I should say that a lot of my disagreements with people on Reddit have more to do with what makes a good computer game and less to do with things which I consider gravely important. But my divergence from mainstream is nothing new, I've known it my entire life.
What isn't new is that now the "minority" has shrunk considerably. And here is why: 1) Reddit is where the masses (at least in my part of the world) go to talk about things. 2) Comments are artificially moved by a computer algorithm. People influence the movement by clicking on buttons to approve or disapprove of something that is said. It's often done without much thought or care, just a first impulse. 3) The voting tends to favor a strong bias toward certain patterns, which are not directly designed or programmed by Reddit, but are rather an emergent consequence indirectly resulting from the site's design. 4) The results in the voting determine who has a stronger voice. The stronger the voice, the more people see it. 5) Based on these votes, the site gives people rewards for being popular, and punishes them for being unpopular. People who might have slightly opposing cultural beliefs could become assimilated and become thinking more similar to those who earn the most votes. People who disagree with those who carry the most votes may find themselves without many people to talk to, since people don't use forums anymore, they use Reddit more. Less people to talk to means these people do not get to share their ideas quite as much. While it's a great thing that bullies have been stopped because of Reddit (http://tinyurl.com/9rktavb), civilizations flourish and prosper from having a diverse ecosystem of thought. The importance of biodiversity, for example, is well documented, such as here: http://redpath-museum.mcgill.ca/Qbp/2.About%20Biodiversity/importance.html. This dynamic can be applied beyond genetics and the biosphere, and applies to culture. Biodiversity applies to the organism as a whole, whether it be the genetic makeup they carry, or the opinions that they hold. It's a dynamic that I believe is important in all of nature, organic and inorganic. If the ecosystem of opinion were looked at analogously to all of life itself, what we are seeing here is the equivalent of global warming. Our culture's life as a whole may survive, but many parts of it will die a slow death. Nullifying diversity in a system such as our global forum of communication creates massive issues which matter to me much more than whether Starcraft II is better than League of Legends. Anyone remember when there was some buzz in the AGI or transhumanist circles on the possibility of the Internet becoming intelligent in some way? I think this might be the beginnings of it. We aren't dealing with an AGI in the true sense, but there is some "relatively powerful optimization process" which shows some intelligence, and it is making its mark on society. Much of my work on this "proprietary project" I started last year, while put on hold, has actually been in the field of collective intelligence. I designed an algorithm and web service which would operate on these principles. But instead of amplifying popular culture, my goal was to amplify problem-solving and scientific research. I developed an algorithm which can solve this problem. This can still be done as I've yet to find any other company or project which can do this. I don't think we can do anything about rogue AI, unless we design a better AI. I would rather see a global forum where people are putting ideas toward solving specific goals, rather than have a single undirected goal of doing what is popular. While we may not know how to build friendly AI, we can certainly make it less unfriendly. We need to stop thinking about AI as some robot with a positronic brain, and start thinking about it as a global service which affects humanity globally over time in subtle ways. That's the paradigm we are in, and we must not underestimate the power it may wield. ------------------------------------------- AGI Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/303/=now RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/303/21088071-c97d2393 Modify Your Subscription: https://www.listbox.com/member/?member_id=21088071&id_secret=21088071-2484a968 Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com
