The Nonlinear Library LW - Monthly Roundup #12: November 2023 by Zvi
Nov 15, 2023
51:27
Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: Monthly Roundup #12: November 2023, published by Zvi on November 15, 2023 on LessWrong.
Things on the AI front have been rather hectic. That does not mean other things stopped happening. Quite the opposite. So here we are again.
Bad News
PSA: Crumbl Cookies, while delicious, have rather a lot of calories, 720 in the basic cookie. Yes, they display this as 180, by deciding serving size is a quarter of a cookie. This display strategy is pretty outrageous and should not be legal, we need to do something about unrealistic serving sizes - at minimum, require that the serving size be displayed in same size font as the calorie count.
It really is weird that we don't think about Russia, and especially the USSR, more in terms of the universal alcoholism.
Reminder that there really is an architecture conspiracy to make life worse. Peter Eisnman straight out says: "Anxiety and alienation is the modern condition. The point of architecture is to constantly remind you of it. I feel anxious. I want buildings to make you anxious!" There is also, in response to being asked if perhaps it would be better for there to be less anxiety not more: "And so the role of art or architecture might be just to remind people that everything wasn't all right.
My wife is exploring anime recently. It has its charms, but the rate of 'this thing multiple friends recommended is actually pretty boring' is remarkably high. New generations have other concerns.
Avary: growing up is realizing a lot of the anime you watched and loved as a kid is actually problematic af so you're stuck between exposing yourself with defending it or hating on it with everyone else…
Tom Kitten: Zoomers basically exist in a technological panopticon of continual anxiety about conforming to the latest updates in moral standards & moral panics, but they're told the alternative is Nazism so many just try to adopt a "haha isn't it weird" attitude about it.
Can I suggest a third way? You don't have to say anything. If you love an anime and others are calling it problematic, you don't have to defend it and you don't have to condemn it. You can enjoy your anime in peace. I get that there's a lot more of the 'silence is violence' and compelled speech thing going on, but I will need a lot more evidence of real consequences of silence before I stop pushing it as a strategy in such spots.
'As a bioethicist, I support requiring students to take ethics.' Ethics professors continue to show why they are no more ethical than the general population. We badly need ethics, but almost nothing labeled with the term 'ethics' contains ethics. Recent events have made this far clearer.
Republicans continue to prioritize not letting the IRS build a free digital tax filing system. I have other priorities, but important to note pure unadulterated evil. Even an ethicists get this one right.
Tipping indeed completely out of control, potential AI edition?
Flo Crivello: TK tried to warn us but you wouldn't listen.
Molson: I was just asked to tip a hotel booking website.
Good News, Everyone
Lighthaven, a campus in Berkeley, California, is now available for bookings for team retreats, conferences, parties and lodgings. Parties are $25-$75 per person, other uses are $100-$250 per day per person. I have been to two events here, and the space worked exceptionally well as a highly human-friendly, relaxing and beautiful place, with solid catering, good snacks and other resources, and lots of breakout areas. Future events being held here definitely raises my chance of attending, versus other locations in The Bay.
All is once again right with the world, Patrick McKenzie now gets his insurance from Warren Buffet. Because of course he does. Fun thread.
Magnolia Bakery to make weed edibles, but for now only for dispensaries in other states: Illinois, Nevada and Massachusetts...
Things on the AI front have been rather hectic. That does not mean other things stopped happening. Quite the opposite. So here we are again.
Bad News
PSA: Crumbl Cookies, while delicious, have rather a lot of calories, 720 in the basic cookie. Yes, they display this as 180, by deciding serving size is a quarter of a cookie. This display strategy is pretty outrageous and should not be legal, we need to do something about unrealistic serving sizes - at minimum, require that the serving size be displayed in same size font as the calorie count.
It really is weird that we don't think about Russia, and especially the USSR, more in terms of the universal alcoholism.
Reminder that there really is an architecture conspiracy to make life worse. Peter Eisnman straight out says: "Anxiety and alienation is the modern condition. The point of architecture is to constantly remind you of it. I feel anxious. I want buildings to make you anxious!" There is also, in response to being asked if perhaps it would be better for there to be less anxiety not more: "And so the role of art or architecture might be just to remind people that everything wasn't all right.
My wife is exploring anime recently. It has its charms, but the rate of 'this thing multiple friends recommended is actually pretty boring' is remarkably high. New generations have other concerns.
Avary: growing up is realizing a lot of the anime you watched and loved as a kid is actually problematic af so you're stuck between exposing yourself with defending it or hating on it with everyone else…
Tom Kitten: Zoomers basically exist in a technological panopticon of continual anxiety about conforming to the latest updates in moral standards & moral panics, but they're told the alternative is Nazism so many just try to adopt a "haha isn't it weird" attitude about it.
Can I suggest a third way? You don't have to say anything. If you love an anime and others are calling it problematic, you don't have to defend it and you don't have to condemn it. You can enjoy your anime in peace. I get that there's a lot more of the 'silence is violence' and compelled speech thing going on, but I will need a lot more evidence of real consequences of silence before I stop pushing it as a strategy in such spots.
'As a bioethicist, I support requiring students to take ethics.' Ethics professors continue to show why they are no more ethical than the general population. We badly need ethics, but almost nothing labeled with the term 'ethics' contains ethics. Recent events have made this far clearer.
Republicans continue to prioritize not letting the IRS build a free digital tax filing system. I have other priorities, but important to note pure unadulterated evil. Even an ethicists get this one right.
Tipping indeed completely out of control, potential AI edition?
Flo Crivello: TK tried to warn us but you wouldn't listen.
Molson: I was just asked to tip a hotel booking website.
Good News, Everyone
Lighthaven, a campus in Berkeley, California, is now available for bookings for team retreats, conferences, parties and lodgings. Parties are $25-$75 per person, other uses are $100-$250 per day per person. I have been to two events here, and the space worked exceptionally well as a highly human-friendly, relaxing and beautiful place, with solid catering, good snacks and other resources, and lots of breakout areas. Future events being held here definitely raises my chance of attending, versus other locations in The Bay.
All is once again right with the world, Patrick McKenzie now gets his insurance from Warren Buffet. Because of course he does. Fun thread.
Magnolia Bakery to make weed edibles, but for now only for dispensaries in other states: Illinois, Nevada and Massachusetts...