Recent submissions

Comment · 4 years ago
Violating the rights of a minority group based on a moral crusade to “save people”. It’s definitely similar. Similar also in the insane amount of suffering it causes. If you care so much about depressed people then donate some money to the effort to find a cure instead of causing innocent people to suffer with your armchair morality lectures
Comment · 4 years ago
I just do not see the problem. The urge to live is way stronger than a bad week. The urge to live is strong. And we already have systems in place to determine the course of medical treatment in the case of unresponsiveness, all you’d do is tack on euthanasia.

It’s not your business to determine whether or not a person should live. Why don’t you sit in the corner with people who think it’s their business to determine whether or not women have abortions?

Comment · 4 years ago
Apparently it is because the only people who find themselves advocating it are people for whom the topic has become real rather than just words on a screen. Just like everything else in life. Nobody gives a shit until it’s their own skin.
Comment · 4 years ago
What is causing you enough pain to justify suicide?

Don’t forget about carbon monoxide. It would be much easier and less painful to just get a tent or car and a propane heater. Shooting yourself is way too risky in my opinion.

Comment · 4 years ago
I think you’re right. It is too complex for a thread like this. But instead of literature my opinion is informed by my own firsthand experience with terminally ill people and my own fear of dying in an uncontrolled way. But you’re so right that the complexity of these things must be appreciated.
Comment · 4 years ago
Hard disagree. People already kill themselves. They already reason about how much of a burden they are and they already kill themselves because they think they are too much of a burden. People already do everything that you said.

The only major difference between the two worlds is that in one, death is grizzly, painful and traumatic and usually preceded by an enormous amount of suffering — and in the other death is none of those things.

You are clearly very naive and you clearly have never been in the position of needing to die.

Comment · 4 years ago
God bless you.
Comment · 4 years ago
The only reason right-to-die isn’t something universal is because the dead can’t vote. They suffer immensely and the usual feedback loop that mitigates societal problems and suffering is cut off. So every day thousands of people suffer terribly for absolutely no reason at all.

Doctors will actually euthanize patients by giving them morphine. They can only legally do it if they are using it to treat pain. They slowly increase the dose as needed. They will hover over an unconscious patient and claim that they are in pain and therefore the morphine dose needs to be increased. They repeat this until the patient dies. It’s a workaround. Because everyone is selfish and stupid, nobody wants to confront reality and just formalize it.

Comment · 4 years ago
Just know it. Really think deeply about this important issue and try to understand it thoroughly so that you have a chance at converting others. Awareness precedes any preventative initiatives.

Algorithm space is large and guess-checking through it takes a lot of effort even when it’s automated like now. It requires huge amounts of compute. And meaningful progress requires the combined effort of the entire worlds intellectual and compute resources. It sounds implausible at first but this machine learning ecosystem is in fact subject to sanctions. There are extreme but plausible ways of reducing the stream of progress to a trickle. It just requires people to actually wake up to what’s happening.

Comment · 4 years ago
Most people get stuck where you are. The fastest way possible to explain it is that it will bring rapid and fundamental change. You could say jobs or terminators but focusing on the specifics is a red herring. It will change everything and the probability of a good outcome is minuscule. It’s playing Russian roulette with the whole world except rather that 1/6 for the good, it’s one in trillions for the bad. The worst and stupidest thing we have ever done.
Comment · 4 years ago
I strongly and emphatically disagree. You frame it like we invented these AIs. Did we write the algorithms that actually run when it’s producing its output? Of course not, we can’t understand them let alone write them. We just sift around until we find them. So obviously the situations lends its self to surprises. Every other year we get surprised by things that all the “experts” said was 50 years off or impossible, have you forgotten already?
Comment · 4 years ago
Literally everyone on this website is in denial. They all approach it by asking which fields will be safe. No field is safe. “But it’s not going to happen for a long time.” Climate deniers say the same thing and you think they should be wearing the dunce hat? The average person complains bitterly about climate deniers who say that it’s “my grandkids problem lol” but when I corner the average person into admitting AI is a problem the universal response is that it’s a long way off. And that’s not even true! The drooling idiots are willing to tear down billionaires and governments and any institution whatsoever in order to protect economic equality and a high standard of living — they would destroy entire industries like a rampaging stampede of belligerent buffalos if it meant reducing carbon emissions a little but when it comes to the biggest threat to human well-being in history, there they are in the corner hitting themselves on their helmeted head with an inflatable hammer. Fucking. Brilliant.
Comment · 4 years ago
I’ve seen it so maybe uncommon but not untrue. But it’s 100% true that British people have a weird problem with pedophilia, even compared to other western countries. Problem both in the sense that you all seem to be pedophiles and also in that the topic is enveloped in moral dogma.
Comment · 4 years ago
The average person has simultaneously been outraged at his pedo tweet and also tweeted the same or worse. Have you actually been on twitter? It’s mostly irrational hate and insults

Also I assume you’re British so it’s not the same. You people have a problem with pedophiles. You actually bleep out when people say the word and censor the word when people write it. It’s like some kind of big deal over there. That’s just you bro, nobody else is like that.

Comment · 4 years ago
No, the bias is everywhere and HN is just reflecting that universal bias. It’s very popular to dislike Elon musk and it’s very unpopular to be a supporter. Count the number of supporters vs detractors in any mainstream thread — musk haters will be the majority every single time despite the fact that his detractors refer constantly to a phantom army of supporters. Every Reddit thread is basically 100 people responding to non-existent “fan boy” straw men. And they also like to spread the falsehood that Elon musk used gem mine money to become successful. It’s literally just made up nonsense.

People like to act like his pedo tweet was some kind of crime against humanity. Let’s have a look at your twitter if you’re so indignant. People are such shameless hypocrites.

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