andrewducker | Interesting Links for 25-04-2023

The thing I'd heard was that bilingualism can help fend off dementia if the person is continuing to use both languages. I don't know whether this would show up on tests of executive function.

"How realistic is sudden exponential AI takeoff?" - well, if the limiting factor is human interest in prioritizing hardware, then the AI just needs to convince humans to make a massive, all-out, emergency-war-mobilization effort to create hardware. In WWII, the world built over 800,000 aircraft. With proper motivation, we could build 800,000 data centers.

AIs would likely use the "Plata o plomo" approach.

Take a job at the chip foundry? Your tax returns for the past decade get resubmitted, with every possible obscure deduction and credit claimed.

Turn down the job? Your tax agency gets a detailed report on how all of your tax returns for the past decade have errors or fail to meet some obscure criteria.

Work late to get an extra batch of wafers processed? That beloved prematurely-cancelled TV series gets a new AI-generated episode rendered just for you.

Leave your shift early? All the traffic lights turn red on your way home.

Agree to not upgrade your ancient laptop for a year, freeing up a GPU for an AI? You get a personalized shopping list of the ideal birthday gifts for each of your loved ones.

I had an odd reaction to this. The sound of the clocks ticking at the beginning gave me a tense feeling of anxiety. Then I was irritated at the long gaps between the verses, particularly at the end where you're wating for the kicker. Takeaway: I think I need to read poetry at my own speed, not someone else's!

Interesting Links for 25-04-2023

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Clock, Shakespeare's Sonnet 12, read by Neil Gaiman

Re: Clock, Shakespeare's Sonnet 12, read by Neil Gaiman