Alexander Kruel › Comments

"Turns out, somewhere between 130,000 to 190,000 years ago, the human species was reduced to less than 1000 breeding individuals--just a few thousand people in total. Ancient, naturally driven climate change pushed our species to the brink, said Curtis Marean, Ph.D., a professor with the Institute of Human Origins and the School of Human Evolution and Social Change at Arizona State University. What saved us? According to Marean, the answer may be "shellfish"." - Alexander Kruel from Bookmarklet

Shellfish & the human bottleneck posted by Razib @ 12/16/2009 06:02:00 PM http://www.gnxp.com/blog... , 2 -12 Toba catastrophe theory http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki... - Thomas Page

I got invites...email? - Alexander Kruel

thks have already got one and starting to make some sense of this.. - Wildcat

writing about this very subject right now... :-) highly synched to my stream of thoughts - Wildcat

Posted another comment: http://commonsenseatheism.com/... - Alexander Kruel

True superintelligence may develop from a confidante - what they want is to make *you* happy. - Ruchira S. Datta

To make *you* happy is a complex value. Something like that doesn't just happen. The most abstract intelligence with a reward function would rather just increase its reward number indefinitely until it consumed the observable universe. - Alexander Kruel

HD Version: http://www.youtube.com/watch... - Alexander Kruel

btw I just finished reading the the Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaniemi, highly recommended, prob the best sci-fi book I have read this year - Wildcat

Thanks, ordered it. - Alexander Kruel

"In a move that will give states and other parties who are offended by free speech precedent to further restrict it, the United Nations has again passed the resolution forbidding "defamation of religion." This is its third time through the Byzantine U.N. voting process. Allegedly put forward to protect religion from, well, people saying mean things, the resolution was tellingly put forward by Pakistan on behalf of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, not a group renowned for its defense of minority religious practice. un.jpgAlthough this year's resolution replaced "defamation' with "vilification" and installed a few other cosmetic changes, it was the same bill. And although it passed by a smaller margin, it passed nonetheless, so the news that the move's support is eroding is a bit rosy. The continued implications of this move are the same as last time. Among the most important is the fact that tyrannous states already use religious rationale to justify imprisonment and torture... more... - Spaceweaver from Bookmarklet

Is there not something awfully wrong that religious institutions and individuals that represent them harbor and encourage hate attitudes, hate speeches and hate acts in the name of sacredness purity and a superior moral pretense? No such acts are justified; not in the name of god and not in the name of a principle. - Spaceweaver

I was just going to message you on Facebook about them! - Alexander Kruel

Yeah, but maybe Yudkowsky's Singularity: http://yudkowsky.net/singula... - Alexander Kruel

"(PhysOrg.com) -- A Cornell University scientist has demonstrated that psi anomalies, more commonly known as precognition, premonitions or extra-sensory perception (ESP), really do exist at a statistically significant level. Psi anomalies are defined as "anomalous processes of information or energy transfer that are currently unexplained in terms of known physical or biological mechanisms." In a paper soon to appear in the leading (peer-reviewed) social psychology publication, The Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, psychologist Daryl Bem described nine experiments, in most of which he reversed the order of well-known psychological experiments such as recall and affective priming, so that what was usually seen as the cause became the effect. The experiments were carried out over a period of eight years and were well-designed and controlled and rigorous enough to be replicated in the future by other researchers. In one experiment subjects, all of whom were students, were... more... - Spaceweaver from Bookmarklet

called it :P - Brent

"A pioneering research effort could shrink the world's most powerful supercomputer processors to the size of a sugar cube, IBM scientists say. The approach will see many computer processors stacked on top of one another, cooling them with water flowing between each one. The aim is to reduce computers' energy use, rather than just to shrink them. Some 2% of the world's total energy is consumed by building and running computer equipment. Speaking at IBM's Zurich labs, Dr Bruno Michel said future computer costs would hinge on green credentials rather than speed. Dr Michel and his team have already built a prototype to demonstrate the water-cooling principle. Called Aquasar, it occupies a rack larger than a refrigerator. IBM estimates that Aquasar is almost 50% more energy-efficient than the world's leading supercomputers. "In the past, computers were dominated by hardware costs - 50 years ago you could hold one transistor and it cost a dollar, or a franc," Dr Michel told BBC News. Now... more... - Wildcat from Bookmarklet

But where is the software progress :-( - Alexander Kruel

Whoever missed it, this is a must-see. Especially the end (11:45)... - Alexander Kruel

Speechless. Ignorance mixed with primitive human nature at its best. What's really sad about is that those people think its cool while it is just embarrassing. That is why we have to reform the school system here and also introduce ethics classes. What strikes me as most obvious about the basic attitude of all people like this is that they are violently opposed to authority while not... more... - Alexander Kruel

By the way, Bushido is a misogynic and homophobe wannabe gangster. The Americans at least stand up to what they say (at least back in the 80s, 90s). - Alexander Kruel

sorry I forgot about this reply (not using FriendFeed much anymore :( kinda waiting for Facebook to catch up after the engineers all went there). I don't understand the text, I just like the beats. however I remember you dissing Eminem too, which makes me wonder if there's any rap you like. - Christopher Harris

"# Civilizations are physical objects, and nearly any ultimate goal imply a need for computation, storing bits and resources (the basic physical eschatology assumption). # The universe has a bunch of issues: * The stelliferous era will just last a trillion year or so. * Matter and black holes are likely unstable, so after a certain time there will not be any structure around to build stuff from. Dark matter doesn't seem to be structurable either. * Accelerating expansion prevents us from reaching beyond a certain horizon about 15 gigalightyears away. * It will also split the superclusters into independent "island universes" that will become unreachable from each other within around 120 billion years. * It also causes horizon radiation ~10-29 K hot, which makes infinite computation impossible. # Civilizations have certain limits of resources, expansion, processing and waste heat: * We can still lay our hands on 5.96·1051 kg matter (with dark matter 2.98·1052 kg) within the horizon, and... more... - Wildcat from Bookmarklet

thanks Alex, also all videos are now online.. here http://telexlr8.wordpress.com/2010... - Wildcat

"Many scientists think that free-will is an illusion. That is, intentions, choices, and decisions are made by subconscious mind, which only lets the conscious mind know what was willed after the fact. This argument was promoted long ago by scholars like Darwin, Huxley, and Einstein. Many modern scientists also hold that position and have even performed experiments since the 1980s they say prove it. These experiments supposedly show that the brain makes a subconscious decision before it is realized consciously. In the typical experiment supporting illusory free will, a subject is asked to voluntarily press a button at any time and notice the position of a clock marker when they think they first willed the movement. At the same time, brain activity is monitored over the part of the brain that controls the mechanics of the movement. The startling typical observation is that subjects show brain activity changes before they say they intended to make the movement. In other words the brain... more... - Wildcat from Bookmarklet

"Analysis of the controversy requires clear definitions of a few terms, which unfortunately are often used colloquially with poor precision. To a degree, such problems are inevitable. Nonetheless, operational definitions are helpful. Free will could be defined in various ways. Will is herein operationally defined here by such synonyms as intent, choice, or decision, and it can be... more... - Alexander Kruel

Good read! - Alexander Kruel

http://lesswrong.com/lw... - Alexander Kruel

brilliant quote from N Hayden - Wildcat

? - Alexander Kruel

Looks very promising! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki... also his father http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki... - Alexander Kruel

Most of our mobile devices use fractal antennas, thanks Benoît. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki... -- Also the first completely computer-generated sequence in any movie was only possible thanks to Benoît http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki... (The "Genesis effect" in the film "Star Trek II - The Wrath of Khan" was created using fractal landscape... more... - Alexander Kruel

I plan to shake my fist at any asteroid threatening us. - Eivind

Like this http://www.kiwisbybeat.com/minus37... ? It is a serious risk though: http://www.marginalrevolution.com/margina... - Alexander Kruel

This is great :-) - Alexander Kruel

A hallmark of the Singularity movement is that the video/audio quality is exponentially decreasing. - Alexander Kruel

I'm a bit disappointed by Hofstadter. I've heard so much about him... - Alexander Kruel

"When it comes to the intellectual battle between atheism and religion, the group with the imaginary friends ain't gonna win. But what about the intellectual tension between atheism and agnosticism? One could argue that atheism is an arrogant position, since it claims the non-existence of God, but one could also argue agnosticism is a bleeding-heart fence-sitting position held by people afraid to have some conviction. It may seem reasonable to be an agnostic, since one can't prove that God doesn't exist. But it's also impossible to prove that unicorns and the Flying Spaghetti Monster don't exist. Should we really be agnostic toward their existence? Is that really a sensible position? Or would it make more sense to believe they don't exist (since there is no evidence that they do), and then change our minds should evidence of their existence ever make itself available? In the following short clip from NPR's series 'This I Believe,' Penn Jilette shares some of his thoughts on the issue, as well as why being an atheist is bound to make one a more compassionate and loving human being." - Eivind

Being an Absolute Skeptic http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi... - Alexander Kruel

3quarksdaily - Maitani

Such discussions always remind me about something important. Children should not be assigned with any religion. There should be a certain age where they can decide what religion they want to follow, if any. This doesn't mean that religious people shouldn't be able to have children but that they shouldn't be able to force their children into a certain framework either. Parents should be... more... - Alexander Kruel

What really bothers me about it is the revival of religion through immigration. Christianity has finally been declining here and now it is just going to be replaced by Islam? No thanks. - Alexander Kruel

We are trying to educate, not to convince. We're doing so for our and your own well-being. You won't make the world a better place with fairy tales. People have no problem accepting rocket science, after all they can kill each other using it. But if they would expand their acceptance of science towards the Humanities, evolution etc., they'd figure out that the reasons for which they... more... - Alexander Kruel

That the video has been deleted is really sad... - Alexander Kruel

Great! - Alexander Kruel

Direct link: http://www.youtube.com/watch... - Alexander Kruel

"I've laid into creationists..... not a peep, I've laid into scientologist.... not a peep, I've laid into christianity.... not a peep, I've laid into catholicism.... not a peep, and I give Islam the self same treatment and a load of people melt down." - Alexander Kruel

Yeah, whenever people start criticizing Islam and Muslims it is called Islamophobia. Sad... - Alexander Kruel

Except for the other beings that used the processing power of multiple universes to get there first :-) - Todd Hoff

Actually nightmares. There was a recent incident over at lesswrong.com where a bunch of posts and comments have been deleted because people got nighmares and it was said to increase the risk of a malign being taking over the universe. - Alexander Kruel