JMiller

Karma: 256

JMiller May 12, 2025, 7:28 PM
8 points
3
on: PSA: The LessWrong Feedback Service
This is really cool, and the PSA was helpful since I had no idea. Kudos to you and the LW team!

JMiller Apr 19, 2025, 9:52 AM
2 points
1
on: Training AGI in Secret would be Unsafe and Unethical
Great post, Daniel!

I would expect that a misaligned ASI of the first kind would seek to keep knowledge of its capabilities to a minimum while it accumulates power. If nothing else, because by definition it prevents the detection and mitigation of its misalignment. Therefore for the same reasons this post advocates for openness past a certain stage of development, the unaligned ASI of the first kind would move towards a concentration and curtailing of knowledge (I.e. it would not be the kind of AI that stops the finding and fixing of its misalignment if it allowed 10x-1000x more human brain power investigating itself).

One way to increase the likelihood of keeping itself hidden is by influencing the people that already possess knowledge of its capabilities to act toward that outcome. So even if the few original decision makers with knowledge and power are predisposed to eventual openness/benevolence, the ASI could (rather easily, I imagine) tempt them away from said policy. Moreover, it could help them mitigate, reneg on, neutralize or ignore any precommitments or promises previously made in favour of openness.

JMiller Apr 18, 2025, 1:24 PM
1 point
0
on: Power Lies Trembling: a three-book review
I really enjoyed this post, Richard! The object level message is inspiring, but I also found myself happily surprised at the synthesis of three books which, on their surface, are about quite different subjects! Just throwing my +1 here as someone interested in reading more posts like this.

JMiller Mar 17, 2025, 12:48 PM
6 points
0
in reply to: Adele Lopez’s comment on: Why White-Box Redteaming Makes Me Feel Weird
I definitely agree with this last point! I’ve been on the providing end of similar situations with people in cybersecurity education of all sorts of different technical backgrounds. I’ve noticed that both the tester and the “testee” (so to speak) tend to have a better and safer experience when the cards are compassionately laid out on the table at the end. It’s even better when the tester is able to genuinely express gratitude toward the testee for having taught them something new, even unintentionally.

JMiller Mar 17, 2025, 12:41 PM
3 points
1
on: How I’ve run major projects
Hey Ben, thanks for this! I especially appreciate the section on Slack norms; I’ve found that teams have a tendency to default to DMs without explicit, mindful management of channels, channel membership and expectation-setting.
One dynamic I’ve noticed: when team members get really into a conversation and it becomes a “centithread”, it often benefits from outsider-nudging to remind folks that they’d be better off jumping in a call, and then summarizing the discussion.

JMiller Mar 19, 2015, 5:14 PM
0 points
in reply to: HungryHobo’s comment on: Best Explainers on Different Subjects
Awesome, I’ll be checking this out for sure. I recently began studying computer security; do you have any more recommendations?

JMiller Mar 19, 2015, 5:12 PM
4 points
in reply to: D_Malik’s comment on: Best Explainers on Different Subjects
I appreciate the initiative to send meta-sources rather than single pieces.

JMiller Mar 19, 2015, 5:11 PM
0 points
in reply to: Shmi’s comment on: Best Explainers on Different Subjects
Added to my reading list, thanks!

JMiller Mar 19, 2015, 5:11 PM
4 points
in reply to: Gunnar_Zarncke’s comment on: Best Explainers on Different Subjects
Thanks Gunnar. Luke may not have linked his thread, because I did so in the OP.

JMiller Mar 19, 2015, 5:10 PM
0 points
in reply to: lukeprog’s comment on: Best Explainers on Different Subjects
Thanks, Luke. I’ll be checking your physics recommendations out soon.

JMiller Apr 3, 2014, 4:01 PM
2 points
on: Items to Have In Case of Emergency...Maybe.
If you are often travelling over bridge by car, having a car-knife could be handy in case you go over. The device generally comes equipped with a seat belt cutter, pressurized hammer, and flashlight.

JMiller Feb 14, 2014, 12:29 AM
1 point
on: Some Tools For Optimizing Our Media Use
Some policy issues affected by media in democratic countries: Daniel Komo argues that people hear about trade policy (I imagine this is extensible to other kinds of policy) largely because oppositions have incentive to attack government trade initiatives. But because propagating information is expensive, often opponents will focus attacks on simpler, easier to explain policy decisions, rather then ones that are more complex, since efficient use of space is cheap. He concludes that democratic political competition may lead to what I might call a kind of “reverse” conjunction fallacy: simpler policy decision tend to get more prime-time, coverage, and critism than more complex decisions.

JMiller Feb 12, 2014, 9:32 PM
0 points
in reply to: adbge’s comment on: Open Thread for February 11 − 17
Awesome, thanks so much! If you were to recommend one of these resources to begin with, which would it be?

JMiller Feb 12, 2014, 9:31 PM
0 points
in reply to: Douglas_Knight’s comment on: Open Thread for February 11 − 17
I’m not. The reason I picked it up was because it happens to be the book recommended in MIRI’s course suggestions, but I am not particularly attached to it. Looking again, it seems they do actually recommend SICP on lesswrong, and Learnyouahaskell on intelligence.org.

Thanks for the suggestion.

JMiller Feb 12, 2014, 8:49 PM
2 points
on: Open Thread for February 11 − 17
I am not sure if this deserves it’s own post. I figured I would post here and then add it to discussion if there is sufficient interest.

I recently started reading Learn You A Haskell For Great Good. This is the first time I have attempted to learn a functional language, and I am only a beginner in Imperative languages (Java). I am looking for some exercises that could go along with the e-book. Ideally, the exercises would encourage learning new material in a similar order to how the book is presented. I am happy to substitute/compliment with a different resource as well, if it contains problems that allow one to practice structurally. If you know of any such exercises, I would appreciate a link to them. I am aware that Project Euler is often advised; does it effectively teach programming skills, or just problem solving? (Then again, I am not entirely sure if there is a difference at this point in my education).

Thanks for the help!

JMiller Feb 4, 2014, 3:07 AM
1 point
on: Mind Hacks
Can you please explain more about “Thinking for five minutes of plans that can be executed in five minutes?”

Thanks!

JMiller Oct 10, 2013, 3:45 AM
2 points
in reply to: RolfAndreassen’s comment on: Rewiring my Brain: (gentle) Help Appreciated
I’m not sure how comment notification works here, and whether you will auto-see what I say in other comments, but I am considering a career in software, but not as a programmer necessarily. I want to be more of an administrator/motivator, but I’m floundering in the dark as to how to go about gathering the necessary skills. Hence, I sort of defaulted to more school, since in Montreal university is really cheap. I’m still figuring things out :)

Thanks so much for the post.

JMiller Oct 10, 2013, 3:42 AM
0 points
in reply to: RolfAndreassen’s comment on: Rewiring my Brain: (gentle) Help Appreciated
Perhaps you are right wrt my belief that I understand concepts. An example of what I meant is; while explaining what a derivative is in class today, I understood rather easily what it is used for and how it works. However, as soon as numbers were put on the board, it was harder for me to interpret what was going on.

JMiller Oct 10, 2013, 3:39 AM
0 points
in reply to: savanik’s comment on: Rewiring my Brain: (gentle) Help Appreciated
As I mentioned in another comment, I am not necessarily looking to become a programmer. I am more interested in big-picture design and management, but I figured that I ought to get as good fundamentals as possible first.

JMiller Oct 10, 2013, 3:38 AM
0 points
in reply to: TylerJay’s comment on: Rewiring my Brain: (gentle) Help Appreciated
I said software, but I don’t think I meant programming. I intend to be in some sort of quarterbacking/ management capacity. I think my comparative advantage lies in the intersection between technical work and leadership/social skills. I figured it would be best to learn as much as I can first.