Twitch is complicit in millions of dollars of crime.
A bunch of anonymized or generalized examples of how Effective Altruism is managed. In short, he alleges decisions are being made based on personal factors rather than the reasons talked about in public. Publicly talking about the actual ways decisions are made is disallowed because it’s inappropriate gossip.
He thinks this is normal and EA isn’t particularly bad compared to others. That is plausible. But it still sounds quite bad to me.
Yudkowsky retweeted it and based on Twitter bio the guy appears to be involved in EA enough to know this kinda stuff.
Some psychiatry stuff also lacks constitutional protections.
Multiple people have leaked classified military secrets/documents … while debating realism in a military video game.
wow. some people have really poor judgment.
Video talks about anti-piracy software making games run worse (e.g. lower framerates and longer load times) and also makes them more vulnerable to breaking entirely.
Pirated books are also superior. DRM provides a worse experience – e.g. it prevents you from using your preferred software to read the book, Voice Dream Reader.
i tried to fire up an Ubisoft game recently and was having internet trouble and the game literally wouldn’t function. it said it had an offline mode but it was just broken or something.
https://www.tiktok.com/@m0stlysapien/video/7028702010300026158
Criticism of Brave web browser.
https://www.tiktok.com/@miloandlauren/video/7023074803645041925
Food shortages affecting medicine.
~30,000 healthcare workers are potentially going on strike in 5 days. (Apparently there’s a law that healthcare workers have to give 10 days notice before striking. I presume that’s so hospital patients don’t just start dying when people just don’t show up for work.)
Example article: Thousands of Kaiser Permanente nurses and medical staff plan to strike | KPBS Public Media
Short story mocking some standard stuff from fantasy rpg games that, as the story points out, doesn’t really make a lot of sense.
from Frank’s story:
A good night’s sleep is a great way to get back your mana. Also, it’s perfect for healing up; I’ve never heard of an injury so great a single night’s sleep couldn’t fix it.
lmao
“Well, the tents are kind of shoddy. You can only use each once.” The merchant shrugged. “Sorry; that’s how they come from my supplier. I should mention, though, I do have a lot of phoenix downs in stock. If things go poorly for you, they’ll bring back to life anyone who has fallen. And they’re surprisingly cheap considering the huge social and religious implications of them.”
oh man i can tell this is gonna be a riot
Ya I liked it. FYI, I’ve read all of Frank J’s humorous fantasy and sci-fi books. I like them. Superego are the best ones IIRC.
Besides one or two articles on Substack, I haven’t read his political humor for many years.
thanks. i am going to try out Superego
I started Superego and am liking it a lot so far!
It’s problematic to combine really strong rhetoric with not doing much. It normalizes the rhetoric, and makes it harder to be listened to in the future if you ever want to actually do something about the problem. It’s hard to say “OK but now for real this is super bad” when you already said that over and over and didn’t take action.
It’s kinda like how it’s bad to make threats you aren’t willing to follow through on. He’s implying that action should be taken. But if you do that don’t follow through you come off as weak, imply the things you complained about weren’t that bad after all, and devalue whatever rhetoric you used.