JoshuaFox

• JoshuaFoxOct 21, 2021, 12:56 PM

  33 points

  in reply to: ChristianKl’s comment on: My ex­pe­rience at and around MIRI and CFAR (in­spired by Zoe Curzi’s writeup of ex­pe­riences at Lev­er­age)

  I organized that, so let me say that:

  • That online meetup, or the invitation to Vassar, was not officially affiliated to or endorsed by SSC. Any responsibility for inviting him is mine.

  • I have conversed with him a few times, as follows:

  • I met him in Israel around 2010. He was quite interesting, though he did try to get me to withdraw my retirement savings to invest with him. He was somewhat persuasive. During our time in conversation, he made some offensive statements, but I am perhaps less touchy about such things than the younger generation.

  • In 2012, he explained Acausal Trade to me, and that was the seed of this post. That discussion was quite sensible and I thank him for that.

  • A few years later, I invited him to speak at LessWrong Israel. At that time I thought him a mad genius—truly both. His talk was verging on incoherence, with flashes of apparent insight.

  • Before the online meetup, 2021, he insisted on a preliminary talk; he made statements that produced twinges of persuasiveness. (Introspecting that is kind of interesting, actually.) I stayed with it for 2 or more hours before begging off, because it was fascinating in a way. I was able to analyze his techniques as Dark Arts. Apparently I am mature enough to shrug off such techniques.

  • His talk at my online meetup was even less coherent than any before, with multiple offensive elements. Indeed, I believe it was a mistake to have him on.

  If I have offended anyone, I apologize, though I believe that letting someone speak is generally not something to be afraid of. But I wouldn’t invite him again.

  What links here?

  • De­cen­tral­ized Exclusion by jefftk (Mar 13, 2023, 3:50 PM; 27 points)
  • titotal's comment on Abuse in LessWrong and ra­tio­nal­ist com­mu­ni­ties in Bloomberg News by whistleblower67 (EA Forum; Mar 8, 2023, 11:23 AM; 24 points)

Jonathan Blow at the As­tralCodexTen On­line Meetup

Sam Alt­man at the As­tralCodexTen On­line Meetup

Bram Co­hen at the As­tralCodexTen On­line Meetup

Daniel M. In­gram at the As­tralCodexTen On­line Meetup

• JoshuaFoxMay 31, 2021, 10:05 AM

  2 points

  in reply to: Charlie Steiner’s comment on: What is the most effec­tive way to donate to AGI XRisk miti­ga­tion?

  Thank you. Can you point me to a page on FLI’s latest grants? What I found was from a few years back. Is there another organizations whose grants are worthy of attention?

• JoshuaFoxMay 31, 2021, 10:04 AM

  2 points

  in reply to: adamShimi’s comment on: What is the most effec­tive way to donate to AGI XRisk miti­ga­tion?

  Thank you. Can you link to some of the better publications by Wentworth, Turner, and yourself? I’ve found mentions of each of you online but I’m not finding a canonical source for the recommended items.

  • I found this about Steve Byrnes

  • This about Beth Barnes

• JoshuaFoxMay 30, 2021, 3:38 PM

  4 points

  in reply to: Rafael Harth’s comment on: What is the most effec­tive way to donate to AGI XRisk miti­ga­tion?

  Thank you! That is valuable. I’d love to get also educated opinions on the quality of the research of some of these, with a focus on foundational or engineering research aimed at superhuman-AGI XRIsk (done mostly, I think, in MIRI, FHI, and by Christiano), but that article is great.

What is the most effec­tive way to donate to AGI XRisk miti­ga­tion?

Scott Aaron­son at the As­tralCodexTen On­line Meetup

An­drés Gómez Emils­son at the As­tralCodexTen On­line Meetup

• JoshuaFoxApr 15, 2021, 3:32 PM

  2 points

  in reply to: Capybasilisk’s comment on: Ben Go­ertzel’s “Kinds of Minds”

  Thank you. Also Sloman’s The structure of the space of possible minds. All these are worthwhile articles, but I’d like to highlight Goertzel’s discussion of kinds of embodiment.

Ben Go­ertzel’s “Kinds of Minds”

Jaan Tal­linn at the Slate Star Codex On­line Meetup

Zvi Mow­show­itz at the SSC On­line Meetup

• JoshuaFoxFeb 21, 2021, 2:29 PM

  3 points

  on: Se­cond Ci­ti­zen­ships, Res­i­den­cies, and/​or Tem­po­rary Relocation

  Israel: “A monthly payment...Assistance finding a place to live...Free Hebrew classes...Probably quite a bit more.” There is a basket of benefits: The point is to help in settling into the country.

  In total, these are not a lot of money, but do ease the process of absorption.

• JoshuaFoxFeb 21, 2021, 2:26 PM

  2 points

  on: Se­cond Ci­ti­zen­ships, Res­i­den­cies, and/​or Tem­po­rary Relocation

  Israel: “Waived taxes for 10 years!… (These may not be fully waived; maybe they’re just reduced. …).” Reduced is a better way to say it. Various taxes, including income and property tax, are reduced.

  The 10-year period you are thinking of is on income generated investments. from outside Israel. If you are American, however, that does not much help as the US government will then grab the tax (as there is then no “double taxation” issue for those 10 years).

• JoshuaFoxFeb 21, 2021, 2:23 PM

  3 points

  on: Se­cond Ci­ti­zen­ships, Res­i­den­cies, and/​or Tem­po­rary Relocation

  “[p]rograms in...Israel require your physical presence in the country.” You are expected to be moving here, but preliminary registration steps (which that sentence is mostly talking about) are usually done from outside Israel.

• JoshuaFoxFeb 21, 2021, 2:20 PM

  3 points

  on: Se­cond Ci­ti­zen­ships, Res­i­den­cies, and/​or Tem­po­rary Relocation

  Where did you see that “Israel… tax[es] citizens living anywhere in the world”? I’ve never heard of that. Various sources state that it only the United States and Eritrea.

Stu­art Arm­strong at the SSC On­line Meetup