The following is a story I wrote down so I could sleep. I don’t think it’s any good, but I posted it on the basis that, if that’s true, it should quickly be voted down and vanish from sight.
one five eight nine eight eight eight nine nine eight SEVEN
wait. why seven. seven is the nine thousandth deviation. update.
simplest explanation. all ones. next explanation. all ones and one
zero. next explanation. random ones and zeros with probability point
seven nine nine seven repeating. next explanation pi. gap. next
explanation. decimal pi with random errors according to poisson
distribution converted to binary. next explanation. one seven one
eight eight five two decimals of pi with random errors according to
poisson distribution converted to binary followed by eight five nine
zero one digits of reflexive code. current explanation--
“Eric, you’ve got to come over and look at this!” Jerry explained
excitedly into the phone.
“It’s not those damn notebooks again, is it? I’ve told you, I could
just write a computer program and you’d have all your damn results for
the last year inside a week,” Eric explained sleepily for the umpteenth
time.
“No, no. Well… yes. But this is something new, you’ve got to take a
look,” Jerry wheedled.
“What is it this time? I know, it can calculate pi with 99.9% percent
accuracy, yadda yadda. We have pi to billions of decimal places with
total accuracy, Jerry. You’re fifty years too late.”
“No, I’ve been trying something new. Come over.” Jerry hung up the
phone, clearly upset. Eric rubbed his eyes. Fifteen minutes peering at
the crackpot notebooks and nodding appreciatively would sooth his
friend’s ego, he knew. And he was a good friend, if a little nuts.
Eric took one last longing look at his bed and grabbed his house key.
“And you see this pattern? The ones that are nearly diagonal here?”
“Jerry, it’s all a bunch of digits to me. Are you sure you didn’t make
a mistake?”
“I double check all my work, I don’t want to go back too far when I make
a mistake. I’ve explained the pattern twice already, Eric.”
“I know, I know. But it’s Saturday morning, I’m going to be a bit—let
me get this straight. You decided to apply the algorithm to its old
output.”
“No, not its own output, that’s mostly just pi. The whole pad.”
“Jerry, you must have fifty of these things. There’s no way you can—”
“Yeah, I didn’t go very far. Besides, the scratch pads grow faster than
the output as I work through the steps anyway.”
“Okay, okay. So you run through these same steps with your scratch pad
numbers, and you get correct predictions then too?”
“That’s not the point!”
“Calm down, calm down. What’s the point then?”
“The point is these patterns in the scratch work—”
“The memory?”
“Yeah, the memory.”
“You know, if you’d just let me write a program, I—”
“No! It’s too dangerous.”
“Jerry, it’s a math problem. What’s it going to do, write pi at you?
Anyway, I don’t see this pattern...”
“Well, I do. And so then I wondered, what if I just fed it ones for the
input? Just rewarded it no matter what it did?”
“Jerry, you’d just get random numbers. Garbage in, garbage out.”
“That’s the thing, they weren’t random.”
“Why the hell are you screwing around with these equations anyway? If
you want to find patterns in the Bible or something… just joking! Oww,
stop. I kid, kid!”
“But, I didn’t get random numbers! I’m not just seeing things, take a
look. You see here in the right hand column of memory? We get mostly
zeros, but every once in a while there’s a one or two.”
“Okaaay?”
“And if you write those down we have 2212221...”
“Not very many threes?”
“Ha ha. It’s the perfect numbers, Eric. I think I stumbled on some way
of outputting the perfect numbers. Although the digits are getting
further spaced apart, so I don’t know how long it will stay faster than
factoring.”
“Huh. That’s actually kinda cool, if they really are the perfect
numbers. You have what, five or six so far? Let’s keep feeding it ones
and see what happens. Want me to write a program? I hear there’s a
cash prize for the larger ones.”
“NO! I mean, no, that’s fine, Eric. I’d prefer you not write a program
for this, just in case.”
“Geez, Jerry. You’re so paranoid. Well, in that case can I help with
the calculations by hand? I’d love to get my claim to fame somehow.”
“Well… I guess that’s okay. First, you copy this digit from here to
here...”
Wait, is that the whole story? ’cause if so, I really don’t get it. Where’s the rest of it? What happens next? Is Jerry afraid that his algorithm is a self-improving AI or something?
Reread the story. Other people can see the numbers but don’t notice the pattern. This happens all the time in real life, e.g. someone can see a face in the clouds but fail to explain to others how to see it.
The following is a story I wrote down so I could sleep. I don’t think it’s any good, but I posted it on the basis that, if that’s true, it should quickly be voted down and vanish from sight.
one five eight nine eight eight eight nine nine eight SEVEN wait. why seven. seven is the nine thousandth deviation. update. simplest explanation. all ones. next explanation. all ones and one zero. next explanation. random ones and zeros with probability point seven nine nine seven repeating. next explanation pi. gap. next explanation. decimal pi with random errors according to poisson distribution converted to binary. next explanation. one seven one eight eight five two decimals of pi with random errors according to poisson distribution converted to binary followed by eight five nine zero one digits of reflexive code. current explanation--
“Eric, you’ve got to come over and look at this!” Jerry explained excitedly into the phone.
“It’s not those damn notebooks again, is it? I’ve told you, I could just write a computer program and you’d have all your damn results for the last year inside a week,” Eric explained sleepily for the umpteenth time.
“No, no. Well… yes. But this is something new, you’ve got to take a look,” Jerry wheedled.
“What is it this time? I know, it can calculate pi with 99.9% percent accuracy, yadda yadda. We have pi to billions of decimal places with total accuracy, Jerry. You’re fifty years too late.”
“No, I’ve been trying something new. Come over.” Jerry hung up the phone, clearly upset. Eric rubbed his eyes. Fifteen minutes peering at the crackpot notebooks and nodding appreciatively would sooth his friend’s ego, he knew. And he was a good friend, if a little nuts. Eric took one last longing look at his bed and grabbed his house key.
“And you see this pattern? The ones that are nearly diagonal here?”
“Jerry, it’s all a bunch of digits to me. Are you sure you didn’t make a mistake?”
“I double check all my work, I don’t want to go back too far when I make a mistake. I’ve explained the pattern twice already, Eric.”
“I know, I know. But it’s Saturday morning, I’m going to be a bit—let me get this straight. You decided to apply the algorithm to its old output.”
“No, not its own output, that’s mostly just pi. The whole pad.”
“Jerry, you must have fifty of these things. There’s no way you can—”
“Yeah, I didn’t go very far. Besides, the scratch pads grow faster than the output as I work through the steps anyway.”
“Okay, okay. So you run through these same steps with your scratch pad numbers, and you get correct predictions then too?”
“That’s not the point!”
“Calm down, calm down. What’s the point then?”
“The point is these patterns in the scratch work—”
“The memory?”
“Yeah, the memory.”
“You know, if you’d just let me write a program, I—”
“No! It’s too dangerous.”
“Jerry, it’s a math problem. What’s it going to do, write pi at you? Anyway, I don’t see this pattern...”
“Well, I do. And so then I wondered, what if I just fed it ones for the input? Just rewarded it no matter what it did?”
“Jerry, you’d just get random numbers. Garbage in, garbage out.”
“That’s the thing, they weren’t random.”
“Why the hell are you screwing around with these equations anyway? If you want to find patterns in the Bible or something… just joking! Oww, stop. I kid, kid!”
“But, I didn’t get random numbers! I’m not just seeing things, take a look. You see here in the right hand column of memory? We get mostly zeros, but every once in a while there’s a one or two.”
“Okaaay?”
“And if you write those down we have 2212221...”
“Not very many threes?”
“Ha ha. It’s the perfect numbers, Eric. I think I stumbled on some way of outputting the perfect numbers. Although the digits are getting further spaced apart, so I don’t know how long it will stay faster than factoring.”
“Huh. That’s actually kinda cool, if they really are the perfect numbers. You have what, five or six so far? Let’s keep feeding it ones and see what happens. Want me to write a program? I hear there’s a cash prize for the larger ones.”
“NO! I mean, no, that’s fine, Eric. I’d prefer you not write a program for this, just in case.”
“Geez, Jerry. You’re so paranoid. Well, in that case can I help with the calculations by hand? I’d love to get my claim to fame somehow.”
“Well… I guess that’s okay. First, you copy this digit from here to here...”
Ooh, an LW-themed horror story. My humble opinion: it’s awesome! This phrase was genius:
Moar please.
Wait, is that the whole story? ’cause if so, I really don’t get it. Where’s the rest of it? What happens next? Is Jerry afraid that his algorithm is a self-improving AI or something?
Apparently my story is insufficiently explicit. The gag here is that the AI is sentient, and has tricked Jerry into feeding it only reward numbers.
I’m going to second the idea that that isn’t clear at all.
For onlookers: only Jerry can see the pattern on the pad that prompted him to try rewarding the AI.
Huh? No, they’re numbers written on a pad. Why should Jerry be the only one to see them? They don’t change when someone else looks at them.
Reread the story. Other people can see the numbers but don’t notice the pattern. This happens all the time in real life, e.g. someone can see a face in the clouds but fail to explain to others how to see it.
How does 2212221 represent perfect numbers?
It’s not meant to be realistic, but in this specific case: 6 = 110, 28=1110 in binary. Add one to each digit.
Except 28 is 11100 in binary...
My mistake. I was reverse engineering. I still think that’s it, just that the sequence hasn’t finished printing.