Ngo has been playing footsie with race science since as long as I have been skimming LW.

The irony is that in any "normal" space (i.e. not Stormfront) he would have been booted out toot sweet for being a racist. On LW, he's tolerated, even celebrated, but apparently not enough for his liking. It's not enough that he can spew race science unopposed by any meaningful reaction, everyone else has to take his position.

Edit

the piece he authored 6 months ago and references here is a doozy too

https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/FuGfR3jL3sw6r8kB4/richard-ngo-s-shortform?commentId=9g5QK3Km25fMBHgcK

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The overwhelming majority of successful civilizations throughout history have been nation-states, at least to some degree, which should be addressed in some capacity by any argument claiming that it's a suboptimal way to organize a society.

uh... the Roman Empire was a nation-state? Holy Roman Empire? (ok not as good an example) Ottoman Empire? Basically all of India pre-Brits?

A huge part of the French Revolution was the codification of France as "The Nation" of French people, not as the weird personifciation of the king. But somehow I suspect that bringing up the French Republic won't be hugely popular in this crowd.

Some dweeb:

I would recommend “Consider Phlebas” by Iain Banks, which is part of the Culture series of novels. Very formative for me, and I read that while I was writing Theme Park. And I still think it’s the best depiction of a post-A.G.I. future, an optimistic post-A.G.I. future, where we’re traveling the stars and humanity reached its full flourishing.

The protagonist of Consider Phlebas is working for the Culture's enemies, a theocratic empire that has slaves literally bred for loyalty, and the conflict they're engaged in ultimately kills billions of sentient beings. Most of the thoughts about the Culture are his, and he basically decries them as the ultimate wokesters. No wonder HN nerds prefer The Player of Games in which a smart nerd like themselves get recruited as an agent to bring down an empire a bit like our own by being really really good at games.

Oh man this is peak venture capitalism crossed with Factorio - valuations are actually cash, and a factory is a black box where you just upload new software and other stuff comes out.

Let's take your average holder of car manufacturer stock. You're holding the stock because you believe the car manufacturer will continue making competitive products, and you'll get either dividends or higher valuations. Then OpenAI pitches up and offers you - what? They don't even have stock! Even if they did, you're exchanging a stake in something known for stake in an enterprise that have never made any cars, and when asked what kind of business plan they have they look shifty. No fucking way anyone will sell their stake for less than double what they have, especially if they find out the factory they're selling is gonna produce machines that will kill us all.

I knew this was good stuff when the majority of HN commenters where huffily complaining about the tone.

This is hilarious. For ages every time Urbit has appeared in tech aggregators the original connection with Yarvin has been raised, and the proponents have snippily replied he's not longer involved. No idea what passive-aggressive bullshit they'll invent next time now that he's back in charge, baby!

I Left My Blogger's Life To Become An S-Rank Rationalist Cult Leader In A Bay Area Group House

Your effortpost is appreciated.

Well, they got their wish, the Guardian piece is now updated:

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/article/2024/jun/16/sam-bankman-fried-ftx-eugenics-scientific-racism

This article was amended on 17 June 2024 to include a comment from Oliver Habryka about the purchase of Lighthaven that was received after publication; in responding, Habryka disclosed an escrow document for the property’s purchase showing a $1m deposit from, and refunded to, North Dimension Inc, a subsidiary of FTX’s sister company Alameda, which he said meant “the relevant funds never entered our bank account”. An earlier version mistakenly said Lightcone, rather than CFAR, was the sole member of Lightcone Rose Garden, and that Habryka was the latter’s registered agent, when another individual is listed in that role. A reference to Manifund as a “prediction market” has also been corrected.

I think the Gruaniad had a lot of fun with this. By hyperfocusing on the nitpicks, the rats gave them an open goal in correcting tiny details (who now cares whether any money from SBF actually entered the account of Lightcone?) but left the bigger details in place: namely that Lightcone is tight with racists.

Edit a few libertarians(?) in the comments are urging Habryka to sue for libel in the UK, totally fine with using the power of the state to enforce speech! He modestly declines, likely he knows it's not a slam-dunk win (especially if the newspaper actually amends the piece) and that news orgs live for being sued for defamation. It's the classic sign of a bully to sue, and it generates a ton of press.

Yeah these people have found their weird PR niche. There's nothing separating these people from other rich white Americans who can also comfortably provide for ~3 kids with good schooling and higher education. The real pronatalists are the scary Quiverful people who are a lot more numerous but are also religious fundies. There's no way the Collinses can compete with them because that subculture already believes around 90% of what they believe but are more effective at spreading their memes.

I reacted to that too, "no need to be an overt WN now that society accepts us!" but I think that's partly bravado.

For example, he loves Twitter now but Elon still hasn't given his account back...

As a child of the 80s I recognize the feeling of doom, but in my case it was for global thermonuclear war. I vividly remember the only thing keeping the feelings of dread away was sitting in the children's section of the library, reading the Moomin books. I remember being most worried about having to eat the family dog after the bombs fell.

"We need to ensure the AI is aligned!"

"OK, we've trained it not to be racist"

"No not like that!"