I tried to look up this Mr. Gerard’s lurid wikipedia past expecting at least a torture dungeon or wiki-cult or something; but all I found were a bunch of people grumpy that they couldn’t turn wikipedia articles into cryptocurrency ads.

Booring.

align[s] broadly with informed experts that the distribution of genetic traits associated with intelligence is non-zero

Now I’m not the smartest cookie in the bakery but I know a dog-whistle when I see it!

What do those people think education even looks like?

The same think all coding bootcamps think education looks like: try to take over the world! poorly teach fullstack web development with none of the fundamentals!

what the heck EA forum doesn’t have a block feature? That’s just… ew.

Also how long have all these people been obsessed with “woke” and “the left”? Because it’s been really obvious and over the top lately.

Lol look at the reception on HN.

First off it was too cool and real to be allowed by their rules*, so there are like six [flagged][dead] copies, then Dang allowed it through with the title Please Don’t Mention AI Again, as a weird attempt at humor, and then half the comments were all just about how aggressive the article’s tone is.

Basically: what a bunch of squares.

* Actually I just read through the rules and it doesn’t actually violate any of them, but I guess there are unwritten rules too.

I like this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVQKDKKnb2Y

And the comment was edited to add:

(sorry this was a bad example as discussed in the comments so I’ll stick with the pretty clear “has stated that black people are animals who need to be surveilled in mass to reduce crime”)

Which is the second or third time in this saga I’ve seen people back down from good points due to bad replies. Like someone needs to tell him he’s in the wrong crowd and this isn’t normal.

comment from Austin:

I don’t love that some guests we invited may turn away bright, ambitious, and especially kind folks like yourself; I write a bit more about this here. I think the opposite is true as well, though, where left-leaning views turn away some of the most awesome up-and-coming folks.

“Sure it’s not ideal that all the racists drove off all the leftists. But have you considered the alternative is alienating the most awesome up and coming racists??”

Lol this is not the great anti-racist response they might think it is.

“We would never invite (especially blatant eugenics level) racists to LessOnline! The Manifestival on the other hand… (conveniently advertised on the LessOnline homepage and discount tickets if you go to both!)”

Possibly tea.xyz or similar.

Basically the guy famous for the binary tree invert algorithm Homebrew package manager thought it would be a great idea to incentivize spammy behavior against open source projects in the name of “supporting” them.

https://www.web3isgoinggreat.com/?id=teaxyz-spam

https://www.web3isgoinggreat.com/?id=teaxyz-causes-open-source-software-spam-problems-again

deleted by creator

The phrase “legal reasons” is doing a lot of heavy lifting in their FAQ

Dang that slanderous Guardian describing Manifund as a prediction market when it’s a market where people make predictions. Totally misleading!

Since Ivan owns 50% of the project’s certs, his stake has tripled in value from $3,000 to $9,000; he sells them for $9,000 to The Good Foundation, netting a $6,000 profit. (Important note: for legal reasons, profits on Manifund impact certificates can currently only be used to donate to charity and can’t be cashed out in the normal way.)

This guy… ugh I wanted to make it through today without learning about a new weirdo but I ended up watching the above presentation. Some terrible quotes for y’all to sneer at:

[increasing oxytocin] probably makes you more ethnocentric. Is that a moral enhancement? In some ways yes in other ways no.

I’m not saying I’m racist, but I’m like not not saying that either.

The few people [remaining] that are prone to do [theft] can learn that there are reasons not to do that in high-IQ-- um sorry-- in developed countries.

Oopsie just a little slip of the tongue teehee.

Solutions: AI-guided suggestions to parents about the traits they should select.

Oh no

I think what’s going to happen is that people are going to cluster more together; potentially in smaller political societies with enough land to be defensible, along traits that they care about.

Ah yes, he did mention he was a libertarian at the start didn’t he?

Overall: dude spent way too much time talking about IQ, expressing weird racist ideas without ever saying the word “race”, complaining about “wokeism”, and day-dreaming about genetic breeding in libertarian citadels.

One of the videos ManiFest proudly highlights from last year: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvPDbOHSS4M

Genetic Enhancement: Prediction Markets for Future People by Jonathan Anomaly (Professor & Eugenicist)

Urrk, what sort of person proudly calls themself a Eugenicist? What sort of festival highlights this as good behavior??

We offer cozy nooks with firepits, discussion rooms with endless whiteboards, and up to 44 bedrooms (with up to 80 beds).

Not a cult.

Lighthaven is a space dedicated to hosting events and programs that help people think better and to improve humanity’s long-term trajectory.

Definitely not a cult.

Humanity’s future could be vast, spanning billions of flourishing galaxies, reaching far into our future light cone [1]. However, it seems humanity might never achieve this; we might not even survive the century. To increase our odds, we build services and infrastructure for people who are helping humanity navigate this crucial period. [1]: Or even more than the light cone, depending on how the acausal trade stuff works out.

Have we mentioned how very much not a cult we are?

He also claimed to not know why he was advertised on the manifest.is website as a conference-goer

If I didn’t overlook any, there were two people removed from the “special guest” list between Tuesday and today: this guy and Aaron Silverbook (the anticavity bacteria guy).

So what’s the over-under between ManiFest being overly eager in listing special guests and dudes wanting to distance themselves after the fact? I know LessOnline just had a list of people they wished would come (and which ones were actually confirmed in the small print)

That’s the longest subtweet I’ve ever read. What internet slight even compelled him to write all that?

Just gonna leave these songs here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPkFmwT7MZA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BiyXwJWbUoY

I enjoyed it for what it was (helicopter crimes simulator), but lemme tell you the real fun to be had was in Streets of SimCity.

From the level editor, to the soundtrack (I considered it to be edgy at the time), to the bugs (if you don’t create launchers by self-intersecting bridges in SCURK then what are you even doing?), to the ridiculous campaigns and the ability to blow up a nuclear reactor. I didn’t even mind that the graphics looked like sawdust.

Come to think of it I always liked blowing up the nukes as a kid, so I also considered Recoil (the tank game) to be the peak of entertainment.