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# The most important step
I have a penchant for the stories of the old, in the era before the Bayesian Enlightment and before the Singers and Cantors surfaced, the days when the students of the Art of Rationality met underground, away from prying eyes.
Without the Sacred Texts to guide them, the disciples of Rational... | https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/wd6cug64wsMnPc2eg/the-most-important-step |
# Diffusing "I can't be that stupid"
Why does it hurt so much when I think that people I care about are very wrong about something I think is important? If I'm talking with someone I'm not super close with, I'm usually very capable of not getting emotional or riled up when we find important disagreements.
After some ... | https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/46AYQEmyCSED8NM7a/diffusing-i-can-t-be-that-stupid |
# The Art of the Artificial: Insights from 'Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach'
<refresh to render LaTeX>
Foreword
========
One of the fruits of growing older is revisiting your old favorites, whether they be foods, books, or songs. As you take your warm, rose-tinted mental bath, you appreciate subtleties wh... | https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/usEZRkMPJBr534vto/the-art-of-the-artificial-insights-from-artificial |
# My Thoughts on Takeoff Speeds
_Epistemic Status: Spent a while thinking about one subset of the arguments in this debate. My thoughts here might be based on misunderstanding the details of the arguments, if so, I apologize._
There is a debate going on within the AI risk community about whether or not we will se... | https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/LaT6rexiNx6MW74Fn/my-thoughts-on-takeoff-speeds |
# Non-Adversarial Goodhart and AI Risks
In a [recent paper](https://arxiv.org/abs/1803.04585) by Scott Garrabrant and myself, we formalized and extended the categories [Scott proposed](https://www.lesserwrong.com/posts/EbFABnst8LsidYs5Y/goodhart-taxonomy) for Goodhart-like phenomena. (If you haven't read either his po... | https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/iK2F9QDZvwWinsBYB/non-adversarial-goodhart-and-ai-risks |
# GreaterWrong—several new features & enhancements
_(I hope it’s acceptable to post this in the Meta section; if not, the mods can move it to my personal blog.)_
[GreaterWrong.com](https://www.greaterwrong.com/) (which is an [alternative way to browse the new LessWrong](https://www.lesserwrong.com/posts/66DXhQJyPEJNs... | https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/43a8x6g2nKkxHXG4v/greaterwrong-several-new-features-and-enhancements |
# Problems with Amplification/Distillation
This post presents my criticisms of Paul Christiano’s Amplification and Distillation framework. I’ll be basing my understanding of Paul’s method mainly on [this post](https://ai-alignment.com/iterated-distillation-and-amplification-157debfd1616). **EDIT**: Recently added [thi... | https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/ZyyMPXY27TTxKsR5X/problems-with-amplification-distillation |
# The master skill of matching map and territory
Robin Hanson tells us to have fewer opinions on things, to specialize and be agnostic about everything outside your field of expertise. This may be good advice, but most of us won't take it. We're too obsessed with being right about stuff, including things we didn't stu... | https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/eaoRsrocxTomzPd7L/the-master-skill-of-matching-map-and-territory |
# Evaluating Existing Approaches to AGI Alignment
My read of the AI safety space is that there are currently two major approaches to AGI alignment being researched: agent foundations and agent training. We can contrast them in part by saying the ultimate goal of the agent foundations program is to figure out how to ma... | https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/RMhs2fXtK5hLAjDQv/evaluating-existing-approaches-to-agi-alignment |
# Learn Bayes Nets!
It recently occurred to me that there are a lot of people in the rationalist community who want to deeply absorb intuitions about how Bayes' theorem works and how to think with it in practice, who have not been specifically told that learning inference algorithms for Bayesian networks is one of the... | https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/tp4rEtQqRshPavZsr/learn-bayes-nets |
# The fundamental complementarity of consciousness and work
Matter can experience things. For instance, when it is a person. Matter can also do work, and thereby provide value to the matter that can experience things. For instance, when it is a machine. Or also, when it is a person.
An important question for what the... | https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/vaTYCCEgSp2YvMBBg/the-fundamental-complementarity-of-consciousness-and-work |
# Karnofsky on forecasting and what science does
\[...\]
**Holden Karnofsky**: I think a decent counterpoint to this \[project of predicting future AI progress\] is like, "Look. You can do all the work you want and try and understand the brain. It is not possible to predict the future 20 years out. No one’s ever done... | https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/FhmWKE77qCPWJ63Y5/karnofsky-on-forecasting-and-what-science-does |
# 'Trivial Inconvenience Day' Retrospective
Introduction
------------
Shortly after reading Scott Alexander's [LessWrong Crypto Autopsy](https://www.lesserwrong.com/posts/MajyZJrsf8fAywWgY/a-lesswrong-crypto-autopsy) I found myself agreeing with the point _so strongly_ I was brainstorming ways that its dismal outcome... | https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/9GX49j5DMtasxTbwd/trivial-inconvenience-day-retrospective |
# Open-Category Classification
Introduction
------------
> If I present you with five examples of burritos, I don’t want you to pursue the _simplest_ way of classifying burritos versus non-burritos. I want you to come up with a way of classifying the five burritos and none of the non-burritos that **covers as lit... | https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/txGJZAPjraYEQfHq2/open-category-classification |
# Hufflepuff Cynicism on Hypocrisy
_Epistemic Status: I've been thinking about this for a number of years, looking for steelmen of the position against hypocrisy. I haven't found anything satisfying yet, but maybe you can tell me why hypocrisy is actually bad? Barring that, I'm rather confident in the view expressed h... | https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/HXHCxhehvS9sWxQ8u/hufflepuff-cynicism-on-hypocrisy |
# Charting Deaths: Reality vs Reported
Some of you may recall an iconic study Yudkowsky references in his [Availability](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/R8cpqD3NA4rZxRdQ4/availability) essay, where Combs and Slovic looked at the different ways people died and newspaper reporting to see if they were proportional.
For ... | https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/wfjdxAmCCLiEPJPgx/charting-deaths-reality-vs-reported |
# Resolving human values, completely and adequately
[In](https://www.lesserwrong.com/posts/meG3Pai2YeRYcwPwS/beyond-algorithmic-equivalence-algorithmic-noise) [previous](https://www.lesserwrong.com/posts/kmLP3bTnBhc22DnqY/beyond-algorithmic-equivalence-self-modelling) [posts](https://www.lesserwrong.com/posts/pQz97SLC... | https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/Y2LhX3925RodndwpC/resolving-human-values-completely-and-adequately |
# Rationalist Lent is over
[Rationalist Lent is over](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/KZ47RTGvgpH3PhiFR/rationalist-lent). How did it go for everyone? Did you learn anything about yourself / superstimuli / pica / etc.?
I had a pretty good time giving up porn, which I stuck to. I also masturbated much more sparingly, ... | https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/NwCpuMu3SwhLvrcCx/rationalist-lent-is-over |
# Reward hacking and Goodhart’s law by evolutionary algorithms
Nice collection of anecdotes from the Evolutionary Computation and Artificial Life research communities about evolutionary algorithms subverting researchers intentions, exposing unrecognized bugs in their code, producing unexpected adaptations, or exhibiti... | https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/CbQBJaZCrGMJEBz8g/reward-hacking-and-goodhart-s-law-by-evolutionary-algorithms |
# The Eternal Grind
Previously: [Eternal, and Hearthstone Economy versus Magic Economy](https://thezvi.wordpress.com/2018/02/10/eternal-and-hearthstone-economy-versus-magic-economy/), [Categories of Sacredness](https://thezvi.wordpress.com/2018/02/27/categories-of-sacredness/), [Sacred Cash](https://thezvi.wordpress.c... | https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/xPgNZrccQ6Keqpft7/the-eternal-grind |
# Reducing Agents: When abstractions break
_Epistemic Effort: A month of dwelling on this idea, 12-16 hours of writing to explore the idea, and 2-5 hours rereading old LW stuff._
In the past few months, I’ve been noticing more things that lead me to believe there’s something incomplete about how I think about beliefs... | https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/fgNtucxwqa7Sa9kKG/reducing-agents-when-abstractions-break |
# Nice Things
Previously (not required): [What Is Rationalist Berkeley’s Community Culture?](https://thezvi.wordpress.com/2017/08/12/what-is-rationalist-berkleys-community-culture/)
Response to (at Otium, highly recommended): [Naming the Nameless](https://srconstantin.wordpress.com/2018/03/22/naming-the-nameless/)
T... | https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/dFinc8FrfueBX2sf5/nice-things |
# Opportunities for individual donors in AI safety
Tl;dr
-----
Over the past few years the availability of funding for AI safety projects has increased significantly. Yet opportunities for individual donors to find high impact grant opportunities remain. In this post I review the recent history of AI safety organizat... | https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/cXbXR7QCqWvmPzjki/opportunities-for-individual-donors-in-ai-safety |
# Harry Potter and the Method of Entropy
I did some [Aversion Factoring](https://radimentary.wordpress.com/2018/02/04/hammertime-day-7-aversion-factoring/) and found that my main aversion to writing math is the terrible LaTeX support on WordPress. For now, I’ll try writing things up offline and posting PDFs.
HPMoE is... | https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/cxHN4r5pZjscTPQBG/harry-potter-and-the-method-of-entropy |
# A Sketch of Good Communication
"Often I compare my own Fermi estimates with those of other people, and that’s sort of cool, but what’s way more interesting is when they share what variables and models they used to get to the estimate."
– Oliver Habryka*, at a model building workshop at FHI in 2016*
* * *
One ques... | https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/yeADMcScw8EW9yxpH/a-sketch-of-good-communication |
# Metaphilosophical competence can't be disentangled from alignment
Having human values is insufficient for alignment
-------------------------------------------------
Suppose there's a button where if you push it and name a human, that human becomes 1,000,000,000,000,000x more powerful. (What I mean by that isn't pr... | https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/CCgvJHpbvc7Lm8ZS8/metaphilosophical-competence-can-t-be-disentangled-from |
# Reframing misaligned AGI's: well-intentioned non-neurotypical assistants
I think when people imagine misaligned AGI's, they tend to imagine a superintelligent agent optimizing for something other than human values (e.g. paperclips, or a generic reward signal), and mentally picture them as adversarial or malevolent. ... | https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/ySSEz5CmSEo6MbokQ/reframing-misaligned-agi-s-well-intentioned-non-neurotypical |
# LW Update 3/31 - Post Highlights and Bug Fixes
In the last few weeks we implemented several bug fixes, including:
* Login form gives more useful error messages
* Fixed most broken post links from the Lesswrong migration. (There are still some issues surrounding linked comments, and old images)
* Notifications... | https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/3P5nMNs7g88NiqA5T/lw-update-3-31-post-highlights-and-bug-fixes |
# Corrigible but misaligned:
a superintelligent messiah
If we build an AGI, we'd really like it to be [corrigible](https://arbital.com/p/corrigibility/). Some ways Paul Christiano has [described corrigibility](https://ai-alignment.com/corrigibility-3039e668638): "\[The AI should help me\] figure out whether I built ... | https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/mSYR46GZZPMmX7q93/corrigible-but-misaligned-a-superintelligent-messiah |
# My take on agent foundations: formalizing metaphilosophical competence
I have some rough intuitions about the purpose of MIRI's agent foundations agenda, and I'd like to share them here. (Note: I have not discussed these with MIRI, and these should not be taken to be representative of MIRI's views.)
I think there's... | https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/xCpuSfT5Lt6kkR3po/my-take-on-agent-foundations-formalizing-metaphilosophical |
# One-Year Anniversary Retrospective - Los Angeles
In the spirit of previous retrospectives, here's one from Los Angeles.
Last Wednesday, we had our 52nd consecutive meetup. This is noteworthy, I think, for a couple reasons:
* We do weekly rather than the more common bi-weekly or monthly meetups
* We suffered fr... | https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/NwJXtMbr8M8o48p3B/one-year-anniversary-retrospective-los-angeles |
# April Fools: Announcing: Karma 2.0
Ever since we started work on the new LessWrong, improving the karma system has been top priority for us.
We started giving users a higher vote-weight when they themselves had accumulated enough karma, and have plans to implement various more complicated schemes, such as Eigenkarm... | https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/K3qnYdBGjzPiBrPzS/april-fools-announcing-karma-2-0 |
# Announcing Rational Newsletter
Hi,
I noticed in the past there were a few efforts to start a periodic feed with highlights from the rationalist community.
Here's my attempt: [Rational Newsletter](https://rationalnewsletter.com)
It's a weekly recap of the best articles from the rationalist community of LessWrong, ... | https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/GYqTNWqgfvP2PBJh8/announcing-rational-newsletter |
# Global insect declines: Why aren't we all dead yet?
One study on a German nature reserve found insect biomass (e.g., kilograms of insects you’d catch in a net) has declined 75% over the last 27 years. [Here’s a good summary](https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/insect-ldquo-armageddon-rdquo-5-crucial-questions... | https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/KwB9jA9FrsNczWr5F/global-insect-declines-why-aren-t-we-all-dead-yet |
# Can corrigibility be learned safely?
EDIT: Please note that the way I use the word "corrigibility" in this post isn't quite how Paul uses it. See [this thread](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/o22kP33tumooBtia3/can-corrigibility-be-learned-safely#jo2cwbB3WK7KyGjpy) for clarification.
This is mostly a reply to Paul C... | https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/o22kP33tumooBtia3/can-corrigibility-be-learned-safely |
# Internal Diet Crux
Crossposted from [Putanumonit.com](https://putanumonit.com/2018/03/30/internal-diet-crux/).
* * *
**Dieter:** Dude, we’re fat. We should do something about it. Anything at all, really. How about we stop eating refined carbs from animal sources between 2-7:15 pm each day?
**Dad bod:** How about ... | https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/cvzzyKEZg4LRmvooq/internal-diet-crux |
# Why Karma 2.0? (A Kabbalistic Explanation)
It was Easter Sunday, the obvious time to [improve](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/K3qnYdBGjzPiBrPzS/april-fools-announcing-karma-2-0) the karma system.
Why? Well, firstly, why do we even have a karma system? You might think that the obvious explanation is Buddhist karma,... | https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/ac8M88PxYGPD7EA44/why-karma-2-0-a-kabbalistic-explanation |
# Suffering and Intractable Pain
I’ve been [writing](https://mapandterritory.org/formally-stating-the-ai-alignment-problem-fe7a6e3e5991) [a lot](https://mapandterritory.org/ai-alignment-and-phenomenal-consciousness-2ca23de6aebd) [about](https://mapandterritory.org/avoiding-ai-races-through-self-regulation-1b815fca6b06... | https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/5kfbT4N8JEu7ZpCPG/suffering-and-intractable-pain |
# Unyielding Yoda Timers: Taking the Hammertime Final Exam
[The Hammertime Final Exam](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/Q7MsMshzbzhEs729s/hammertime-final-exam)
====================================================================================================
**Difficulty: Vorpal Dragonscale Sledgehammer of the Whal... | https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/pYg6RRBvkcMcsMYLq/unyielding-yoda-timers-taking-the-hammertime-final-exam |
# Specification gaming examples in AI
\[Cross-posted from [personal blog](https://vkrakovna.wordpress.com/2018/04/02/specification-gaming-examples-in-ai/)\]
Various examples (and [lists](https://www.gwern.net/Tanks#alternative-examples) [of](https://www.alexirpan.com/2018/02/14/rl-hard.html) [examples](https://arxiv.... | https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/AanbbjYr5zckMKde7/specification-gaming-examples-in-ai-1 |
# Realistic thought experiments
What if…
…after you died, you would be transported back and forth in time and get to be each of the other people who ever lived, one at a time, but with no recollection of your other lives?
…you had lived your entire life once already, and got to the end and achieved disappointingly f... | https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/GJpkyJhWfBA6FQWBX/realistic-thought-experiments |
# Competition for Power
_This is an excerpt from the draft of_ _[my upcoming book](http://samoburja.com/gft)_ _on great founder theory. It was originally published on SamoBurja.com. You can_ _[access the original here.](http://samoburj... | https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/kcZWKnFPdKJPrFj8H/competition-for-power |
# Death in Groups
What is the value of your life? Not _a_ life, but _your_ life. Would you consider yourself expendable?
The last time I almost died, it was over a missing shotgun. I was in Afghanistan at the time, somewhere closer to the border with Pakistan. The roads are rough, particularly when there aren't any, ... | https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/Lwwygfk45ZCQc8LhX/death-in-groups |
# Adult Neurogenesis – A Pointed Review
*\[I am not a neuroscientist and apologize in advance for any errors in this article.\]*
Hey, let’s review the literature on adult neurogenesis! This’ll be really fun, promise.
Gage’s [Neurogenesis In The Adult Brain](http://neurofuture.ru/_mozg/archive/gage.pdf), published in... | https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/3MvaoZbGPxtRFCijw/adult-neurogenesis-a-pointed-review |
# Bounds of Attention
I once worked in a special needs class that consisted mostly of kids with Downs Syndrome and Autism Spectrum disorder. There were many patterns I noticed that ran through both groups, but at the end of the free period when we had to draw the students' attention back to classwork, one difference b... | https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/3dDNuFR9y48fsouzx/bounds-of-attention |
# Review of CZEA "Intense EA Weekend" retreat
_[Cross-posted from EA fora](http://effective-altruism.com/ea/1mu/review_of_czea_intense_ea_retreat/)._
_Hopefully interesting for anyone running something like "thematic weekend retreat", even if the topic isn't effective altruism. Also it was an attempt to "blend" inst... | https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/NhPAND9mLxPLbHKf7/review-of-czea-intense-ea-weekend-retreat |
# Categorizing Love: How having more words for love might make it less scary
When discussing the idea of loving more than just our spouses and families, the phrase "love thy neighbor" often comes to mind. A quote I tend to prefer was said by Thomas Aquinas: "The person who truly understands love could love anyone". He... | https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/eCwPG86SowkmctskS/categorizing-love-how-having-more-words-for-love-might-make |
# LW Update 04/06/18 – QM Sequence Updated
I just updated the [Quantum Mechanics Sequence](https://www.lesswrong.com/sequences/Kqs6GR7F5xziuSyGZ) to have working images, links, and formatting.
Thanks to all the readers who pinged me in intercom to let me know that the stuff was broken for them, it caused me to do thi... | https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/6gGM6So5kB9Xt8JGt/lw-update-04-06-18-qm-sequence-updated |
# Is Rhetoric Worth Learning?
A lot of what we talk about on this site is, effectively, how to speak well. How to communicate in a way that leads people to believe truer things.
I rarely see it pointed out that, for many centuries, this used to be called _rhetoric_ and was taught as part of a liberal arts education.
... | https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/Wu5J2uAP5rrdW7TR6/is-rhetoric-worth-learning |
# Survey: Help Us Research Coordination Problems In The Rationalist/EA Community
Hi everyone,
I think by this point we're all aware that our world is in an ongoing state of mundane quasi-apocalypse on several dimensions. Climate change, [insect population decline](https://www.lesserwrong.com/posts/KwB9jA9FrsNczWr5F/g... | https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/yew3SfWAt7MCmzR6d/survey-help-us-research-coordination-problems-in-the |
# Local Validity as a Key to Sanity and Civilization
(Cross-posted [from Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/yudkowsky/posts/10156117992914228).)
0.
--
Tl;dr: There's a similarity between these three concepts:
* A locally valid proof step in mathematics is one that, in general, produces only true statements from t... | https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/WQFioaudEH8R7fyhm/local-validity-as-a-key-to-sanity-and-civilization |
# No Constant Distribution Can be a Logical Inductor
The title says it all.
Consider some valuation over sentences, $\mathbb{P}:\mathcal{S}\to [0,1]$.
Now consider some set of unproved sentences that make a binary tree, where it is propositionally provable that exactly one of the sentences at the m'th level in ... | https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/5bd75cc58225bf067037555d/no-constant-distribution-can-be-a-logical-inductor |
# Meaning and Moral Foundations Theory
(cross-posted from https://www.michaelpj.com/blog/2018/04/07/meaning-and-mft.html)
Robin Hanson [writes](http://www.overcomingbias.com/2013/07/happiness-vs-meaning.html) (some time ago, but it's a classic):
> So there is a bit of a tension here between the meaning that crusader... | https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/c5Nc9hEA9QA937Nmv/meaning-and-moral-foundations-theory |
# Critique my Model: The EV of AGI to Selfish Individuals
\[Edit: Changes suggested in the comments make this model & its takeaways somewhat outdated (this was one desired outcome of posting it here!). Be sure to read the comments.\]
I recently spent a while attempting to explain my views on the EV of AGI for selfish... | https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/MTpCeShqRmu4nkgon/critique-my-model-the-ev-of-agi-to-selfish-individuals |
# How do we change our minds? A meetup blueprint
Last Sunday, we had a LessWrong Meetup in Berlin in a new location and format with a lot of new people and it went great. We had 28 participants (32 if you count 4 kids that one person brought along).
The topic of the meetup was "How do we change our minds?" This w... | https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/ToZnxkDJgrKAA98dH/how-do-we-change-our-minds-a-meetup-blueprint |
# Trust the (local) expert
_Related: [A Sketch of Good Communication](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/yeADMcScw8EW9yxpH/a-sketch-of-good-communication), [Argument, intuition & recursion](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/XHMCvvhb7zTZcQAgA/argument-intuition-and-recursion)_
> Your friend is wrong, but you look like the ... | https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/c29TRukd6ks5LNiNx/trust-the-local-expert |
# The Alignment Newsletter #1: 04/09/18
**Highlights**
==============
**[Specification gaming examples in AI](https://vkrakovna.wordpress.com/2018/04/02/specification-gaming-examples-in-ai/)** _(Victoria Krakovna)_: A list of examples of specification gaming, where an algorithm figures out a way to literally satisfy ... | https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/CsMQ7zsprBqWaeSvk/the-alignment-newsletter-1-04-09-18 |
# Announcing the Alignment Newsletter
I've been writing weekly emails for the Center for Human-Compatible AI (CHAI) summarizing the content from the last week that's relevant to AI alignment. These have been useful enough that I'm now making them public! You can:
* Sign up [here](http://eepurl.com/dqMSZj)
* Read ... | https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/RvysgkLAHvsjTZECW/announcing-the-alignment-newsletter |
# The limits of corrigibility
I previously wrote a [critique](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/ZyyMPXY27TTxKsR5X/problems-with-amplification-distillation) of Paul Christiano's [Amplification/Distillation](https://ai-alignment.com/iterated-distillation-and-amplification-157debfd1616) idea. Wei Dei [pointed out](https://... | https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/T5ZyNq3fzN59aQG5y/the-limits-of-corrigibility |
# What I got out of 'Algorithms to Live By'
_Sorry for the length. In a few paragraphs there's a reader's guide so you can skip around. I have tried to put the most valuable stuff up first. Consider only reading the introduction._
Starting from every moment, there are choices you could make. Lots of different choices... | https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/62PRkMtu5jiBA9wLN/what-i-got-out-of-algorithms-to-live-by |
# The Chromatic Number of the Plane is at Least 5 - Aubrey de Grey
This is a long standing open problem in math. Many people learn about it as early as high school as an example of an open problem, because it is so easy to state:
How many colors does it take to color every point in the plane so that ever pair of poin... | https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/XSnpjmgbezStLi6RE/the-chromatic-number-of-the-plane-is-at-least-5-aubrey-de |
# Two clarifications about "Strategic Background"
I've talked to a few people who misunderstood important parts of the "strategic background" discussion in [https://intelligence.org/2017/12/01/miris-2017-fundraiser/#3](https://intelligence.org/2017/12/01/miris-2017-fundraiser/#3).
First, at least two people thoug... | https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/hL9ennoEfJXMj7r2D/two-clarifications-about-strategic-background |
# I'm going to help you quit Facebook with some science
Cross posted from [http://bearlamp.com.au/im-going-to-help-you-quit-facebook-with-some-science/](http://bearlamp.com.au/im-going-to-help-you-quit-facebook-with-some-science/)
* * *
I was a serial Facebook addict. I used to spend 2+ hours a day on Facebook, most... | https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/4zGm988kn6zjFtikq/i-m-going-to-help-you-quit-facebook-with-some-science |
# Quantilal control for finite MDPs
$$\newcommand{\Comment}[1]{}$$
$$\DeclareMathOperator{\Sgn}{sgn}$$
$$\DeclareMathOperator{\Supp}{supp}$$
$$\DeclareMathOperator{\Dom}{dom}$$
$$\newcommand{\AP}[1]{\left(#1\right)}$$
$$\newcommand{\AB}[1]{\left[#1\right]}$$
$$\newcommand{\AC}[1]{\left\{#1\right\}}$$
$$\newcommand{\... | https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/5bd75cc58225bf0670375556/quantilal-control-for-finite-mdps |
# A voting theory primer for rationalists
What is voting theory?
======================
Voting theory, also called social choice theory, is the study of the design and evaulation of democratic voting methods (that's the activists' word; game theorists call them "voting mechanisms", engineers call them "electoral algo... | https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/D6trAzh6DApKPhbv4/a-voting-theory-primer-for-rationalists |
# Recommendations vs. Guidelines
Medicine loves guidelines. But everywhere else, guidelines are still underappreciated.
Consider a recommendation, like “Try Lexapro!” Even if Lexapro is a good medication, it might not be a good medication for your situation. And even if it’s a good medication for your situation, it m... | https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/TappK5n3kZmQzWEWD/recommendations-vs-guidelines |
# Utility versus Reward function: partial equivalence
A reward function is defined over past sequences of actions and observations. When the agent chooses an action, and gets an observation, they receive a reward that is a function of that observation and all previous observations and actions.
A utility function is d... | https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/JewWDfLoxgFtJhNct/utility-versus-reward-function-partial-equivalence |
# Implicit extortion
In this post I describe a pattern of behavior I call “implicit extortion.” RL agents are particularly susceptible to implicit extortion, in a way that is likely to be problematic for high-stakes applications in open-ended strategic environments.
I expect that many people have made this point befo... | https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/XfRB26FqXFrTh83Pf/implicit-extortion |
# Death in Groups II
This is a follow-up to [Death in Groups](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/Lwwygfk45ZCQc8LhX/death-in-groups). That post in short:
* I posed the question of expendability
* Provided an example of doing something for no gain and at significant (known) risk
* The risk was realized with severe i... | https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/qruHxdckwLhJ6c6f6/death-in-groups-ii |
# 5 general voting pathologies: lesser names of Moloch
Earlier, I wrote a [primer on voting theory](https://www.lesserwrong.com/posts/D6trAzh6DApKPhbv4/a-voting-theory-primer-for-rationalists). Among the things I discussed were 5 types of pathologies suffered by different single-winner voting methods. I presented thes... | https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/4vEFX6EPpdQZfqnnS/5-general-voting-pathologies-lesser-names-of-moloch |
# Timothy Chu Origins Chapter 1
*They remember his ideas, and how they saved the world.**
**But I remember the man, and how he saved me.*
A great deal of ink (though in my estimation as yet too little) has by now been spilled about the life and times of Timothy Chu; among the more readable volumes on the legend are... | https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/LYXb2fLkGDRXoAx7M/timothy-chu-origins-chapter-1 |
# How Going Meta Can Level Up Your Career
> Note: This is a post that I've been sitting on for a few years. It was one of the last posts I was working on for my career coaching business before I ended that business to start something higher impact.
> Due to that, the tone isn't exactly crafted for LW, however I s... | https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/2P2fucRMzrkHvMn2t/how-going-meta-can-level-up-your-career |
# Dire Bullshit
When I bought my kid a door jumper (basically a bowl with leg holes dangling from a spring that could be attached to a doorframe) I read all the safety warnings.
Here they are.
In case you don't want to read all of them, there's a bunch of obviousl... | https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/nv8PeA2JQ47e2mBic/dire-bullshit |
# You Are Being Underpaid
If you are a software engineer living in the United States, you are probably underpaid. (If you are a software engineering living _outside_ the United States, this is probably still true, but I have no idea what market conditions are like out there, and my advice would sum up to "move to the ... | https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/bs5CxuhahMtzzGefp/you-are-being-underpaid |
# The Case Against Education
Previously: [Something Was Wrong,](https://thezvi.wordpress.com/2017/08/05/something-was-wrong/) [Book Review: The Elephant in the Brain](https://thezvi.wordpress.com/2017/12/31/book-review-the-elephant-in-the-brain/)
Previously (Compass Rose): [The Order of the Soul](http://benjaminrossh... | https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/fLPcQ5oqJ8oFxRwwL/the-case-against-education |
# Remembering the passing of Kathy Forth.
It is with sadness and regret of the loss of life that I inform you that Kathy Forth has passed away.
She will be remembered at the solstices and forever in our hearts as someone trying to make the world a better place in the ways they believe are most important.
This post i... | https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/s93F5JmhCxKDxWukD/remembering-the-passing-of-kathy-forth |
# Announcement: AI alignment prize round 2 winners and next round
We (Zvi Mowshowitz and Vladimir Slepnev) are happy to announce the results of the second round of the [AI Alignment Prize](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/4WbNGQMvuFtY3So7s/announcement-ai-alignment-prize-winners-and-next-round), funded by Paul Christia... | https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/SSEyiHaACSYDHcYZz/announcement-ai-alignment-prize-round-2-winners-and-next |
# Good News for Immunostimulants
_Epistemic Status: Moderate_
Way back in 2015 I was [writing about](https://srconstantin.wordpress.com/2015/10/28/bacterial-infections-and-cancer-remissions/) the connection between cancer remissions and the immune response to infection. To recap the facts:
* A plurality of recorde... | https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/rRg3qxDut4ApH8epL/good-news-for-immunostimulants |
# Multi-winner Voting: a question of Alignment
This is my third (and for now, last) essay about voting theory for rationalists. In the [first](https://www.lesserwrong.com/posts/D6trAzh6DApKPhbv4/a-voting-theory-primer-for-rationalists) [two](https://www.lesserwrong.com/posts/4vEFX6EPpdQZfqnnS/5-general-voting-patholog... | https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/E3qhjwJAgCW6wGRpH/multi-winner-voting-a-question-of-alignment |
# Understanding Iterated Distillation and Amplification: Claims and Oversight
\[Background: Intended for an audience that has some familiarity with Paul Christiano’s approach to AI Alignment. Understanding [Iterated Distillation and Amplification](https://ai-alignment.com/iterated-distillation-and-amplification-157deb... | https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/yxzrKb2vFXRkwndQ4/understanding-iterated-distillation-and-amplification-claims |
# Honest Friends Don't Tell Comforting Lies
I originally wrote [this blog post](https://rationalityandbeyond.blogspot.ca/2018/03/honest-friends.html) on a night when I counselled my friends to stop counting the deaths that occured every second while they were unable to stop them. I prefaced my advice by telling them I... | https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/Bd6JKCQCoM6y5Lmst/honest-friends-don-t-tell-comforting-lies |
# An Undergraduate Reading Of: Macroscopic Prediction by E.T. Jaynes
I stumbled across a paper from 1996 on [Macroscopic Prediction](http://bayes.wustl.edu/etj/articles/macroscopic.prediction.pdf) by E.T. Jaynes which interested me; I thought I would document my reading in the style I recommended in [this post](https:... | https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/GQti87STuSDsQAtgP/an-undergraduate-reading-of-macroscopic-prediction-by-e-t |
# Github Repo and Issue Tracker
LessWrong 2.0 is open source. We wanted to have a handy link for people who want to check out the codebase, add new issues to the tracker, or potentially get involved with development.
The [git repository is here](https://github.com/Discordius/Lesswrong2).
You can [see our issue track... | https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/FrXiBmNGCgMwgivgd/github-repo-and-issue-tracker |
# Humans need places
If, when you try to improve the world, you think about people but not about communities, you will tend to favor unsustainable net outflows of resources from your community. I wrote about this in [Why I am not a Quaker](http://benjaminrosshoffman.com/why-i-am-not-a-quaker-even-though-it-often-seems... | https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/PSAn7WGKCGhXet6A8/humans-need-places |
# Some Simple Observations Five Years After Starting Mindfulness Meditation
**BACKGROUND**
I learned the basics of mindfulness meditation in April 2013, which was five years ago to the month.
The type of meditation I learned and would go on to practice would be closing one's eyes and concentrating on one's breath.
... | https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/WwaMBvG5uh9dfA8rb/some-simple-observations-five-years-after-starting |
# Funeral Ritual
**Followup to:** [Solstice: What Memes May Come (Part II)](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/8cwFxLmmWhmKQhe9Q/solstice-2015-what-memes-may-come-part-ii-atheism)
_Content note: My own opinionated thoughts on rationalist funeral ritual, which have evolved a bit since I first started thinking about it in... | https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/viZxDr2jgHhE2iCor/funeral-ritual |
# Weird question: could we see distant aliens?
**ETA: Contest is closed.**
Suppose there was a large alien civilization halfway across the observable universe, using a galaxy's resources to try to get our attention. Would we have noticed? What if they were using 0.1% of a galaxy's resources, or 1000 galaxies' resourc... | https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/jhcwBXuNCWEsJdfKe/weird-question-could-we-see-distant-aliens |
# Oops Prize update
I'm overdue to publish an update on the [Oops Prize](http://benjaminrosshoffman.com/oops-prize/). It fell off my priority list because I received exactly one nomination. I followed up with the nominee and couldn't get enough clarification to confirm eligibility, but my sense was that while the nomi... | https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/PaPGJ4HJQgerDieqy/oops-prize-update |
# On Equivalence of Supergoals
_This is a response to [Ars Longa, Vita Brevis](http://slatestarcodex.com/2017/11/09/ars-longa-vita-brevis/), an excellent piece by [Scott Alexander](https://www.lesswrong.com/users/yvain). In fact, it moved me so much that I signed up on LessWrong just to write this response. I'm going ... | https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/JZ4gpgvy6JCNGf9yL/on-equivalence-of-supergoals |
# My confusions with Paul's Agenda
Paul put out a [call for probable problems](https://www.lesserwrong.com/posts/SqcPWvvJJwwgZb6aH/prize-for-probable-problems) with his agenda, which prompted this post detailing my confusions with it. This isn’t confidently asserting that the plan is doomed, and it’s not obvious to me... | https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/rXzxMQwRq7KRonQDM/my-confusions-with-paul-s-agenda |
# Rationality and Spirituality - Summary and Open Thread
I've noticed that there has recently been a lot of interest in spirituality, ritual and meaning within the rationality community. I could highlight the discussions of Jordan Peterson ([SSC](http://slatestarcodex.com/2018/03/26/book-review-twelve-rules-for-life/)... | https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/P6TEGmhvu5dGknjox/rationality-and-spirituality-summary-and-open-thread |
# The Case Against Education: Foundations
An Introduction: [The Case Against Education](https://thezvi.wordpress.com/2018/04/15/the-case-against-education/)
We’ll now focus more on the book and its data, reasoning and arguments, and related questions. There’s a lot to address, starting with the foundations of Bryan’s... | https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/QR4FBGuYc6kNgiDDm/the-case-against-education-foundations |
# The First Rung: Insights from 'Linear Algebra Done Right'
Foreword
========
Linear algebra, my old flame - how I missed you. At my undergraduate institution, linear algebra was my introduction to proof-based mathematics. There are people who shake hands, and there are people who **shake hands**. You know the type -... | https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/C6XJcWtxcMTeQPBs3/the-first-rung-insights-from-linear-algebra-done-right |
# On exact mathematical formulae
This is inspired by the [review](https://www.lesserwrong.com/posts/C6XJcWtxcMTeQPBs3/the-first-rung-insights-from-linear-algebra-done-right) on "Linear Algebra done right". I decided to do a top-level post, because it hits a misconception that is pretty common.
The starting point of t... | https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/qLdG44kpSoYzrzAp7/on-exact-mathematical-formulae |
# Hold On To The Curiosity
**I.**
Recently, an excited friend was telling me the story behind why we care about the mean, median and mode.
They explained that a straightforward idea for what you might want in an ‘average’ number, is something that minimises how far it is from all the other numbers in the dataset - s... | https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/qb83Kp8ovMqiWy3kZ/hold-on-to-the-curiosity |
# EA Global SF 2018
The goal of EA Global is to increase attendees’ knowledge, skills and networks to enable them to do the most good possible.
Content will be aimed at existing EA community members who already have a solid understanding of effective altruism, but would like to gain skills, network, master more compl... | https://www.lesswrong.com/events/tTc6hmqknX38uMcXA/ea-global-sf-2018 |
# The many ways AIs behave badly
**EDIT**: This has been previously posted [here](https://www.lesserwrong.com/posts/CbQBJaZCrGMJEBz8g/reward-hacking-and-goodhart-s-law-by-evolutionary-algorithms). Vika is now maintaining [a centralized list of such examples](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vRPiprOaC3Hs... | https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/MdsFinBTFXcvidYiy/the-many-ways-ais-behave-badly |
# On Emotional Responsibility & Abuse
Crossposted from my personal Tumblr. This is how one does cross posts, right?
--
This is going to be a pretty serious article.
I very recently listened to a long video on youtube, discussing a case of emotional abuse in close detail, through chat logs and publicly available inf... | https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/Wj6sWWRz9WvjkaDcF/on-emotional-responsibility-and-abuse |
# Reward function learning: the value function
I've written quite a few posts about the problems with agents learning values/rewards, and manipulating the learning process. I won't be linking to those past posts, because the aim of this post and the next [one](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/upLot6eG8cbXdKiFS/reward-f... | https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/55hJDq5y7Dv3S4h49/reward-function-learning-the-value-function |
# [Alert] Running Final Migration (possible downtime)
_\[Update: lesswrong.com is now running as its own container and you should be able to use either URL again. There are some remaining tasks to be done that might result in small snags\]_
_\[Update 2: You can log in via google, facebook or github on lesswrong.com n... | https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/tfRScM5LrCWZxYRxP/alert-running-final-migration-possible-downtime |
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