10 Matching Annotations
  1. Aug 2015
    1. A lot of very smart people are quite hapless at actually getting big things done — particularly when getting things done requires working with people less smart than they are

      When someone is good at getting things done, or good at organizing people, that skill is intelligence, broadly defined as the AGI researchers use it. "IQ" is a narrow definition of intelligence; AGI researchers sometimes use "efficient cross-domain optimization", which shows the difference. "A lot of very high-IQ people are quite hapless at actually getting big things done" is correct, but "a lot of people-who-are-very-fast-and-effective-at-a-great-many-different-things are quite hapless..." is obviously incorrect.

    2. It seems more likely that a superintelligent AI would be completely disinterested in humans than that it would dedicate itself to their destruction.

      Humans have made many species extinct, not because we wanted to exterminate them, but because we were disinterested in them, and wanted to use them or their habitats for something else.

      Humans and their habitats are made of useful materials.

      Also, humans may have exterminated the Neanderthals, not necessarily because we hated them, but because they wanted things (like territory and resources) that we had other uses for.

    3. I don't understand why the obviously smart thing to do would be to kill all the humans. The smarter I get the less I want to kill all the humans! Why wouldn't these really smart machines not want to be helpful?

      Other minds don't always have the same goals as humans. This is obvious in cases like sex, humor, or liking for music - we don't find it hard to imagine other minds that don't enjoy those things. But it is also true for drives such as compassion, or even self-preservation - even if the mind is very intelligent.

      Academics call this the orthogonality thesis. A short presentation of it is here, and a paper about it is here.

  2. May 2015
    1. the food ban list supported by Republicans bans organic foods and a great many products that have nutritional value.

      The author confuses the WIC program list with this bill. This bill only prevents you from buying shellfish with SNAP benefits, and prevents more than a third being spent on unapproved foods.

    2. The list of “disallowed” foods, which you can view here, also includes the following

      This list is for the WIC program, which is different from the SNAP program that the bill is about.

    3. the bill goes on to mention a list of groceries that poor people will no longer be able to purchase

      The author is confusing this bill with a different Wisconsin program, WIC. The bill's list is short: "The department shall prohibit the use of benefits to purchase crab, lobster, shrimp, or any other shellfish."

      The author seems to believe the WIC approved food list is in this bill, but it isn't.

    4. The legislation specifically bans poor people from buying any kind of shellfish, including lobster, shrimp, and crab.

      This is incorrect. The bill prevents SNAP benefits being used to buy shellfish, but doesn't ban poor people from buying shellfish outright.

    5. Assembly Bill 177 seeks to ban people who rely on food stamps to survive on a daily basis from buying a huge list of products

      This is incorrect for the same reasons given in the above annotation.

    6. a bill that would ban them from eating a multitude of foods

      This is incorrect. The bill does not ban people from eating any foods. It bans people from buying shellfish with SNAP benefits. It also bans people from spending more than a third of their SNAP benefits on unapproved foods.

    7. Wisconsin GOP Passes Bill Banning Poor People From Buying Shellfish, Potatoes And Ketchup

      This headline is inaccurate. The bill prevents SNAP benefits from being used to buy shellfish, but people are still allowed to buy shellfish with non-SNAP money. The bill also prevents people from using more than a third of their SNAP benefits on food that's not on an approved list, but potatoes are on that list, so people can spend all their benefits on potatoes if they want. Ketchup is unapproved, so people can spend only a third of their SNAP benefits on ketchup.