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Comment by insufferablejake on Coronavirus: Justified Practical Advice Thread · 2020-03-02T09:34:50.185Z · LW · GW

There seems to be a general variance in what pulse oximeters display when measuring healthy individuals with readings from 94% - 100%. I also seem to remember reading that they are sensitive to altitude, whether hands are cold etc (n.b typing on phone, can't verify at the mo)

Talking to a doctor friend -- in clinical settings if an oximeter shows a reading < 90%, it's considered serious, but different people respond differently, but closely enough for the purposes of this discussion to fall into two groups. Either you develop a shortness of breath by the time its at 92%, for eg., and you have to go an ER anyway. Or you feel fine, but have less than 90% reading and you'll end up going to the ER (because you've looked at the range of normal measurements)

If the suggestion of use of the pulse oximeter is supposed to be a diagnostic about whether you need to go to the ER or not (and thus avoid picking something up at the hospital), it doesn't seem to help? It also doesn't tell you anything specific to Covid-19, I mean, you could be short of breath for a variety of reaons (note: short of breath sustained for many minutes, not the kind where you are panting after climbing stairs for eg.)

Comment by insufferablejake on Hull: An alternative to shell that I'll never have time to implement · 2019-07-15T13:52:23.806Z · LW · GW

Very cool, fun idea. For the time travelling and debugging purposes, one could conceivably run a POSIX path system on top of an in-memory object store such as RocksDB and get fast, persistent snapshots as well!

Comment by insufferablejake on Dark Arts of Rationality · 2014-01-21T12:52:47.918Z · LW · GW

Then, unfortunately, you must compartmentalise, wear a mask, whatever that makes shurikens endlessly fascinating for you until you (make money to) get your ship fixed. Then set sail, and cast away the mask.

Comment by insufferablejake on Open Thread, May 1-14, 2013 · 2013-05-08T20:07:35.021Z · LW · GW

V'z fbeel V cbfgrq zber naq gura qryrgrq vg, V ernyvmrq gung guvf jnf n choyvp sbehz naq V nz cnenabvq nobhg cevinpl. Cyrnfr rznvy zr ng zl yj unaqyr ng tznvy, V'yy or unccl gb nafjre nal dhrfgvbaf lbh unir.

Comment by insufferablejake on Open Thread, May 1-14, 2013 · 2013-05-08T19:59:46.988Z · LW · GW

V'z fbeel V cbfgrq zber naq gura qryrgrq vg, V ernyvmrq gung guvf jnf n choyvp sbehz naq V nz cnenabvq nobhg cevinpl. Cyrnfr rznvy zr ng zl yj unaqyr ng tznvy, V'yy or unccl gb nafjre nal dhrfgvbaf lbh unir.

Comment by insufferablejake on Open Thread, May 1-14, 2013 · 2013-05-08T18:53:35.744Z · LW · GW

Vs V nz ubarfg, gura, V zhfg nqzvg gung gur cenpgvpr vf pbzzba va fbhgu Vaqvn, va gur fznyy gbja naq ivyyntrf. Pbzr penpx bs qnja lbh'yy svaq jbzra fjrrcvat naq jngrevat gur ragenaprf gb gur gurve ubzrf :) Ner lbh jevgvat na rffnl nobhg fbhgu Vaqvn? Gur fnaqrq sybbef naq gur juvgrjnfurq jnyyf ner nyfb erzvaqref bs gur fnzr guvat.

Comment by insufferablejake on Open Thread, May 1-14, 2013 · 2013-05-08T18:00:09.767Z · LW · GW

For #2 Fcevaxyvat jngre ba gur tebhaq gb xrrc vg sebz envfvat qhfg?

Comment by insufferablejake on Rationality Quotes February 2013 · 2013-03-04T18:47:43.117Z · LW · GW

Similarly, and this should be scary to anyone who cares about epistemic rationality, suppose you have various false beliefs and you decide that those beliefs are so important to your identity that people who don't also believe them can't possibly love you the way you are, so you only surround yourself with people who agree with them..

Sure, in such a case, I've optimized for my own 'social harmony'. We all do this to varying degrees anyway. Signalling, sub-cultures and all that blah. Note that the quote simply speaks of a process (selection) to maximize an end (social harmony, however that is defined). It doesn't say anything about whether such selection should be for false or true values (however these are defined).

Comment by insufferablejake on Rationality Quotes February 2013 · 2013-03-04T14:19:12.834Z · LW · GW

I think I parsed that quote less along the lines of 'dude, you hardly know any math and so I won't love you' and more along the lines of 'dude, you seem to have the same taste for movies and music and we can have a conversation -- I love (hanging out with) you'.

The former has an objective measure and thus one can speak of definite growth while the latter is subjective.

Comment by insufferablejake on Rationality Quotes February 2013 · 2013-03-04T14:11:19.481Z · LW · GW

I suppose it does, in as objective a measure something like 'harmony' is.

Comment by insufferablejake on Open thread, February 15-28, 2013 · 2013-02-21T07:29:11.617Z · LW · GW

I enjoy your posts, and I have been a consumer of your G+ posts and your blog for sometime now, even though I don't much comment and just lurk about. While I would want some sort of syndication of your stuff, I am wondering if an external expectation of having to meet the monthly compilation target or the fact that you know for sure that there is a definite large audience for your posts now, will affect the quality of your posts? I realize that there is likely not any answer possible for this beforehand, but I'd like to know if you've considered this.

Comment by insufferablejake on Open thread, February 15-28, 2013 · 2013-02-21T07:27:58.975Z · LW · GW

I enjoy your posts, and I have been a consumer of your G+ posts and your blog for sometime now, even though I don't much comment and just lurk about. While I would want some sort of syndication of your stuff, I am wondering if an external expectation of having to meet the monthly compilation target or the fact that you know for sure that there is a definite large audience for your posts now, will affect the quality of your posts? I realize that there is likely not any answer possible for this beforehand, but I'd like to know if you've considered this.

Comment by insufferablejake on Rationality Quotes February 2013 · 2013-02-18T08:43:48.109Z · LW · GW

Selection is the key to social harmony. Surround yourself with true friends who love you just as you are. If you don't see any around, quest for them.

Bryan Caplan

Comment by insufferablejake on My simple hack for increased alertness and improved cognitive functioning: very bright light · 2013-01-26T10:52:44.687Z · LW · GW

Most of the comments on this thread are about people who seem to find this useful or think that this will make a difference positively. While I think the idea interesting, and would like to try it out, I am one of those who don't seem to like really bright lighting. In fact, at work, I've had some of the overhead lights removed to make it generally less bright ambiently. I tend to suffer from eyestrain or seem to get a headache, though now that I think about it, I am not sure if this was because the over head lights were reflecting badly off of my computer screen or not.

Anyway, I'd like to get the opinions of and comments from people who generally turn off lights at work (such that the ambient light source is behind the monitor) , and likewise, even better if they have tried this out.

Comment by insufferablejake on Sensual Experience · 2013-01-23T09:54:28.266Z · LW · GW

Makes sense, thank you for the elaboration.

At this point I would like to make the comparison to flow charts and their interpreters (us), but even in this case, when we look at a flowchart (with the purpose of implementing something) we mentally substitute the boxes and flows with the code/libraries/interfaces for them. Then following this thought, if we had a compiler that could do the same when fed a diagram ie. parse it to generate the appropriate code, we'd be getting somewhere, I suppose. But as it stands I see why a diagram might not be enough to formally encapsulate all the data and state needed for execution.

Comment by insufferablejake on Sensual Experience · 2013-01-20T15:24:29.684Z · LW · GW

OrphanWilde's assertion was mostly meaningless and given without substantiation/clarification

I agree.

your reply engaged it on object level instead of pointing that out (or silently downvoting), sustaining a flawed mode of discussion.

Can you elaborate what you mean by 'object level'?

Also, I am kind of perplexed here -- you don't approve of my deciding to react to a seemingly vague statement, which was made with the intent of getting OrphanWilde to perhaps clarify himself? I realize that I phrased my reply badly, starting with a negation was counter productive, but still.

Let me clarify here, I do not care so much about the down vote, as much as I do about being engaged in a conversation.

Comment by insufferablejake on Sensual Experience · 2013-01-20T15:09:08.868Z · LW · GW

Fair enough.

Comment by insufferablejake on The Level Above Mine · 2013-01-20T13:39:38.979Z · LW · GW

Really? I think, after staring at it for some time, that the comic is making fun of the thinking that maths is a young man's game.

Comment by insufferablejake on The Level Above Mine · 2013-01-20T13:28:43.373Z · LW · GW

I know, and I've read too, that Hardy was apparently not in the pink when he said this. And in all honesty the comic seems to be making fun of the conception that maths was for the young.

Comment by insufferablejake on The Level Above Mine · 2013-01-20T13:23:42.078Z · LW · GW

Does a link to a comic have a place in this forum? I don't know the answer to that, perhaps it is not. That said, my comment was more a reaction to other down votes, this just happened to be the straw I was commenting on.

Comment by insufferablejake on The Level Above Mine · 2013-01-20T06:00:22.389Z · LW · GW

Why was this down voted? The comic is a take on a fairly prevalent belief, heck, Hardy said it!

I wish more people on this forum would explain why they were down voting something, that on the face of it, seems reasonable.

I'm up voting this.

EDIT: When I posted this, I was of the opinion that the comic was just giving a funny take on the maths is a young man's game thing. Now, after looking it several times, I am of the opinion that it was trying to poke fun of this said misconception. And, giving the benefit of doubt to the original poster, I still stand by my upvote.

Comment by insufferablejake on Morality is Awesome · 2013-01-19T19:12:16.051Z · LW · GW

good things are not an option and therefore not a consideration, but there are still choices to be made.

Awesome line. Up goes the vote.

Comment by insufferablejake on Sensual Experience · 2013-01-19T18:33:39.335Z · LW · GW

In case of a down vote on something that seems reasonable and/or is non-inflammatory, it'd be informative if someone left a note as to why it was being down voted.

Comment by insufferablejake on Sensual Experience · 2013-01-19T14:11:56.276Z · LW · GW

I agree with you in that text is a visual representation of 'units' of ideas, if I were to be not very precise about this, that we string together to convey more complex ideas. And I agree with you that in the kind of complex scaffolding of little ideas into big ones ad. infinitum, that happens in computer science, that the kind of 'coding' medium I was suggesting, would be inefficient. But still the idea has a novelty for us humans who are more at home with spatially manipulating objects and stringing them together as opposed to doing all of this in abstract space.

Comment by insufferablejake on Sensual Experience · 2013-01-19T14:05:23.022Z · LW · GW

No. Is it not more like that there is our cognitive landscape/real estate and on this (amongst others) are visual representations of objects/ideas/whatevers? And so all I was saying was that if you were to look at the space within which we code, then a visual representation of objects, the functions that operate on them and the state/data flows between them might be a more compelling medium of work.

Comment by insufferablejake on Sensual Experience · 2013-01-17T08:55:58.251Z · LW · GW

There is this aspect of coding (and I write code for a living), the very act of it, that I do find sensual, (I don't know if others perceive this in the same way or my calling it sensual is just a convenient metaphor for my experience) but as my fingers dance across the keyboard and I see my thoughts take shape on screen, there is a certain poetry there in the form of the combined sounds of my typing, the tactile feedback of the keys themselves and a well executed subroutine staring back at you. Writing that routine was not just a purely mental activity, it involved fine-motor skills, long hours of tapping away to get to stage where you don't even have to look down at the keys, you think the words and your fingers move, of their own accord, to put those words on screen! (This is even better if you use a good tool, such as Vim, to maximize the efficiency of your keystrokes. It's also the reason why I find it supremely satisfying to use mechanical keyboards.)

Comment by insufferablejake on Sensual Experience · 2013-01-17T08:29:53.478Z · LW · GW

3) Can strongly intellectual jobs be reformatted in a more physical way? For example, in the future, could programmers and mathematicians manipulate symbols in the air, like Tony Stark does in Iron Man? This would at least activate significantly more visual cortex than symbols on a screen.

I was going to make just such a point about programming. If one were to look at coding as a means of controlling data flow, or controlling state machines or decision paths, then 'coding' by means of drawing up an active flow chart and manipulating this spatially, much like what Stark did, would be awesome fun. This lets me visually and in space stack the scaffolding of ideas, blocks, functions and subroutines, 'see' the connections between blocks and watch the -- the flow of control and data, yank things around 'literally', and so on and so forth.

Comment by insufferablejake on Thwarting a Catholic conversion? · 2013-01-17T06:40:06.097Z · LW · GW

There is a base level scaffolding here called A. A is based on shaky assumptions and essentially a choice to 'believe' in something, and nothing else. People standing on A refuse to look below it, or question why/how it came about, but instead they build these fabulous castles and really intricate structures, the supports and beams for which they easily carve out of A -- since nobody is going to think about how A came to be, or what supports it, we can just have it give us more pillars and beams for the next floor of the castle. Let's build as many floors, as we want.

I do not see this as rigour, or worthy of any merit.

Comment by insufferablejake on The Great Brain is Located Externally · 2013-01-16T10:22:31.424Z · LW · GW

As a continuation of what I have said in my previous comment, I'd like to suggest, that what google and the internet in general seem to be doing is aggressively providing candidates for inclusion into the local set. And so, by repetition and easy access they, possibly, help enlarge the local set. If technology gets better, then we can imagine a day where the local set more or less overlaps with the super set, and there really is no difference between the two; a fetch from local set and a fetch from the super set take about the same time and so qualitatively 'feel' the same. Our intuition then has a data set (to draw upon) that is immeasurably vaster than the small set of experiences that a single person can hope to acquire. This is a nice fairy tale.

Comment by insufferablejake on The Great Brain is Located Externally · 2013-01-16T08:32:30.903Z · LW · GW

There is an earlier comment by Kaj Sotala, that I just read, that states, better and more succintly, what I was trying to say with 'our great brains have always been outside'. Let me quote

One central idea is that social communities are cognitive architectures the same way that individual minds are [4]. The argument is as follows. Cognitive processes involve trajectories of information (transmission and transformation), so the patterns of these information trajectories, if stable, reflect some underlying cognitive architecture. Since social organization - plus the structure added by the context of activity - largely determines the way information flows through a group, social organization may itself be viewed as a form of cognitive architecture.

Comment by insufferablejake on The Great Brain is Located Externally · 2013-01-16T07:52:11.155Z · LW · GW

But if you were an illiterate random peasant farmer in some historical venue, and you needed to know the growing season of taro or barley or insert-your-favorite-staple-crop-here, Wikipedia would have been superfluous: you would already know it. It would be unlikely that you would find a song lyrics website of any use, because all of the songs you'd care about would be ones you really knew, in the sense of having heard them sung by real people who could clarify the words on request, as opposed to the "I think I heard half of this on the radio at the dentist's office last month" sense.

Everything you would need to know would be important enough to warrant - and keep - a spot in your memory.

I am not sure how different this example here is any different from Googling.

The first time a farmer wants to know something, such as the season to grow a crop in, he taps into the local pool of knowledge available to him. This pool could consist of his father, or the village elders, or the experienced farmer two miles in the neighbouring farm. And he only bothers remembering this factoid about seasons, and whatever else, because it would be a real pain to run two miles each time he wants to do something on his farm, every day. And by the same argument, things he doesn't have to know on a daily basis or can live without, such as that village song, or the latest gossip in town, he will not bother committing this to memory. He will wait for the next time they gather around a fire or something to gather the latest. Again consider somebody looking at the man page for the arguments to a system call that she uses on a daily basis, and committing this to memory because it is more optimal to just remember it (because the two monitors she has are only big enough to keep her code windows open) and it would improve her productivity do so. She will not bother to commit to memory those calls and their arguments that she doesn't use as often, and will go hunting in the man pages.

I guess what I am trying to say is that our great brains have always been external. There is a bunch of stuff that is local, and there is the bunch that is non-local. The non-local stuff is the collective of stuff that exists in and amongst the people we live with, talk to, our books and now of course the internet. And what is local, a vast majority of it, has always been a subset of that which is non-local. It's only the magnitude of this non-local set that is easily (relatively speaking) accessible that has changed (by orders of magnitude).