trentmkelly/LessWrong-43k huggingface dataset:
[SEQ RERUN] Singlethink
by MinibearRex — 2011-09-19T01:53:08.498Z

Today's post, Singlethink was originally published on 06 October 2007. A summary (taken from the LW wiki):

The path to rationality begins when you see a great flaw in your existing art, and discover a drive to improve, to create new skills beyond the helpful but inadequate ones you found in books. Eliezer's first step was to catch what it felt like to shove an unwanted fact to the corner of his mind. Singlethink is the skill of not doublethinking

Discuss the post here (rather than in the comments to the original post).
This post is part of the Rerunning the Sequences series, where we'll be going through Eliezer Yudkowsky's old posts in order so that people who are interested can (re-)read and discuss them. The previous post was The Meditation on Curiosity, and you can use the sequence_reruns tag or rss feed to follow the rest of the series.
Sequence reruns are a community-driven effort. You can participate by re-reading the sequence post, discussing it here, posting the next day's sequence reruns post, or summarizing forthcoming articles on the wiki. Go here for more details, or to have meta discussions about the Rerunning the Sequences series.
Rationality and Video Games
by Alexei — 2011-09-18T19:26:01.716Z

There are two points which I want to cover here. First is about my own game, and second is about raising the sanity waterline through games.

Point one: "Girl with a Heart of"

It's been over a year since I found LW community, and as soon as I finished the Sequences I realized I want to dedicate my life to making games that raise the sanity waterline. I've started working on a game to do just that in January 2011. The game is called "Girl with a Heart of", and it's very close to being done. In this game I wanted to present the idea of recursive self-improvement in a way that's intuitively accessible to an average person. I don't think I've succeeded, but I'll leave the discussion of reasons behind that for postmortem. Suffice to say, presenting ideas in text, even if they are part of a game, doesn't make them more intuitive. In fact, the player might as well just read the original article/post.

You can see screenshots of the game here: http://bentspoongames.imgur.com/girl_with_a_heart_of

For the most part, the game is just a choose-your-own adventure game. There is a lot of dialog. There are many various ideas, which I took from LW posts, and you'll probably recognize most of them when you play the game.

I've also started a Kickstarter project to help me finish the game: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/bentspoongames/girl-with-a-heart-of

This is a nice way to preorder the game if you are interested. However, no money will be charged unless the fund goal is met. (If people object to this link, I can remove it.)

I am not asking you for donations, since most people on LW donate to causes that are a lot more important, but I will ask for support. If you have friends that like adventure games, or you have friends that like reading, then let them know about this game. Follow the game - and myself - on Facebook and Twitter. That's where I'll be posting updates about the next game I'll be working on.

Point two: Using games to raise the sanity waterline.

My first game was/will be a bust in terms of this, but the idea itself is not without merit, but I don't want to start discussing game design in this post. What I am looking for are people who are interested in making this happen, whether by doing art, programming, design, PR, or contributing resources: connections, expertise, and/or funding. For me, this will be a full time job (if I can get funding/money) and ...
Timeline of Carl Shulman publications
by lukeprog — 2011-09-18T18:07:54.865Z

All publications I know of:

Which Consequentialism? Machine Ethics and Moral Divergence (2009) - w/ Henrik Jonsson & Nick Tarleton

Machine Ethics and Superintelligence (2009) - w/ Henrik Jonsson & Nick Tarleton

Omohundro's Basic AI Drives and Catastrophic Risks (2010)

Implications of a Software-Limited Singularity (2010) - w/ Anders Sandberg

Superintelligence Does Not Imply Benevolence (2010) - w/ Joshua Fox

Whole Brain Emulation and the Evolution of Superorganisms (2010)

Arms Races and Intelligence Explosions (forthcoming) - w/ Stuart Armstrong

How Hard is Intelligence? The Evolutionary Argument and Observation Selection Effects (forthcoming) - w/ Nick Bostrom
Edge Master Class 2011: Daniel Kahneman, 'The Marvels and Flaws of Intuitive Thinking'
by lukeprog — 2011-09-18T17:39:10.102Z

Linky.

In July, Edge held its annual Master Class in Napa, California on the theme: "The Science of Human Nature". In the coming weeks we will publish the complete video, audio, and texts: Princeton psychologist Daniel Kahneman on the marvels and the flaws of intuitive thinking; Harvard mathematical biologist Martin Nowak on the evolution of cooperation; UC-Santa Barbara evolutionary psychologist Leda Cosmides on the architecture of motivation; UC-Santa Barbara neuroscientist Michael Gazzaniga on neuroscience and the law; Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker on the history of violence; and Princeton religious historian Elaine Pagels on The Book of Revelations.

This is here is the link to video and text of the Kahneman class.
Timeline of book-length works in machine ethics
by lukeprog — 2011-09-18T17:17:26.981Z

Timeline:

Danielson, Artificial Morality: Virtuous Robots for Virtual Games (1992)

Marsh, Formalizing Trust as a Computational Concept (1994)

Yudkowsky, Creating Friendly AI (2001)

Hall, Beyond AI: Creating the Conscience of a Machine (2007)

Wallach & Allen, Moral Machines: Teaching Robots Right from Wrong (2009)

Anderson & Anderson, eds., Machine Ethics (2011)

Lin, Abney, & Bekey, eds., Robot Ethics: The Ethical and Social Implications of Robotics (2011)

Bostrom, Intelligence Explosion: Groundwork for a Strategic Analysis (forthcoming) [mentioned here]
Timeline of major Eliezer Yudkowsky publications
by lukeprog — 2011-09-18T15:53:30.022Z

Below is a timeline of major Eliezer Yudkowsky publications. Note that, to my knowledge, everything on AI before 2006 is now obsolete. That's the nature of a quickly-moving field!

Staring into the Singularity (1996) [Eliezer age 17]

Coding a Transhuman AI 1.0 (1998)

Frequently Asked Questions about the Meaning of Life (1999)

The Plan to Singularity (1999)

Coding a Transhuman AI 2.2 (2000)

General Intelligence and Seed AI (2001)

Creating Friendly AI (2001)

Levels of Organization in General Intelligence (2002)

An Intuitive Explanation of Bayesian Reasoning (2003)

Coherent Extrapolated Volition (2004)

A Technical Explanation of Technical Explanation (2005)

Cognitive Biases Potentially Affecting Judgment of Global Risks (2006)

Artificial Intelligence as a Positive and Negative Factor in Global Risk (2006)

The Less Wrong Sequences (2006-2009)

Three Worlds Collide (2009)

Timeless Decision Theory (2010)

Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality (2010-2011)

Complex Value Systems are Required to Realize Valuable Futures (2011)

The Ethics of Artificial Intelligence (2011) - w/ Nick Bostrom
Your favorite pdfs?
by Solvent — 2011-09-18T11:18:38.184Z

I just got an iPad, which means that for the first time in my life it's convenient for me to read long documents from the internet. I've often looked at things and thought, oh, if I ever have some capability to read that, I should. However, I haven't made a list.

So. What documents in pdf form, or long websites, should I read now that I can? Any recommendations?

EDIT: Thanks for the advice. I'm particularly excited to read Godel, Escher, Bach. I've also downloaded the ePub of the Sequences, and I'm going to certainly look at Strategy of Conflict. Thank you very much for the links.
[SEQ RERUN] The Meditation on Curiosity
by MinibearRex — 2011-09-18T04:07:42.900Z

Today's post, The Meditation on Curiosity was originally published on 06 October 2007. A summary (taken from the LW wiki):

If you can find within yourself the slightest shred of true uncertainty, then guard it like a forester nursing a campfire. If you can make it blaze up into a flame of curiosity, it will make you light and eager, and give purpose to your questioning and direction to your skills.

Discuss the post here (rather than in the comments to the original post).
This post is part of the Rerunning the Sequences series, where we'll be going through Eliezer Yudkowsky's old posts in order so that people who are interested can (re-)read and discuss them. The previous post was Avoiding Your Belief's Real Weak Points, and you can use the sequence_reruns tag or rss feed to follow the rest of the series.
Sequence reruns are a community-driven effort. You can participate by re-reading the sequence post, discussing it here, posting the next day's sequence reruns post, or summarizing forthcoming articles on the wiki. Go here for more details, or to have meta discussions about the Rerunning the Sequences series.
Atheism & the autism spectrum
by gwern — 2011-09-17T23:59:33.910Z

"Religious Belief Systems of Persons with High Functioning Autism":

ABSTRACT: This paper investigates the proposal that individual differences in belief will reflect cognitive processing styles, with high functioning autism being an extreme style that will predispose towards nonbelief (atheism and agnosticism). This view was supported by content analysis of discussion forums about religion on an autism website (covering 192 unique posters), and by a survey that included 61 persons with HFA. Persons with autistic spectrum disorder were much more likely than those in our neurotypical comparison group to identify as atheist or agnostic, and, if religious, were more likely to construct their own religious belief system. Nonbelief was also higher in those who were attracted to systemizing activities, as measured by the Systemizing Quotient.

...Personality psychologists have identified two styles of reasoning: emphasis on logic and emphasis on intuition (Demaria, Kassinove & Dill 1989). As the Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) thinking traits are indicative of a logical cognitive style, we developed a set of thinking traits that would be represented in postings by neurotypical (NT) individuals.
The NT thinking traits embody the complimentary attributes of the ASD thinking traits. For example the NT thinking trait "emphasis on intuition" was developed to compliment the ASD thinking trait "emphasis on logic". The NT thinking traits looked for in the postings were emphasis on intuition, oriented towards social rewards, empathizing, symbolic fluidity/gestalt thinking, and openness to experience.
...[discussion forum analysis:] Religious beliefs were found to differ significantly between the HFA and NT populations, χ2 (12, N=387)= 43.69, p < .01. As shown in Figure 1, individuals with HFA were less likely to belong to an organized religion than their NT counterparts and were more likely to create their own religious belief system. The "own-construction" category comprised 16% of the HFA population as compared to only 6% of the NT population. HFA individuals also demonstrated higher rates of non-belief identities such as Atheism (26%) and Agnosticism (17%). In the NT group, only 17% of the population were Atheists and 10% were Agnostic.
...[survey:] Religious beliefs were found to differ significantly between the HFA and NT populations, __ (12, N= 166) = 22.698, p

...
Terrorists attacking robotics and nanotech researchers
by Matt_Simpson — 2011-09-17T21:10:32.168Z

Apparently a terrorist organization has attacked physicists in Mexico doing research on robotics and nanotech.

An extremist anarchist group known as Individuals Tending to Savagery (ITS) has claimed responsibility for the attack... In statements posted on the Internet, the ITS expresses particular hostility towards nano­technology and computer scientists. It claims that nanotechnology will lead to the downfall of mankind, and predicts that the world will become dominated by self-aware artificial-intelligence technology. Scientists who work to advance such technology, it says, are seeking to advance control over people by 'the system'. The group praises Theodore Kaczynski, the Unabomber, whose anti-technology crusade in the United States in 1978–95 killed three people and injured many others.

When does this become something that SIAI has to worry about?

(H/T to Reddit)
[Help] Critique my Admissions Essay on HPMoR
by ahartell — 2011-09-17T16:15:37.234Z

I mentioned this last week in the open thread and yesterday decided to write it. Since a few people on the site helped me choose this topic and the content is relevant to the site, I thought it would be nice to see what everyone thinks. If a change is suggested that I like I will edit the post. Sorry if I don't implement what may seem to you like an obvious change. I'd like to keep the style as close to mine as possible.

The prompt was to describe a fictional character that influenced you and to describe that influence in 250-500 words.

Below is the Rot13 version of the submitted essay.

Ba snasvpgvba.arg, nzngrhe jevgref qensg aneengvirf hfvat gur jbeyqf naq punenpgref bs bgure nhgubef, naq gurer ner yvgrenyyl gubhfnaqf onfrq ba Uneel Cbggre. Zbfg ner cbbeyl jevggra naq pyvpuéq, ohg fbzr ner vaperqvoyr. Uneel Cbggre naq gur Zrgubqf bs Engvbanyvgl, ol Ryvrmre Lhqxbjfxl, vf bar fhpu fgbel, naq vg punatrq zl yvsr. Gur nqiragher’f cebgntbavfg, Uneel Wnzrf Cbggre-Rinaf-Ireerf, vf vagryyvtrag, phevbhf, naq engvbany, bireynccvat yvggyr jvgu gur oenir-ohg-npnqrzvpnyyl-nirentr Uneel Cbggre bs W.X. Ebjyvat’f pryroengrq jbexf.

Lhqxbjfxl’f vgrengvba bs gur ureb bsgra pvgrf fghqvrf va pbtavgvir cflpubybtl (vafcvevat zber guna n srj abpgheany ovatrf bs nhgbqvqnpgvfz) ohg uvf vasyhrapr ba zr pbzrf sebz ubj ur guvaxf engure guna jung ur xabjf. Vzzrqvngryl hcba ragrevat gur jbeyq bs zntvp, Uneel fgnegf grfgvat naq nanylmvat gur zntvpny sbeprf gung trarengvbaf bs jvmneqf unir nyybjrq gb erznva zlfgrevbhf. Ur qrfvtaf naq cresbezf rkcrevzragf, oryvrivat va uvf bja novyvgl gb svaq gehguf gur hafpvragvsvp jvmneqvat jbeyq unf bireybbxrq. Ur gehfgf uvf bja vagryyvtrapr naq crefrirenapr, naq, hayvxr uvf crref, nccebnpurf rnpu ceboyrz nf vs vg pna or fbyirq. Svanyyl, guvf fgbel’f Uneel vagebqhprq zr gb znal shghevfg vqrnyf, cerfragvat frevbhfyl gur pbaprcgf bs enqvpny yvsr rkgrafvba, pbtavgvir raunaprzrag, naq rkgen-fbyne rkcnafvba.

Lbhat Cbggre gnhtug zr n terng qrny, ohg ur nyfb rssrpgrq npghny punatr va zl yvsr. Uvf vzcerffviryl grpuavpny vaare zbabybthr cbvagf bhg ubj crbcyr bsgra tvir hc cerzngheryl, naq V’ir yrnearq gb bssfrg guvf snvyher. Ol nqbcgvat gur unovg bs ernyyl guvaxvat nobhg fbzrguvat sbe ng yrnfg svir zvahgrf orsber tvivat

...
Requesting advice- where to live
by Carinthium — 2011-09-17T04:58:14.785Z

Most people on this website are probably aware that most people have an irrational bias in favor of living where they're used to- therefore, it is at least worth considering moving somewhere else as the intuitive cost-benefit ratio (if it can even be called that) is likely scewed.

My general knowledge and geography is, however, rather poor. There are a few things I want to know about- some general questions, and some things that require at least some rationality to assess.

What I want to avoid:

-Internet censorship

-Laws restricting my ability to 'go about my buisness' (e.g laws in Europe involving intervening in a crisis)

-Weak economies

-Weak property rights (I'd count everywhere where it's illegal to kill a burgular robbing my home- weak meaning weak relative to what I want, admittedly)

-Places of poor employment for whatever profession I go (most likely lawyers).

It's easy to work out where those are the case now- but gaining a decent model of where a country that's nice to live in may exist in the future (i.e no censorship, strong economy, good employment and wages, little interference in my life) is very, very difficult even in the best case scenario. Furthurmore, it's almost certain I can't secure them all.

Does anybody know of any countries where it is likely that over the next two decades or so these standards are at least likely to be well met? I know it's unlikely, but the expected value of posting this is positive and I place a high enough value on finding out that I'm giving it a try.
[SEQ RERUN] Avoiding Your Belief's Real Weak Points
by MinibearRex — 2011-09-17T02:17:14.944Z

Today's post, Avoiding Your Belief's Real Weak Points was originally published on 05 October 2007. A summary (taken from the LW wiki):

When people doubt, they instinctively ask only the questions that have easy answers. When you're doubting one of your most cherished beliefs, close your eyes, empty your mind, grit your teeth, and deliberately think about whatever hurts the most.

Discuss the post here (rather than in the comments to the original post).
This post is part of the Rerunning the Sequences series, where we'll be going through Eliezer Yudkowsky's old posts in order so that people who are interested can (re-)read and discuss them. The previous post was We Change Our Minds Less Often Than We Think, and you can use the sequence_reruns tag or rss feed to follow the rest of the series.
Sequence reruns are a community-driven effort. You can participate by re-reading the sequence post, discussing it here, posting the next day's sequence reruns post, or summarizing forthcoming articles on the wiki. Go here for more details, or to have meta discussions about the Rerunning the Sequences series.
Fix My Head
by Alicorn — 2011-09-17T01:34:39.479Z

I've been collecting data about my headaches and diet for almost four months now. I don't see any patterns - annoyingly, I get headaches nearly every day, so there's not much information - but I thought I'd post the data set and see if anyone sees anything. Here it is. Hopefully someone finds this an interesting problem.

It's written in note-to-self format (abbreviations like "strawbs" for "strawberries"; if I mention a complicated dish once then I'll shorten it when I eat the leftovers, as "pasta" for "pasta with artichokes and spinach and pesto"; times given approximately and not in a consistent form and often without specifying if they're a.m. or p.m., though they are in chronological order). Quantities aren't given, although if they're suspected to be relevant I may be able to remember specific instances (for unusual foods) or typical portions (for ordinary foods) - other details might also be recollectable similarly. I also don't notice when headaches go away, so I don't know how long they last except when they last all day or become noticeably worse during their course. My sleep schedule varied considerably over this period, but trends more night owl than early bird (for a while I was outright nocturnal). I moved three time zones west at the end of July, should that matter at all.

I'm not soliciting commentary on my diet except insofar as it can be compellingly related to my headaches.

ETA: Assume that every single day I'm drinking lots of skim milk. (2-6 cups depending on how much I eat and how it's spaced out.) There's a couple of exceptions, mostly when I'm in transit for most of a day or run out of milk, but not many and they don't seem to correlate with headaches.
Planning fallacy in the NYTimes
by calcsam — 2011-09-16T22:57:18.409Z

Includes the Kahneman anecdote.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/16/opinion/brooks-the-planning-fallacy.html?hp

This is a repeated theme by Brooks -- his book The Social Animal gives an engaging overview of much of the recent literature in psychology, including a lot of the stuff we discuss here.
Meetup : West LA Meetup 09-20-2011
by  — 2011-09-16T21:29:20.128Z

Discussion article for the meetup : West LA Meetup 09-20-2011

WHEN:
20 September 2011 07:00:00PM (-0700)

WHERE:
10800 West Pico Blvd, Suite 312, Los Angeles, CA 90064

When: 7pm - 9pm Tuesday, September 20th

Where: The Westside Pavillion - on the bridge, which connects Nordstrom 3rd floor with Barnes & Noble / Landmark Theatres 3rd floor.

Parking is free for 3 hours.

Recommended Reading:

-The Cognitive Science of Rationality

-Cached Thoughts

Whether you're a regular reader or totally new, here for the theoretical musings or the practical things, come by and say hello! The conversation is largely unstructured, and the people are awesome.

There will be snacks. I will bring a whiteboard with Bayes' Theorem written on it.

See also: West LA Biweekly Meetups

Discussion article for the meetup : West LA Meetup 09-20-2011
Moral enhancement
by lukeprog — 2011-09-16T21:26:06.212Z

In offline conversations, several Less Wrongers have expressed interest in 'benevolence training'. For those who are interested, here's a head start in the research...

The technical term for this is 'moral enhancement.' The key name here is Thomas Douglas, who wrote his Ph.D. thesis on the topic, and continues to write papers on the subject. A recent overview is his paper Moral Enhancement (2008), reprinted in Enhancing Human Capacities (2011). That chapter is followed by another chapter on the subject, by Persson and Julian Savulescu, who have written other papers on the subject.

Here is a Guardian article on moral enhancement, and here is an interview on the subject for Philosophy Bites.

Some other key terms on the subject are prosocial development and empathy education.

Edit 7/29/2012: Also see Molly Crocket on moral enhancement.
'Utility Indifference' (2010) by FHI researcher Stuart Armstrong
by lukeprog — 2011-09-16T21:02:49.809Z

I just noticed that LessWrong has not yet linked to FHI researcher Stuart Amstrong's brief technical report, Utility Indifference (2010). It opens:

Consider an AI that follows its own motivations. We're not entirely sure what its motivations are, but we would prefer that the AI cooperate with humanity; or, failing that, that we can destroy it before it defects. We'll have someone sitting in a room, their finger on a detonator, ready at the slightest hint of defection.

Unfortunately as has been noted... this does not preclude the AI from misbehaving. It just means that the AI must act to take control of the explosives, the detonators or the human who will press the button. For a superlatively intelligence AI, this would represent merely a slight extra difficulty. But now imagine that the AI was somehow indifferent to the explosives going off or not (but that nothing else was changed). Then if ever the AI does decide to defect, it will most likely do so without taking control of the explosives, as that would be easier than otherwise. By "easier" we mean that the chances of failure are less, since the plan is simpler... recall that under these assumptions, the AI counts getting blown up as an equal value to successfully defecting. How could we accomplish this indifference?
Meetup : Ottawa Weekly Monday LessWrong Meetup
by XFrequentist — 2011-09-16T20:52:14.679Z

Discussion article for the meetup : Ottawa Weekly Monday LessWrong Meetup

WHEN:
19 September 2011 07:30:00PM (-0400)

WHERE:
Pub Italia: 434 Preston St, Ottawa, ON

Details to follow, location may be updated to a private residence in the Elgin & Gladstone area.

Discussion article for the meetup : Ottawa Weekly Monday LessWrong Meetup