Accursed Farms

Ask questions or topics to discuss in the link here for the next videochat with fans at 5:00pm UTC on June 17th at twitch.tv/rossbroadcast. My previous plans went to hell, but I'm trying hard to get the next Game Dungeon out before the next videochat, but it will be close. If it's not out by Saturday, it shouldn't be more than a day or two afterwards. Other videos still coming!

I had a good discussion with sociologist and statistician Jacy Reese Anthis. I thought this one went really well, we talked about AI, consciousness, reality, some philosophy, and some directions society might be going in general. While we had different outlooks, I think I was able to get some answers I was looking for on AI. I think this chat was a good omen for future ones with people as a side thing I'm doing.

I had a good discussion with sociologist and statistician Jacy Reese Anthis. I thought this one went really well, we talked about AI, consciousness, reality, some philosophy, and some directions society might be going in general. While we had different outlooks, I think I was able to get some answers I was looking for on AI. I think this chat was a good omen for future ones with people as a side thing I'm doing.

I'll be having another discussion about AI with sociologist / statistician Jacy Reese Anthis of the Sentience Institute at 5:10pm UTC on June 5th on twitch.tv/rossbroadcast. After the last interview, he reached out to me and I think his background should give us a lot to talk about. I also think this discussion will be more likely to be what I was looking for than the previous one. We'll be talking a lot about AI and consciousness and how AI might be likely to shape society. Additionally, I plan to ask him some sociology questions in general and try to make some predictions about where we're heading as a civilization.

I'll be having another discussion about AI with sociologist / statistician Jacy Reese Anthis of the Sentience Institute at 5:10pm UTC on June 5th on twitch.tv/rossbroadcast. After the last interview, he reached out to me and I think his background should give us a lot to talk about. I also think this discussion will be more likely to be what I was looking for than the previous one. We'll be talking a lot about AI and consciousness and how AI might be likely to shape society. Additionally, I plan to ask him some sociology questions in general and try to make some predictions about where we're heading as a civilization.

Here is the May videochat. Had a lot of announcements this time, on more videos, possibly more interviews, a bit of a followup on the AI discussion earlier. It ended up a bit of a blur to me again, there was definitely some discussion on emulation, Microsoft / Blizzard buyout, misc. stuff. I'm pretty sure I misread question and said "there are two points" then forgot to say the second one.

Here is the May videochat. Had a lot of announcements this time, on more videos, possibly more interviews, a bit of a followup on the AI discussion earlier. It ended up a bit of a blur to me again, there was definitely some discussion on emulation, Microsoft / Blizzard buyout, misc. stuff. I'm pretty sure I misread question and said "there are two points" then forgot to say the second one.

Since I had a discussion / debate on AI a few weeks ago, the tendency for the discussion on AI risks to branch out in different directions that can lose sight of the problem has been kind of bugging me, so I ended up coming up with a chart that lays out exactly how I perceive all of this. On this chart, I listed every major risk I could think of, and tried to separate them by how possible I thought they were. Much of current AI discussion I think is about risks I perceive as fantasy, because they hinge entirely upon superintelligence emerging. This chart also lays out my reasoning why I think superintelligence in AI is not going to happen. However, since I'm not an expert, I left some gaps to fill in for anyone who disagrees with my conclusion, in case my assessment is faulty. I acknowledge I don't fully understand the justification for saying AI is an existential risk to humanity any more than anything we are already doing without AI, so this chart should make it easier to pinpoint exactly what information I'm missing if I'm wrong. The "Option 4" or "Counterpoints" part of the chart is specifically what I would need someone to fill in order to make the opposing argument credible and the "fantasy" part of the chart a potential reality. If someone is able to point out an essential piece of information I'm missing that makes superintelligence a likelihood, then I'd say the existential risks of AI are plausible. If they cannot, then I'm forced to conclude it's not as well. I suspect much of the concern about AI becoming superintelligent grossly underestimates the complexity of the brain and / or consciousness itself. Anyway, this was probably a big waste of my time, but this should clear up any confusion of where I'm coming from and hopefully help refine people's thinking a little bit when talking about potential risks of AI. Big thanks to Laurynas Razmantas for helping me illustrate this!

Since I had a discussion / debate on AI a few weeks ago, the tendency for the discussion on AI risks to branch out in different directions that can lose sight of the problem has been kind of bugging me, so I ended up coming up with a chart that lays out exactly how I perceive all of this. On this chart, I listed every major risk I could think of, and tried to separate them by how possible I thought they were. Much of current AI discussion I think is about risks I perceive as fantasy, because they hinge entirely upon superintelligence emerging. This chart also lays out my reasoning why I think superintelligence in AI is not going to happen. However, since I'm not an expert, I left some gaps to fill in for anyone who disagrees with my conclusion, in case my assessment is faulty. I acknowledge I don't fully understand the justification for saying AI is an existential risk to humanity any more than anything we are already doing without AI, so this chart should make it easier to pinpoint exactly what information I'm missing if I'm wrong. The "Option 4" or "Counterpoints" part of the chart is specifically what I would need someone to fill in order to make the opposing argument credible and the "fantasy" part of the chart a potential reality. If someone is able to point out an essential piece of information I'm missing that makes superintelligence a likelihood, then I'd say the existential risks of AI are plausible. If they cannot, then I'm forced to conclude it's not as well. I suspect much of the concern about AI becoming superintelligent grossly underestimates the complexity of the brain and / or consciousness itself. Anyway, this was probably a big waste of my time, but this should clear up any confusion of where I'm coming from and hopefully help refine people's thinking a little bit when talking about potential risks of AI. Big thanks to Laurynas Razmantas for helping me illustrate this!

Ask questions or topics to discuss here for the next videochat with fans at 5:00pm UTC on May 20th at twitch.tv/rossbroadcast. I'll have a short follow-up to the AI discussion I had earlier + talk about possible future discussions / interviews. Normal videos still coming!

Ask questions or topics to discuss here for the next videochat with fans at 5:00pm UTC on May 20th at twitch.tv/rossbroadcast. I'll have a short follow-up to the AI discussion I had earlier + talk about possible future discussions / interviews. Normal videos still coming!

An interesting discussion / debate with Eliezer Yudkowsky on whether AI will end humanity. For some, this may be fascinating, frustrating, terrifying, spur more curiosity, I have no idea. I feel like we each tried our best to make our case, even if we got lost in the weeds a few times. There's definitely food for thought here either way. Also, I screwed up and the chat text ended up being too tiny, sorry about that. EXTRA: I'm not the best at thinking on the fly, so here are two key points I tried to make that got a little lost in the discussion: 1. I think our entire disagreement rests on Eliezer seeing increasingly refined AI conclusively making the jump to actual intelligence, whereas I do not see that. I only see software that mimics many observable characteristics of intelligence and gets better at it the more it's refined. 2. My main point of the stuff about real v. fake + biological v. machine evolution was only to say that just because a process shares some characteristics with another one, other emergent properties aren't necessarily shared also. In many cases, they aren't. This strikes me as the case for human intelligence v. machine learning. MY CONCLUSION By the end, I honestly couldn't tell if he was making a faith-based argument that increasingly refined AI will lead to true intelligence, despite being unsubstantiated OR if he did substantiate it and I was just too dumb to connect the dots. Maybe some of you can figure it out!

An interesting discussion / debate with Eliezer Yudkowsky on whether AI will end humanity. For some, this may be fascinating, frustrating, terrifying, spur more curiosity, I have no idea. I feel like we each tried our best to make our case, even if we got lost in the weeds a few times. There's definitely food for thought here either way. Also, I screwed up and the chat text ended up being too tiny, sorry about that. EXTRA: I'm not the best at thinking on the fly, so here are two key points I tried to make that got a little lost in the discussion: 1. I think our entire disagreement rests on Eliezer seeing increasingly refined AI conclusively making the jump to actual intelligence, whereas I do not see that. I only see software that mimics many observable characteristics of intelligence and gets better at it the more it's refined. 2. My main point of the stuff about real v. fake + biological v. machine evolution was only to say that just because a process shares some characteristics with another one, other emergent properties aren't necessarily shared also. In many cases, they aren't. This strikes me as the case for human intelligence v. machine learning. MY CONCLUSION By the end, I honestly couldn't tell if he was making a faith-based argument that increasingly refined AI will lead to true intelligence, despite being unsubstantiated OR if he did substantiate it and I was just too dumb to connect the dots. Maybe some of you can figure it out!

I'll be having a discussion / possible debate with AI expert Eliezer Yudkowsky on May 3rd at 6:10PM UTC at twitch.tv/rossbroadcast. He reached out to me after the last videochat I had where he was mentioned, so we're going to have a full discussion on AI and possibly the end of humanity. I'll post it on Youtube afterwards. There will also be a twist to it that I'll reveal when it starts.

I'll be having a discussion / possible debate with AI expert Eliezer Yudkowsky on May 3rd at 6:10PM UTC at twitch.tv/rossbroadcast. He reached out to me after the last videochat I had where he was mentioned, so we're going to have a full discussion on AI and possibly the end of humanity. I'll post it on Youtube afterwards. There will also be a twist to it that I'll reveal when it starts.

Here’s the April videochat. I finally fixed the framerate! This went on too long, but there were several good questions. Covered a range of topics, but a whole lot was on AI this time.

Freeman Freeman Freeman

Ask questions or topics to discuss here for the next videochat with fans at 5:00pm UTC on April 22nd at twitch.tv/rossbroadcast. Still working on a bunch of stuff; the next Freeman's Mind should be out before then. Also, the pace on future FM episodes will increase a lot since it fell behind.

Here's the March videochat. Had the usual rambling. Everything is running behind unfortunately, but it's still happening, long FM episode should be next. Also, it looks like I screwed up and clipped some of the chat and didn't notice, but it's mostly there.

Ask questions or topics to discuss here for the next videochat with fans at 6:00pm UTC on March 18th at twitch.tv/rossbroadcast. I'm running behind schedule, again, but I have several interesting videos coming!

Here's the February videochat. Talked about some of the usual topics that come up in these, also a chunk on AI and job implications. I updated OBS for this one, so fingers crossed that clicking sound didn't return when I did. Freeman's Mind has resumed!

Ask questions or topics to discuss here for the next videochat with fans at 6:00pm UTC on February 11th at twitch.tv/rossbroadcast. I'm still working on some larger videos, but may break it up with shorter ones, haven't decided yet, more stuff still coming!

I'll be appearing on Conversations With Curtis (hosted by Paul Morgan Stetler, the lead actor from Phantasmagoria 2) on January 27th at 8pm UTC. I'm actually not 100% on what we'll be discussing, but I'm sure we'll figure something out. It will stream live on his Youtube channel below, I'll update with a direct link later:

Here's the January videochat. I was low on sleep when I did this, though I'm not sure it made much of a difference. I also lost my voice again, but it came back, again. Covered some interesting topics, though I honestly don't remember half of what I said this time.

Ask questions or topics to discuss here for the next videochat with fans at 6:00pm UTC on January 14th at twitch.tv/rossbroadcast. Things are going to be a little slow since the next videos I have lined up are ones that take above-average time to get made, but still working on them!

Merry Christmas Dungeon! This episode ended up getting away from me, I meant to have it much shorter, but ended up seeing too many things I wanted to talk about. Have a good Christmas!

Here's the December videochat. I felt crazier the longer this one went on, maybe there wasn't enough oxygen in the room again. I don't remember saying much of value. Christmas episode coming soon!

Ask questions or topics to discuss here for the next videochat with fans at 6:00pm UTC on December 17th at twitch.tv/rossbroadcast. I did a lot on a big side video, but it still has more to go on it. For now I've been working on the Christmas episode. It will have snow.

November videochat. Talked about twitter, billionaires, muppets, batman quotes, etc. This one went better than usual, I think. Still felt a little crazy after doing this, but there were some good topics this time. It went on too long again.

Ask questions or topics to discuss here for the next videochat with fans at 5:00pm UTC on November 19th at twitch.tv/rossbroadcast. No real news to report since last time, just been working on a lot of small things + a larger side video I've been meaning to do for a while. For those who have "Tr-Trickstyle" stuck in your head now, it's happened to me too.

Trickstyle! This ended up taking me MUCH longer than I anticipated, but as you'll see, it has some bonuses in it that help make it worth it. I also ran into editing errors AGAIN using completely different codecs this time. I really need to figure out what the hell is going on and whether to blame Bandicam, Handbrake, Premiere, or everyone. This is the 3rd "countdown" video out of 9 or 10, after which I'm going to go all-in on the movie for a while.

October videochat with fans. I rambled too much again and forgot to leave the door more open so enough air got to my brain. Several good questions, new Game Dungeon coming!

Halloween Game Dungeon! This was supposed to come out 1-2 days ago, but it's before Halloween, so it's still less under the wire than normally. This game was definitely an experience, not what I expected.

Ask questions or topics to discuss here for the next videochat with fans at 5:00pm UTC on October 30th (Sunday) at twitch.tv/rossbroadcast. I meant to have this earlier, but better late than never. My video plans also changed since I didn't want to release a non-Halloween Game Dungeon so close to Halloween, but new videos are still coming soon. I'm hoping to break the curse and actually get the Halloween episode done early this year. Current plan: October 28th or 29th: Halloween Game Dungeon November 4: Non-Halloween Game Dungeon November: Working on a big side video I've been trying to do for years. These will all be part of the "countdown" videos I'm doing before I go all-in on the movie for a while.

Dead Game News! This better be the last one for a while, I'm going back to the real videos. Contains legendary quotes.

New Dead Game News, has a bit of a twist at the end. Will resume the normal videos before long. I'm not counting DGN against my countdown for a big push on the movie since this was unplanned and only took a couple days.

September videochat with fans. Talked about usual stuff, there's a whole bunch of extra links this time in the Youtube description, mostly because of the music videos mentioned.

Ask questions or topics to discuss here for the next videochat with fans at 5:00pm UTC on September 17th at twitch.tv/rossbroadcast. There was something else I was going to say, but I forgot what it was. Anyway, more videos coming!

New Game Dungeon! This is one that escalated for me and demanded I pay more attention to it than I would have. This is also the first video of my "countdown" of 8-10 videos where at the end of them I'm going to dive headlong into the "The Movie" likely for months. 7-9 more coming!

Here's the August videochat. It didn't go as badly as I thought it would since I had more air to breathe this time.

Ask questions or topics to discuss here for the next videochat with fans at 5:00pm UTC on August 20th at twitch.tv/rossbroadcast. Been running behind, but will have next Game Dungeon out this month, hoping next weekend.

Here's the July videochat. I don't think I said much or anything important, though it wasn't the worst one either. I let the door to my room open a bit this time, but still felt like I didn't have enough air by the end of it, but I didn't black out, so I'll call it a success.

Here's a last minute Dead Game News episode! This was probably a mistake, but I'm satisfied with how it came out. This episode may have more questions than news.

Ask questions or topics to discuss here for the next videochat with fans at 5:00pm UTC on July 16th at twitch.tv/rossbroadcast. Things still happening. The long FM episode is coming + the next Game Dungeon escalated and it may pay off to have it delayed, so I'm working on the next-next Game Dungeon instead.

Here's the latest June videochat. This one was a bit of a mess since my voice started going after 15 minutes (but came back), the framerate recorded low again (I need to troubleshoot that), and I rambled way too much. I kept the door closed to my room to cut back on noise, but I think it resulted in me not getting enough oxygen. I'm not sure I said anything of value except the part at the end about a documented case where 80% of public comments to the FCC were faked.

The curse has been lifted, new Game Dungeon! In retrospect, this one went on for too long, I recommend watching it in chunks. I hope to have things be a little more refined in the future. Next ones won't take as long to come out!

Ask questions or topics to discuss here for the next videochat with fans at 5:00pm UTC on June 18th at twitch.tv/rossbroadcast. I hope to have a new Game Dungeon out before then and more videos coming after.

May videochat with viewers. There were pretty good questions and I repeated myself too much again. Videos coming!

Ask questions or topics to discuss here for the next videochat with fans at 5:00pm UTC on May 21st at twitch.tv/rossbroadcast. There's a small chance this gets postponed since I've had crippling headaches out of nowhere for the past several days, but so far the pills help. Work continues on more videos!

New Freeman's Mind episode! Next one should come out faster!