if you don’t, definitely not costless, but I am glad that I did it to myself overall.
I didn’t figure out that the “bow” in “rainbow” referred to a bow like as in bow and arrow, and not a bow like a bow on a frilly dress, until five minutes ago. I was really pretty confused about this since I was like 8. Somebody could’ve explained but nobody did.
Ronny Fernandez’s Shortform
I want to note for posterity that I tried to write this reading list somewhat impartially. That is, I have a lot of takes about a lot of this stuff, and I tried to include a lot of material that I disagree with but which I have found helpful in some way or other. I also included things that people I trust have found helpful even if I personally never found it helpful.
I believe there isn’t really a deadline! You just buy tickets and then you can come. Tickets might sellout is the limiting factor.
MATS AI Safety Strategy Curriculum
In retrospect I think the above was insufficiently cooperative. Sorry,
To be clear, I did not think we were discussing the AI optimist post. I don’t think Nate thought that. I thought we were discussing reasons I changed my mind a fair bit after talking to Quintin.
I meant the reasonable thing other people knew I meant and not the deranged thing you thought I might’ve meant.
Hello, last time a taught a class on the basics of Bayesian epistemology. This time I will teach a class that goes a bit further. I will explain what a proper scoring rule is and we will also do some calibration training. In particular, we will play a calibration training game called two lies, a truth, and a probability. I will do this at 7:30 the same place as last time. Come by to check it out.