Situational Awareness (essay)

Ex-openAI Employee just revealed it all

How's this for a bombshell - – the US must make AI its next Manhattan Project

A forest of evergreen notes

Jon M Sterling, a computer scientist at Cambridge University, has created his own ‘mathematical Zettelkasten’, which he also calls ‘a forest of evergreen notes’.
He maintains a very interesting website, built using a tool he created, named, appropriately enough, Forester.
The implementation of his ideas raises all sorts of ideas and questions for me, almost all enthusiastic. Here are a few in no order at all:
Andy Matuschak coined the term ‘evergreen notes’, which Jon Sterling has further developed with great elegance.

Before seeing Jon Sterling’s site, I had held a simple distinction between the Zettlekasten and the Wiki. I don’t really wish to re-open an old argument, but just want to make a small observation. For me, a Wiki is a public- or semi-public facing product in its own right, a kind of publication, whereas a Zettelkasten is a method or process to produce public-facing artifacts, but it isn’t one of these artifacts itself. But now I wonder whether you can’t do both back-stage and front-stage at the same time. In other words, it looks to me like Jon Sterling is creating a Zettelkasten by my definition (it’s a process to produce public-facing artifacts such as articles and presentations), but he’s working with the garage door open (it’s a kind-of product in its own right). This is an interesting thing to watch, and it’s always fun to experience the mystique of the studio.

https://www.jonmsterling.com/index.xmlJon Sterling

This website is a “forest” created using the Forester tool. I organize my thoughts here on a variety of topics at a granular level; sometimes these thoughts are self-contained, and at times I may organize them into larger notebooks or lecture notes. My nascent ideas about the design of tools for scientific thought are here. I welcome collaboration on any of the topics represented in my forest.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/may/22/international-criminal-court-seeks-arrests-israel-hamas-gaza

by Owen Jones

The deaths, the atrocities – all were predicted. Those who ignored all the warnings should be held responsible too

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/feb/22/disappearing-tongues-the-endangered-language-crisis

Linguistic diversity on Earth is far more profound and fundamental than previously imagined. But it’s also crumbling fast

https://zeteo.com/p/israel-gaza-quadcopter-drone-warfare?publication_id=2325511&utm_campaign=email-post-title&r=1j871&utm_medium=email

"Israel is pioneering yet another deadly innovation in drone warfare. What happens in Gaza won't stay there."

https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/2023/02/can-we-make-bicycles-sustainable-again/

Cycling is the most sustainable form of transportation, but the bicycle is becoming increasingly damaging to the environment. The energy and material used for its production go up while its life expectancy decreases.

https://membersfirst.coop/phantom-load-calculator
"Phantom Energy: Do Appliances Use Electricity When Plugged in but Turned Off?"

The short answer is yes! A variety of different electronic devices and appliances, including televisions, toasters, lamps, and more, when plugged in, can consume electricity even when they’re turned off.

This phenomenon is commonly referred to as a “phantom load” or “vampire energy.” A phantom load is any electronic device or appliance that consumes electricity when turned off but still plugged into an outlet. These appliances and electronic devices provide the modern-day conveniences we rely on, but they also waste energy and cost money. The U.S. Department of Energy says on average, 75 percent of the electricity used to power home electronics and appliances is consumed while the products are turned off.

Also:
https://www.mirror.co.uk/money/leaving-your-phone-charger-plugged-18991558

https://www.citationneeded.news/ai-isnt-useless/

Like block-chain, it is hugely expensive and unsuited for some of the purposes that it is used for. Like many technological innovations it is over-hyped and may fail to deliver on what it promises.  There are moral considerations, such as employing thousands of low-wage people in grueling tasks while depriving others of their jobs.  But finally it comes down to the fact that it is likely to develop rapidly because it will make a few people rich and is seen as lucrative by big companies.

https://www.themarginalian.org/2023/08/27/notes-on-complexity-neil-theise/

In Notes on Complexity: A Scientific Theory of Connection, Consciousness, and Being (public library), the Buddhist scientist Neil Theise endeavors to bridge the mystery out there with the mystery of us, bringing together our three primary instruments of investigating reality — empirical science (with a focus on complexity theory), philosophy (with a focus on Western idealism), and metaphysics (with a focus on Buddhism, Vedanta, Kabbalah, and Saivism) — to paint a picture of the universe and all of its minutest parts “as nothing but a vast, self-organizing, complex system, the emergent properties of which are… everything.”