“Monthly Roundup #16: March 2024” by Zvi

AI developments have picked up the pace. That does not mean that everything else stopped to get out of the way. The world continues.

Do I have the power?

Emmett Shear speaking truth: Wielding power is of course potentially dangerous and it should be done with due care, but there is no virtue in refusing the call.

There is also an art to avoiding power, and some key places to exercise it. Be keenly aware of when having power in a given context would ruin everything.

Natural General Lack of Intelligence in Tech

Eliezer Yudkowsky reverses course, admits aliens are among us and we have proof.

Eliezer Yudkowsky: To understand the user interfaces on microwave ovens, you need to understand that microwave UI designers are aliens. As in, literal nonhuman aliens who infiltrated Earth, who believe that humans desperately want to hear piercingly [...]

---

Outline:

(00:40) Natural General Lack of Intelligence in Tech

(04:47) Bad International News

(05:20) Dopamine Culture

(07:56) Customer Service

(08:53) Environmentalists Sabotaging the Environment

(09:11) Government Working

(17:41) On the Media

(20:13) Crime and Punishment

(27:40) Good News, Everyone

(33:27) The Time That is Given to Us

(39:56) Hotel Six Hundred

(41:10) While I Cannot Condone This

(48:00) Societal Tendencies

(49:56) Such Sufferin

(54:23) The Good and Bad of Academia

(56:31) Think of the Children

(01:01:38) Was Democracy a Mistake?

(01:04:30) The Philosophy of Fantasy

(01:07:26) Sports Go Sports

(01:19:51) Gamers Gonna Game Game Game Game Game

(01:37:50) The Virtue of Silence

(01:38:02) The Lighter Side

---

First published:
March 19th, 2024

Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/iCvdqrkWg34FNFZYg/monthly-roundup-16-march-2024

---

Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.