London meetup: "The Friendly AI Problem"
post by Roko · 2010-01-19T23:35:47.131Z · LW · GW · Legacy · 28 commentsContents
28 comments
To all LessWrongers in London/the south of England: On Saturday the 23rd - this Saturday at 2pm - I will be speaking about Friendly AI at the UK transhumanist group, at
Room 416, 4th floor (via main lift), Birkbeck College, Torrington Square, London (Map)
For those who have read most of the material on the web about FAI theory, e.g. the sequences here and the material of Bostrom and Omohundro, you won't hear much new, but you will probably meet a lot of people who could do with some strong rationalists to speak to. For those who haven't read most of the material about Friendly AI, I'll try to make it a superlatively informative talk. The Facebook event has 30 confirmed guests, and the London Futurists' organizer (distinct from UK h+, the hosts), just emailed me and said:
"Looking forward to meeting you and asking you questions on Saturday! I think your going to get quite a few as there is a lot of interest from my group about your presentation - positive and negative. You might get a very skeptical geezer coming along so be prepared for some tough questions from people who know their stuff."
So the event promises to be a fairly large gathering of rationalists, futurists and transhumanists with a high probability of passionate debate about FAI, followed by a trip to the pub for further discussion and drinks.
28 comments
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comment by MichaelGR · 2010-01-20T00:35:04.303Z · LW(p) · GW(p)
Could you, or someone who's attending, please film it?
It's a low cost way to reach a much bigger audience (I'd go, but I'm on another continent).
Replies from: CarlShulman↑ comment by CarlShulman · 2010-01-20T02:51:08.137Z · LW(p) · GW(p)
I believe it will be put on YouTube.
Replies from: dw2↑ comment by dw2 · 2010-01-24T20:24:21.823Z · LW(p) · GW(p)
It should appear on http://www.youtube.com/user/KoanPhilosopher within a day or two.
The same channel already contains videos of several previous UKH+ meetings
comment by Tiiba · 2010-01-20T03:09:40.945Z · LW(p) · GW(p)
Ah, so you intend to discuss a deus est machina while hammered. This will end well.
Replies from: Cyan, whpearson, orthonormal↑ comment by whpearson · 2010-01-20T10:33:27.157Z · LW(p) · GW(p)
As a datapoint, the last meetup of this type I went to only had a fairly moderate amount of drinking. At least while I was there. Pubs are still the least worst venue for getting lots of people together to socialise in an informal setting.
↑ comment by orthonormal · 2010-01-20T03:16:24.236Z · LW(p) · GW(p)
deus est machina
Was that intentional or a felicitous typo? I still prefer "god from the machine" to "a god is a machine".
comment by whpearson · 2010-01-20T00:25:44.303Z · LW(p) · GW(p)
I'm coming a long.
Replies from: Roko, ciphergoth↑ comment by Roko · 2010-01-20T00:29:17.747Z · LW(p) · GW(p)
Great. Maybe all LW'ers should wear some distinguishing mark, like a Map stuck to their clothes?
Replies from: Steve_Rayhawk, Vladimir_Nesov↑ comment by Steve_Rayhawk · 2010-01-20T03:27:43.927Z · LW(p) · GW(p)
a Map stuck to their clothes
Then a better symbol would be a surveyor's theodolite, maybe with a map (or paper), a ruler, and a drafting compass.
I've also suggested a balance scale (decision theory) with an urn full of colored balls (Bayesian inference). Another symbol could be a locket (something to protect).
Replies from: Kaj_Sotala↑ comment by Kaj_Sotala · 2010-01-20T10:28:11.687Z · LW(p) · GW(p)
I'm kinda partial to the black flowing robe filled with intricate, silver-colored mathematical equations, myself. But that might be a bit elaborate for everyday use.
Replies from: wedrifid↑ comment by wedrifid · 2010-01-20T11:02:33.635Z · LW(p) · GW(p)
Awesome. Where do I buy one?
Replies from: Kaj_Sotala↑ comment by Kaj_Sotala · 2010-01-20T11:13:02.258Z · LW(p) · GW(p)
If you're willing to pay some extra for having it handmade, there are plenty of people who would be ready to make you one.
(And now that you brought it up, you made me semi-seriously consider actually getting one made. I have a bunch of friends and friends of friends who have cosplay as a hobby, so I might be able to get it cheaper than by going through a professional. Hmm... then I'd only need to decide on the equations I wanted on it.)
Replies from: wedrifid, pozorvlak, wedrifid↑ comment by pozorvlak · 2010-01-20T23:39:32.756Z · LW(p) · GW(p)
I have a half-face mask along those lines made for me by an ex-girlfriend. Sadly, she was not a mathematician, so the specific formulae aren't of much interest. Nice to have for the occasional costumed ball, though.
I met a bloke once who had Euclid's proof of Pythagoras' theorem tattooed on his arm, and got into a drunken argument with him about whether or not he should have chosen a more elegant proof.
↑ comment by Vladimir_Nesov · 2010-01-20T01:56:57.609Z · LW(p) · GW(p)
Go LW T-shirts!
Replies from: MichaelGR, whpearson↑ comment by MichaelGR · 2010-01-20T02:14:31.740Z · LW(p) · GW(p)
They design themselves.
On the front of the t-shirt on the left side you put a paper map with the word "Map" under it.
On the right, you put a 3D landscape (mountains, etc) with "Territory" written under it.
In between those two, you put "≠" (the "isn't equal to" symbol).
Voilà!
Replies from: Steve_Rayhawk↑ comment by Steve_Rayhawk · 2010-01-20T03:52:41.160Z · LW(p) · GW(p)
you put a 3D landscape (mountains, etc) with "Territory" written under it.
[...]
Voilà!
("Ceci n'est pas un territoire")
Replies from: RobinZ↑ comment by RobinZ · 2010-01-20T03:58:47.781Z · LW(p) · GW(p)
It might be particularly delicious to draw a map with a copyright trap for the illustration.
↑ comment by whpearson · 2010-01-20T02:25:03.528Z · LW(p) · GW(p)
I'm really tempted to make funny/silly T-shirts along the lines of
The anthropic principle says that the conditional probability that you are in a universe that allows reading at the moment is 1.*
T-shirts with one or two boxes on to indicate how you would play with Omega.
*At least according to Jurgen Schmidhuber via wikipedia because a universe where you can't read the t-shirt is inconsistent with reading the t-shirt. Yes it is a bit weak, but it is the best Anthropic principle joke I could come up with late at night.
Replies from: JamesAndrix, Nick_Tarleton, wedrifid↑ comment by JamesAndrix · 2010-01-20T18:08:11.154Z · LW(p) · GW(p)
I've pondered one that said "Cryocrasinating"
↑ comment by Nick_Tarleton · 2010-01-20T02:43:32.747Z · LW(p) · GW(p)
Blue and Green?
↑ comment by Paul Crowley (ciphergoth) · 2010-01-20T06:24:24.084Z · LW(p) · GW(p)
I'll be there. I look like this.
comment by ShannonVyff · 2010-01-21T13:16:04.042Z · LW(p) · GW(p)
I'll be attending. I've been reading "Science Fiction And Philosophy" and enjoyed the section on Ethics within AI and with creating AI. I'll be bring my youngest child, age 8 who has been reading "21st Century Kids" and really thinking about AI and her own sense of self for the first time in depth. Will be a great talk, look forward to it!