Links for 2022-05-21
On the fundamental importance of aligned AI for the future of humanity. And the key role of automating extension of (moral) categories. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uy86RRbQlls
Promising Paths to Alignment https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4NcHrCz8yE
“We show that a 7B parameter LLM used within the SI framework in a 5-shot generalisation setting, with no fine-tuning, yields a performance improvement of over 100% compared to an equivalent vanilla baseline on a suite of 10 logical reasoning tasks. The same model in the same setting even outperforms a significantly larger 280B parameter baseline on the same suite of tasks.” https://arxiv.org/abs/2205.09712
Printable, Self-Assembled Logic Circuits Created From Proteins https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-30038-8
“What I learned gathering thousands of nootropic ratings” https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/link-troof-on-nootropics?s=r
"BlackRock … Vanguard … State Street … combined $22 trillion in managed assets is the equivalent of more than half of the combined value of all shares … in the S&P 500 (about $38 trillion)." https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/12/opinion/vanguard-power-blackrock-state-street.html
Are attempts to clean plastic out of the ocean inadvertently damaging a fragile, misunderstood ecosystem? Was the NY Times right to report on an N=22 study that claimed this? https://stuartritchie.substack.com/p/neuston?s=r
Meta Releases UE4 Graphics Demo to Show What Quest 2 Can Do with Expert Optimization https://www.roadtovr.com/showdown-quest-2-port-ue4-vr-optimization/
After 30 Years, Genetic Study Confirms Sarin Nerve Gas As Cause of Gulf War Illness https://scitechdaily.com/after-30-years-genetic-study-confirms-sarin-nerve-gas-as-cause-of-gulf-war-illness/
"last year … mass shootings … 693, almost two per day. There had been 'only' 272 mass shootings back in 2014, … All careful investigations find that a large majority of mass woundings involve black victims and black perpetrators." https://www.takimag.com/article/triggered/
New Evidence Shows How Russian Soldiers Executed Men in Bucha https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/19/world/europe/russia-bucha-ukraine-executions.html
It's again not looking good for Ukrainian forces but there have been one too many breathless reports about Russia overrunning Ukrainian forces to be very worried.
Remember the huge fleet of helicopters flying into Kyiv on day 1? Or the Russian Kyiv convoy stretching some 64 kilometers? Or Russian encirclement of a third of the Ukrainian armed forces back in late April?
As more Western weapons stream into Ukraine, the war will increasingly turn into a war of attrition between Russia's economy and the economy of NATO countries. I suspect this is why the Russians are attempting these huge offensives. Their only chance is to win quickly. But Ukrainians retreat strategically to let the attacks fizzle out.