Want to wade into the sandy surf of the abyss? Have a sneer percolating in your system but not enough time/energy to make a whole post about it? Go forth and be mid.
Welcome to the Stubsack, your first port of call for learning fresh Awful you’ll near-instantly regret.
Any awful.systems sub may be subsneered in this subthread, techtakes or no.
If your sneer seems higher quality than you thought, feel free to cut’n’paste it into its own post — there’s no quota for posting and the bar really isn’t that high.
The post Xitter web has spawned so many “esoteric” right wing freaks, but there’s no appropriate sneer-space for them. I’m talking redscare-ish, reality challenged “culture critics” who write about everything but understand nothing. I’m talking about reply-guys who make the same 6 tweets about the same 3 subjects. They’re inescapable at this point, yet I don’t see them mocked (as much as they should be)
Like, there was one dude a while back who insisted that women couldn’t be surgeons because they didn’t believe in the moon or in stars? I think each and every one of these guys is uniquely fucked up and if I can’t escape them, I would love to sneer at them.
(Credit and/or blame to David Gerard for starting this.)
Over on the other! SneerClub someone found a LessWrong post which mentions the Forecasting Research Institute and says it has received tens of millions of dollars from EA organizations. “Our work is supported by grants from Coefficient Giving and other philanthropic foundations” (aka. Open Philanthropy, Dustin Moskovitz’s foundation to spend his Facebook money). They have a Substack blog and Phil Tetlock is on the board.
I think Moskovitz has figured out that with billions to spend he can get actual experts, he does not have to hire people who did well in school or on tests but have a lack of subsequent achievements. They are excited to be investigating the possible economic impacts of AI and how to persuade people to worry about AI existential risk.