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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 11/13/23 12:06 PM, glen wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:757bfd17-0ed6-4033-96ae-68fbfda8d811@gmail.com">You
might want to check the Gurometer. Lex has an entry:
<br>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Oe-af4_OmzLJavktcSKGfP0wmxCX0ppP8n_Tvi9l_yc/edit?usp=sharing">https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Oe-af4_OmzLJavktcSKGfP0wmxCX0ppP8n_Tvi9l_yc/edit?usp=sharing</a>
<br>
<br>
While Lex's scores are relatively low compared to some of the
wackos on the list, we are known by association. And many of Lex's
guests score relatively high.
<br>
</blockquote>
<p>Fascinating resource, thanks! You are a veritable font (fount)
of things like this that I should probably be able to find for
myself.<br>
</p>
<p>I had to look a little to find a key to the columns of the
table, I don't know if this is the preferred or only one, but it
seemed close enough to be useful for my purposes:</p>
<blockquote>
<p><a href="https://techhenzy.com/gurometer/"
class="moz-txt-link-freetext">https://techhenzy.com/gurometer/</a></p>
</blockquote>
<p>I haven't listened to enough of Lex's podcasts (did I mention 1-2
hours each?!) to be able to evaluate what his "coupling" is with
his guests... even without the GuruMeter I felt that theme ("known
by association") from the more prominent/recent interviewees he
has engaged... but my contingent judgement of the *content* and
*style* of the interviews counterbalanced that almost to an
extreme. Which is why I brought it up here.</p>
<p>Implicit but likely opaque/arcane to your own references to
community (self) policing and ?agonism?, I feel (with limited
experience so far) that Fridman may well provide a regulating role
within some community (of Galaxy-Brain Gurus?)...</p>
<p>I doubt I will get the 'round t'uits but it seems like there is a
tensor product to be explored among these folks and their various
interactions with one another... something interesting might
emerge? Maybe this only occurs to me because Lex is more of a
coupling agent than a primary source of any
ideas/theories/positions from what I've seen so far. I haven't
investigated the GuruMeter guys enough to understand their methods
but I take it for granted they are not unserious in this work.<br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:757bfd17-0ed6-4033-96ae-68fbfda8d811@gmail.com">
<br>
On 11/13/23 10:08, Steve Smith wrote:
<br>
<blockquote type="cite">It seems (maybe only to me?) that "will"
is what defines the intersection of memory and imagination?
The free-will-less-ness-ers among us (ala Sopolsky
<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/oct/24/determined-life-without-free-will-by-robert-sapolsky-review-the-hard-science-of-decisions"><https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/oct/24/determined-life-without-free-will-by-robert-sapolsky-review-the-hard-science-of-decisions></a>)
may find this an entirely specious thing to consider or discuss
(though without free will, what means "specious" or "discuss" or
"consider" sans free-will?).
<br>
<br>
I recently discovered Lex Fridman's podcasts
<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="https://lexfridman.com/podcast/"><https://lexfridman.com/podcast/></a> and was quite surprised
by several things (albeit with very limited sampling... all of
his most recent interview with Musk and a bit of his interview
with Isaacson and about half of the Harari one): I don't
significantly disagree with the general mistrust of Musk in his
Autistic-ish style and affect, but I'd say that Lex brings out
the best in him, showing him to be capable of thoughtful and
even empathetic-ish observations. As I understand it (from my
reading of Isaacson's biography of Musk) brother Kimball may
also be a significantly similar "regulating influence" on
Elon. Grimes maybe, maybe not. The other mothers of his
children, same-same... probably each and all of them for a
period of time or within certain frameworks. And again, same
with the children... though maybe projection on my part having
been moderately well-regulated in several modes by my own
children during each of their phases (right up to their current
middle-agedness).
<br>
<br>
As an aside, Fridman's other interviews also all sound
potentially fascinating... though I cringe at the fact/thought
of interviews with Netanyahu, KanYE, Kushner, Rogan... the
commentary I've read around those interviews tends to skew
toward "how could you normalize (amplify?) those A**holes by
even giving them the time of the day???!!!?". Lex's interviews
are definitely long-form (1-2 hours) compared to today's
tik-tok/ad-jingle/bumper-sticker/snark-pith calibrated
sound-bitery. I find myself avoiding them for this reason
(not wanting to commit to listening past some of my own
prejudices long enough to hear what they are really about?) but
recognize (and have already begun to practice) that as with
long-form written journalism, I can take it in bits, like I
might eat a rich holiday meal... not try to gulp it down quickly
in one sitting like a TV-dinner (for you X-ers, "Hot-Pocket",
and Millenials == "??") for the mind.
<br>
<br>
My recent fascination with Deacon's "Teleodynamics", Jeff
Hawkins' take on the structure/function of the neocortex and Ian
McGilchrist's updated take on brain bicameralism (Master and
Emissary
<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Master_and_His_Emissary"><https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Master_and_His_Emissary></a>)
feeds into this question of the intersection of memory and
imagination and the implications of Transformer Models and other
Generative Models in general. My direct experience with GPT-4
and DALL-E is significant (many 10s of hours of engagement) but
still a drop in the bucket. There are times when I feel that
all I've done is engaged with an incredibly high-dimensional
french-curve/bezier spline and thereby been able to smoothly
interpolate/extrapolate a handful of interesting (to me) data
points into what feels like a powerful elaboration of what is
implied by said curve-fit in the past (unknown knowns?) and
future (unknown unknowns)? When I'm not totally enraptured by
the (apparent?) novelty (relative to my
expectations/predictions) of it's responses I'm generally
disappointed at it's limited creativity... and left puzzling
over the question of "novelty vs creativity".
<br>
<br>
Bumble,
<br>
<br>
- Steve
<br>
<br>
On 11/13/23 10:27 AM, Marcus Daniels wrote:
<br>
<blockquote type="cite">It seems to me that neither Musk and
Thiel are interested in the unknown. They are interested in
doing things they can already imagine. For Musk I thought
that was because it is how he raises money. Now I think he
is not imagining consciousness in a, say, a transporter
pattern buffer, he imagines life on the Enterprise bridge in
his body. Rockets are comparatively science fictiony for
people that can't imagine transport without a car, so he gets
some points for that.
<br>
<blockquote type="cite">On Nov 13, 2023, at 10:11 AM,
glen<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:gepropella@gmail.com"><gepropella@gmail.com></a> wrote:
<br>
<br>
There's an interesting parallel between the Stross and
Gellman pieces: Stross both laments and implicitly
appreciates the bureaucracy of getting a book published,
where Thiel's aggrieved by the bureaucracy of societal
evolution.
<br>
<br>
It reminds me of the engineering-vs-biology dichotomy (yes,
false, like all of them) I came to appreciate after being
exposed to enough biomimetics (to kill a horse). Some of us
see the world and think about how to change it, build a
better world ... or perhaps destroy the world, whatever
floats your inner engineer. And some of us see the world and
are awestruck, hypnotized, baffled by its qualities (whether
beautiful or horrifying). It's easy to give the latter a
pass and denigrate the former when confronted with, say,
butterflies or the Grand Canyon. And it's easy to give the
former a pass when confronted with poverty and war.
<br>
<br>
But the next time you're at the DMV or arguing with some
poor sucker manning the phones at the IRS, it can be useful
to remember the falseness of the dichtomy. Similarly, when
all you want to do is sleep under the stars and those damned
gnats keep homing into your ears, it can be useful to think
like an engineer.
<br>
<br>
Policy and science fiction aren't that far apart.
<br>
<br>
<blockquote type="cite">On 11/10/23 13:46, Marcus Daniels
wrote:
<br>
original.png
<br>
Peter Thiel Is Taking a Break From
Democracy<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2023/11/peter-thiel-2024-election-politics-investing-life-views/675946/?utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share"><https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2023/11/peter-thiel-2024-election-politics-investing-life-views/675946/?utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share></a><br>
On 11/10/23 11:26, Roger Critchlow wrote:
<br>
Text of Charlie Stross' talk to Next Frontiers Applied
Fiction Day in Stuttgart on Friday November 10th, 2023,
concerning where the techno-industrial elite found their
horrible philosophies/secular religions.
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2023/11/dont-create-the-torment-nexus.html">https://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2023/11/dont-create-the-torment-nexus.html</a>
<br>
</blockquote>
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