Want to wade into the snowy surf of the abyss? Have a sneer percolating in your system but not enough time/energy to make a whole post about it? Go forth and be mid: Welcome to the Stubsack, your first port of call for learning fresh Awful youā€™ll near-instantly regret.

Any awful.systems sub may be subsneered in this subthread, techtakes or no.

If your sneer seems higher quality than you thought, feel free to cutā€™nā€™paste it into its own post ā€” thereā€™s no quota for posting and the bar really isnā€™t that high.

The post Xitter web has spawned soo many ā€œesotericā€ right wing freaks, but thereā€™s no appropriate sneer-space for them. Iā€™m talking redscare-ish, reality challenged ā€œculture criticsā€ who write about everything but understand nothing. Iā€™m talking about reply-guys who make the same 6 tweets about the same 3 subjects. Theyā€™re inescapable at this point, yet I donā€™t see them mocked (as much as they should be)

Like, there was one dude a while back who insisted that women couldnā€™t be surgeons because they didnā€™t believe in the moon or in stars? I think each and every one of these guys is uniquely fucked up and if I canā€™t escape them, I would love to sneer at them.

(Credit and/or blame to David Gerard for starting this. Merry Christmas, happy Hannukah, and happy holidays in general!)

  • scruiser@awful.systemsEnglish
    7Ā·
    15 days ago

    PauseAI Leader writes a hard take down on the EA movement: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/yoYPkFFx6qPmnGP5i/thoughts-on-my-relationship-to-ea-and-please-donate-to

    They may be a doomer with some crazy beliefs about AI, but theyā€™ve accurately noted EA is pretty firmly captured by Anthropic and the LLM companies and canā€™t effectively advocate against them. And they accurately call out the false balanced style and unevenly enforced tone/decorum norms that stifle the EA and lesswrong forums. Some choice quotes:

    I think, if it survives at all, EA will eventually split into pro-AI industry, who basically become openly bad under the figleaf of Abundance or Singulatarianism, and anti-AI industry, which will be majority advocacy of the type weā€™re pioneering at PauseAI. I think the only meaningful technical safety work is going to come after capabilities are paused, with actual external regulatory power. The current narrative (that, for example, Anthropic wishes it didnā€™t have to build) is riddled with holes and it will snap. I wish I could make you see this, because it seems like you should care, but youā€™re actually the hardest people to convince because youā€™re the most invested in the broken narrative.

    I donā€™t think talking with you on this forum with your abstruse culture and rules is the way to bring EAā€™s heart back to the right place

    Youā€™ve lost the plot, youā€™re tedious to deal with, and the ROI on talking to you just isnā€™t there.

    I think youā€™re using specific demands for rigor (rigor feels virtuous!) to avoid thinking about whether Pause is the right option for yourselves.

    Case in point: EAs wouldnā€™t come to protests, then they pointed to my protests being small to dismiss Pause as a policy or messaging strategy!

    The author doesnā€™t really acknowledge how the problems were always there from the very founding of EA, but at least they see the problems as they are now. But if they succeeded, maybe they would help slow the waves of slop and capital replacing workers with non-functioning LLM agents, so I wish them the best.

    • CinnasVerses@awful.systemsEnglish
      5Ā·
      14 days ago

      I can imagine Peter Singerā€™s short-termist EA splitting off from the longtermists, but I have a hard time imagining any part of the EA movement aligning itself against global capitalism and American hegemony. If you are in to that there are movements which have better parties and more of a gender balance than Effective Altruism.

      • scruiser@awful.systemsEnglish
        3Ā·
        14 days ago

        I totally agree. The linked PauseAI leader still doesnā€™t realize the full extent of the problem, but Iā€™m kind of hopeful they may eventually figure it out. I think the ability to simply say this is bullshit (about in group stuff) is a skill almost no lesswrongers and few EAs have.

        • CinnasVerses@awful.systemsEnglish
          2Ā·
          13 days ago

          Max Read argues that LessWrongers and longtermists are specifically trained to believe ā€œI canā€™t call BS, I must listen to the full recruiting pitch then compose a reasoned response of at least 5,000 words or submit.ā€