Floodlights and Goalposts

An online commonplace book

Tag: AIs

Human beings, nature, and machines.

April 19th, 2025

I have attempted, in my own life and in this book, to reconcile a love of nature with an affection for machines. In the game of life and evolution there are three players at the table: human beings, nature, and machines. I am firmly on the side of nature. But nature, I suspect, is on the side of the machines.

– George Dyson

As read from George Dyson’s AI history book – Darwin among the Machines.

Prefaces are underrated.

Dyson, George. Darwin Among the Machines: The Evolution of Global Intelligence. United States: Basic Books, 2012. pgix
You too could do this!

March 25th, 2025

I would like people to go away having not just been entertained or gotten some useful information, but be better people, in however slight a sense. To have an aspiration that web pages could be better, that the Internet could be better: “You too could go out and read stuff! You too could have your thoughts and compile your thoughts into essays, too! You could do all this!”

– Gwern Branwen

Gwern and the role he wants to fill. As heard on The Dwarkesh Podcast.

The AI avatar is creepy. For me, audio listen only. Brilliant interview – insightful and inspiring.

Too many adjectives on this post?

Patel, Dwarkesh. “Gwern Branwen – How an Anonymous Researcher Predicted AI’s Trajectory.” Dwarkesh Podcast (blog), November 13, 2024. https://www.dwarkesh.com/p/gwern-branwen.