Attending conferences is more about meeting the people who attend conferences than about watching talks (which are recorded and can be watched later using less-valuable hours), so I stayed outside and talked to people during many of them. But I was glad I watched Jaan Tallinn’s, which was not only excellent, but also the subject and tone for valuable conversations later in the day. Robin Hanson’s talk was well presented, though I disagree with it (I think the sort of society of ems he describes would be inherently unstable in a way that isn’t survivable). Julia Galef and Luke Muehlhauser presented very well, though on topics I’m already pretty familiar with. Luke ended up signaling a whole lot of uncertainty (saying that it’s all open research problems) about singularity-related issues, even in a few cases where I feel we actually know quite a bit. Overall it was an excellent summit, well organized with top notch presenters and a top notch crowd. My only real complaint would be the food, which had entirely the wrong macronutrient composition.
Attending conferences is more about meeting the people who attend conferences than about watching talks (which are recorded and can be watched later using less-valuable hours), so I stayed outside and talked to people during many of them. But I was glad I watched Jaan Tallinn’s, which was not only excellent, but also the subject and tone for valuable conversations later in the day. Robin Hanson’s talk was well presented, though I disagree with it (I think the sort of society of ems he describes would be inherently unstable in a way that isn’t survivable). Julia Galef and Luke Muehlhauser presented very well, though on topics I’m already pretty familiar with. Luke ended up signaling a whole lot of uncertainty (saying that it’s all open research problems) about singularity-related issues, even in a few cases where I feel we actually know quite a bit. Overall it was an excellent summit, well organized with top notch presenters and a top notch crowd. My only real complaint would be the food, which had entirely the wrong macronutrient composition.
It was good to finally meet you in person! I now have a face to attach to the Cambridge meetup e-mails.