[ExI] Progress

[spike]

From: extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org
[mailto:extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org] On Behalf Of Anders Sandberg
Sent: Friday, March 01, 2013 12:54 AM
To: extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org
Subject: Re: [ExI] Progress

 

On 01/03/2013 02:04, spike wrote:

WHOA! Anders, you have been in the presence of GOD! I am in awe! Wow, that
makes me a friend of a guy who has talked with GOD! Definitely, Kasparov
would have made a great extropian. Of course had he shown up here, I would
swoon like a civil war era maiden, and then nobody would be doing the
moderation tasks. But still.


>.But still. He is a fun guy, very smart. (No, chess grandmasters do not
have to be supersmart. As I earlier mentioned, studies show that at first
among kids chess performance correlates with intelligence, but then the
smartest kids get other interests leaving only the merely smart to go on and
dedicate themselves to the game) Pro-technology, pro-freedom, smart, what is
there not to like?

>.His current project is a book with Peter Thiel and Max Levchin about the
need to get back the spirit of innovation. His (their?) analysis of the
difference between horizontal innovation and vertical innovation was pretty
astute.  Anders

 

 

Anders it was a great relief to see your post midnight (PST) comments, for
it indicated the world had not come to an end.  The Keynsians were assuring
us that if sequestration were not averted, the apocalypse would be upon us.
Clearly it is not.  I have a theory that the US would not be destroyed by a
small budget cut.  The evidence is already coming.

 

I would like to have been present when Peter Thiel met Gary Kasparov.  Theil
loooooves chess, with a passion seldom seen.  That would have been fun to
watch a multibillionaire stammer in awe like Ralph Kramden: hammina hammina
hammina.

 

Regarding the spirit of innovation, the way we have chosen to do
intellectual property law in our major corporations is working against
innovation.  More details available soon, after I work out some IP issues,
which should be in the next few days.

 

spike

 

 

 

 

 

 



Earlier this week we had a big debate on the causes of obesity (
http://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2013/02/28/balaji-ravichandran-are-all-calories-equ
al-or-are-some-more-equal-than-others
<http://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2013/02/28/balaji-ravichandran-are-all-calories-eq
ual-or-are-some-more-equal-than-others/>  ) and I think my main take-home
surprise was that obesity suddenly started to grow worldwide (with some
lags) in the late 70s. Yet the causes seems to be fairly complex - I was not
too convinced by the explanations given. In the same way, I think Gary's
(and Tyler Cowen's) analysis of a dearth of innovation post ~1970-1980 is
roughly right, but there doesn't seem to be a really good single
explanation. We have complex systems that seem to shift in a fairly
thourough way fairly quickly. Maybe this is just nonlinear responses or
bifurcations, in which case it might be surprisingly tricky to fix them
other than just keeping trying to change the rules profoundly and hoping
that sooner or later we hit the right combination. 




-- 
Anders Sandberg,
Future of Humanity Institute
Philosophy Faculty of Oxford University 
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