The modern father of this literature is Ray Blanchard

🚨🚨🚨 Do not take Ray Blachard’s work seriously !

Wow, this wrong and unfair but it’s also just stupid. Especially this:

The homeless theory of cities:

SF is idealistic and trusting because the homeless are mostly peaceful addicts commiting slow suicide

NYC is ruthless and status-obsessed because the homeless are aggressive and confrontational

I think starting with Sam Bankman Fried is a solid idea. Relatively informed members of the general public a) know who that guy is, and b) know that he made some really poor decisions. He does not have the silicon valley mystique that attaches itself to some other adherents, I think fewer people will think “well that guy is really smart, why would he be in a cult”. Then you can go back and explain EA and LessWrong and Yudkowsky’s role in all of this.

I have no knowledge or insight on the topic, but I used to get recommendations for “intelligence squared” videos on YouTube and I always thought it was a terrible, self-aggrandizing title for a series or event. Smart People Taking About Smart Things.

I should probably give it a go!

I would also like to complain that I have finally started getting AI summaries in Google, and I may have to switch to a different search engine. Neither wanted nor needed!

My University Keeps Sending Me Stupid Emails About AI, a continuing series:

From the email:

The debate will be chaired by Michael Pike. Speaking for the motion are Prof. Gregory O’Hare (TCD), Maeve Hynes, Prof. Gary Boyd and Chatgpt assisted by Student Curator Ruan McCabe, all UCD. Speaking against the motion are David Capener (UU), Lucy O’Connell, Peter Cody and Meabh O’Leary, all UCD.

There’s a comment in there about how well it reflects on the British system that Bobby Sands was allowed to stand as an MP for Sinn Féin despite being an IRA member and a prisoner. This ignores that a) Sinn Féin policy was and is not to take seats in the British parliament, so he wouldn’t have been voting or sitting on any committees, and b) Bobby Sands died in prison on hunger strike.

These chumps are a disgrace to Harry Potter fans, and I say that in full knowledge of how embarrassing Harry Potter fans can be!!!

It’s just racist as hell. A revival of excited delirium pseudoscience.

How is Hanania the “ex” Nazi a credible source on this at all? For fucks sake!

That was always gonna happen!

unifying demands

hostile takeover

Pick one, you can’t have both.

They need an option for “very uncomfortable”.

Everything I have read about this guy creeps me out or pisses me off.

An extremely scary survey:

Edit: have a féach at the survey here

He’s obviously lying to try to pretend he’s some media mastermind rather than a cult member/cult leader.

I think the first Guardian article had some value, just because the reporter hung around the Collinses long enough that they indicted themselves through their own actions and words. Whether that outweighs giving two eugenicists a platform to tell people about their beliefs is difficult to judge.

Iirc, whatshisface defended himself by claiming that black parents were more likely to hit their kids, therefore it was racist to criticise him for doing so

Slate says: “For the Love of God, Stop Profiling This Couple!”

The Collinses are ineffective, abusive industry plants from Peter Thiel’s extended circle. They know they’re entirely media creations. They play off that fact to ensure that journalists never follow up on how many initiatives they’ve started and abandoned, neglect to interrogate their contradictory stances on issues like abortion and “race science,” and even seem to accept that they’re openly being taken for a ride by these dorks. Yet in spite of it all, no one listens to their podcast, they don’t really have much of a following, and their specific appeal is concentrated to a few far-right circuits.

The use of the word sincere here bothers me.