John Baez (mathematical physicist and master popularizer, former operator of This Week's Finds in Mathematical Physics, current promoter of the idea that
physicists should start pitching in on saving the world) interviews Eliezer Yudkowsky (singularitarian, author of
"Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality," promoter of the idea that human life faces a near-term existential threat from unfriendly artificial intelligence, and that people can live better lives by evading their cognitive biases) about the future, academia, rationality, altruism, expected utility, self-improvement by humans and machines, and the relative merit of battling climate change and developing friendly AIs that will forstall our otherwise inevitable doom.
Part I.
Part II. Part III. [more inside]
posted by escabeche
on Apr 2, 2011 -
47 comments
The 300th issue of
This Week's Finds in Mathematical Physics will be the last. It is not an exaggeration to say that when
John Baez started publishing TWF in 1993, he invented the science blog, and an (academic) generation has now grown up reading his thoughts on
higher category theory,
zeta functions,
quantum gravity,
crazy pictures of roots of polynomials,
science fiction, and everything else that can loosely be called either "mathematical" or "physics."
Baez continues to blog actively at
n-category cafe and the associated
nLab (an intriguingly fermented commune of mathematicians, physicists, and philosophers.) He is now starting a new blog,
Azimuth, "centered around the theme of
what scientists can do to help save the planet."
posted by escabeche
on Aug 14, 2010 -
17 comments
