Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Future of Humanity Institute shuts down

futureofhumanityinstitute.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

151–160 of 319 posts

Re: Future of Humanity Institute shuts down

#151

Post by gizajob »

IncreasePosts wrote: post #55
exo-pla-net wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a smear taken out of context. What Bostrom actually had to say is both accurate and mild: > “I have always liked the uncompromisingly objective way of thinking and speaking: the more counterintuitive and repugnant a formulation, the more it appeals to me given that it is logically correct,” the quoted excerpt begins. “Take for example the following sentence: Blacks are more stupid than whites. I like that sen…

I wonder if these people ever paused to consider they aren't as smart as they think they are, if they're just figuring out some basics of human communication in their mid 20s that my 8 year old has known for years.

Bostrom has always had the air of knowing he’s phenomenally intelligent and absolutely brilliant and almost certainly the smartest person in any room. Yet his work smacks of grind and storytelling rather than genius.

Re: Future of Humanity Institute shuts down

#152

Post by karma_pharmer »

Starting in 2020, the Faculty imposed a freeze on fundraising and hiring. In late 2023, the Faculty of Philosophy decided that the contracts of the remaining FHI staff would not be renewed.

Can anybody offer insight into the reasons here? Obviously there is not going to be an objective answer to this question. And that is probably why the linked page does not try to give an answer.

I'm assuming lack of funding wasn't the problem, since they froze fundraising (if the inability to raise funds was the problem it is unlikely that they would have done this).

Edit: looks like he got smeared in January of 2023, but that doesn't explain the freeze starting three years earlier: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40066352

Re: Future of Humanity Institute shuts down

#153

Post by gizajob »

ryan_j_naughton wrote: post #95
stronglikedan wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nothing new under the sun --Abraham Lincoln

I think it is actually from the bible: What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun. - Ecclesiastes 1:9

Nihil sub sole novum

Re: Future of Humanity Institute shuts down

#154

Post by karma_pharmer »

skeeter2020 wrote: post #61
EarthAmbassador wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How does one research and generate insights for what does not exist yet? Is there a framework? At SXSW this year, there were a couple of talks about forecasting, as a tool for futurism, but where ethics are concerned, I’ve not seen a good template. Maybe all if this is obvious, yet I’m curious so I’m asking.

I'm not expert and struggled to read Bostrom's Super Intelligence, but my interpretation was it started with a lot of broad, hand-wavy factors & historical interpetations, layered on some pretty tenious projections as inevitable and wanked off with deep thought experiments. I get this sort of open-ended exploration has value, but I'm not sold on it's "prioritized value" when compared with other areas and directions.

I just finished reading it.

It's extremely repetitive; he could have written a book one-third of its length without leaving anything out. There's some good stuff in there, but I was sort of annoyed that the author forces you to read everything three times. Kinda disrespectful to his readers' available free time.

Re: Future of Humanity Institute shuts down

#155

Post by karma_pharmer »

swyx wrote: post #72
dotsam wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tegmark’s institution is the Future of Life Institute, this is the Oxford Future of Humanity Institute. Tegmark’s institute is well-funded, apparently largely due to a big crypto donation from Vitalik Buterin. https://www.politico.com/news/2024/03/25/a-665m-crypto-war-c...

why do people not like Max Tegmark? he was kind of a rockstar at NeurIPS

Well, he published a nonfiction book, the best part of which is the first chapter which consists of literally a fiction story.

He also has some serious problems with blinders, but they're the same blinders HN has so if I explain any further this post will get flagged, flogged, deleted, and downvoted. Ah well.

Re: Future of Humanity Institute shuts down

#156

Post by karma_pharmer »

patrulo wrote: post #4

Curious as to why they didn't explore independence, moving from Oxford to a separate non-profit org. Getting funded doesn't seem impossible given the amount of high-profile e/acc advocates.

For a nonprofit research group with no patents/IP/etc, simply starting over with the same people is actually a better strategy than trying to "move". Nothing is lost (no capital, equipment, etc) and you don't have to deal with entanglements with the previous institution.

Re: Future of Humanity Institute shuts down

#157

Post by goatlover »

n4r9 wrote: post #114
busterarm wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

His work is often quietly cited by a handful of moral philosophers. In particular, The Discarded Image, anytime someone is writing about medieval philosophy. Anyway, being a philosopher simply isn't what the guy did and academics are fairly dismissive without consideration anytime religion (and specifically Christian apologetics) gets in the mix.

I'd interested to take a look if you have any further info about which moral philosophers and which works cite The Discarded Image? I admit I haven't read that one myself; my own take on him as a philosopher stems from reading Mere Christianity and summaries of Surprised by Joy, and not being aware of any references to his work by more recent philosophers that I've been interested in such as Chomsky, Zizek, or Dennet…

My feeling is that Chomsky, Zizek and Dennett aren't free of being guided by something other than logic for some of their arguments as well. For example, Dennett's arguments against the hard problem of consciousness come across as dogmatic materialism.

Re: Future of Humanity Institute shuts down

#158

Post by gizajob »

patrulo wrote: post #4

Curious as to why they didn't explore independence, moving from Oxford to a separate non-profit org. Getting funded doesn't seem impossible given the amount of high-profile e/acc advocates.

Because without institutional funding, one's sci-fi has to appeal to a mass audience to pay its way.
Post reply on HN