Fluidity

A Future We Would Like - The most important questions are not about technology but about us. What sorts of future would we like? What role could AI play in getting us there, and also in that world? What is your own role in helping that happen?

https://betterwithout.ai/a-future-we-would-like

How AI Destroyed The Future -We are doing a terrible job of thinking about the most important question because unimaginably powerful evil artificial intelligences are controlling our brains.

https://betterwithout.ai/AI-destroyed-the-future

A One-Bit Future - Superintelligence scenarios reduce the future to infinitely good or infinitely bad. Both are possible, but we cannot reason about or act toward them. Messy complicated good-and-bad futures are probably more likely, and in any case are more feasible to influence.

https://betterwithout.ai/one-bit-future

This episode mentions David Chapman's essay "Vaster Than Ideology" for getting AI out of your head.

Text link: https://meaningness.com/vaster-than-ideology

Episode link: https://fluidity.libsyn.com/vaster-than-ideology

You can support the podcast and get episodes a week early, by supporting the Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/m/fluidityaudiobooks If you like the show, consider buying me a coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/mattarnold Original music by Kevin MacLeod. This podcast is under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial International 4.0 License.

Stop obstructing scientific progress! We already know how to dramatically accelerate science: by getting out of the way. https://betterwithout.ai/stop-obstructing-science How to science better. What do exceptional scientists do differently from mediocre ones? Can we train currently-mediocre ones to do better? https://betterwithout.ai/better-science-without-AI Scenius: upgrading science FTW. Empirically, breakthroughs that enable great progress depend on particular, uncommon social constellations and accompanying social practices. Let's encourage these! https://betterwithout.ai/human-scenius-vs-artificial-genius Matt Clancy reviews the evidence for scientific progress slowing, with citations and graphs. https://twitter.com/mattsclancy/status/1612440718177603584 "Scenius, or Communal Genius", Kevin Kelly, The Technium. https://kk.org/thetechnium/scenius-or-comm/

Progress requires experimentation. Suggested ways AI could speed progress by automating experiments appear mistaken. https://betterwithout.ai/limits-to-induction You can support the podcast and get episodes a week early, by supporting the Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/m/fluidityaudiobooks If you like the show, consider buying me a coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/mattarnold Original music by Kevin MacLeod. This podcast is under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial International 4.0 License.

Forgive the sound quality on this episode; I recorded it live in front of an audience on a platform floating in a lake during the 2024 solar eclipse.

This is a standalone essay by David Chapman on metarationaity.com. How scientific research is like cunnilingus: a phenomenology of epistemology.

https://metarationality.com/going-down-on-the-phenomenon

You can support the podcast and get episodes a week early, by supporting the Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/m/fluidityaudiobooks If you like the show, consider buying me a coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/mattarnold Original music by Kevin MacLeod. This podcast is under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial International 4.0 License.

What Is The Role Of Intelligence In Science?

Actually, what are "science" and "intelligence"? Precise, explicit definitions aren't necessary, but discussions of Transformative AI seem to depend implicitly on particular models of both. It matters if those models are wrong.

https://betterwithout.ai/intelligence-in-science

Katja Grace, "Counterarguments to the basic AI x-risk case". https://aiimpacts.org/counterarguments-to-the-basic-ai-x-risk-case/ What Do Unusually Intelligent People Do?

If we want to know what a superintelligent AI might do, and how, it could help to investigate what the most intelligent humans do, and how. If we want to know how to dramatically accelerate science and technology development, it could help to investigate what the best scientists and technologists do, and how.

https://betterwithout.ai/what-intelligent-people-do Patrick Collison and Tyler Cowen, "We Need a New Science of Progress," The Atlantic, July 30, 2019. https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/07/we-need-new-science-progress/594946/ Gwern Branwen, "Catnip immunity and alternatives". https://www.gwern.net/Catnip#optimal-catnip-alternative-selection-solving-the-mdp You can support the podcast and get episodes a week early, by supporting the Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/m/fluidityaudiobooks If you like the show, consider buying me a coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/mattarnold Original music by Kevin MacLeod. This podcast is under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial International 4.0 License.

Radical Progress Without Scary AI: Technological progress, in medicine for example, provides an altruistic motivation for developing more powerful AIs. I suggest that AI may be unnecessary, or even irrelevant, for that. We may be able to get the benefits without the risks.

https://betterwithout.ai/radical-progress-without-AI

What kind of AI might accelerate technological progress?: "Narrow" AI systems, specialized for particular technical tasks, are probably feasible, useful, and safe. Let's build those instead of Scary superintelligence.

https://betterwithout.ai/what-AI-for-progress

Recognize that AI is probably net harmful: Actually-existing and near-future AIs are net harmful—never mind their longer-term risks. We should shut them down, not pussyfoot around hoping they can somehow be made safe. https://betterwithout.ai/AI-is-harmful Create a negative public image for AI: Most funding for AI research comes from the advertising industry. Their primary motivation may be to create a positive corporate image, to offset their obvious harms. Creating bad publicity for AI would eliminate their incentive to fund it. https://betterwithout.ai/AI-is-public-relations Seth Lazar's "Legitimacy, Authority, and the Political Value of Explanations": https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/2208/2208.08628.pdf Kate Crawford's "Atlas Of AI": https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08WKQ1MTM/?tag=meaningness-20 You can support the podcast and get episodes a week early, by supporting the Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/m/fluidityaudiobooks If you like the show, consider buying me a coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/mattarnold Original music by Kevin MacLeod. This podcast is under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial International 4.0 License.

"Apocalypse now" identified the corrosive influence of new viral ideologies, created unintentionally by recommender systems, as a major AI risk. These may cause social collapse if not tackled head-on. You can resist. https://betterwithout.ai/spurn-artificial-ideology Announcement tweet for the Opening Awareness, Opening Rationality discussion group starting on February 1: https://twitter.com/openingBklyn/status/1751314312415567956 Document with more details: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1YPaos3zTgdraF9VouWkHUouVHVsrbYBluUO3Kh--Ezs/edit Vaster Than Ideology (text): https://meaningness.com/vaster-than-ideology Vaster Than Ideology (Fluidity Audiobooks episode): https://fluidity.libsyn.com/vaster-than-ideology Coinbase Is A Mission Focused Company: https://www.coinbase.com/blog/coinbase-is-a-mission-focused-company You can support the podcast and get episodes a week early, by supporting the Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/m/fluidityaudiobooks If you like the show, consider buying me a coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/mattarnold Original music by Kevin MacLeod. This podcast is under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial International 4.0 License.

Current AI practices produce technologies that are expensive, difficult to apply in real-world situations, and inherently unsafe. Neglected scientific and engineering investigations can bring better understanding of specific risks of current AI technology, and can lead to safer technologies. https://betterwithout.ai/fight-unsafe-AI You can support the podcast and get episodes a week early, by supporting the Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/m/fluidityaudiobooks If you like the show, consider buying me a coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/mattarnold Music is by Kevin MacLeod. This podcast is under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial International 4.0 License.

The technologies underlying current AI systems are inherently, unfixably unreliable. They should be deprecated, avoided, regulated, and replaced. https://betterwithout.ai/mistrust-machine-learning You can support the podcast and get episodes a week early, by supporting the Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/m/fluidityaudiobooks If you like the show, consider buying me a coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/mattarnold Music is by Kevin MacLeod. This podcast is under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial International 4.0 License.