Not long ago, during a discussion with a Zoomer colleague about how to find research material, I realized that he had never experienced internet search back when it was good.
Honestly, I think history will remember him as the great promoter of Bayesian epistemology, as well as possibly for the elaborate multiverse-based metaphysics his school developed, frequently invoked by future mystics despite Yudkowsky's own opposition to mysticism. Specialist historians might also note his ultimately discredited pronouncements on contemporary technological matters.
With physics (speaking as someone in the field) I'd argue something else is going on. After table-top experiments and university-scale research programs were exhausted, physics has had to rely on larger and ever more specialized technology to learn one useful thing about the universe. Compare the rutherford scattering experiment to the LHC! So we really do need hordes of PhDs, engineers, and technicians to do anything and we actually still do not have enough people! The number of people that can do what Einstein did - path integrals and tensor algebra - is enormous but the next generation of mathematics must use that as a starting point for a decade of mathematical specialization.
Still academia has similar challenges with the new reality of physics research. What happens when the length of time to build the experiment is longer than the PhD? What happens when an experiment needs decades of experience in a minor technique and then that technique becomes obsolete? What happens when the science machine becomes so complicated that scientists end doing empirical analysis much like an economist or epidemiologist would? What happens is that academia publishes papers and funds grants that would not pass muster in yesteryears even when the amount of effort and competition that goes into them far exceeds traditional expectations.
I wouldn't say it's *obscure*, but I would love to read what the official dynastic histories say about the An Lushan rebellion. A friend recently translated much of the relevant chapter from the Old Book of Tang for me. When I can, I'd like to read the New Book of Tang's take on it as well.
If there are any surviving primary sources about the rebellion, I don't know about them and would be thrilled to read them in translation.
Thanks. GPT seems to be able to translate, but I need a source of ground truth to judge its accuracy. Would you be able to share some translated sections that you know to be correct, or point me to somewhere it exists?
Filtering the quality scientists in each field and helping them aggregate seems worthwhile.
How would you go about it - maybe if you find one you can ask him for a few names, then pay a few of them for part-time checking of others' work in the field?
Who is the 21st century’s most influential philosopher, so far?
Neither his fans nor his detractors will like this, but the answer is Yudkowsky.
That's surprising, but I get it. His ideas are taken seriously by everyone from bloggers, to CEOs and the White House.
History might classify him as the proponent of a currently undefined new discipline instead of a philosopher-philosopher, like Adam Smith
Honestly, I think history will remember him as the great promoter of Bayesian epistemology, as well as possibly for the elaborate multiverse-based metaphysics his school developed, frequently invoked by future mystics despite Yudkowsky's own opposition to mysticism. Specialist historians might also note his ultimately discredited pronouncements on contemporary technological matters.
> Bayesian epidemiology
epistemology?
Fixed.
Spot on.
With physics (speaking as someone in the field) I'd argue something else is going on. After table-top experiments and university-scale research programs were exhausted, physics has had to rely on larger and ever more specialized technology to learn one useful thing about the universe. Compare the rutherford scattering experiment to the LHC! So we really do need hordes of PhDs, engineers, and technicians to do anything and we actually still do not have enough people! The number of people that can do what Einstein did - path integrals and tensor algebra - is enormous but the next generation of mathematics must use that as a starting point for a decade of mathematical specialization.
Still academia has similar challenges with the new reality of physics research. What happens when the length of time to build the experiment is longer than the PhD? What happens when an experiment needs decades of experience in a minor technique and then that technique becomes obsolete? What happens when the science machine becomes so complicated that scientists end doing empirical analysis much like an economist or epidemiologist would? What happens is that academia publishes papers and funds grants that would not pass muster in yesteryears even when the amount of effort and competition that goes into them far exceeds traditional expectations.
Is there a particular obscure primary text you wish to see translated? I’d like to take a gander at it
I wouldn't say it's *obscure*, but I would love to read what the official dynastic histories say about the An Lushan rebellion. A friend recently translated much of the relevant chapter from the Old Book of Tang for me. When I can, I'd like to read the New Book of Tang's take on it as well.
If there are any surviving primary sources about the rebellion, I don't know about them and would be thrilled to read them in translation.
Thanks. GPT seems to be able to translate, but I need a source of ground truth to judge its accuracy. Would you be able to share some translated sections that you know to be correct, or point me to somewhere it exists?
When I tried that, it made too many errors and failed a good chunk of my crosschecks against e.g. biographies of major figures.
https://twitter.com/benlandautaylor/status/1767994063071096998
I'll see about posting Austin's amateur translation somewhere.
Filtering the quality scientists in each field and helping them aggregate seems worthwhile.
How would you go about it - maybe if you find one you can ask him for a few names, then pay a few of them for part-time checking of others' work in the field?
A good piece that expands on (approximately) this thesis from 1995! is Odlyzko's http://www.dtc.umn.edu/~odlyzko/doc/decline.txt
Too many thoughts on this ...