On When AI builds itself by Anthropic

When superstition trumps common sense! Or is this naive, wishful thinking?

This recent blog post by Anthropic appears to have stirred up quite some public controversy and fears about the future of machine learning and AI!

I would say these public fears are quite overblown! So far humanity has managed other potentially dangerous, catastrophic technologies like nuclear weapons and biological weapons quite well! Why would or should it be different this time?

To halt or slow down AI development as suggested appears to be an extreme and rather unnecessary measure. Plus, such a halt or slowdown could e.g. not be verified worldwide with confidence!

"For most of AI’s history, humans drove every step in its development cycle. But at Anthropic, we are delegating a growing share of AI development to AI systems themselves, which is speeding up our work.

Taken far enough, and given enough compute, that trend points to an AI system capable of fully autonomously designing and developing its own successor. This is called recursive self-improvement. We are not there yet, and recursive self-improvement is not inevitable. But it could come sooner than most institutions are prepared for. ...

We believe it would be good for the world to have the option to slow or temporarily pause frontier AI development to enable societal structures and alignment research to keep up with the advance of the technology. ..."

When AI builds itself \ Anthropic

Action Alert: Opportunity for AI Pause by MIRI Institute (MIRI is a leading, ML & AI research institute in Berkeley, CA)

Source

What a Philippine court ruling means for transgenic Golden Rice, once hailed as a dietary breakthrough

This decades long fight against genetically modified crops is medieval and irrational! In so far, Greenpeace and similar associations are a bunch of charlatans!

The often invoked so called precautionary principle is an ideological cudgel! We would be still living in caves had this principle been followed much earlier!

"But in 2021, the government of the Philippines granted a permit allowing the commercial planting of Malusog Rice, a Golden Rice variety tailored for local conditions and tastes. Farmers began to grow limited amounts of the grain in 2022. Officials hoped to have the variety comprise 10% of the nation’s rice harvest within 8 years, enough to meet the needs of all vitamin A deficient households.

On 17 April, however, a Philippine Court of Appeals revoked the permit, bringing that plan to a halt. Ruling on a lawsuit brought by Greenpeace and other groups, the court concluded that in the absence of a scientific consensus on the safety of Golden Rice it should not be commercially cultivated. The nation’s constitution, the judges found, required the government to follow the so-called precautionary principle of waiting to approve new crops and activities until scientists reach a consensus that they are safe for humans and the environment. ..."

"Golden Rice: Going Back to the Drawing Board

For decades, scientists have been working on a genetically modified rice variety—dubbed “Golden Rice”— that helps combat vitamin A deficiency. And for almost as long, activists opposed to GM crops have worked to keep it out of the food supply.

Now a ruling by a Philippines court could have wider implications for genetically engineered rice and other other crops.  ..."

What a Philippine court ruling means for transgenic Golden Rice, once hailed as a dietary breakthrough | Science | AAAS

Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health: Global Health NOW

Western Civilization Still Lives In The Dark Ages

Posted: 7/20/2019  Updated: 7/21/2019

We live in the 19th year of the 21 century, we have smartphones, the Internet, supercomputers and so much more. We think, we are so sophisticated and superior compared to our ancestors. What a mirage! What a self delusion!

When you look at the hot, dominant subjects of civil or not so civil discourse in Western societies you are forgiven not to believe that the Dark Ages are still upon us. Medieval superstition trumps everywhere, every day! Barbarism is very much alive!

Diversity is but a modern form of racism (skin color matters again). People like Frederick Douglas or Martin Luther King Jr. must be spinning wildly in their graves

Gender equality nonsense propaganda everywhere. Wild imaginations of a mythical gender pay gap every day! Males are too aggressive and not femine enough! Sexual harassment accusations crop up everywhere, anytime like witch hunts! Government mandated gender quotas are becoming the norm.  When power hungry women determined to dominate and to convert the supposed patriarchy into a matriarchy while males still continue to be chivalrous to ladies.

Global Warming (a.k.a. Climate Change) is the greatest hoax perpetrated on humanity in several generations! The widespread fanatic religious zeal behind this superstition (or pseudo religion) compares very well or even exceeds those prevalent in Ancient or Medieval times. Way too many scientists and highly educated people are accomplices to this hoax! Some things never change so they say!

LGBTQ is the greatest and hyped tribe on earth according to the daily propaganda! Was there ever more tribalism in Ancient or Medieval times? The LGBTQ tribe promotes a colorful, alternative, hip, glamorous, vanity lifestyle! Contrary to their claims, there is not much welcoming at all about their attempt to dominate or impose their lifestyle on the rest of us! Males now directly compete with females in sports! Males freely use Lady’s restrooms etc. etc. What is your sex? Do you have more than one sex? Can we transgender your sex? The age of sex obsession! In the whole scheme of things, the gender of a human being is ultimately so irrelevant, so unimportant! Even highly reputed and respected Western scientific institutions and publications are in on this craze! Ancient and medieval alchemy, astronomy, mathematics etc. were far more scientific than that!

Iconoclasm (destruction or damaging of past symbols for religious or political reasons) is still not eradicated! It is as if the Barbarians and Vandals are still among us. What an irony of history!

Dante Alighieri would be too happy to write a new Divine Comedy!

What to do? Perhaps privatize government public education, Social Security like schemes, government run health care etc. In short, more small and very limited government!