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I Am Deleting the Blog

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Re: I Am Deleting the Blog

#621

Post by ISL »

holtalanm wrote: post #585
tinyhouse wrote: post #578

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was just thinking about this now after reading attacks on Yann Lecun on twitter. He's a prominent AI figure (head of facebook research and turing award recipient). My interpretation - he was saying that bias in AI is mostly a problem of data. He didn't say there's no bias or that you can't solve bias with modeling. Just that the model itself isn't what causing the bias. One woman researcher started attacking him an…

It has been this way for a while. Outrage/cancel culture is an absolute pox upon our population that really needs to stop.

Is that request not a call to cancel cancel-culture?

Re: I Am Deleting the Blog

#622

Post by kofejnik »

tinyhouse wrote: post #578
gringoDan wrote: post #394

Reading this made me think of two essays I've recently revisited. 1. The Sound of Silence, by Jessica Livingston Three years ago she argued that the smartest people are silencing themselves because the downside risk of being attacked for (misinterpretations of) their opinions are too high. People are wary of sharing useful information outside of trusted circles, which serves to consolidate power with insiders – those…

I was just thinking about this now after reading attacks on Yann Lecun on twitter. He's a prominent AI figure (head of facebook research and turing award recipient). My interpretation - he was saying that bias in AI is mostly a problem of data. He didn't say there's no bias or that you can't solve bias with modeling. Just that the model itself isn't what causing the bias. One woman researcher started attacking him an…

>>"Here is a story I heard from a friend, which I will alter slightly to protect the innocent. A prestigious psychology professor signed an open letter in which psychologists condemned belief in innate sex differences. My friend knew that this professor believed such differences existed, and asked him why he signed the letter. He said that he expected everyone else in his department would sign it, so it would look really bad if he didn’t. My friend asked why he expected everyone else in his department to sign it, and he said “Probably for the same reason I did”.

this post is no longer available, of course

Re: I Am Deleting the Blog

#623

Post by mijoharas »

mijoharas wrote: post #391
himinlomax wrote: post #331

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That said, this decision to shut down the blog looks like an overreaction to me On the contrary, it's the perfect move. It forces the hand of the journalist, who will then have to mention that inconvenient fact. "BTW the thing this article is about does not exist any more because of this article."

I think that's a very good point. If that reporter takes the story to their editor, what's it going to sound like? R: So, this article is about a blog and the person that writes it... E: Ok, cool, why can't I find the blog? R: Err... it doesn't exist anymore E: Why not? R: Because I doxx the author in this article. If you were an editor, would you publish that? The subject of the story no longer exists, so the story…

I just reread my point and think it only makes sense in the context of a positive article. If it's a hit piece, it probably works against him.

Re: I Am Deleting the Blog

#624

Post by enriquto »

lhnz wrote: post #614
gringoDan wrote: post #394

Reading this made me think of two essays I've recently revisited. 1. The Sound of Silence, by Jessica Livingston Three years ago she argued that the smartest people are silencing themselves because the downside risk of being attacked for (misinterpretations of) their opinions are too high. People are wary of sharing useful information outside of trusted circles, which serves to consolidate power with insiders – those…

The events of the last 4 years, make it clear to me that we are rapidly heading towards totalitarianism. I finally understand the answer to the childhood question of "But, how could this every happen here?" that used to be an automatic response to being taught about awful events in history. When there is extreme moral certainty about societal problems, people can feel that for the problems to be dealt with they will…

If you are a history nerd, reading what people wrote 90 years ago you will realize that we are exactly the same species, and our attitudes have not changed a bit. One of my favorite readings are the essays of french philosopher Simone Weil after two visits to germany in the thirties. She was concerned with the rise of the nazis, while at the same time describing the natural and understandable forces that were making them gain support.

I do not think that there is an analogy between the groups of then and the groups of today. Still, the "outrage" mechanisms that steer our will seem to be identical.

Re: I Am Deleting the Blog

#625

Post by wayoutthere »

I unsubscribed from the NYT after the Tom Cotton editorial. That's when it became clear to me that their ethics were driven by a need to drive traffic to their site and I wanted no part in it.

Stuff like this just reaffirms my decision. Good riddance.

Re: I Am Deleting the Blog

#627

Post by ThrustVectoring »

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #576
randompwd wrote: post #336

Geez, patio11 was sure quick to jump in with nonsense: https://twitter.com/patio11/status/1275346993296969730 > I feel like Slate Star Codex and the NYT are coming at each other from a substantial expectations gap regarding risk management. > The culture of participating under one’s own name is normative for much of the professional class but not all of it. Maybe stop trying to explain away that which is unabated shi…

Agreed. This feels similar to how armchair security experts will tweet about bad opsec every time someone is identified. Obviously, Scott didn’t expect the blog to be so big or his anonymity to be such and issue when he started using his real first and middle names. It’s self-congratulatory to imagine that you would have made a different decision given the full benefit of hindsight. It’s not like Scott could go back…

I read the desk name comment as a suggestion to have psychiatrists perform their jobs pseudonymously.

Re: I Am Deleting the Blog

#628

Post by esperent »

nogabebop23 wrote: post #610
esperent wrote: post #591

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Living outside the US and watching what's going on (ok, it's not just the US, but it is just a few countries) is like watching a friend's slow motion descent into madness. It's pitiful and sad, and I feel powerless to do anything about it. At the same time, so long as I stay away from news and social media, I'm pretty much unaffected. Society in the various countries I've spent time in over the last few years (Irelan…

Well if you ignore the change that is reflected in what we call the news and social media of course society would seem the same, but that doesn't mean it's not changing. I agree that face-to-face interactions haven't deteriorated and may even be better than in the past, but the challenge is their share of communication and social interaction has dramatically shrunk.

I mean the overall health of society seems pretty much normal (corona excepted). Sure, people are talking more on social media than ten years ago. That doesn't seem to be a problem in an otherwise healthy society.

Re: I Am Deleting the Blog

#630

Post by [deleted] »

enriquto wrote: post #611
gringoDan wrote: post #394

Reading this made me think of two essays I've recently revisited. 1. The Sound of Silence, by Jessica Livingston Three years ago she argued that the smartest people are silencing themselves because the downside risk of being attacked for (misinterpretations of) their opinions are too high. People are wary of sharing useful information outside of trusted circles, which serves to consolidate power with insiders – those…

> Three years ago she argued that the smartest people are silencing themselves (...) which serves to consolidate power with insiders – those who are already powerful. Wow. I couldn't imagine that a person from the USA, of all places, could made so nonchalantly the equivalence smarts=power (unless there is a level of sarcasm on this essay that escapes me). There's such a lack of self-awareness in the american elite if…

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