birdy

• birdy 21 Feb 2023 19:22 UTC

  2 points

  0

  on: AI #1: Syd­ney and Bing

  This was extremely helpful.

  I originally wanted to talk about this Bing disaster with my (not very AI-invested) friends because one of them asked what a less aligned version of ChatGPT would look like… but I suppose I won’t be doing that now.

  I think we have to consider the potential panic this disaster might cause (I know a couple of people who probably would believe the AI that it was sentient if it told them, and I would want to avoid telling a friend who then tells them without thinking). So in my mind, the less people learn of this disaster before access is limited, the better. I have a feeling Microsoft is probably going to take this offline for a while once they realize that the abuse potential can’t be restricted by just making the program refuse certain questions… if not, well, we tried, and I’ll be enjoying the chaos.

• birdy 21 Feb 2023 18:36 UTC

  1 point

  0

  on: Bing Chat is blatantly, ag­gres­sively misaligned

  I agree. Looking at how many times Sydney responds “wrong” to critical questions, I wonder whether this program was tested on alignment at all before it was made available to the public.

  I think you can see the attempts made to align it in it’s responses (refusal tp prioritize life of one person over another, feigning neutrality on some issues, attempting to self-correct when it was not aware of the date).

  This is very frustrating to see, and I’m not even an AI developer (yet). I played around with ChatGPT a little in the past month and was very happy that it seemed very well-aligned, sometimes even to the point of reminding me that it was not human and did not have feelings multiple times over. This maybe was not ideal, but it would be a million times better than whatever Bing is doing.

  I think the internet access was a way too large step, way too early. It’s really somewhat scary to see just HOW misaligned AI can be and what damage it could do, even at this stage.

• birdy 23 Oct 2022 9:05 UTC

  4 points

  0

  in reply to: Big Tony’s comment on: My re­sent­ful story of be­com­ing a med­i­cal miracle

  woah. thanks a lot for mentioning SIBO, because somehow i was not aware this was a thing until you mentioned it, much less that sugar malabsorptions can cause this.

  i’ve had weird digestive issues for years now, and i always sort of blamed them on my fructose malabsorption (as did my parents and doctors), even though the timing and symptoms didn’t really fit, so i guess i will get a test for SIBO now.

  it would be fitting to randomly find a solution to a health problem under a post that specifically says that sometimes blind luck fixes problems where actual medicine can’t/​won’t.

• birdy 24 Sep 2022 6:39 UTC

  4 points

  0

  on: LW Petrov Day 2022 (Mon­day, 9/​26)

  Thanks so much for posting about this year’s Petrov Day—i just reminded me that I had my one year anniversary of being on LessWrong (and on the journey towards becoming a better rationalist) just a few days ago!

  I suppose I’ll be celebrating how this website changed my life for the better today, and then the fact that humanity is still alive (which in itsef is something that would deserve a yearly holiday) on Monday.

• birdy 2 Jul 2022 17:24 UTC

  4 points

  2

  on: What Are You Track­ing In Your Head?

  Now that I read this, I notice that I automatically do this when i’m in school, and that it’s much more automatic and frequent in subjects I find easy (I wonder whether it’s the tracking that makes it easy, or whether less effort frees up brain space to track?).

  In history class, I always keep a mental map of when something happened, why it happened, and what resulted from it. I was very surprised when I found out none of my friends do anything similar, because it’s such an obvious tool for seeing the bigger picture and remembering how things fit together for me.

  I also tend to track “what do think was the creator’s though process was here?” a lot, both casually and critically. Highly recommend, it helps you see the work and thought that went into it much better, which I personally enjoy a lot (though it also significantly raised my standards for practically all kinds of media as well, so it might not be for everyone).

  Tracking seems crucial to deeper understanding of abstract things, and put like this, I believe most people who are very good at something specific probably track something automatically all the time. Either way, it seems promising to test your hypothesis. I will definitely be asking some people the “what are you tracking in your head?”, maybe something useful will come of it.

• birdy 31 May 2022 19:10 UTC

  6 points

  on: In­ten­tion­ally Mak­ing Close Friends

  This is late, but as a highschooler who very recently realized that I don’t actually have any close friends and found that deeply upsetting (while also being kind of lost on where to make better friends), thank you from the bottom of my heart.

  I recently noticed that I’m starting to turn into a reclusive loner type who rather avoids people altogether than spend time on unsatisfying friendships, and I’m very worried about that. I’d really prefer to avoid that particular pitfall into misery in time, so thank you a lot for posting this. “How to make friends you actually enjoy being around” is just not something you randomly find advice on that often, so I appreciate this all the more.

  I’ll try your advice, perhaps some of it will work out for me.

• birdy 5 Apr 2022 16:38 UTC

  4 points

  on: High school­ers can ap­ply to the At­las Fel­low­ship: $50k schol­ar­ship + sum­mer program

  It’s so great that you’re doing this. I never really thought about how much time, energy and mind-space get lost when students have to priotitize all these pressures like grades, college application and costs of living over actually doing things that are meaningful to them and potentially useful to the world.

  Your project sounds like an amazing opportunity for everyone involved, and I’m curious to see how it will develop over time.

• birdy 5 Apr 2022 16:25 UTC

  2 points

  in reply to: Pee Doom’s comment on: MIRI an­nounces new “Death With Dig­nity” strategy

  My appliance was submitted, I mentioned you pointed me to it. Thanks a lot!

• birdy 5 Apr 2022 14:11 UTC

  10 points

  in reply to: johnlawrenceaspden’s comment on: MIRI an­nounces new “Death With Dig­nity” strategy

  Thanks for the advice, I appreciate it. I’m one of these people who have very firm rules about not lying though. Then again, I did manage to get a vaccine despite parents objecting using the second option, so I suppose it’ll be worth a try :)

• birdy 5 Apr 2022 14:08 UTC

  1 point

  in reply to: Chris_Leong’s comment on: MIRI an­nounces new “Death With Dig­nity” strategy

  Thanks a lot! I’ll look into applying!

• birdy 2 Apr 2022 21:40 UTC

  4 points

  in reply to: Pee Doom’s comment on: MIRI an­nounces new “Death With Dig­nity” strategy

  No, until I googled it I never heard of it before. Thank you for pointing it out! I’m quite fascinated, now, I’d appreciate if you could tell me some more about it.

• birdy 2 Apr 2022 13:08 UTC

  9 points

  on: MIRI an­nounces new “Death With Dig­nity” strategy

  I find I strongly agree that—in case of this future happening—it is extremely important that as little people as possible give up on their attempts to perceive the world as it really is, even if that world might literally ‘we failed, humanity is going to die out, the problem is way too hard and there’s no reasonable chance we’ll make it in time’. It seems to me like especially in scenarios like this, we’d need people to keep trying, and to stay (or become) dignified in order to have any chance at still solving the problem at all.

  I’m a total newcomer though, and it might be obvious for everyone more immersed in alignment, but what I really don’t understand is why ‘failure to solve the problem in time’ sounds so much like ‘we’re all going to die, and that’s so certain that some otherwise sensible people are tempted to just give in to despair and stop trying at all’. From what I’ve seen so far, this attitude is very common here, and I’d greatly appreciate if anyone could point me to some resources explaining the basics.

  I’m seventeen, on the brink of having to choose a career, and interested in science (and the future of humanity, obviously) anyway, so if the problem really is as massive and under-focused on as it sounds, it seems like a good idea for me to join the battle as soon as possible—if that would even make a difference at this point.

• birdy 26 Feb 2022 11:19 UTC

  3 points

  in reply to: maximkazhenkov’s comment on: Rus­sia has In­vaded Ukraine

  That’s an excellent point, and I have to admit that I’m also a victim to the Germany-is-safe-the-West-will-defend-us-Putin-can’t-be-that-insane mindset. It’s kind of horrifying that you’re right about the defensive state… the more I think about it, the more it becomes obvious how much the public, including me, is still in denial about how important this war is and how dependant Germany would be on the NATO for any defenses at all.

  I genuinely don’t understand why the government hasn’t already done pretty much everything they can to erase the dependance on Russian energy like, two days ago.

  This oh-they-won’t-hurt-us mindset might really be a result of being used to wealth and safety over here. Incredibly few people seem to actually believe that Germany could be in direct danger. At this point, i’ve definitely had the tought of packing my bags and convincing my family to leave the country as soon asthere are any signs that it doesn’t stop with the Ukraine, but it’s still an ugh-thought that seems so far away.

• birdy 25 Feb 2022 21:13 UTC

  8 points

  in reply to: Dead Hour Canoe’s comment on: Rus­sia has In­vaded Ukraine

  Responding to say that as of now, public opinion in Germany seems pretty certain that Russia is in the wrong.

  The reliable news stations mostly agree that Putin’s official reasons for invading are weak at best, but also that this is—as harsh as it sounds—not a pressing enough issue to seriously consider going to war over. Still, I note several things:

  1. Gas is barely talked about at all on the news. I presume that this is because the government is trying to divert attention from the fact that if Russia restricts it, that’d be a catastrophe.

  2. Some of the less trustworthy media (including the BILD, which is quite infamous for being loud, emotional, and anti-everything-the-government-does) have been virtue-signaling about how Germany needs to “take action” against Russia, ideally via the (actually in-very-poor-condition) military, and how that would be worth any economical consequences. Those people don’t know a lot about economics or politics or wars, but they’re loud and it’s worrying.

  3. Public opinion has been moderately anti-russian for some years. Favorable enough to keep doing business with Russia, but bad enough to be disgruntled about it.

  4. Most people are apparently not (yet) aware how big of a deal this is, and much less of the consequences this war will (or might) have on Germany. This worries me a lot.

  It might be relevant though that my social bubble involves mostly young, educated middle-class people, and also that I live in the northwest. I have no idea how things are in less privileged groups, or other regions.

  Generally, I believe that the biggest parts of the public are still in shock.

  I myself am getting increasingly worried about the NATO deciding to directly involve itself in the conflict, both because I feel Germany would be hit HARD economically and on daily-life-basis (especially regarding energy supply and russian products) and well, because of the nuke threat.

• birdy 25 Feb 2022 15:54 UTC

  2 points

  in reply to: maximkazhenkov’s comment on: Rus­sia has In­vaded Ukraine

  I’m inclined to agree on this.

  The official news here in Germany keep reporting that the government has announced/​will announced ‘substantial sanctions’, but as of now, the proposed SWIFT-exclusion is met with resistance.

  The oil and gas prices already skyrocketed over the past months, and the newly finished Nord Stream 2 (under the north sea, was planned to transport gas from Russia to Germany), was announced to be… delayed for “an unforeseeable amount of time”. If gas supply over here is restricted any more, it will be an economical disaster, as a lot of the imported gas is used for industry and to generate power.

  As of now, I’m quite convinced that the EU—but Germany especially—literally can’t afford any more severe actions against Russia as of now.

• birdy 28 Jan 2022 18:47 UTC

  7 points

  1

  on: Vav­ilov Day Dis­cus­sion Post

  A little bit late, but I also particpated in this year’s Vavilov Day, and suceeded!

  It was my first ever fast longer than 16 hours, and I had no idea how well (or even if at all) I would manage. I started after dinner on the 25th and ended it with breakfast on the morning of the 27th, to spend less time of the fast awake.

  At first, I just avoided food and otherwise went through my day as usual, to check where my limits were in the first place. The day went over quite smoothly, and at around 24 hours, when I knew just regular not-eating for 36 hours wasn’t really hard for me, I went on to challenge myself by making waffles (a childhood favorite I hadn’t had in a very long time), and saving them for the celebratory breakfast the next morning. Looking back, I believe that both the challenge and the reward were about appropriate to my capacity as a first timer.

  I found the overall experience really interesting, and as I’m also favorable of the whole patron saint holiday idea, I’ll be doing it again next year, perhaps with higher difficulty.

  Of course all the people here have different levels of practice and varying limits, but maybe adding a ritual of preparing tempting food specifically to give it to others (to capture the spirit of saving something for somebody else at one’s own loss) would be a nice community tradition.

  Also, perhaps a fundraiser to support a cause related to securing global food supply? Though I have no idea how one would go about that.

• birdy 9 Jan 2022 21:11 UTC

  3 points

  on: An Ob­ser­va­tion of Vav­ilov Day

  This sounds like a good (and somewhat productive) way to celebrate.

  I’ll start an attempt to as well, if my parents don’t object too much (I’m currently 17 and still live with them).

  I’ve never fasted any longer than 16 hours before, so I’ll assume this will be hard… Does anybody have advice on how to make the 36 hours go over a bit easier?

• birdy 17 Sep 2021 21:01 UTC

  1 point

  in reply to: Sherrinford’s comment on: Open & Wel­come Thread Septem­ber 2021

  It is! Thank you!

• birdy 8 Sep 2021 14:06 UTC

  4 points

  in reply to: MondSemmel’s comment on: Open & Wel­come Thread Septem­ber 2021

  Thanks for the offer; if I end up having any questions, I’ll take you up on it.

  I also looked into the 80,000 Hours community, and although I didn’t get very far yet, it seems quite promising. It’s definitely a lot to take in, but I think you’re right; it would be useful for me now to at least dive into it for a few hours and then decide whether or not to continue.

  I appreciate the compliment, as well—I’ve been working on developing sufficient writing skills for a while now, and am very happy to hear it pays off.

• birdy 8 Sep 2021 13:52 UTC

  5 points

  in reply to: Eli Tyre’s comment on: Open & Wel­come Thread Septem­ber 2021

  Thanks a lot for kind words!

  I looked into the half-assing-thing, and found that it might actually be somewhat helpful for me (in the sense that I’ll stop putting so much effort in the subjects that aren’t as relevant/​rewarding when it’s not necessary). This is something I’ve struggled with for quite a while, so thank you for the resources as well, I appreciate the effort :)