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Sam Altman's response to Molotov cocktail incident

blog.samaltman.com

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Re: Sam Altman's response to Molotov cocktail incident

#701

Post by Arodex »

raffael_de wrote: post #657
foxes wrote: post #654

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tech and science are political .. they don't exist in some sort of vacuum. Further being "apolotical" means supporting the current status quo.

I consider your stance highly toxic.

No, ignoring the political consequences of science and technology is what is extremely toxic and psychopathic.

The very American trend to avoid anything political is self-defeating anyway, as it contributes to the social rot and the worsening of politics even further. Do you think the garden will become cleaner if you stop tending it? That your child will become nicer if you stop taking care of it? That your projects will sort themselves out if you don't track them?

You are well on your way to becoming like Russians: more and more detached from political matters because it is not safe or pleasant... until they are sent to the frontlines.

Re: Sam Altman's response to Molotov cocktail incident

#702

Post by Natfan »

UncleMeat wrote: post #690
dash2 wrote: post #524

I've skimmed the thread here and I am now seriously considering leaving HN for the first time in about 15 years. Here are some quotes from what used to be a pretty interesting and thoughtful community: > Ah, the Elon manoeuvre: trying to make would-be assassins hesitate by using your own child as a shield. > the words and narratives that Sam Altman promoted caused so much fear and uncertainty and anger that someone t…

In my time in HN I have seen numerous people advocate for the following * ending all covid measures to achieve herd immunity, accepting that this condemns hundreds of thousands or even millions to die * ending foreign aid that goes to tuberculosis treatments, condemning hundreds of thousands or even millions to die of a treatable disease * accepting the deaths of iranian, palestinian, or israeli children as collatera…

a single wealthy white male person

Re: Sam Altman's response to Molotov cocktail incident

#703

Post by drekipus »

I think the important thing to remember, when they say "all humans deserve life and democratic process" - is the question of "what do they consider sub-human?" Ie: do they believe employees have souls? Or that the masses are cattle? Because it's then very easy to have strong conviction of human rights when you get to choose who is a human and who is cattle.

Re: Sam Altman's response to Molotov cocktail incident

#704

Post by sensanaty »

grishka wrote: post #565
copypaper wrote: post #73

In all seriousness, what is the game plan for society moving forward as AI takes more jobs? The government doesn't seem to care. The AI labs don't seem to care. What happens when more and more people can't afford housing, kids, food, health insurance, etc.? Nothing more dangerous than a man who has no reason to live... I don't advocate for violence, but I do foresee more headlines like this as things get worse.

AI will not take anyone's jobs. I, for one, don't consider AI something serious, it's still a toy, a curious tech demo, and will always remain one, outside of niche applications like NLP (there's no denying that LLMs are really good at this). The idea that anyone at all treats it seriously is just appalling to me. Mass-production and other optimizations that use economies of scale to their benefit do take jobs. There…

Whether you or I or any other normie thinks the tech won't leave people jobless is irrelevant. The C-suite in every company is foaming at the mouth to replace their most expensive asset, people, and companies like OpenAI are marketing to them on the premise that the tech allows them to do that. Whether it actually can or cannot do it is basically irrelevant, there's untold billions going into this bubble, so either way we're all fucked.

Either the bubble bursts spectacularly and the global economy is in the shitter because everyone is overleveraged and heavily invested into it, or it doesn't and the psychotic C-suite replaces people anyways so they can see the line go up a quarter of a percentage point.

Re: Sam Altman's response to Molotov cocktail incident

#705

Post by Capricorn2481 »

richardlblair wrote: post #679
Capricorn2481 wrote: post #667

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The rest of what is written doesn't matter. This isn't the moment for that conversation That's terrible that someone did that. I think that's wrong, and people that do that should be in prison. But if the rest of what was written didn't matter, it wouldn't be written. He thought it was important enough to put it in. It's there to be read and discussed. And I have to point out, we're not talking about a couple off t…

Another comment lacking any compassion. The man was reeling from what happened. He blames himself and his work. He sat and he wrote, naturally it came back to OpenAI. Should he of? Probably not. But it's understandable that he did. We can meet the moment with some understanding and give the guy a little wiggle room.

Give him wiggle room? I didn't even say anything about him. I just said you were urging people to refrain from commenting on the post, which is true.

> The man was reeling from what happened. He blames himself and his work

Based on what? I don't particularly feel like he should blame himself, but I don't think he does. Can you point out where in this post he blames himself?

Re: Sam Altman's response to Molotov cocktail incident

#707

Post by Arodex »

Vaslo wrote: post #111
Arodex wrote: post #31

Ah, the Elon manoeuvre: trying to make would-be assassins hesitate by using your own child as a shield.

Yeah it’s like they don’t want their children murdered, crazy

Then Altman should stop working on child-killing technology.

And especially Elon should stop putting his child on top of his shoulders as a meat shield at the same saying that people wanted to murder him.

Re: Sam Altman's response to Molotov cocktail incident

#708

Post by ifwinterco »

LadyCailin wrote: post #608
ifwinterco wrote: post #595

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Filming himself doing something that will get him years or even decades in prison suggests he wasn’t exactly of completely sound mind when he did that. Similar here with the guy going straight from the crime scene to OpenAI HQ to get caught

I’d be curious to hear your opinion on things like Patrick Henry’s “Give me liberty or give me death” speech then. I’m not defending the violence in this case, to be sure, but like, in general, I disagree that violence is always the irrational choice.

My point is violence can be rational but you should at least attempt to get away with it, so you can carry on afterwards.

It's hard to effect any sort of change from a prison cell, violent or otherwise, so it's irrational to deliberately get yourself locked up if your aim is to change things

Re: Sam Altman's response to Molotov cocktail incident

#709

Post by techblueberry »

nozzlegear wrote: post #379
techblueberry wrote: post #257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We are in a fact still in the tail end of a uniquely measured and peaceful time.

> in the tail end This implies you have knowledge of future events, which means you could make a lot of money grifting on Polymarket

Tails are long. Predicting the market is a fools errand.

Re: Sam Altman's response to Molotov cocktail incident

#710

Post by thinkingemote »

dang wrote: post #575

I don't think I've ever seen a thread this bad on Hacker News*. The number of commenters justifying violence, or saying they "don't condone violence" and then doing exactly that, is sickening and makes me want to find something else to do with my life—something as far away from this as I can get. I feel ashamed of this community. * Edit: It would have been clearer to say "I've never seen a mob dynamic this bad on Hac…

Trying to help your perspective: It might be Gell-Mann? or something similar that you sometimes mention. We assume that users who have proficiencies in one area should have proficiencies in another, or we notice more when something we know and care about is deeply wrong. The reaction we feel to deep untruths is a sign of our care and passion in Truth.

As you encourage, I would also like to be a little bit charitable and say that some users might be clever at programming or know about certain technology subjects but when it comes to real life and morality they are stuck in early edgy teenager mode, so we can still work and communicate with them on other topics. I try to flag these submissions because I know that many users are completely unable to discuss them in fruitful ways. Many of us are immature.

At a societal level, the simplistic and edgy teenager morality is mostly expressed online so we being terminally online tend to notice it more. The morality might be most publicly seen in "silence is violence" which is a thought terminating cliche. Thinking is hard and changing one's mind is hard too, especially when people have these thoughts which literally stop them thinking.

Psychologically, for many, expressing these juvenile, half baked, sloppy thoughts do not require much thought. They are cheap psychologically. It's like how being in a herd is actually comfortable and saves energy. It costs brain effort and potential hurt to ones self identity to change one's brain patterns. Most people choose to avoid even the thoughts that change is possible and not only wish to remain in Platos cave but to then keep their eyes closed to the shadows on the wall.

Another charitable thought: these worrying ideas are not actually ideas but emotions. For some users they try to argue with these people with logic but they should really connect emotionally - try to help the people feel for others, the good and the moral. Easiest to do with personal first hand real stories and not abstract ideas. To break down otherness through charity.

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