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c/sneerclub · by TinyTimmyTokyo@awful.systems · 2y

Effective Obfuscation

https://newsletter.mollywhite.net/p/effective-obfuscation

Molly White is best known for shining a light on the silliness and fraud that are cryptocurrency, blockchain and Web3. This essay may be a sign that she's shifting her focus to our sneerworthy friends in the extended rationalism universe. If so, that's an excellent development. Molly's great.

39 points · 19 comments · view on lemmy.world

19 Comments

blakestacey@awful.systems · 10 pts · 2y (11 replies)

For example, the inaugural Substack post defining effective accelerationisms’s “principles and tenets” name-drops the “Jarzynski-Crooks fluctuation dissipation theorem”

To echo a comment from old!SneerClub: That's not a thing. There are three separate but related ideas (the Crooks fluctuation theorem, the Jarzynski equality and the fluctuation-dissipation theorem) which the author doesn't know are separate, because he hasn't a clue what he's talking about.

dgerard@awful.systems · 3 pts · 2y (10 replies)

got a link to it btw?

blakestacey@awful.systems · 4 pts · 2y (9 replies)

A link to what?

(The link in the Substack post is to the Wikipedia page for the Crooks result, disguising — intentionally or not — the fact that the writer is just smashing together science words.)

dgerard@awful.systems · 3 pts · 2y (8 replies)

the apparently original e/acc post, i think i've seen it but can't find it

earthquake@lemm.ee · 3 pts · 2y (7 replies)

Seems like it's this: https://beff.substack.com/p/notes-on-eacc-principles-and-tenets

blakestacey@awful.systems · 4 pts · 2y (3 replies)

I think that's it — it's the one Timnit Gebru linked to back in February which prompted the old!SneerClub discussion I mentioned, and Molly White's newsletter links to the same place.

dgerard@awful.systems · 3 pts · 2y (2 replies)

I found this earlier one, which it cites as its source:

https://web.archive.org/web/20220602164803/https://swarthy.substack.com/p/effective-accelerationism-eacc?s=r

All that's before that is these few guys throwing the term around on Twitter

blakestacey@awful.systems · 6 pts · 2y

There is a fractal optimization algorithm that created life, intelligence, and every meta-organism we know.

I'm wanking at the speed of light / wanna make a meta-fractal brain out of you

pikesley@mastodon.me.uk · 3 pts · 2y (2 replies)

@earthquake @dgerard I just read some of this and it made me substantially stupider

earthquake@lemm.ee · 4 pts · 2y (1 reply)

It's important to stretch before reading their stuff. A good stretch is to find the latest fad and argue how it's an addiction.

Then, afterwards, you need to cool off and detox. I recommend some Quake, but finding a new favorite album also works.

self@awful.systems · 6 pts · 2y

quake is still fucking awesome and the remasters of 1 and 2 are great for an impromptu steam deck lan party

Evinceo@awful.systems · 9 pts · 2y (1 reply)

Crypto is going to dry up as a beat eventually, so I'm glad she's laying the groundwork for a next move.

dgerard@awful.systems · 5 pts · 2y

i assure you that it has. The AI people are awful though.

gerikson@awful.systems · 6 pts · 2y

This arrived just in time for me to use it in an online argument. Thanks.

worldofbirths@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 2y

Thank you for sharing this! An excellent read with really good insight.

Architeuthis@awful.systems · 5 pts · 2y (1 reply)

Must be another one of those hundred hostile bloggers who inexplicably have it in for EA, according to siskind.

dgerard@awful.systems · 5 pts · 2y

i am reasonably sure that Molly knows precisely who these fucks are and is not a fan

V0ldek@awful.systems · 3 pts · 2y

The link is dead, now hosted at [citation needed]