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Conversations about effective accelerationism

Elon says that soon, builders “will be free to build” in America. If that promise is to be fulfilled, we have work to do.

My wishlist of policy goals to advance scientific, technological, and economic progress:

https://newsletter.rootsofprogress.org/p/a-progress-policy-agenda
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not a hump day if it's a sigmoid week.
Progress links and short notes: Brain mapping, walkable cities, progress on the curriculum, and much more

https://newsletter.rootsofprogress.org/p/links-and-short-notes-2024-12-16
AI is accelerating. Is anyone else feeling these pre-AGI vibes?
ambitious nerd obsessed with self-improvement and personal agency
The Techno-Humanist Manifesto, Chapter 4: The Life Well-Lived (part 2)

Techno-humanism embraces the need for meaning, but rejects the idea that meaning is eroded by material progress. Material progress has greatly increased the amount of meaning in individual lives, and it can continue to do so—if we let it, and if we choose it.

https://newsletter.rootsofprogress.org/p/the-life-well-lived-part-2
Looks like today is SORA release since MKBHD posted a video on it. In an hour and a half the world is gonna get another reminder that the acceleration must, will, and is, continuing.

My thesis is we need escape velocity to get past the great filter. May the acceleration continue.
developing an AI agent feels like crafting a homunculus in alchemy

- Nigredo (analyzing basics)
- Albedo (refining logic)
- Citrinitas (adding complexity)
- Rubedo (realization)

It’s a blend of purpose (sulfur), logic (salt), and interaction (mercury)

a symbolic life emerges
Everyone bull market pulls forward a glimpse of the future
It seems to me that with LLMs the case is: garbage in, garbage out. Assuming this is true, shouldn't the best LLM be the one that is trained with the highest quality, not the highest quantity of data – and, who is building this?
Mars 2026 by Elon getting more and more real by the day
Are vector spaces in LLMs a new medium for representing information?

Information was first represented on paper, then analog signals, then bits. Each medium let us do fundamentally new things with information

Can we think of AI this way? Has anyone pursued this line of thought?
The challenge of the future will be to unite the logical (AI) with the intuitive (human).
Crypto, zk, AI, and social all wrapped into one meme coin ? This will be fun
what a fascinating output. definitely inaccurate, but still...
Interesting exploration of the improving economics of water desalination and its implications:
https://unchartedterritories.tomaspueyo.com/p/does-desalination-promise-a-future

The author’s takeaways are:
- “Desalinated water now costs as little as $0.40 per ton […], likely to drop to $0.30 in the next decade.”
- cheaper water and transport costs of 0.05$/ton mean “that deserts couldn’t produce every agricultural product in the world. But they could produce a bunch!”

https://warpcast.com/s5eeo/0xaf123630
Wheels win.

I'm sorry, but the idea that robots of the future will be just like humans is very midcurve. It's a shame so much capital and focus is spent on building them these days.

Planes don't flap their wings. Boats don't use flippers. Fixed airfoils and propellers are much, much better at accomplishing their intended goals.

The idea that human-like feet and hands are ideal is anthropocentric and not very creative. Fulfilling 1950s visions of the future isn't ideal in all cases.

Build things that are better than the status quo, don't just make more of the status quo. Evolution is iteration.
https://x.com/YouJiacheng/status/1856348276901196236