1 Rep-rap
2 LENR
For a post-scarcity future.
Ask HN: What should we fund at YC Research?
521–530 of 545 posts
Re: Ask HN: What should we fund at YC Research?
#522Earlier quoted context omitted.
Since I was old enough to understand neural networs idea, I imagined and I was sure that one day we will build an artificial brain, at first with less sub-components (brain areas) and then with more if not all that we know about with their functions. At that time the only thing I thought stops us from doing it is the computing power. In the meantime we grew enormously our computing power AND we invented the deep lear…
It depends on how you model the neurons/networks in the brain. For example, if you do it this way: http://www.nature.com/news/fragment-of-rat-brain-simulated-i... then you'll need a lot more computing power, as they do. But they are aiming to eventually build an artificial brain as you describe. If you just want to create an artificial thalamus (probably connected to deep learning-like layers, since those are loosely…
Thank you for the pointers!
Re: Ask HN: What should we fund at YC Research?
#5231. A lot of industries are concentrated and monopolistic, which leads to both issues of high prices, control and lack of local resilience. So how do we build a more decentralized economy ? What are the missing building blocks ? 2. Our current remote-work isn't good enough from the psychological perspective. No eye-contact, no body language, isolation, etc. But solving this is one of the only things thing that can byp…
Re (1), I agree there are desirable properties of a less-concentrated economy where every industry isn't controlled by 4 companies and the entire Internet doesn't run on AWS, I just don't see that as the future. If you agree that technology promotes various kinds of efficiencies (e.g. Uber), then companies who can invest the most in their technology platforms will win the market. Net result: when more investment is r…
Sure i agree, big business will grow. But by just having some market share , decentralization can have a big effect.
For example, ebay, a mostly decentralized business, keeps Amazon in check and somewhat limits it's power and offers an alternative - and it probably forced Amazon to become a platform for others. Same goes for solar panels, Android roms, forums/blogs vs news, etc.
Re: Ask HN: What should we fund at YC Research?
#524I spent a while reading all the ideas posted here, and I think most of them are not great. Not that they are bad, just they seem like they would be really difficult to make progress on, even with tons of funding.
I tried to come up with some ideas myself, but I also couldn't. Changing the world is hard! Why aren't there more low hanging fruit?
There is one idea that sticks in the back of my mind, and I keep seeing applications for it everywhere. An idea that I think would make the world a lot more efficient.
I really think that there are applications all over the place for automated optimization. This is a common, recurring problem, that there are basically no tools for. And I believe a simple tool could be made that even an idiot could use for their weird problem.
Imagine you are have a bunch of parameters that need optimized. Like for a machine learning model. You could plug those parameters into this tool, and it could suggest the optimal next test to perform. Or if you are designing an airplane wing, or a chemical mixture, or a food recipe, etc. A ton of things have parameters that can be optimized, but there are no simple tools for doing it.
Of course that doesn't fit into the YC research model. It's more of a startup idea, or even better an open source tool.
Re: Ask HN: What should we fund at YC Research?
#525Earlier quoted context omitted.
I remember when I first deconverted. I was horrified that there was no heaven, and that my loved ones weren't waiting for me. That they were just gone forever. They didn't exist. They weren't happy, and I would never see them again. I see many atheists carry on religious memes after they deconvert. Which is only natural, religion isn't just a single idea, it's deeply ingrained into our culture. One of those memes is…
> One of those memes is that death is natural and ok. Which, if you believe in religion, it absolutely is. To be clear, this is pretty untrue of Christianity, the dominant religion in Western civilization, so I'm constantly puzzled about this claim. (HPMOR makes the same claim.) The central story of Christianity is that God takes human form, dies, and cannot stay dead . If it were just "Jesus died for our sins", ther…
I don't know what scripture says, all I know is that actual Christians believe that their loved ones are in Heaven and that humans have immortal souls. There are a lot of memes in our culture about death from religion. Just go to a Christian funeral and listen to the pastor talk about Death is natural and ok. Of course they still think death is sad, but the religion provides comfort and meaning to it.
Re: Ask HN: What should we fund at YC Research?
#526Earlier quoted context omitted.
Housing is expensive because it's a positional good, not because it's expensive to produce.
It's only positional because density is limited. If the market were allowed to build up wherever they wanted each "position" would basically be an infinite resource...
What are the good arguments for keeping it so?
Of course if one could build anything anywhere, it would be unreasonable to demand the water/el/internet/sewage grid to be extended there at no costs, so some alternative mechanism to ensure such services would be necessary. Same goes for other communal services like healthcare and education, I guess.
Re: Ask HN: What should we fund at YC Research?
#52730-hour work week
Re: Ask HN: What should we fund at YC Research?
#528Research research. Lots of money is wasted on regression analysis driven nonresults and other common errors. Best practices for research especially in the era of pervasive software augmentation are very much in question.
Re: Ask HN: What should we fund at YC Research?
#529Earlier quoted context omitted.
>The entire system we use to advance humanities shared knowledge is broken. Okay, can you elaborate on why?
Yes. I mean broken in the sense that the incentives of individual scientists are not aligned with what's in the best interests of science a as a whole. It's the reason scientists hoard knowledge and work in silos instead of sharing their work openly while collaborating over the internet. I've written more here: http://thinklab.com/blog/10-consequences-of-a-broken-scienti...
I wonder if scientific progress speeds up in wartime because scientists stop worrying about who gets credit and how things will affect their career and just learn to collaborate until victory is achieved.
Re: Ask HN: What should we fund at YC Research?
#530Earlier quoted context omitted.
I suspect you're going to get hammered here but this is an incredibly important point. Aging and death forces the passing of the torch from the old generation to the new, and I think this is a crucial part of progress. A tragedy on par with death would be the rise of some oligarchical class of immortal technocrats, wielding power and influence for centuries on end.
Hypothetical bogey men of an imaginary dystopia should not concern you nearly so much as the loss of productive life, physical and mental decay, and the reckless violence of the hopeless which surrounds you today.
A valid point, but why should the pessimistic outlook be any less likely than the utopian one? Are you sure that a major missing link between where we are now and a prosperous future for everyone is the fountain of youth? Sure, the HN'ers want the Einsteins and Feynmans of the world to live forever? But what about the Nixons, King Leopold II's, and Kim Kardashians of the world? Is it okay with you that they will be given first dibs at the antidote?
You're seeing it as the key to suffering, but its equally reasonable to view it as what it will likely become - an instrument of power.