markjgsmith

Back when I started linkblogging about 10 years ago, one of the benefits I noticed was that it frees you up from the tyranny of choice that comes with the web. The web is so overwhelmingly vaste and full of interesting things that there is a tendency to get pulled in too many directions. I discovered that by posting links to the things I found noteworthy during the day, I was able to move on with the day much more easily. If something really was important then I could circle back around to it later. As it happens most stuff isn't, so there's just no point worrying about it. On the other hand, very often you end up finding synergies between linked items that you wouldn't have otherwise noticed.

I'm noticing something similar with writing notes using my new notes feature. It happens a lot that while I'm listening to a podcast, or reading an article, that my brain suddenly gets interested in some related aspect. It just won't let it go, and eventually it starts to affect the consumption of said bit of media. It's related to my surroundings, if I'm feeling stressed, or hungry, or in some other way imbalanced. It can be very frustrating.

With the notes feature, when I notice that happening, that I've had to pause and rewind a podcast a few times or re-read a part of an article only to be interrupted again by the thought which is suddenly the most important thing in the universe, I just switch over to notes, write down the main thing of the thought, and I can move on. It seems to be important that it's very non-formal. A blog post is too much effort because I have to think of a title, and write a description and a bunch of stuff. A note isn't much more effort than a tweet. However notes tend to be less well thought out, and probably have more spelling mistakes. #

Given yesterday's close encounter with what amounted to a time traveling family member doppelganger, this article linked to on hacker news today stood out.

Human Embryo Models Grown from Stem Cells: Scientists have created what amounts to a fake 14 day old human embryo. No fertilized eggs or a womb required. Just lab cultured and human skin stemcells.

"When the scientists applied secretions from these cells to a commercial pregnancy test, it came out positive."

We will soon have the ability to synthetically create intelligences and biologies. That's going to be quite a big change. Things are going to get very weird. #

AI pain strategy - Sam Altman's OpenAI has provisions in company founding documents for if AGI is created.

Steven Levy: "Somewhere in the restructuring documents is a clause to the effect that, if the company does manage to create AGI, all financial arrangements will be reconsidered. After all, it will be a new world from that point on."

Sandhini Agarwal: "Look back at the industrial revolution -- everyone agrees it was great for the world… but the first 50 years were really painful… We’re trying to think how we can make the period before adaptation of AGI as painless as possible." #