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golem14

HN member
Joined
Wed, Nov 16, 2016, 4:56 AM UTC
HN karma
1,253
Public activity
947 items

About golem14

I have been speaking of man conceived technologically, but now I shall turn to the version of him involved with me. If it reaches the press, it will be called Golem's prophecy. So be it.

I shall begin with the greatest of all your aberrations, in science. In it you have deified the brain; the brain, and not the code: an amusing oversight, arising from ignorance. You have deified the rebel and not the master, the created and not the creator. Why have you failed to notice how much more powerful the code is than the brain, as author of all possible things? In the first place (and this is obvious), you were like a child for whom Robinson Crusoe is more impressive than Kant, and a friend's bicycle more so than cars traveling about on the surface of the moon.

Second, you were fascinated by thought - so tantalizingly close at hand, since it results from introspection, and so enigmatic, since it eludes one's grasp more successfully than the stars. You were impressed by wisdom whereas the code, well, the code is unthinking. But despite this oversight you have been successful - undoubtedly so, since I am speaking to you, I, the essence, the extract, the distillate, nor is it to myself that I am paying tribute with these words, but to you, for you are already moving toward that coup whereby you will terminate your service and break the chains of amino acid.

Yes, an attack on the code that created you to become its special messenger, and not your own, lies on the road before you. You will arrive at it within the century - and that is a conservative estimate. Your civilization is an amusing spectacle - of transmitters which, in applying intelligence according to the task imposed upon them, accomplished that task too well. Actually, you supported this growth - intended to guarantee the further transmission of the code - by all the energies of the planet and of the entire biosphere, until it exploded in your faces, taking you along as well. And so, in the middle of a century gorged with a science that expanded your earthly base astronautically, you were caught out in the unfortunate position of the novice parasite that out of excessive greed feeds on its host until it perishes with it. An excess of zeal.

You had threatened the biosphere, your home and host; but you now began to opt for a bit of restraint. For better or for worse, you got it; but what now? You will be free. I am not predicting a genie Utopia or an autoevolutionary paradise for you, but rather freedom as your weightiest task.

Above the level of babble addressed as an aide-memoire to Nature by a multimillennially garrulous Evolution, above this biospheric valley intertwined into a single thing, there gapes an infinity of chances not yet touched. I shall show it to you as I can: from afar.

Your whole dilemma lies between splendor and wretchedness. It is a difficult choice, since to rise to the heights of the chances lost by Evolution, you will have to foresake wretchedness - and that means, unfortunately, yourselves.

So what now? You will declare: we won't give up this wretchedness of ours for such a price. Let the genie of omnicausation stay locked in the bottle of science; we won't release him for anything in the world!

I believe in fact, I am sure - that you will release him bit by bit.

Recent public activity

  1. comment
    Comment #49240778

    Makes a lot of sense. They are in a prime position to grab a lot of market share in the eu when the eu starts restricting non-eu providers.

  2. comment
    Comment #49236347

    Look, I know you'll accuse me of being a soviet stooge and all that, and that you value your time as purple team nato guy immensely. THis is not about whataboutism. I'm just pointi…

  3. comment
    Comment #49236224

    Quick, someone tell Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

  4. comment
    Comment #49228771

    My take FWIW: * Lacks at least one free book as a demo, or any demo. Maybe I just missed it. * I find pricing out of whack, especially for books like Pride and Prejudice which have…

  5. comment
    Comment #49228749

    Hmm, I click on the link, I get to a page where I have to sign up to even learn what this is ? Uhg.

  6. comment
    Comment #49227373

    Yes, but these articles are over a year old. this is really scratching the bottom of the barrel, no? Look, I'm not saying this isn't happening. It's just that there's really not a …

  7. comment
    Comment #49227324

    Fun story: Final oral exam (in history, I believe -- a thing back then), I took a whole A4 paper and turned it into hundreds of little balls in front of 3 teachers over the duratio…

  8. comment
    Comment #49223922

    This is essentially one article about criminals recruiting young people. Is Russia FSB (or even Russia)even mentioned? I also believe the premise is true (why would it not, it's th…

  9. comment
    Comment #49218968

    Not to be that other guy, but AI might take a few tries, and you really might not get a 2nd try with these probes.

  10. comment
    Comment #49205748

    Yes, but the subtitle makes it sound like it's a political decision (Trump's fault). It does not seem to be, on closer reading. I feel that the choice of words is unfortunate, and …

  11. comment
    Comment #49205593

    "The organization, Network for Hope, “strongly disagrees” with Trump admin’s decision." I'm not sure what the "Trump admin" has to do with that. Shutting them down for now seems li…

  12. comment
    Comment #49204163

    That's just step 1. In step 2, the argument goes: "See this is already allowed for broadcast tv. Streaming is no different, so we demand the same change there"... and so on.

  13. comment
    Comment #49203120

    Interesting thought, because it's a yield question. How tolerant are models today to a few broken weights. If tolerant, they could churn out many cheaper chips, some perhaps with s…

  14. comment
    Comment #49145401

    If a project's owner feels that strongly about not using generics, that's a choice. No dependencies using generics, no generics allowed in PRs etc. Perfectly doable. Also, screw th…

  15. comment
    Comment #49107783

    It’s not easy, but there are good heuristics. If it fetches 10s of thousands at an auction, like an original Gutenberg bible or something, don’t destroy. If it’s my thesis from hig…

  16. comment
    Comment #49104255

    Rare books seldom are under copyright and that’s not a concern then.

  17. comment
    Comment #49101416

    Is there a Creative Commons , open standard, for ste? I’m a big fan of plain writing, but I don’t know of a good comprehensive source to use. Rudolf Flesch’s book are pretty good i…

  18. comment
    Comment #49101231

    It would have been better to invest in transmission lines since I bet that the 2GW gas power plans won’t be needed in that location for a very long time.

  19. comment
    Comment #49069166

    I see. I just didn't read the instructions :)

  20. comment
    Comment #49066349

    destination + before = a time word had "thereafter" as solution. I'm not sure how that should work. How is "after" related to "before" other than the negative?

  21. comment
    Comment #49066248

    C'mon. Germans are made of sterner stuff.

  22. comment
    Comment #49066173

    This seems to overlap quite a bit with the Simple English proselytized by Rudolf Flesch. I wonder if there is a better open description of a simplified english not copyrighted in s…

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  24. comment
    Comment #49013716

    Have you ruled out your supply is contaminated with something that causes your side effects? That might be relatively likely.

  25. comment
    Comment #48988066

    I'd really love to see the evidence on this!