Ah yes, it's like job hunting in that regard. In the end, they are hoping to benefit though, so keep that in mind ;-)

Also, mentors are great. Make sure you listen to them!

Oh, I'm not the only one! Good to know.

What's there to panic about for grad school? They won't bite ;-)

Thanks!

Name: speeding_snail

Location: Netherlands

Age: 28

Current Preoccupation: Job searching, energy transition, judo, reading, self improvement (such a hollow phrase)

Previous Preoccupation: Being a student, reddit, wallowing in despair at times

I quit Reddit and I thought about Hubski again. I'm hoping it's just as fun as it was in the olden days!

Also, I love seeing all these familiar names still.

I recently discovered Gallowstreet, a Dutch jazz band. It's almost New Orleans style jazz and I'm loving it.

It's an hour and a half for me at least, so I'll have to plan it a bit more in advance. But yeah, time to visit it soon!

Ah yes, I was about to say the same thing. It's all the way in the Hague unfortunately.

I'm not sure what is meant here:

Ford says that it "maintains the highest transaction prices of any full-line automaker – $36,300 per vehicle."

Do they mean they are expensive? Or that they make the most money per transaction?

Anyway, it seems to me that Ford cannot keep up with what people actually want and instead of innovating and improving, doubles down on the markets where they already have a sizable part of the market. I wonder what the effects are for Ford globally (Ford is a rather popular brand in the Netherlands for example).

You gotta do something for others to invest in your company, and even better if you can get something out of it as well! And it seems you did get something out of it, so that's good.

Although I must say I'm kinda surprised you guys started this company. For some reason I was under the impression mk was a physicist and ecib, well, I don't know.

To be honest, I'm not quite sure if AGI would benefit from being "just like a human". I even find it a strange goal. I mean, we use all kinds of mental shortcuts and have biases that do hold us back or even confuse us. As AI is used to replace or enhance human capabilities, AI should be able to interpret the human communication, but it really should not do as we do. But I think that is another discussion entirely.

I guess the main point I want to make is that this is not an experience that humans ever has had to deal with, ever, and it's going to be horrible.

Agreed, especially if we don't prepare.

I don't think you have any idea how awful it will be; I have spent years doing exactly that with AI and AGI; I have a company doing AI and robotic consulting for a few years, after selling a company doing personalized voice recognition for 8 wonderful years, and I can tell you that AI is not well understood at all, which is really unfortunate.

Yeah, I have a notion of what can be done at the moment, but I don't know the latest developments etc, so you're probably right. Do you have any literature which can help me understand why you think it'll mean the end of humanity?

Great picture thenewgreen

I'm curious what you can do with this in a few years! (and it seems I have some reading up to do on this)

Ah, that does make it more clear. Thank you for clearing that up. I do still disagree with that somewhat, because we as humans can do things the AI is not capable of. Or at least, not yet capable of. It's a bit like you would redesign a module someone else already created just because you can.

The only thing we do know is that big changes are about to happen and many people will be caught unaware. We need to find a good answer to various possible outcomes and try to steer this into the right direction.

Scary indeed. All those ads, all the information coming your way all the time! It would be maddening. At least with all those access devices, I can simply turn them off when it becomes too much.

Let me just get this straight. Do you agree or disagree with the piece? Your commentary is a bit run on and I cannot make a lot of sense out of it.

Anyway, in some ways I can agree with the piece. Humans are quite surprisingly flexible in what they can do. I mean, we have jacks of all trades on this very forum. However, I also believe that AI will automate away many (if not most) jobs. The transportation sector will be hit by self driving trucks, banks by even more automation where people can do their own things without having to go to a bank. For example, in the Netherlands banks have gone from offices with tellers and everything to spaces where larger decisions are made, accounts are opened and closed (mainly because you need ID to open an account) and people who don't know how to use the computer system are helped via a local version of the very same computer system. No tellers needed, only a few advisers because the brunt of the info is online. But the core of what I disagree with in this piece is that there is no reason to suppose that the new industries that will arise cannot be automated.

So, let's explore that for a bit, shall we? Nowadays we have all kinds of industries that we did not consider automatable even just a few years back. Now we have computers doing image recognition, resulting in cars driving themselves, computers assisting doctors with diagnoses. We have machine learning, which has had and has a huge impact on various computer systems we use every day. Essentially, if it can be made into an algorithm, a computer can do it. This is not bad per se, and it will probably open us up for more joyful pursuits. But it does open up another can of worms, as our old economic system cannot work when only a few people have income (assuming new industries get automated away as quickly as they came).

But to get to (what I think) is your point. Converting to General AI will indeed be painful, but I don't think that the resulting AI will have a good reason to just kill off humans. We are not completely worthless, I mean, we still do things that AI can hardly replicate and we do it way more efficiently and effortlessly than AI can! Sure, AI programming will not be "just like now, but better!", but it probably also isn't the apocalyptic wasteland of Terminator or Matrix. We can adapt and we should adapt to the new reality, but as always, we don't really know what will be coming. All we can do is speculate and prepare for various outcomes.

I would be at a loss without a computer. I need it for school (engineering student, that shit is impossible without a computer) and I need it to find information. I would also need a new hobby as the computer is sort of my hobby with a little bit of programming and researching open source tools :p

I social media I can do without and TV (this is actually the thing I want to get rid of) and just start reading more instead of wasting time on forums. Video chat would be a great loss though as I want to keep in touch with some people on the other side of the great pond.

Yup, I found that out as well. Funny thing is that you'll make some friends on the other side of the pond, so you'll miss friends even if you're at "home". If you need help planning your trip to NL, don't hesitate to ask :)

A bit late to reply to this, but thanks for mentioning me. I'm still interested in parkour and love to see it. Unfortunately, I'm still not actually practising...

And Max, I don't know how you did (or will do), but kudos for doing it!

I live where I live because I go to uni here and because my parents live in this country (Netherlands is small, so my parents live a 1 hour train ride away). I recently went abroad for 5 months to do an internship in Hamilton, Canada for 5 months. I found out that while I love the excitement of going to new places, I do miss my family and friends. Videochat is just not the same as having face to face conversations with them. Also, everything is really well organised in the Netherlands. We have reliable public transportation, good biking conditions and the amount of bullshit is minimum. It isn't perfect, but nothing is.

As a result of this experience, I'm not opposed to living abroad, but I think that the time I can keep it up is limited. Or it has to be in Europe, only a short flight away from NL.

I'm thinking about engineering as that is something I know quite a bit about. However, it might also be about free software (hobby) or politics (as I am also planning on at least orienting on the political parties here and maybe joining one as there is a need for more technical people in politics. Way to make a difference).

All in all, I'm not sure yet. Suggestions?

Overall, I've reached one goal. I've finished my bachelors degree. The 28th of august to be precise. Glad I did and the master is next :)

The 5 chin-ups/pull ups did not make it. Too busy during the summer finishing my bachelor... I did get back into lifting in november/december and I intend to continue the habit.

Parkour. Tried it, wimped out when I realized I would have to teach myself without guidance and got into judo instead. The fifth lesson or so resulted in a shoulder injury which kept me from participating the rest of the year. I start again next week.

A book a month. Nope, did not make it. I did start reading more though.

2 hour max internet time. I did cut back on my internet time (as you might have noticed here as I visit less often). Not to 2 hour max, but I did cut back.

This year I will start a blog :P

EDIT: Spelling...

Long story short, this is pretty much spot on :P

The story of Saint Nicholas is indeed from Turkey. There are 2 stories I know (along with most Dutch who know Sinterklaas is a big, but fun, hoax).

First there is the story of the three murderd students. These three were murdered by the innkeeper. In order to hide this crime, the innkeeper decided to keep the remains in a barrel with brine. When Saint Nicholas visited the same inn, he dreamed about the crime. He then decided to call the innkeeper and started to pray to God and the students were resurrected (and the innkeeper most likeley put away, I can't remember).

The second story is about a poor man with three daughters. The man could not afford a dowry for any of his daughters. Without this dowry, the women were likely to never find a husband and be sold as slaves. However, on three seperate ocasions there appeared a pouch with gold for the women. It is said that these pouches with gold landed in the shoes which were drying in front of the fireplace.

The first story speaks of one of the miracles of Saint Nicolas, the second pretty much explains the tradition of placing shoes in front of the fireplace.

About the black men. Originally there was only 1 and there are multiple stories. One is of a slave named 'Piter' who was freed by Saint Nicolas. He was so gratefull that he decided to join the Saint. The other I know is that Saint Nicholas defeated a devil, which he then enslaved to do good in the world (or punish kids with a switch or abduct them).

Sinterklaas has a long history, but long story short is that Black Pete evolved from a diabolical creature punishing bad kids with a switch to an army of jolly helpers. Some of the songs still speak of the old Pete, saying things like:

Zijn knecht staat te lachen en roept ons reeds toe: 'Wie zoet is krijgt lekkers, wie stout is de roe'

His servant is laughing and calls to us: 'Sweets for the sweets and the switch for the naughty'

How we got the silly idea that he lives in a castle in Spain is still a mystery to me. That, and how the kids still believe it, even with the internet and all the magic needed to make it work.

And yeah, my clog was stuffed with candy. A chocolate letter 'P' and kruidnoten :) And that while the fireplace hasn't arrived yet...

To get you in the mood, 20 minutes of sinterklaas songs

EDIT: spelling and also check Krampus for another evil creature like the old Black Pete.

I'm Dutch indeed. I'll tell you the story later today (a few hours from now).

Interesting concept. Could work, but there is one issue. They make a claim that cannot be tested.

Ah, Mr. Blue Sky. My favourite song of ELO. When I listen to this, my mood always improves.

Build stuff

As a kid I spend most of my time reading books and playing computer games. I read books about all kinds of things, but mainly science and engineering things. But I never really created stuff. No small projects, just soaking in the theory. As a result I now know a lot of theory of a wide range of things, but I would for the life of me not know how to really build the things.

Also, I'd like to say to every child me or you:

Go out and play

For some reason I liked being inside, reading books, playing (computer) games etc. Being outside and playing would have been good for little me as a slightly too heavy and socially not as good as should be kid.

If this is possible, it seems like Word has way too many features for a word processor... All hail LaTeX for word processing :P

I don't know about the US, but it is not done in the Netherlands. One just continues with a masters degree, unless changing career paths. From arts to engineering for example. (Also, BA is worth nothing around here, MA is pretty much required)

So, why not continue with a masters degree instead of pursuing a second BA?

I'd love to help, but you'll have to explain a bit better what you are trying to do here.

If I understand correctly, you want to pursue your masters degree at a different school than your BA and you need to write an essay for that? Weird Americans :P

The passwords are saved online, 1pass if I am not mistaken. So he can log in as long as he has an internet connection and the device.

We all miss stuff. I missed the fact that he had his password written down somewhere :P

If I'm correct it is an USB device he can take with him. The device acts like a keyboard, so it can be used on every computer with an USB port.