Continuations - Latest Comments

Re: A Brief History of Disruption: Classified Ads

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Re: We Need Actually Open AI Now More than Ever (Or: Why Leopold Aschenbrenner is Dangerously Wrong)

Mats Henricson — Wed, 18 Sep 2024 13:44:48 -0000

Something I wish you'd talk about is the case where, for example, a whacko religious sect that wants to end the world asks its AI "Please suggest a lethal virus we could unleash that would spawn new ever more virulent and lethal variants at record speed, and make it very difficult to design vaccines against it".

Even if we had our own AI to help us, in the end we'd fight against biology.

Re: Moderation in Social Networks

Philip Sheldrake — Sun, 01 Sep 2024 09:27:30 -0000

I researched moderating as a subset of designing decentralized social networking under the auspices of the AKASHA Foundation. It dawned on me during those four years that both were subsets of designing for the digital mediation and augmentation of human identity.

But first, I’m necessarily a sucker for the definition of terms:

Moderating — the subset of governing that structures participation in a community to facilitate cooperation and prevent abuse; conversation about the conversation. (Grimmelmann 2015)

Governing — determining authority, decision-making, and accountability in the process of organizing; conversation about the conversation about the conversation. (Institute on Governance)

Politics — the activities of governance.

Moderating is then political and so plurality is then imperative.

I explored four myths and eight goals of moderating in one particular blog post, and I will touch on one of each here that relate most strongly to your post Albert.

The myth: moderation is done by moderators. If a community member is active, she is moderating. In other words, she is helping to maintain and evolve the social norms governing participation. As a general rule of thumb, the more we can empower participants to offer appropriate positive and negative feedback, the more appropriately we can divine an aggregate and contextual consequence.

The goal: the people and moderating processes involved must produce a requisite complexity.

The connection to identity then may seem obvious in a mechanical way, but that’s deeply misleading. If it’s mechanical, it’s reductive, and if it’s reductive, it definitionally lacks the requisite complexity. Dystopian outcomes await.

Human identity and relationships and information exchange are co-constitutive and reciprocally defining. Relationships are immanent in information exchange; identity is immanent in relationships; and identity modulates the information exchange.

Until we integrate such insights as this from the social sciences, digital identity will continue to look and act very differently to human identity. And the corresponding pain can only grow.

My teammates and I describe where we need to go from here at https://addresso.com . In your words Albert, it's big and bold.

Re: Moderation in Social Networks

Romain Lacombe — Sat, 31 Aug 2024 20:30:08 -0000

An important point that is lost in this post (and in the commentary on Telegram): Pavel Durov's arrest has nothing to do with free speech or censorship -- nor, actually, with failure to comply with requests for moderation: he was arrested as a suspected accomplice to distributing CSAM and financing organized crime.

The judge leading the investigation did rule to arrest him due in part to the egregious lack of moderation on Telegram. But that is only a symptom of the problem, along with broad and repeated failure to comply with KYC laws (to identify th0se responsible for said CSAM content and organized crime).

Think of it this way: if a bank egregiously and repeatedly failed to comply with KYC regulations so that it enabled the financing of organized crime, terrorism, or child trafficking, regulators would shut it down immediately. No free speech advocate would bat an eye.

Re: Moderation in Social Networks

Pedro Jardim — Sat, 31 Aug 2024 18:14:36 -0000

Thanks, Albert,
for your insightful reflections. There needs to be more dialogue on how we can create better systems. In my view, direct communication between participants or small groups is one thing, but the dynamics shift significantly when dealing with one-to-many relationships. In such cases, it's challenging to establish constructive limits.

Take, for example, Durov's situation, where he's being accused of issues related to cryptography. This clearly exceeds the boundaries of where government control should intervene. Governments, like any institution, have a tendency to expand their power. Once we allow them to moderate what is considered truth, the potential risks become extremely dangerous.

https://youtu.be/rb3XoHIRk40?si=Xh2Mn97Y-xH4Zl8z

Re: Moderation in Social Networks

William Mougayar — Sat, 31 Aug 2024 14:19:52 -0000

Well said.
How about anonymity or (pseudo-anonymity) as a method of user protection against being targeted in real life? That seems to be an important tool if you're a "good guy" who is revolting against tyrans, abusers or it could be a plain whistle blower going against a bad organization.
We need to also allow those voices to come forward without fear of repercussions.

Re: Lessons from a Voyage

danielbower — Wed, 14 Aug 2024 06:44:19 -0000

I love how many English language idioms come from seafaring. Single handed is a great, and one I’d not come across before. Thanks for sharing.

Re: Changing My Approach to Meetings to Take Back Control of My Attention

slowp — Wed, 14 Aug 2024 06:37:45 -0000

Congrats.

Re: Lessons from a Voyage

William Mougayar — Thu, 08 Aug 2024 20:30:50 -0000

Great recount.
I followed you on the socials, and it brought me back to when we crossed the Mediterranean diagonally on a Dufour Arpège 30 ft back in the day when none of this technology was available. It was a total of 30 days (~ 1,800 nm).
We were at sea at the most for 3 consecutive days, and our instruments were paper maps, compass and binoculars. It was an experience of a lifetime.

Re: The World After Capital: All Editions Go, Including Audio

Luis (Or) Shemtov — Thu, 08 Aug 2024 07:48:08 -0000

Many years ago, 2016 maybe, I fed it though an AI to get myself an audio version. Gonna now re-listen to the final version!

Re: Trump is Unfit to be President

Jonathan Glick — Fri, 02 Aug 2024 11:06:48 -0000

Thanks for this, Albert.

Re: Trump is Unfit to be President

kidmercury — Fri, 02 Aug 2024 10:11:51 -0000

trump 2016 was a different character, he said things i never thought any political character would say. bringing juanita broaddrick on stage with him, saying he would seek to file charges against hillary clinton ("lock her up"), and getting threatened by the RNC that they would cut funds gave some hope.

trump 2020 was mostly just clinging to trump 2016 vibes, as well as the argument that he was the less bad option (it was peak covid lockdown so desperation was higher).

trump 2024 has no inspirational message, aside from right wing tech that wants crypto and surveillance/defense money. they should be careful what they wish for: if trump wins and the peter thiel/founders fund portfolio gets boosted, and there is war with iran....the backlash against tech will be severe. it is already brewing. i think the valley is mostly blind to it.

Re: Trump is Unfit to be President

Keith Teare — Fri, 02 Aug 2024 01:19:37 -0000

(Hear Hear) x (infinity)

Re: Everything Wrong with the Democrats

Pointsandfigures — Sun, 14 Jul 2024 11:18:12 -0000

and I think that after yesterday's assassination attempt on former President Trump, we can talk about a lot wrong with Democrats and the culture inside their party.

Re: Everything Wrong with the Democrats

Pointsandfigures — Fri, 12 Jul 2024 10:33:38 -0000

Before I get accused of being partisan, there is a lot wrong with Republicans too! But, if we look to first principles that the Founders set down and explained in the Federalist Papers, we find what we all have in common and we can build from there.

Having a huge bureaucracy is anti-democratic. Mileil in Argentina is taking a meat cleaver to theirs with great results.
The Republicans aren't exactly correct on immigration either. Who was? Gary Becker https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXNPxFNWg9g
I am very familiar with Nudge. The concepts work in laboratory type conditions, but not in the wild. Nudge is more like consumer behavior. Nudge is super interesting, but at its extreme it becomes totalitarian. Nudge preys on our own ideas that somehow we know better than the market. Everyone else is irrational right?

Free markets allocate capital better than centralized bureaucracies.

Said in venture terms: Who is a better investor a government agency or a bunch of VC firms that invest based on their own internal ideas even though there is a bunch of firms that will fail?

The bureaucracy cannot tolerate failure. Failure means risk. Taking risk means accepting the consequences for your actions. Bureaucracies don't accept the consequences of their failures.....see the War on Poverty for one example.

Re: Everything Wrong with the Democrats

Pointsandfigures — Fri, 12 Jul 2024 10:25:01 -0000

Been a lot wrong with the Democrats since Woodrow Wilson when it comes to capitalism and freedom..... https://pjmedia.com/kevindowneyjr/2024/07/11/rip-democrat-party-1828-2024-death-by-suicide-n4930587

Re: Everything Wrong with the Democrats

Tony Rifkin — Mon, 08 Jul 2024 14:15:56 -0000

This was a good comeback after your post on May 27 about our descent into the tribalism of “loudest voices”. While you said it’s “everything” wrong with the Dems, I wanted to add one item to your list that I thing should be there too – the tacks taken within education, with greater emphasis being placed on political concerns than the basics themselves... especially reading and writing (though all of STEM too). As while left-leaning moral agendas are being pushed in the public classrooms (which the right then feels they have the right to counter!), the likes of reading is going down the tubes... a very bad thing!

However, there may be a distinct contribution made there by the misuse of technology as well, with students being held accountable for reading smaller and smaller amounts of text, as their devices pull them in that direction. As such, educators have simply been lowering the standards, rather than pulling them in the other direction. Some good efforts are being made to better engage students in the face of that pull, e.g., cases being put on their phones at the beginning of the day and unlocked at the end of the day, at which point the kids start participating in class again, and interacting with each other! But more is needed. And as such, what educators are paying attention to now is a primary concern.

Re: Everything Wrong with the Democrats

kidmercury — Tue, 11 Jun 2024 10:21:08 -0000

neither party seems interested in changing the trajectory, which is obviously on a self-destructive path. no third party option seems to be emerging. fewer people care. i do wonder what self-destruction looks like, and am a little more optimistic we get something like a soft landing (maybe like the 1979 iranian revolution, which was mild as far as how revolutions typically go) given how long we've gone without a truly terrible landing thus far!

so what truly breaks things and leads to a revolution of some kind? three options come to my mind:

1. failed treasury auction, ensuing dollar crisis. still not sure what this actually means for people day to day, but probably some kind of massive decline in public services and a sharp increase in income inequality.
2. some kind of issue with immigration at the border, potentially creating a pretext for a UN takeover. this is probably the far right hypothesis, they've been warning about this since like forever.
3. an overt foreign military attack, maybe something that can be blamed on iran/hamas, which may create the pretext for further US militarization, loss of civil rights at home, violence and destruction in the US, and then some kind of international agreement to make it go away (which may end up re-constituting the USA). i would call this the far left hypothesis.

each option definitely becoming easier to envision! guess we'll find out.....

Re: Web3/Crypto: Why Bother?

Andre Cain — Mon, 10 Jun 2024 02:31:05 -0000

Excellent post, Albert.

Re: I Miss Writing Here

danielbower — Sat, 08 Jun 2024 06:03:01 -0000

…the effort required to maintain internally consistent and intellectually honest positions in such an environment is daunting. And it often seems futile.

This captures a feeling I’ve had but not been able to articulate very well. Pleased to have you back.

Re: Going on a Voyage

Mats Henricson — Thu, 06 Jun 2024 13:00:05 -0000

Wow! I am so envious. My own bucket list voyage trip is to go overland from Stockholm where I live to Japan (well, not overland all the way, but no flying). I have the same problem as you guys, what about the return trip? Are you going to sail your boat back to across the Atlantic, or fly home? I will do my best to go back the same way, since I don't want to fly any more, haven't done it in six years now.

Re: Joseph Tainter: The Collapse of Complex Societies (Book Review)

Paul Sanchez — Sun, 02 Jun 2024 14:50:23 -0000

That's right, The Anasazi ruins in Chaco Canyon. We and other scientists had to read this book in the 1990's to make assumptions about the future in which we bury and forget about the nuclear waste buried in an engineered repository. Anyway, living in New Mexico you would read descriptions like the The Anasazi just disappeared. As described in the book, the pueblo indian tribes along the Rio Grande river and Northwest New Mexico ARE THE ANASAZI. They broke up into separate tribes - not the connected network of the Anasazi - but the remnants adapted to they arrival of the Spanish, the the United States. The Roman civilization's gifts reverberate today but of course Italy is a nation-state, a relatively new phenomenon ( i.e., 500 years old).

Re: I Miss Writing Here

Mats Henricson — Sat, 01 Jun 2024 14:54:05 -0000

Welcome back!

Re: I Miss Writing Here

kidmercury — Tue, 28 May 2024 22:58:53 -0000

hey, welcome back albert! i'm glad to hear your fitness routine, we all need to encourage each other in that regard! i was reading the great demographic reversal by charles goodhart, which some hate because it forecasts sustained price inflation and they think that is wrong (i agree the book's take on that is not the best), but the book has a large section on the looming disaster that is mass dementia. if you want to doomscroll on something mass dementia is a good choice! :D but i think exercise is one of the best things society can do to ward off the threat of a dementia epidemic. so keep it up!

and for anyone looking for real information, be sure to check out pallas, the answer engine i built for truthers!

Re: I Miss Writing Here

daryn — Tue, 28 May 2024 10:46:23 -0000

What a pleasant surprise to see this post in my feed reader (do people still use those?) this morning.

The tribalism really is terrible at this point. I hate “keeping quiet” about various topics but it feels like you have two choices these days: fervently wave a flag or face dissection from both “sides” as they try to bucket you and treat any high rung thinking as sign that you may be an enemy and must be taken down.

On the personal side, hope everything is on the up; wishing you a safe and smooth expedition across the Atlantic!