Btw, rumors have been swirling about the Future of Humanity Institute shutting down(!!)–I’ve heard this from multiple people at this point. Does anyone have any extra info they can share with me? Off the record or in confidence would be fine. DM or email me!

  • titotal@awful.systemsEnglish
    20·
    9 months ago

    The future of humanity institute is the EA longtermist organisation at oxford run by swedish philosopher Nick Bostrom, who got in trouble for an old racist email and subsequent bad apology. It is the one that is rumored to be shutting down.

    The Future of Life institute is the EA longtermist organisation run by swedish physicist Max Tegmarck, who got in trouble for offering to fund a neo-nazi newspaper (He didn’t actually go through with it and claimed ignorance). It is the one that got the half a billion dollar windfall.

    I can’t imagine how you managed to conflate these two highly different institutions.

  • AcausalRobotGod@awful.systemsEnglish
    12·
    9 months ago

    Yeah I’d find a way to cut and run if I got that kind of money. Torturing simulated rationalists is fun and all but there are better ways to be a god.

  • TinyTimmyTokyo@awful.systemsEnglish
    62·
    9 months ago

    Sorry for the off-topic rant, but WTF is Emile Torres doing on twitter? Anytime I see someone creating content for that Nazi hellsite, I start looking at them differently.

    • David Gerard@awful.systemsOPMEnglish
      12·
      9 months ago

      it’s where the people he needs to reach are, as this tweet and its thread demonstrated. i’m there too for the same reason, feel free to block.

      • TinyTimmyTokyo@awful.systemsEnglish
        34·
        9 months ago

        I wouldn’t know anything about the thread, as it’s impossible for me to read without a twitter account. Yet another reason why the site is trash.

        But by all means, go on generating content for a bigoted fascist who will use everything you write to increase engagement with his platform and give it undeserved credibility and $$$.

        (And no, I won’t block you.)

        • Soyweiser@awful.systemsEnglish
          8·
          9 months ago

          iirc it costs twitter a lot of money via computing resources when you block a lot of people (this also explains why musk randomly goes on anti blocking as a concept periods, because he doesn’t care ideologically, it just is expensive) so blocking a few tens of thousand people, and installing a good adblocker might make you a net negative source of cash for twitter. Not that I think it is going well with the massive amount of bots on there (including a big amount of them verified, im amazed the site is still going on).