[ExI] what the hell was i thinking?

Darin Sunley dsunley at gmail.com
Tue Mar 12 19:14:29 UTC 2019


Lol. I'm not sure I'm the guy for marketing. But yeah, there's a definitely
a serious professed lack of imagination happening there that is barely
credible, coming from such smart people. Like, you're seriously proposing
to put together a world-class research team to develop a technology that,
if successful, would change the most basic assumptions underlying the
entire edifice of laws and ethics that western civilization is built on,
and your plan is to use it for targeted advertising!? That's like using a
supercomputer for a space heater and night light! Or using Sauron's ring
just to turn invisible and eavesdrop on your neighbors!

Some relatively small number of years from now Facebook is going to be an
AGI with a Dunbar's number in the high 9 digits, that is close, personal
friends with everyone on the planet simultaneously, and the human
figureheads will still be mostly blathering about how revolutionary this is
for the advertising business. It'll literally be Friendship is Optimal,
only without the ponies.

On Tue, Mar 12, 2019 at 12:53 PM Adrian Tymes <atymes at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Tue, Mar 12, 2019 at 9:06 AM <spike at rainier66.com> wrote:
> > This brings up an uncomfortable question however.  The mainstream press
> keeps saying this whole concept is creepy.  Any time I see anything I
> consider wicked cool, the mainstream press calls it creepy.  That doesn’t
> look good for the old Spikemeister.
>
> Nah, it looks worse for the mainstream press.
>
> > However, I want this anyway.  If FB can get this to work, I want to know
> what is going on in here.  If I have a way to find out, I can tell myself.
> A long time ago, Socrates suggested: know thyself.  OK cool, now we can.
>
> Ehhh...I'm not sure FB is capable of getting this to work.
>
> This is distinct from the question of whether it could work at all,
> given an optimal team.  I'm just not certain FB is culturally capable
> of acquiring and assembling the needed expertise, and giving them the
> resources they need to make it work while not giving them the
> anti-resources that make failure far more likely.
>
> > Then we can rig up some kind of automated recording/archiving system
> which we can carry along with us.  Then I can answer a question I have
> often asked myself: what, if anything, was I thinking?
>
> That "if anything" alludes to the more important question: were you
> thinking?  Can this distinguish between those with active minds and
> those who allow themselves to stop rationally considering what they
> perceive?
>
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