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Comma.ai founder George Hotz wants to free humanity from the AI simulation

What keeps George Hotz, the enigmatic hacker and founder of self-driving startup Comma.ai, up at night is not whether his autonomous car company will be successful or what other entrepreneurial venture he might embark on next. No, instead, Hotz says he’s tortured by the possibility that all of us are in an advanced simulation observed by either an omnipotent extraterrestrial or supernatural being, or an artificial intelligence far beyond the realm of human conception and understanding.

“There’s no evidence this is not true,” an animated Hotz told a crowd at his SXSW talk on Friday, aptly titled “Jailbrealing the Simulation” and billed on the festival’s website as an exploration of whether breaking out of a simulated universe means we can “meet God” and kill him. “It’s easy to imagine things that are so much smarter than you and they could build a cage you wouldn’t even recognize.”

[...] It’s hard to know seriously to take Hotz sometimes; he strikes me as someone who often says something to get a reaction or to verbalize his inner monologue as a way of making sense of it. And he said as much onstage. “Do I actually believe it? Some days yes,” he said. “Sometimes I don’t know how I feel about something until I say it out loud.”

The crowd didn’t much care either way. During the Q&A, an audience member asked Hotz if he would consider partnering with transhumanists — people who believe in humanity’s eventual evolution by way of merging the body and mind with robotics and AI — to found his church. Hotz was rather ambivalent to the idea; perhaps he didn’t think people would take him at his word. But if he does a start a church, the sermon he gave at SXSW yesterday was delivered to a room of would-be believers.

Smoke weed everyday.

Related: George Hotz's Comma.Ai Cancels Comma One

I doubt there is anyone at Soylent who doesn't purchase anything online. I do, pretty regularly, because I can find things that aren't available in my local area. Things that might be available, I can find for a fraction of the price online. So, I shop online.

Tracking packages is usually pretty straightforward. The vendor sends you a tracking number, which is often a live link to the carrier's tracking site. If it isn't a live link, well, we probably all recognize a USPS, UPS, or Fedex number, so we go to the appropriate tracking site, and copy/paste the number in. Unless the shipper used not-so-Smartpost, we generally know within a day when our package will arrive.

But, overseas shipping? That isn't so very straightforward. Over time, I've learned to recognize some of those numbers, but new ones pop out of nowhere. How do you keep up with all of them?

You no longer have to keep up with all of them. Or, any of them, if you don't want to.

http://parcelsapp.com/en/tracking/SYBAA52472888

Guy named Pavel Tisunov has done all the work, and created a web page, as well as apps for Android and iPhone to track almost everything, it seems. The list of carriers tracked can be found http://parcelsapp.com/en/carriers

Those of you who are multilingual might be interested in his blog - http://parcelsapp.com/blog/

I wish I had found Pavel a couple years ago! It appears that his earliest blog posts were in April 2017. If I could read his entries, I might have a better idea how long he's been around.

Enjoy!

And, thank God for diversity, and for Russians, huh?

I was considering the opposition to Federal taxation and wondered what might happen if the requirements to pay Federal taxes were optional on a state-by-state basis.

The way this would work is that state legislatures could opt the residents and businesses of their state out of paying any Federal taxes, levies and fees.

In order to make this reasonably fair, if a state were to opt out, all those in the state would no longer receive any Federal monies, including highway funds, Medicaid block grants, Superfund grants, education funds, federal government contracts (including subcontracts), Medicare, Social Security, military bases, or any other appropriations from the Federal government.

There are a couple of ways this could go. Those states who are least dependent on federal funds might opt out.

Alternatively, states with populations that are most anti-Federal taxes might opt out.

What other scenarios might drive a state to opt out?

More details:
FY 2013 Federal taxation and spending by state
Federal Tax Revenue By State

Would you support such a law? If so (or not), why (or why not)?

There seems to be a major controversy in Maryland right now. The gun grabbers are attempting to - well - to grab guns. I stumbled over the story on this site: https://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/2019/03/daniel-zimmerman/maryland-gun-owners-will-not-comply-gun-grabbers-and-legislators-freak-out/

Admittedly, this is a biased site. I happen to agree with the aims of The Truth, but it is biased. So, I did a search for articles on the subject, "We will not comply". I found one "mainstream" media mention of it: https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/politics/ac-cn-wicomico-not-comply-20190226-story.html

I've scrolled three pages into my search results, and have not found another mainstream media story. I've found infowars, callmegav, conservativefiringline, rallyforourrights, a related story at investmentwatchblog, dcclothesline, unclesamsmisguidedchildren - in short, hit after hit after hit, page after page of hits. But, mainstream media isn't covering the story at all.

Let me change search terms, and see if MSM is even covering the vote on the bill - - -

Search term used, "Maryland HOUSE BILL 786" Results for MSM stories after scanning two pages of hits = ZERO Are they trying to pass this bill without any publicity at all? Keeping it hidden from voters? WTF?

Several small time news sources located inside of Maryland carry stories. I thought I found a hit at the Washington Post - but that was a false hit, on an entirely different subject.

Odd - if all the rest of MSM is refusing to cover a story, we might expect Fox to carry it. I don't even see a Foxnews hit.

Go ahead, do your own searches. If you can find liberal media stories on the house bill in general, let us know what search terms you used.

If you can find liberal media stories on the We Will Not Comply opposition to HOUSE BILL 786, please, PLEASE let us know how you found them.

It's this sort of apparent coverup that lends credence to the likes of infowars.

Lenovo Unveils ThinkStation P520 & P920 ‘AI Workstations’: Xeon Plus Quadro RTX 6000

Ubuntu Linux based systems shipping with 10 or 24 cores, 128 GB or 384 GB of RAM.

Maybe that will be the new minimum in 15 years.

R. Kelly

R. Kelly denies sexual abuse allegations in explosive interview

R. Kelly was "unhinged" in interview with Gayle King, columnist says (12m36s)

Gayle King talks about her explosive R. Kelly interview on CBSN (7m18s)

Full interview is apparently around 80 minutes and has not been released in its entirety yet. Even Oprah wants the full video.

Turmoil or manipulation?

Previously: R. Kelly Contracts Ligma
R. Kelly Exposes Himself

Mardi Gras

Mardi Gras: The most fun you'll have with a history lesson

Patricia Clarkson on leading the Mardi Gras group breaking with tradition

In New Orleans, The Fight Over Blackface Renews Scrutiny Of A Mardi Gras Tradition

Mobile mom says shoes thrown from Mardi Gras float sent her kid to the ER

Popeyes might be onto something with chicken-tender-cradlin’ Mardi Gras beads

Sounds like a great way to get grease all over your shirt on Fat Tuesday.

Opened my mail, and found "Dissenter is a Gamer Changer". Hmmm - from Gab. New member or something? Sorry, not much interested . . . scan on down through the list of emails. Slide the mouse toward the top of the page to select another tab, and I notice "Dissenter is a browser extension".

Alright, curiosity piqued.

GAB

Earlier this week we launched our new sister app, Dissenter. Dissenter is a browser extension and website that allows you to comment on any URL online and also see what others have commented. This includes Wikipedia articles, Amazon products, Tweets, YouTube videos, CNN articles, and more.

Many people are saying that Dissenter.com is a “game changer” for the internet. It empowers the voice of The People and makes surfing the web fun again. At a time when most websites have removed or heavily censored their comment sections, Dissenter brings back the wild west of internet comments.

We fundamentally believe that Dissenter is going to be revolutionary for free speech online, but don’t take our word for it:

Dave Cullen says Dissenter is “incredibly innovative and important.

Styx says “I believe Dissenter has the capability of becoming the next big thing in tech.”

The Financial Times says “There is a clear demand for this sort of freedom. Some argue the concept is therefore a billion dollar idea with the potential to completely disrupt conventional media's control of its comment real estate.”

Discover what the entire internet is talking about, literally. Visit Dissenter.com and download the Dissenter browser extension today.

Alright, didn't we do this once before? I very specifically remember an extension that permitted people to comment on a page, but those comments didn't show up on the page unless you had that extension installed and enabled. It was kinda cool, but, I dropped it for reasons - probably security related reasons.

Alright then - let's look at this reincarnated potential security disaster that will lead the NSA right straight to my front door . . . I think maybe I'll test it with Chrome, keep it away from my Fox family . . .

Youtube "tutorial" on the extension here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYsdpKfe0w4

Hmmm - to comment you have to create an account. That isn't looking really great. If I wanted to leave anonymous comments, I'm kinda screwed. I usually sign my name to stuff anyway, but, I may just feel like visiting the White House to tell Donald Duck how damned STUPID he is for - oh, I don't know - appointing Ajit Pai? I can tell him nicely, and sign my name, or I can tell him rudely, and remain anonymous, except I can't do so with this extension.

Hmmm again. Can't seem to sign up and/or log in with the fork of Chromium that I installed to. I can read comments, but can't make comments, sign up, or log in. It *appears* that a Gab login credential might work to sign in - which is not good. Signing in to use the extension should be separate from any site's log in credentials.

Let me try this on another browser . . .

Ahhhhhh - Browser extension installed on Iron browser, and it works much better. I attempt to log in, it rejects my first login attempt, so I sort through some of my logins. Naturally, since I'm already suspicious that my Gab credentials will work on the extension, I try one of those credentials first. And, I'm in.

I'm presented with a popup:

Dissenter | Comment On Any URL Online. is requesting permission to access your account.

This application will be able to:

Read access to your profile and feeds
Send new posts
You can revoke this app's access later under Settings / Authorized Apps.

Nahhhh - I'm mildly impressed with Gab, and I agree with their stated purpose in life - but I don't trust them with the ability to track me around the internet any more than I trust FaceFuck. Cancel. Errr, wait. Maybe I'm being hasty. I don't USE Iron for anything. In fact, it doesn't have a single login saved. This login to Gab is the first and only login it has.

Nuts. "Authorize". See what I see, I guess.

Hmmmmm - still broken. I have "signed in" repeatedly, but still can't make a comment. Does Dissenter rely on something that my forks of browsers have ripped out of the browsers?

Ehhh, time to uninstall, and purge the browser's cache history. I've devoted more than enough time to this thing already.

New CPAC stars: Black gun rights activists

For a few minutes at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Thursday afternoon, the message was more Malcolm X than William F. Buckley.

Sporting a red hoodie, his hair in cornrows, Maj Toure touted his group, Black Guns Matter. "We go where there's high violence, high crime, high gun control — high slave mentalities, to be perfectly honest,” he said, “and inform urban America about their human right, as stated in the Second Amendment, to defend their life."

A besuited interviewer seated on stage next to Toure told him, "You don’t look or sound like your stereotypical Second Amendment advocate."

[...] Philip Smith, president of the National African American Gun Association, said Trump was one driver of black interest in gun rights, along with general anxiety about the state of the world. "They are seeing the uncertainty within society across the board," he said. Smith, who did not participate in CPAC, founded his group in 2015, hoping he might attract a few hundred members. Membership quickly climbed into the thousands, and it tripled in the months following Trump’s inauguration. He said the group now has about 30,000 members.

Smith said that 60 percent of his members are black women, who often feel the most vulnerable to violent crime.

For quite some time, I collected classic audio gear, ca. 1960-ish to 1980-ish. My favorite high-end units had fairly extensive front-panel controls. They had to have them, because there was no practical way to build a menu-driven system at the time.

I love the way those units work. You want to do something? You just reach out and do it. And they were, quite frankly, beautiful.

Fast forward to now. I have a fairly high end pre-pro — that's very like the receivers most people are familiar with, but a pre-pro uses external amplifiers. The range of things it can do through its menu interface is very large, and sure, I appreciate that it can do them. But the level of convenience using those menus? It is flat-out awful.

But you'd never get all that shoehorned into front panel controls, or at least, if you didn't want to take up a floor-to-ceiling rack doing it. And remotes... well, stock remotes tend to have a bunch of preprogrammed functions, and you're stuck with whatever is there, and missing whatever isn't — so back to repeated menu-surfing. Ugh. So you just can't do it.

Or... could you? What if you could get directly at the controls you want to use most often?

For me, I'm talking about volume, bass, treble, and/or EQ, input selection, speaker and mono / stereo / reverse / dolby-whatever / etc. settings, loudness, high-blend and high-blend crossover, various balance configurations (preset or variable), mute, monitor selection, active zone...

These are the sorts of things that you (or at least, I) am constantly menu-surfing to get at. You might choose the specific operations you want access to differently, but how can a manufacturer meet that kind of need for flexibility?

So I imagined a design with soft knobs and buttons, with a dedicated small display over each control. A nice large single display, too. Push a specific knob in, and you do get a menu. But the menu lets you select what that knob does. Push again to select, or push-and-hold to cancel. All the knobs are optical encoders, so capable of considerable precision. All the control displays are dot-matrix, so capable of text, bar graphs, etc.

Same for buttons. Push to use, push and hold to get a menu/submenu to choose what it does, quick push to select the function, or push and hold again to cancel.

You could even set up a knob as a "meta" control knob, where it would step through various control configurations you have already set up. All knobs but that one are EQ knobs, for instance. Then right back to everything else with one adjustment of that "meta" knob.

And of course, you could still menu surf on the main display (or a monitor, if connected) to pick and choose and set anything and everything.

But how would you know what these controls did if they were all soft?

Easy: You put a small display above every control that labels each one as to its currently selected function. And all knobs and buttons would label themselves when a "meta" set was changed, so there'd be no confusion there, either. Talk about flexibility!

Now you have a front panel that is no more crowded than the classic audio units of yore, but much, much more flexible and personally, and completely, tunable to your preferences.

I'd want one physical option per knob as well: detents, or not, programmable. Some things I want smooth, some things I want stepped, and I want to choose which functions act which way. So they would need an indent mechanism that could be disabled or enabled according to how you want the knob to act. That can be done with a knob's back wheel with spaced steel inserts and an energized, or not, coil to provide the knob detents with classic, actively programmable physical feedback. Nothing difficult or particularly expensive about it.

From the manufacturer's perspective, each knob and button assembly would be an identical unit. Just those two kinds of things. So mass producible and easily integrated with a front panel and motherboard. Or perhaps they could just plug into each other, so various designs could use more or less of them, and they could talk to each other and the host CPU over that bus. That would be very nice from a design and manufacturing POV.

Man, I could really go for a unit like that.