2023-04-22

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SETI and Signal Leakage: Where Do Our Transmissions Go?

The paper provides a table showing stars encountered by transmissions to the spacecraft sorted by the year we could expect a return transmission if a civilization noted them, along with data on the time spent by the star within the transmission beam. DSN transmissions are several orders of magnitude smaller in EIRP than the Arecibo planetary radar (1012 W), but it’s also true that the positions of the spacecraft, and hence background stars during transmissions, are better documented than background stars that would have encountered the Arecibo signals.
- Still ignores the calculation for recieved signal strength at target and the question: "could we identify that signal if we were there to catch it?"

Foom Liability - by Robin Hanson - Overcoming Bias

Thus I suggest that we consider imposing extra liability for certain AI-mediated harms, make that liability strict, and add punitive damages according to the formulas D= (M+H)*F^N. Here D is the damages owed, H is the harm suffered by victims, M>0,F>1 are free parameters of this policy, and N is how many of the following eight conditions contributed to causing harm in this case: self-improving, agentic, wide scope of tasks, intentional deception, negligent owner monitoring, values changing greatly, fighting its owners for self-control, and stealing non-owner property.
There Is No A.I. | The New Yorker

The article explains that what is currently being touted as AI is nothing of the sort, just a glorified typeahead tool, and the concerns about its impact are mostly nonsensical. It then -this is the New Yorker after all - proposes a global totalitarian nightmare state to allay these delusional fears.
What Social Media Does to Kids’ Brains
Smart gun operating on facial recognition goes on sale in US
Capitalism Without Capital
Meta's Head of AI Has Some Interesting Beliefs About Dominance and Submission | Hacker News

U.S. Supreme Court preserves broad access to abortion pil
Morell was asked by Blinken to say Biden's laptop was Russian disinfo
- News Blackout in Effect - by Matt Taibbi - Racket News
If we go by the usual measuring stick of American scandal, the Watergate story, this potentially meets or exceeds that, on almost every level. Does it reach into the current White House? Check. Was it a craven attempt to subvert the electoral process? Check again. Did a presidential candidate engineer a massive public deception? Yes, resoundingly. Did it involve intelligence agencies? Yes, and these weren’t amateurs like Nixon’s plumbers. These were 50 of the most powerful people in the intelligence world — including five former heads or acting heads of the Agency in Morell, John Brennan, Leon Panetta, Michael Hayden, and John McLaughlin — conspiring to meddle in domestic politics on a grand scale.
NY Times: IRS Whistleblower Claims Administration Is Mishandling Probe Of Hunter Biden