Personal chat thread

[Tadasuke]

Today I'm getting visited by an American who voted for Trump twice and even took part in the 2021 United States Capitol attack. That person thinks Trump was sent by God and Hillary and Biden by Satan. That person thinks that this world was created by Satan and only by good deeds you can get to heaven, which was created by God. That person also thinks the Pope is evil and works for the devil. All close family to that person died from obesity and that person is also obese. That person's children are not yet obese. That person is trying to become slim, but has failed so far. That person has not been vaccinated and has not vaccinated that person's children. Thinks Covid vaccines are bad for your health. Makes a living by selling Essential Oils and uses them everyday. Crazy if you ask me.

[wjfox]

Today I'm getting visited by an American who voted for Trump twice and even took part in the 2021 United States Capitol attack. That person thinks Trump was sent by God and Hillary and Biden by Satan. That person thinks that this world was created by Satan and only by good deeds you can get to heaven, which was created by God. That person also thinks the Pope is evil and works for the devil. All close family to that person died from obesity and that person is also obese. That person's children are not yet obese. That person is trying to become slim, but has failed so far. That person has not been vaccinated and has not vaccinated that person's children. Thinks Covid vaccines are bad for your health. Makes a living by selling Essential Oils and uses them everyday. Crazy if you ask me.

If that person was a relative of mine, they wouldn't be welcome to visit. Even if they were a family member.

[Tadasuke]

If that person was a relative of mine, they wouldn't be welcome to visit. Even if they were a family member.

They are not a family member.

[wjfox]

They are not a family member.

Well then, that's even more of a reason not to invite them. Is it really necessary for them to visit?

[Yuli Ban]

My review of virtual browsing: 7/10. The Quest 2 is still a bit blurry even when properly set, and the weight of it on my face makes it a bit annoying, especially when I yawn and wind up dropping a few tears that require me rubbing my eye. These make it cumbersome. The blurriness gives me a very, very slight headache when I use it for longer than 30 minutes. Maybe not even a headache but definitely an uncomfortable upper sinus/forehead sensation that goes away as soon as I take off the headset. As I've been in this headset for 2 hours, that sensation hasn't gotten worse at all, but it's still there.

HOWEVER, it is a dream come true. I've never been lazier: just laying down, staring up at the ceiling, (almost) fully comfortable, able to set my screen wherever I want it to be— I've LITERALLY, unironically LITERALLY been waiting eagerly for this exact moment for at least 8 years. As far back as 2014, I'd fantasize of being able to write, type, and browse while laying down without the need to stare at a fixed screen somewhere in the room. Of course up until I got the Quest 2, I fully expected this to be a feature of AUGMENTED reality. I still do. When I inevitably buy a pair of Apple AR glasses (or whatever other brand sells mixed reality smartglasses or smartgoggles), I'm certainly going to use them mostly for virtual browsing.

Still, this is a very fun and dream-fulfilling way to spend my time.


On that note, I'd like to stress that I literally bought a high-end, raytracing-capable supercomputer of a PC and a fairly high-end VR headset... and 98% of what I do with it is "browsing the internet and watching YouTube." I have a bunch of games all set up and ready to go, from Steam games to emulations, and yet I don't think I've even opened Steam once in the past month. I suppose it just feels better to know I have the capability in case I ever want to play some decent games or watch VR videos.

[Tadasuke]

I prefer to play in 4K 60fps on normal screens, rather than VR at the moment. It looks crisp, unlike VR and doesn't cause headaches, nausea or eye strain. You can play for 2 hours more comfortably. Imo, VR is not ready yet. I'm going to try ray-traced Doom from 1993.

[Tadasuke]

Ray-traced Doom (1993) is more fun to play than the original one, because of additional graphical effects, looks better and runs well on my 6700 XT. The old Dooms from the 90s are my favourite ones, still very playable and there are new levels being made (even by John Romero himself). However, only the first few levels have ray-tracing added (for now).

I followed an artist (anime style) for many years and now I unfollowed him, because while his old works were original, creative, with a tint of eroticism, now his works are just vulgar, obscene, derivative and unimaginative. Probably because of people from Patreon. The artist wants to earn money doing stuff like that, while in the past he was fully independent, without a Patreon account. So he could do whatever he wanted, not what the market expected. It's sad, seeing how more companies, studios and individual people fall to greed.

[wjfox]

I needed to buy some new clothes, so this afternoon I went to Westfield, the big shopping centre in Shepherd's Bush. My first trip into central/West London since March.

Very few people wearing masks now. I would say less than 5%, although numbers were perhaps a little higher on the tube. I felt quite self-conscious wearing mine. I can understand why people might think it's "over", and in some ways it is, but I'd rather stay cautious for now.

Anyway, it was great to be out and about. I got some new shirts/T-shirts, and new pillows to help me sleep better.

After this 2-month gap in my social life, I'm expecting the next few months to be a lot busier as I meet up with various people for drinks/meals, music, and walks – London is awesome in the summer.

[Tadasuke]

I was a weird kid, because I instinctively felt that we are undergoing huge transformations in the world and that my generation's future won't be like my grandparents future. My grandparents generation was telling me how life will be, assuming that it will go like theirs. They turned out wrong. Not only I don't have a girlfriend, wife or kids, but also they did not foresee any of the changes we are seeing. They didn't even think about AI, robots or the Internet. They thought we would still watch TV instead of roaming the Worldwide Web or playing video games. My life is already very, very different from my grandparents life. They did not foresee Wi-Fi, LTE and Bluetooth. Things are so different nowadays. But you could predict some things, perhaps even nuclear diamond batteries. There were for example stylus operated palmtops in the late 90s, so it was logical that they would evolve into finger operated smartphones with many features.

My mistake was that I was too optimistic, but I was fundamentally right that everything is gonna be different. I talked about how we could upgrade our bodies, change our DNA, turn into cyborgs or upload our minds into computers when I was 9 years old. I questioned the logic that everyone is going to age and die. I didn't think that it's so simple and that nothing can be done. They told me that God is the answer, religions etc. I also did ask why we don't just grow meat, eggs or produce milk without animals, whether science can do that, because I thought that's the rational thing to do. Growing whole animals just to kill them and eat them seemed cruel and primitive.

So I am slightly proud that I thought about some things even before I started reading books about future, but I definitely was too optimistic (about everything). Probably my depression is caused by my perfectionism and by my excessive optimism. But yeah, we are slowly seeing things go forward. Life is not the same as in 2002. Now Covid accelerated some changes like remote work or remote learning, but I still hate how crappy webcams are. I first tried video calling in 2005 and it wasn't much worse than today from what I remember, except we needed separate webcam and microphone instead of it being built-in. I do video calls, but they don't feel futuristic at all, probably because of the quality, which is not native 4K HDR. Changes are becoming obvious, but there's still a lot to be desired.

[Ozzie guy]

I am upgrading to a better job in a similar field.

There is about a 90% chance I will get the job they are just doing final background checks etc.

I still work for a call center but now I will only represent a single government organization through the private company I will work at instead of thousands of companies.

I will now get $28 and a bit Australian an hour which is a bit over $20 USD an hour.

After training upon permission from a supervisor I will be able to work from home.

The role is only a casual position though (this does mean I get paid extra on weekends I think 1.5X base pay on Saturday and 2X base pay on Sunday).

For this position I do have to drop one of my weekly psychiatrist appointments which I am happy to push for.



Whist I do have significant issues in my life which are impossible to fix I think I am getting into the position where I can somewhat comfortably glide through years until full AGI radically changes the world. Especially now after the Gato breakthrough and the expected date of proto AGI being before the end of 2023.

I guess in a week or so I will edit this post or make a mini reply to this post confirming if I got the new job or not.

[citali_]

I'm in celebration mode...lol. I will be releasing a new song very soon. Earlier today, I received an email telling me that my song was approved for distribution. It was such a long process! But in the end it is very worth it. I just hope fans like this new song. It is different from what I usually do.

[Ozzie guy]

I got the job.

Customer service representative for a government organisation but employed by a private sector company that has a contract with the government.

A bit over $28 AUD an hour ($19.50 USD/£16 pounds) should be 1.5X pay Saturday 2X pay Sunday, casual, work from home, only representing one organisation, promotion opportunity.

I now feel set for life. I shouldn't get ahead of myself as I first need to do a training week starting June 20th but I can't imagine I will fail training for a largely verbal job I already have experience in.

I feel set for life because now I will probably be able to do my own thing most of the week, making time breeze by as we approach AGI, whist I still earn and save money.

I don't want to sound like I am bragging. On top of the perminant issues in my life, I spent along time without long term work and I actually was unfairly dismissed by the previous call centre job I just had because they didn't like that I had a psychiatrist appointment, I felt embarrassed to say this here at the time so I blurred the truth here and said I was in the process of getting a better job without saying I was dismissed. That's why I applied for a casual position this time.
On top of this when finalising getting the position, the check of my police records went to "manual processing" by police. This means you have a common name (which I do) or there is something in your record to report. This scared the shit out of me as I was once found guilty of a crime but without a conviction (basically this means legally guilty but morally in the right). The manual check took about 14 days and I had to have my start date pushed back twice, I was worried I could lose the position just on the basis the check was taking too long. In the end nothing showed up on my police check hence why I got the job. Also in the last week my computer finally broke with not enough time for it to be repaired before work so I needed to buy a new one (and other stuff) for work before even knowing if I had the job due to the police check thing. Its not like I could tell the employer "my police check might show something so I need more time after the check passes to buy a computer". It's just nice to finally have a bit of stability in my life which is why I am so happy but truthfully this job is good enough for me to stick with until radical change from AGI.

[Yuli Ban]

My sentiment exactly.

[Vakanai]

My sentiment exactly.

Not really? I mean, I think we'll develop an AGI well before we actually invest in the tech to scan and deflect any asteroids headed our way, and AGI is going to do a lot of amazing things and help us in so many ways, like there's no way probably we achieve the escape velocity of longevity without it, but this particular example is kinda weird. If we wanted to, we could create a defense system for asteroids without an AGI. Like this one isn't a question of technology so complex we need an AGI to figure out how to do it, like say creating incredibly advanced microchips for pennies that we could sprinkle them in our roads and bridges to monitor every inch of the highway. We already have most of the tech or know how to deal with asteroids, we just refuse to put in the funding because people think it's too unlikely a threat to pool our resources into right now. I mean, it's stupid because if we did detect an asteroid heading our way that could wipe us out, we aren't likely to get things together in time to divert it, but people just think it's an acceptable risk because a human extinction level asteroid's never hit our planet in the time we've been a species on the planet. But if we decided to fund it, we could do it.

Sorry, not really making an argument against AGI, because like you I think it's going to be monumental and change everything, or close enough to it within the laws of physics (and it'll be able to learn more of the laws of physics as they actually are in our universe than we could ever learn without it - like right now we mostly just kind of assume time travel is impossible cause "reasons", even though we know nothing in physics that says it can't be done - an AGI/ASI would probably definitively learn for a fact one way or another if it is possible or not). But this is just a weird use case example because we already know the science to divert big space rocks off course, we just haven't funded the means to do so. An AGI might make it so we get that made sooner by putting us into an age of abundance where we think nothing of putting in the resources, but it's not quite the same thing.

I know, stupid nitpick that went on too long, but I just wanted to point out that the asteroid problem isn't so advanced only an AGI could save us (unlike a lot of other problems where, yeah, we need an AGI like yesterday).

[Yuli Ban]

I love thinking back to the early 2010s, especially 2014 when I first became a "Born-Again Singularitarian."

And I marvel at just how far artificial neural networks have come since then. I remember being astounded that I could use an ANN to generate text back in 2019, and yet now that feels so primitive.

2014 is another world entirely. Our current condition was promised to be, and yet no one thought it'd be like this.

[wjfox]

Crappy and disappointing Monday, after a great weekend. This heat is becoming really uncomfortable. And now they're forecasting an extreme heatwave for later this week – possibly into the late 30s celsius!

[andmar74]

Crappy and disappointing Monday, after a great weekend. This heat is becoming really uncomfortable. And now they're forecasting an extreme heatwave for later this week – possibly into the late 30s celsius!

Good luck!

[wjfox]

Thirsty birds in my garden today.

London reached 40°C for the first time on record, so I put some water outside.

[Yuli Ban]

1976 all over again?

[wjfox]

1976 all over again?

My Dad phoned just now, and we talked about this.

He said the summer of '76 wasn't particularly hot (although by 1970s standards, it was). Mostly in the range of 28-30°C (82-85°F).

What made it so unusual was that this went on for a very long period, about two months.

By contrast, the heat we've had lately has been in the low 30s for a few days, culminating in two days of 38-40°C (100-104°F). This sort of temperature wasn't expected until 2050, btw. My Dad used to be a climate change denier, but has changed his stance in recent years, and now supports action.